Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Plague of Punitive Populism

















"Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there."


-- Tom Joad in
The Grapes of Wrath


In Virginia, police officers raid a baptismal party for two small boys. Without cause or provocation they assault the grandfather who owns the home, tasering him three times while children and other guests look on in horror.



When the pregnant daughter-in-law of the victim intervenes, she, too, is forced to perform the "electron dance."
The grandfather is charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication, despite the fact that Virginia state statutes specify that such offenses cannot be committed on one's own property.


The woman who came to the aid of the first victim was charged with "assaulting an officer," since her brave effort to protect the grandfather from a criminal assault involved placing her unhallowed hands on the sanctified personage of a "law enforcement officer." Such presumption simply cannot be tolerated.



A few weeks earlier in Webster, Texas, a pastor is tasered after a member of his congregation was pulled over by police in the church parking lot. Once "backup" arrives -- the boldness of police, like that of feral wolves and droopy-drawered gang-bangers, is a function of operating in packs -- the officers charge the church sanctuary, assaulting Pastor Jose Moran and pepper-spraying the worshipers who objected to the treatment of their pastor. Once again, the victim, rather than the assailants, finds himself charged with assault.


Pastor Jose Elias Moran recovers in a Texas hospital after being attacked by a Taser-wielding state bureaucrat.




In Alabama
, police pepper-spray and then taser a deaf, mentally handicapped adult man who couldn't hear their orders to leave the bathroom of a discount store.


Once the confusion was cleared up, they arrested him anyway on various charges, including -- no extra points for guessing correctly -- "assaulting" the officers who attacked him.
The police department issues a statement claiming that the attack with chemical and electro-shock weapons was justified because the confused man-child (a term I use with sympathy, not in derision) was "armed" with an umbrella.

Victim of police abuse Antonio Love (left, with his mother).



In Boise, Idaho, police swarm, gang-tackle, and handcuff a man involved in a domestic dispute.


When he complains about impending suffocation -- a very acute threat, since many victims of lethal police violence die from positional asphyxiation -- he is subjected to a Taser strike in his rectum by a still-unidentified officer who threatens to strike the victim's genitals next. Subsequently one of the assailant's superiors attempts to destroy the evidence by erasing an audio taped record of the event.




In Wisconsin Dells, two callow patrolmen -- Officer Beavis and Officer Butt-Head -- stumble upon a couple of off-duty National Guardsmen and decide to have some fun. The police accuse the victims of urinating in public and then demand that they lick from the ground a substance they are told is human urine.
When a third police officer materializes, the victims speak of filing a complaint.


This prompts the threat of a bogus burglary charge and the promise that "nobody will believe you" if they actually file a protest. As it happens, the complaint is believed -- most likely because it was made by two Iraq war veterans, rather than common citizens.




These are mere snapshots of the commonplace sadism that increasingly typifies contemporary American law enforcement. But this really isn't so surprising for
a country in which a bare majority, according to a recent global survey, opposes state torture.


That survey found that Americans are
much likelier to support government-inflicted torture than citizens of Communist China, and marginally more indulgent of the practice than the residents of Muslim Indonesia and Muslim/socialist Egypt. Support for torture is also more widespread among Americans than among Iranians.



One might think that support for torture would be restrained by the influence of America's church-going population. One would think that those Americans who worship the Man of Sorrows who was tortured to death by the occupation forces of a pagan imperial state would be among the most insistent opponents of the vile and indefensible practice.


Again, one would think this would be the case.


One would be entirely wrong, since exactly the opposite is true:
A survey taken earlier this year documented that a majority (54 percent) of people who attend church at least once a week support torture.



Perhaps the most arresting discovery was that more than sixty percent of white, evangelical Protestants condone the practice.
Torture advocates of this theological persuasion profess a "personal relationship" with Jesus Christ. That relationship must be, at best, a distant and superficial one.


As the United States sinks into what will be a long and dreadful depression, and partisan politics takes on the character of a literal bloodsport, speculation is rampant about a possible civil war (which would not be the same thing as peaceful secession, which may prove to be the only sensible way to address our economic and political afflictions). If such a conflict were to come, it might actually start within the church-going segment of the population, pitting nominally Christian statists against those who believe in what the Epistle of James called the "perfect law of liberty."


In dealing with the prospect of an internecine conflict among believers, it's instructive to recall the events described in the 12th chapter of the Old Testament Book of Judges, in which the Gileadites and Ephramites were at war.


After the Gileadites routed their opponents in one battle, they devised a clever method of winnowing out concealed Ephramites from their midst. As it turns out, the Ephraimites for some reason couldn't pronounce the word "shibboleth" correctly, rendering that term "sibbolet." Accordingly, each man who approached a critical checkpoint was required to say "shibboleth," with instant death being the penalty for tens of thousands who uttered malapropisms.


While I have no desire to put anyone to the sword, I suggest that liberty-minded Americans, whether or not they subscribe to the Christian faith, can learn much about themselves and those around them through what we could call the "Tom Joad Test."


I'm not a fan of Steinbeck's incurably wrong-headed economic views or his idiosyncratic collectivist politics in general, although I must admit a sneaking respect for anybody who attracts the hostile interest of the FBI solely on the strength of his published writings.



His creation Tom Joad isn't among my favorite fictional characters. But there is substantial merit in Joad's pledge to sympathize with those who are victims of Power.



Early in The Grapes of Wrath, Joad -- recently paroled after serving four years in prison for killing a man who stabbed him in a fight -- becomes re-acquainted with Jim Casy, a fallen Oklahoma Pentecostal preacher who has embraced a populist version of Emerson's "oversoul" concept: "Maybe all men got one big soul ever'body's a part of."



Thus was planted the seed that would sprout into Joad's famous soliloquy, which included the pledge that "Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there."



So here, stated briefly, is the question that serves as the shibboleth/sibbolet dividing line in the "Tom Joad Test":


When you see a cop -- or, more likely, several of them -- beating up on a prone individual, do you instinctively sympathize with the assailant(s) or the victim?



If it's the former, you're an authoritarian, irrespective of your partisan attachments or professed political philosophy.


If it's the latter, you're an instinctive libertarian, whether or not you are consistently guided by that impulse in your political decisions.



It may later be demonstrated that the figure on the receiving end of the beating had committed some horrible crime.
However, such a disclosure wouldn't invalidate the results of the Tom Joad Test, because that test reveals a subject's default assumptions about the relationship between the individual and the state.


Do you assume that the state is entitled to the benefit of the doubt whenever its agents inflict violence on somebody, or do you believe that the individual --
any individual -- is innocent of wrongdoing until his guilt has been proven?


This could be considered a reverse application of Lenin's famous political formula,
kto kogo? -- broadly translated as "Who does what to whom?" Lenin and his followers sought and acquired the power to be the "Who" in that formula, which meant that millions of those consigned to the "whom" category were imprisoned and slaughtered.


Ironically, many law-and-order conservatives come uncomfortably close to Lenin's view of the state when they reflexively take the side of agents of state coercion -- the "who" in the typical encounter between police officer and citizen. The American view of rights, however, is overwhelmingly weighted on behalf of the latter, even when the "who" is a winsome and well-dressed policeman, and the "whom" is a scruffy and unappealing individual.


One of the easiest and least intrusive ways to conduct the Tom Joad Test is to observe an individual's reaction to the typical installment of the TV series COPS, which -- in any of its iterations -- is a kind of authoritarian pornography for the badge-licker population.


Several months ago, I took my family to a large and very nice Chinese buffet in Boise. Since the Grigg family is almost at brigade strength, we were ushered into the conference room, where we could have a long table all to ourselves. Unfortunately, the room was equipped with a television set, most likely because some secret Reversal of Freedom law dictates the presence of an infernal device of that kind in every room of a certain size. Even worse, a COPS marathon was underway.


As I grazed on sauteed bok choy and exquisitely seasoned bean sprouts (delicious vegetarian items being a specialty of this particular restaurant), my appetite began to depart as the screen conveyed an endless repetition of the familiar storyline: Police spy pathetic, socially marginalized individual; police harass said pathetic individual, who had done nothing to harm anyone else; police find some excuse to arrest said individual, often throwing him to the ground and humiliating him in the process.


Despite the delicious fare in front of me, my mood turned sour and ominous mutterings began emanating from me like premonitory tremors anticipating an eruption. Similar outrage radiated from the faces of other nearby patrons.


Near the beginning of the third consecutive installment of COPS, we were treated to the unedifying sight of a police officer approaching a woman on a sidewalk and demanding that she show identification. She had done nothing to provoke the interest of the officer, and wasn't inclined to comply with that unwarranted demand.


The officer replied in predictable fashion, beginning the familiar procedure of jacking her arm behind her to slap the cuffs on her wrists. To her considerable credit, the woman shrugged off that assault and put up a more than respectable fight, despite being roughly 50-75 lbs. smaller than her assailant.


Eventually, the cop -- who had created this altercation ex nihilo -- ended it by grabbing the small-boned woman in a headlock and slamming her face-first into the sidewalk.


That sight wrenched gasps from several people sitting at other tables. My reaction was characteristically measured and sedate.


"You malignant BASTARD!" I exclaimed in a voice that was probably heard in Winnemucca.


Shooting a quick glance around, I noticed several food-laden forks suspended in mid-transit from well-stocked plate to gaping mouth, and numerous sets of eyes distended in shocked disbelief. I suggested to my wife, the lovely and brilliant Korrin, that we should leave. She didn't resist the suggestion.


The success of COPS and its imitators, like the survey results dealing with torture, illustrates that there is a wide, deep, and resilient strain of punitive populism in American culture. I suspect that there is a smaller, but growing, sub-population of people who instinctively take the side of the person on the receiving end of the nightstick.


In light of the fact that nightsticks and various other implements of coercion will play an increasingly prominent role as the economic implosion accelerates, we'd better find each other, and radically increase our ranks -- and do this as quickly as humanly possible.



On a related note...

In the comments section of a recent essay, mention was made of the little-appreciated role played by the Marquis de Sade as a founder of the modern collectivist movement. Over at another blog I've recently posted an essay dealing with that subject; for those who are interested, please take a look and leave a comment or two.


Be sure to tune in to Pro Libertate Radio on the Liberty News Radio Network.



On sale now.











Dum spiro, pugno!



50 comments:

loneviking said...

If you ever make it over to the Reno area, I'd like to meet you for lunch! The other night I had the same reaction to the COPS show. It was the only thing on and I used to, quite a few years ago, like the show. I didn't last through the second half hour as I was so pissed off I had to turn it off. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that has had the same reaction to what the cops are doing.
And what really angers me is that these cops know they are being filmed and they don't give a damn!! They see what they do as perfectly normal behavior towards the less fortunate in our society. Yes, there are some good cops, but it sure seems like there are more bad ones than good ones these days.

loneviking said...

If you ever make it over to the Reno area, I'd like to meet you for lunch! The other night I had the same reaction to the COPS show. It was the only thing on and I used to, quite a few years ago, like the show. I didn't last through the second half hour as I was so pissed off I had to turn it off. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that has had the same reaction to what the cops are doing.
And what really angers me is that these cops know they are being filmed and they don't give a damn!! They see what they do as perfectly normal behavior towards the less fortunate in our society. Yes, there are some good cops, but it sure seems like there are more bad ones than good ones these days.

GunRights4US said...

On clicking the first link proffered I see the phrase Prince William County. That MUST be the most abusive police department in the nation since the heyday of Bull Conners in Birmingham AL. I would NOT live there - no way, no how.

Of course the plague of The Police State has spread throughout the land these days. Thanks for keeping of so well informed Will.

Dauvit Balfour said...

I pass! My reaction to the sight of a car pulled over on the side of the road is to think, with Verbal Kint "F***ing cops".

Anonymous said...

Will wrote: "One would be entirely wrong, since exactly the opposite is true: A survey taken earlier this year documented that a majority (54 percent) of people who attend church at least once a week support torture."

I've found this to be a very curious truism. My current lady-friend supports the war and use of torture. I do not. She is a Sunday School teacher and I (as many of Will's readers know) am an atheist.

And she's not the first gal I've dated who was a so called 'believer' who supported the war and use of torture. One in the past even commented that it made her feel like a hypocrite, but her position remained unchanged.

That said, your thesis on the out of control gov't thugs permeating our society is spot on. Unfortunately the only thing that will stop these depraved sub-humans is to assume ambient temperature.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Anonymous said...

Trackback from Wordpress doesn't work either, so here's the link. Great piece, Will.

Anonymous said...

Is anyone else having trouble with the RSS feed? Google reader hasn't gotten any updates since "A Covenant With Death"...

Dave P. said...

Imagine what would have happened had anyone at that baptismal party been carrying a weapon and fought back: The media would be plastered with stories of a "cop killer" and the sheeple would be calling for the guy who was protecting his rights, property, and family to be drawn and quartered.

Crustyrusty said...

My first reactions have changed, which is amazing, considering that I'm a retired Air Force cop....

I've seen the change in attitudes, especially since 9/11, and I'm pretty much disgusted. I used to give the PoPo the benefit of the doubt, but no more.

Speaking of "PoPo", one of my stepkids got in trouble at summer classes for using that term to refer to the local Geheimestaatspolizei.

dixiedog said...

Great [thinking] piece as usual, Will. Sorry for the long absence, but life is gettin' hard and work is gettin' "easy" so to speak. I've indeed stopped by every now and again to read your posts. Just no time (until today) to post thoughtful and meaningful comments since mine historically have been inherently lengthy ;).

Most of the so-called "Christians" in Amerika are faux. Has anyone ever really, REALLY believed the results of those meaninglessly abstract polls from the past that attempt to give the impression that a vast majority of Americans were genuine Christians (i.e. imperfectly walking the walk above and beyond perfectly talking the talk) simply because a vast majority claimed they "believe in God?" Sigh, I certainly hope not. Seriously, if that were really, truly the case, America would not be in the sad shape (philosophically, culturally, politically, and economically) that it's in.

Here's yet another example demonstrating that we the people are the real crux of our problems. Look at the cash for "clunkers" greed/thievery program and how many commoners are saddling up upon that caustic debt gargoyle and lappin' from the trough? The "clunker" trough ran out of money and they siphoned more from our progeny's pockets! G-r-e-e-d and and a thoroughly entitlement-afflicted mind are what make poisonous programs like this "wildly successful." Of course, the "clunkers" program also has an eco-Leninist angle as well (surprise! NOT!) to get more so-called "green" vehicles on the highway since, after all, these so-called "clunkers" are not resold, but junked and destroyed.

[Allowance for blood pressure to settle a bit]

Lawdy, I'm off on yet another tangent, my apologies. Back to Will's post...

Speaking of COPS, all one has to do is observe the plethora of ignorant statist comments from the various COPS videos on YT. It's merely one of many critical signs to this mind of WHY wantonly ignorant, easily deceived folk can never be genuinely free in the first place. Or, in America's case on the other hand, lose their genuine freedom after a long, gradual gestation of induced generational ignorance after a Gramscian "march through the institutions" process has reached its zenith. In both cases, folk can see only "what's legal" = "what's moral" in their depraved minds and vice versa. Right and wrong, as well as "legality" and "illegality," are looked upon as synonymous and, naturally, always determined by whatever government decrees to these folk, a majority of the populace these days, I'd assert.

Your most poignant paragraphs in this particular piece, IMHO, are the following:

It may later be demonstrated that the figure on the receiving end of the beating had committed some horrible crime. However, such a disclosure wouldn't invalidate the results of the Tom Joad Test, because that test reveals a subject's default assumptions about the relationship between the individual and the state.

Do you assume that the
state is entitled to the benefit of the doubt whenever its agents inflict violence on somebody, or do you believe that the individual -- any individual -- is innocent of wrongdoing until his guilt has been proven? (emphasis mine)

BTW, I heard your radio show for the first time a few nights ago and I like it. The only possible negative I'd offer is the brevity of it...sigh.

dixiedog said...

Anonymous @7:31AM. Yes, the RSS feed works great, at least the Atom feed.

Simply supply this URL as the Pro Libertate feed source to whatever RSS app you use and all the posts should show up.

If you use Firefox, you can also simply subscribe to the page and create a "live" bookmark, which will generate an RSS feed of the post titles in your bookmarks.

Works like a charm.

AvgJoe said...

I have a hunch the place with the TV was on Fairview just east of Five Mile.
There's no question that police are out of control and something needs to be done. But knowing that there is a poblem is the first step. I believe folks are getting the hint that we the citizens are being cheated and abused by government on all levels. We the citizens have become servants to the parasites in government. As I have always said it needs go be really bad before people start waking up to the problems that they will do something about it. As it stands now, people are starting to wake up and government parasites are starting to notice it. These parasites have nothing to fall back on so they will do anything to keep standing on the shoulders of the citizens to keep their heads out of the water. Government parasites are pushing us to one place and thats a fight. The fight they get will be one they will not win being they have to live next door to us.

liberranter said...

Imagine what would have happened had anyone at that baptismal party been carrying a weapon and fought back: The media would be plastered with stories of a "cop killer" and the sheeple would be calling for the guy who was protecting his rights, property, and family to be drawn and quartered.

Dave, that might be true for now, but as stories like this become more and more common --and as incidents like this start to happen with increasing frequency to "people we know and like"-- the cops-as-heroes mentality that has gripped white, middle-class, corporate-state-church-going Amerika for the last several decades will evaporate and Boobus Americanus will begin to show some backbone and fight back. The state-employed thugs (or at least their Establishment handlers) clearly see this coming, which is one reason why military and "law enforcement" agencies have been buying up as much ammunition as they can get their filthy, tax-thieving mitts on - not because they need it, but because they must at all costs prevent US from buying it.

Kent McManigal said...

Will, you are an inspiration. Collecting these incidents is a dirty job, and probably make you into a target, but you are doing a real service for freedom when you collect all this evidence against these filthy vermin. Thank you so much.

Anonymous said...

"I have a hunch the place with the TV was on Fairview just east of Five Mile."..

Good call Average Joe. I've been there and it's one of the best of that style of restaurants around. Being married to a native Japanese I get spoiled daily so a place like that is just for a change of pace.

And here we have Will posting, yet again, more horror stories of the Polizeiangriff upon the slaves they're tasked to manhandle regularly. As Dixie is wont to say... SIGH! So sad.

Anonymous said...

Dixie... good to see you back after so long. You need to hang around more... "Dog"!

You mentioned YouTube, or is it SpewTube? I forget. Either way you're correct in pointing out the infantile ravings of those who post there. Heck! It isn't much better on other public forums where cops are shown to have abused folks. One link that Will provided led me to the man in Houston who was tazed and where some folks, fresh from reading 'Mein Kampf' it would appear, sternly warned people to stay out of the cops' way and "let them do their jobs". I'm sure that the last line of Niemollers poem stating

"Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak out for me.

completely goes over their heads because THEY are or are in agreement with "they" who're sketched within those lines.

My, how history does rhyme.

Puck T. Smith said...

The word outstanding gets used a lot when I talk about your blog. You'd think it would get worn out, but...

Outstanding.

AvgJoe said...

MoT, yes it is very good food and they understand customer service is important. Yet the really cool thing about that place is, Harbor Freight is a little ways down the parking lot. Yea, I know the stuff is made in China but its still fun to check out all of the different tools.

Sans Authoritas said...

An excellent response to badgethuggery, Mr. Grigg.

If, watching such a show at a restaurant, I heard anyone yell what you yelled (over my own bellow), I would immediately walk over, buy the man a drink, point to him, and loudly announce to all, "This is a man!" I would then point to the blue-clad bipeds haunting the mass-stupefication device, and loudly announce "Those animals are acting in a manner contrary to every precept of gentle Christ!"

Let's all make our protests as vocal and public as Mr. Grigg has, ladies and gentlemen. Now, and in the near future, when such public affirmations of human dignity are verboten and violently punished, you will save your own soul and the souls of others to save, and you will have nothing to lose but your body.

Remember, too: any one of us obviously innocent men being unjustly attacked and/or killed can outweigh the efforts of thousands of armed men, no matter how just the cause for which they take up arms.

Don't be afraid to be a non-violent resister and martyr when the time comes. And as anyone not blind to history can see, it is coming. Soon.


-Sans Authoritas

Anonymous said...

The majority of people probably don't care for the ACLU but they do put out an excellent video "Busted-The Citizens Guide to Police Encounters." I followed some of the directions the next time I was pulled over after watching it and the cops gave up and drove off.

Anonymous said...

I adore the dysphemism "badge-licker."

LibertyorDeath said...

"In light of the fact that nightsticks and various other implements of coercion will play an increasingly prominent role as the economic implosion accelerates, we'd better find each other, and radically increase our ranks -- and do this as quickly as humanly possible."
-----------------------------------

Odd that you should mention that.

Inspired -(or would "enraged" be a more accurate description?) largely by the atrocities chronicled here and elsewhere, I have been doing precisely that very thing.

I can only hope that the one immutable dynamic that has been true in every other Fourth Generation Warfare conflict - the more widespread the abuse and brutality on the scum working for the Establishment, the greater the number of ordinary folks who will sympathize with any group which opposes the powers-that-be - will be repeated here with a vengeance.

Anonymous said...

At age 16, I was pulled over in my blue GTO outside Nacogdoches by two Texas DPS state troopers, allegedly because the factory-stock exhaust was too loud.

A nasty good-cop/bad-cop verbal game ensued. I answered too slowly, or to the wrong one, or spoke without being spoken too, or wasn't responsive. They kept me off balance; maintained a steady level of hostility and threat.

It seemed then, and still does, class-based. They took me to be a privileged idle rich kid whose parents had bought him a fast car, and were going to teach me some respect for people who had to work for a living as cops. They didn't know, and didn't care, that I'd spent two years working at minimum wage in a bicycle shop to earn the money to buy that car used for 1,200 dollars.

One can't generalize such an experience to all cops. I've met some pleasant ones since. But first impressions endure.

Yesterday, I saw a magnetic ribbon bearing a message that a local PBA 'supports the troops.' Similarly, there's a big 'Support the Troops' banner on our local fire house.

Everyone's entitled to their political opinion. But public and quasi-public entities taking political positions is a different matter. Of course, the 'support the troops' riff is intended to pass as non-political; just a general manifestation of loyalty and patriotism.

An already federalized and paramilitarized police force is only going to become more so, as military veterans sign on. As our overlords well understand, permanent war indelibly changes a society. The long, multi-pronged 20th century assault of shooting wars, drug war, cold war, and war on poverty eviscerated the constitution, as it supersized the U.S. fedgov.

Any remaining resemblance between our bankrupt Potemkin democracy and an actual republic is entirely coincidental. Time to push the reset button on this corrosive, collapsing failed state.

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Anonymous said...

Thank you Mr. Grigg. This piece struck a chord as I live in an adjacent county to Prince William in Virginia. Like their brothers-in-jackboots in Prince William, the Stafford County deputies are adept at this type of thuggery. The most common pretext for accousting an individual is simply being suspected of being a male under the age of 25.

These two counties will actively seek to turn citizens into felons with the slightest pretext, and the phrase "without bail" will be heard in nearly every magistrate's court room.

The tragedy of all of this is that for the most part, the populace simply doesn't care. That is, until its THEIR SON who's calling from the regional lockup at 11:00 PM.

Veritas Deus!

Anonymous said...

By Greg Evensen, Retired Policeman

...as government began its sickening expansion, policing became a meaner and nastier job. It was made that way by badge wearing thugs who didn’t hesitate to do whatever they were told by the S.A.C. (Special Agent in Charge) of the FBI, BATF(E), US Marshal’s Office right down to armed poultry inspectors—yes they have them and they are really tough on criminal chickens. The “us against them” mentality, and the “mission essential” attitude justified SWAT teams, “dynamic entries,” and later use of MACE, TASERS, FLASHBANG GRENADES and “routine” use of SUBMACHINE guns. All in the name of “taking down” the accused—no matter the charge. I abhor such police tactics and was an officer that served my own warrants, rarely with one other officer at the back door.

Now we have become eaves-dropping, roadblock setting, door crashing, face grinding, arm breaking, pursuit driven bastards that have sold their asses to the government masters hell bent on establishing the TRUE reincarnation of the dreaded SS. That is NO overstatement. Note: There are significant numbers of officers at all levels that simply detest the forced training at FEMA centers, the requirements to stop Patriots and others simply because they “look” dangerous, and are exercising free speech statements on their vehicles. By whose ultimate authority does this take place? By whose ultimate judgment is it that it is necessary to harass INNOCENT drivers and families? The public sees this Gestapo mentality as far more of a danger than any stickers they put on their vehicles? Where are all these “faithful” enforcers of the law when it comes to confronting the unlawful, unconstitutional, unjustifiable, and unmerciful rotten bunch of usurpers, communists, atheists, deviated, immoral scungebuckets that are walking the halls of Congress, the White House, and the Federal Courts? How is it that the “get ‘em at any cost” morons at Homeland Security have created an environment in amerika that is an unwarranted intrusion of power in 186 other nations?
And all of this is done in the name of safety and security. I guess that a majority of ignorant buffoons really do believe that Barack Sotero is the Messiah and he does hold the keys to socialist paradise in his hands.

Anonymous said...

Another great essay, Will. Your idea of using a shibboleth is an excellent one. I already tested my wife and all four of my children (ages 4 through 10), and they correctly passed the test.

Don't give up on someone who doesn't pass the test, though. The Ephraimites were unable to change their pronunciation, for some reason, but people can change, especially when their perspectives and circumstances change.

I'm embarrassed to say that just 3 years ago I might not have passed this test. The Lord has worked mightily in my heart since then.

Anonymous said...

I live in Prince William. The cops are becoming more our masters then our servants. But until WE decide to do something about it....then we need to shut up and live with it!

Outer Hebrides said...

Mr. Grigg. Avid listener and sometimes caller to Pro Libertate radio. Is Tom Joad wearing a fanny pack??

OuterHeb said...

Is Tom Joad wearing a fanny pack around his waist or am I the only one seeing this?

William N. Grigg said...

I'm pretty sure that is a fanny pack Tom Joad is wearing. I suspect that someone photoshopped the image I found, but it was the best one of several candidates -- so there it is!

ihbf said...

Will, I’ve read the article you linked to, Orwell in Appleton, about four times now. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, especially the part about Jack McManus and the JBS riding the Republican “wave.” I guess it didn’t hurt Jack’s feelings that the Republicans are the war-and-torture party. The YouTube was hilarious. “If you love Ron Paul, you’ll REALLY love the John Birch Society!” Oh, what went wrong, Jack?

I’ve been reading yours and Alan Stang’s archives about the JBS. It sounds like y’all had your own third world country up there, what with all the coups, purges, insurrections, uprisings, and revolutions. Now, I met Alan around 1989 and since he had been my favorite “intrepid reporter,” I e-mailed JBS a couple of years ago to ask about him. Their reply was so rude! I don’t remember exactly what they said, but it was something mean like “We don’t know who that is, and it’s not our job to keep up with people.” I did get in touch with him late 2007, but I didn’t mention their reply because it just occurred to me today that JBS probably HATES it when people ask about you two. I think I’ll do it again.

William N. Grigg said...

I e-mailed JBS a couple of years ago to ask about him. Their reply was so rude! I don’t remember exactly what they said, but it was something mean like “We don’t know who that is, and it’s not our job to keep up with people.”... [I]t just occurred to me today that JBS probably HATES it when people ask about you two. I think I’ll do it again.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine in Wisconsin called the JBS home office to ask about me. He was handed off three times and ended up speaking with the marketing director, who told him that he couldn't answer questions about William N. Grigg -- that such matters were "above my pay grade."

"It was as if you were an un-person," this fellow told me after he finally connected with me.

ihbf said...

I’m still reading this stuff about the JBS higher-ups. I wondered what kind of country they would want if they could “get it back” and saw this on Erik Jay’s blog: The JBS rulers are “nothing more than a small, shadowy assemblage of hypocritical moralists who don’t want Americans to be free so much as they want them to behave.” From what I’ve read, that sounds about right. I remember in the meetings I attended in the late 80’s and early 90’s, we opened with the pledge of allegiance, hands over hearts and everything. We were good, loyal, law-abiding, and well behaved. After pledging, we got down to important business like planning our next annual “Support Your Local Police” banquet. Oh, shudder, I feel sick to my stomach.

ihbf said...

Uh-oh. A guy was bicycling through a neighborhood, when he came upon a herd of swine, I mean cops, making a traffic stop. Even though the guy didn’t stop and gawk or do anything else to enrage the Superior Ones, he was soon tased six times and arrested. Evidently, the tameness of the traffic stop had one cop bored, so he demanded to see identification from the bicycler, who had nothing to do with anything, and one thing led to another…

Jacob Lovell said...

I watch Cops specifically so I don't forget the kind of evil that we libertarians are facing. It's like watching movies about the holocaust in order to see the results of the ultimate expression of government - to be aware of what is possible in order to gird myself to fight what may happen around me.

Anonymous said...

The notion that it's "we the people's" tax dollars pay the "sadistic parasites'" salaries no longer applies exactly like "we the tax paying people" think the government 'needs' us for our tax dollars when guvmint can print money whenever and in as large a quantity as it likes. See current economic meltdown.

The police become increasingly militarized so the international bankers/One World Government cartel (their owners) can have its way. It's the globalists signing the cheques, not you and me. We are broke.

The new Praetorian Guard is being assembled to serve the new Emperor.

The cops morphing into the military morphing into mercenary armies, are not here to protect us, but to eliminate us.

FEMA camps are awaiting our arrival. They have not been prepared on a lark, you know.

Get this straight and the bigger picture suddenly comes into focus.

911TRUTHNOW

Anonymous said...

We're in it right up to our noses, people.

That picture of Abu Ghraib demonstrates to what depth we have fallen.

And it was all done IN OUR NAME.

The cops, the military and let's not delve into the mercenaries (who are loyal to only murder, mayhem and money) are being united, homogenized, reconstituted into one giant monster to serve the One World Dictatorial Gov.

Maybe the Greeks will show us how we should take it: Bend over, or REVOLT, as they also frequently do.

The choice is ours.

911TRUTHNOW

Anonymous said...

I had a nightmare the other night.

Cops, parked at traffic lights, were equipped with a remote for the lights. Yellow traffic lights no longer exist.

The cops wait till this or that car is near enough and, bam, they turn the green light to red. They control the game.

It was green and, bam, it turned to red! I didn't react fast enough! I tried to come to a screeching stop, but there was not enough time.

Five, ten cop cars immediately surround me. They all look alike and smell alike.

I gambled and lost. An unlawful search and seize goes on followed by my arrest for being such a loser.

I woke up screaming.

911TRUTHNOW

Kent McManigal said...

Anon @ 6:59AM- "Taxation" is less about getting money for the government and more about taking it away from you and me.

Anonymous said...

Mr. McManigal,

Yes! You are correct sir!

(In the words of the late Ed McMahon.)

Taxation is all about seizing our economic liberty; it's about providing "them" with plenary powers to control all of us.

Now, I digress - a little bit.

Just think about it.

Everything is regulated (controlled) by the ubiquitous State. I can't breathe without feeling the behemoth's odious presence clamoring around me, suffocating me, devouring my very essence.

The State's alphabet soup desk jockeys remind me of vacuous, wide-eyed Amway automatons. Fantastic! Care for some USDA soap detergent? Or better yet, go ask one of its skinhead tonsured, taser-wielding goons-in-blue for street directions and get screamed at for simply speaking to the fine regime enforcement officer-on-roids.

I....can't ...frickin'....breathe!
Must.....escape!

Anonymous said...

Ours is an envionment where evil is perceived to be rewarded while good is punished. As with everything the Gods have a reason for creating this perception::::
People who fall on the good side of the good/evil scale have more favor, and when they do something wrong the Gods punish them BECAUSE THEY WANT THEM TO LEARN. The Gods want them to receive this feedback in hope they make corrections and begin to behave appropriately. The Gods DON'T like evil and refuse to grant this feedback.
EVERYBODY pays for what they do wrong, only evil people must wait until their next life before they will experience the wrath of the Gods, manifested in their reincarnation as a lower form of life into environments with increased/enhanced temptations.
Sadly, this allows the Gods to position this perception of evil rewarded as temptation, one which they use as an EXTREMELY effective corruptor.

Both Africa and the Medittereanean are regions which have sexual issues. This is a sign of morbid disfavor once you understand that females are the God's favored gender. Muhammad's (Mohammed's) polygamy halfway through his life as a prophet was preditory. Now a huge percentage of Muslims believes in male superiority and that the abuse of women is God's will. Female genital mutilation is still practiced in Africa. Black misogyny is the most eggregious example in the recent past.
The patriarchal cancer spread throughout Europe because of Christianity, of which the majority of policy makers were Italian men.

Militancy in Africa is consistant with the Iraqi example, as was slavery and the KKK here in America:::Fear enforces proper behavior. Without it we see what happens as a result of gross/morbid disfavor:::::AIDS, crack babies, dead young men in gangland retaliation killings.
The same principle was true in Europe and throughout the world for centuries:::People whom lived under iron fists were conditioned to think the right way. As a result they experienced higher numbers of children accend into heaven because they were taught to think and behave appropriately. Our preditory envionment of "freedom" was the primary purpose the Gods had when implimenting this strategy that is the United States, one which they used to spred the cancer of democracy and westernization throughout the world. And the Gods use this tool that is America to prey on the disfavored both at home and abroad.


Even the Old Testiment is not to be taken literally, but the Gods do offer clues throughout to help the disfavored:::The apple is a tool of temptation used to corrupt Adam and Eve and cast them out of the Garden of Eden.
There is another lesson to be learned from this passage, and it is quite similar to the vailing issue and the discourse over women's attire which ultimately died in the 70s:::Women are responsible for and control the fate of mankind.
The masculinization of women experienced in the last few decades should cause despondancy and desperation:::It illustrates the deterioration of mankind's collective favor and is a clue the Gods are preparing for some event.

Think about what I say. Consider what I teach. Society is going to become disturbingly ugly as we approach the Apocalypse due to spiralling, runaway disfavor.
I do not know when this will occurr, but it is the God's way to grant some time before they end on Planet Earth.
Make the decision to always be good and never look back. Until you do this technology will employ tactics to test your resolve:::Ridicule, beligerance, doubt and refusal to abandon what people perceive to be their "investment".
Pray daily. Think appropriately. Too many are confident, unaware of the God's awesome powers or their status as antients. Others may fall prey to their positioning.
Be humbled, God-fearing and beware of the God's temptations, for everyone is tested to evaluate their worthiness.

Search for the remainder of this document. Blogster/spot only allows 4000 charecters.

Anonymous said...

William Grigg,

Keep up the good work.

Have you seen the video of this 87 yr old confused woman slammed on the ground by the police and bleeding?

Anonymous said...

PS I recommend you watch the whole video.

ihbf said...

Oh, no. Here’s the YouTube of the 87-yr-old woman; it’s so bad you have to sign in before viewing it (which is stupid, but still.) I wish these cops were SO dead, every single one of them. Her head cracked open like a melon, and the dyke cop and her fellow-dingoes wouldn’t let anyone else near her. And once she was down, bleeding on the pavement like a dog, the freaking cops grabbed her wrists and wouldn’t let go! “She’s still alive, Butch! I’ll hold her down and secure the crime scene while you call for backup, and HURRY!” The dyke had in mind to hand-cuff her, I just KNOW she did. I could NOT believe this one. I’m praying for you cops! I’m praying that God will smite you and slay you with the edge of the sword and when you are dead, I hope He does it again.

Fascist Nation said...

So what happens to the cameraman if the cop loses?

:-)

Marie Lynette said...

I'm surprised you had company Grigg. Where I go it seems that everybody loudly proclaims the fault of the victim, and even laughs at the suggestion of suicide. One guy liked real videos of cops chasing people "because people do things that are stupid." They do these things while running with no time to think up better ones. Unlike the guy in his reclining chair watching. A Jehovah's Witness thinking suicide is funny? It's appropriate for sitcom? Whoever kills himself does society a favor?
Who made a sitcom in the first place?

Leon Haller said...

Punitive Populism is a creation of liberalism. Liberal judges and penologists radically weakened traditional punishments for crimes. This has made MORALLY HEALTHY people very angry and vengeful, thus being overly forgiving when it looks like "old-fashioned justice" is in fact being meted out, even if under procedurally questionable circumstances. It's analogous to public perceptions of the horror of prison rape. Rape is not and should not be an aspect of incarceration or punishment in general. But few people care about prison rape, believing correctly that most criminals get off too easily, and thus unwilling to concern themselves with genuine instances of official or officially tolerated abuse (unfortunately, the worst offenders, the ones who should be routinely publicly whipped and only then exterminated, usually aren't punished at all, except for loss of liberty - they are the rapists not the "rapees").

My point is that the culture of punitive populism would decline if the authorities were more MORALLY punitive themselves, although that is admittedly a tricky balance to achieve in real life. Too many people are either capable of brutality but evil, or good but incapable of brutality. We need men like we once had: good, moral, and compassionate men who can torture evil people (criminals and terrorists) when necessary. That is what us punitive populists want, not harassment of the innocent.

Will Porter said...

Will is such a talented writer!!! Always offers an awesome mix of journalistic coverage of current events and well-crafted polemics.

There are a lot of folks covering the rising American police state, but nobody like Will Grigg.

Anonymous said...

Will, as usual, excellent Police State reality check essay.

It all has to do more with the moral compass of the collective consciousness being too far 'South' from the true path to humanist enlightenment.

Cops generally come from the same gene pool as the masses. With all the same flawed emotional content. Then the PTB elevates their relative social 'status' and enhanced people control powers and this is ultimately what you get. Paid agenda enforcers. Not public servants protecting society.

It's no 'accident' that cops are turning into Gestapo fiends, disregarding all reasonable objective social interaction in favor of military tactical style combatants. You NEED that to fullfill your ultimate Totalitarian agenda. The regime needs a private private para-military for this.

That's why initially the current tyrannical regime started giving away half million dollar 'surplus' armored personnel carriers with military style NVD Flir equipment and advanced firepower. with small armed drones already on every department wish list and some alre And the goal of a full auto 'surplus' M-16 in every patrol vehicle. And drones already in use (see articles on North Dakota weaponizing please drones, or the Survivopedia.com article on 'Police Drones' by Mahatma Muhjesbude)

For a while there it looked like we were just going to merge civilian police into the military? Until, fortunately, the Black Political coalitions didn't appreciate the mounting abuse and 80 freaking thousand SWAT drug raids with this stuff a year just to maintain their own asset forfeiture seizure for profit "drug addiction'!

So BO & Co. backed off on further equipping local Beavis and Butthead cops like the 101st Air Cav, at least for now. But if the Hellbitch Hildebeast
gets in... Nobody will ever believe what will happen next to your 4th/A rights.

That's you'll never see any POTUS, not even Trump, criticize too adamently the police for anything. Instead they'll blame the blacks and others for everything. That's also why you never see the children of the rich and powerful 'working' as cops. (unless they possess a particular attraction to the darker side of police work...

I Also agree with your interesting focus on the Protestant Progressives and their 'holier-than-thou' moral high groound. As a theology historian, i can go on and on about history than not many have ever known about...

But suffice to say for nowthat Totalitarian agendas throughout history were not the sole proprietorship of Marxist Fascist Corporatists.

Not many (if any) college history students are taught, for instance, that the Protestant progressives were the driving force behind the prohibition act that ushered in the 'Roaring Twenties' and caused more deaths and deletarious social existentialism from the asssociate criminal enterprise it hatched which then lasted over a decade until prohibition was repealed.

Some scholars i know attribute the current Police State's roots to the Prohibition Era?

Anyway, if anyone wants to read an excellent fast paced treatise on the current problem of Fascist Police State proliferation, check out "Battlefield America' The War On The American People', by Constitutional Attorney John W. Whitehead.