American Fascism

“When the police have the ability to take away liberty, the police should not be policing themselves.” By Tom Perkins The Guardian (6/30/20) A court in 2009 convicted Washington DC police officer Michael Sugg-Edwards of sexually assaulting a teenage woman in his squad car. After conducting its own internal investigation, the department quickly fired the then 35-year-old officer. But, six years later, Sugg-Edwards was back on the force. A provision in the police union’s contract allowed him to appeal the decision to a union-selected arbitrator who reversed the department’s firing and reinstated him – with back pay. Such protections for officers who…

  “Modern policing is rotten at its core.” By Jeremy Scahill Intercepted / The intercept (6/24/20) THE BLACK LIVES MATTER uprisings against police and state violence are continuing across the U.S., as a humiliated Donald Trump threatens a broader crackdown to defend Confederate monuments. This week on Intercepted: History Of Modern Racial Capitalism — Robin D.G. Kelley, a distinguished history professor at UCLA, explains why he believes the current abolitionist movement has the potential to fundamentally change the country and offers a historical analysis of the weaponization of racial capitalism throughout U.S. history. He also tells the story of the Black-led…

Time to ban the police ‘Thin Blue Line” flag desecration. In a three day course last year, instructors certified the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office’s SWAT team to parachute from planes. [Editor’s Note: If these police “warriors” want to really get on top of real crime have them parachute into Wall Street. — Mark L. Taylor] By Alain Stephens The Trace (6/19/20) A group of police officers, kitted out for a day of shooting, sit silently in a tin-roofed gun range. A portable CD player plays a recording of the desperate cries of one of their colleagues, fighting for his life….

“…many Israeli soldiers began using this technique of leaning in on our chest and necks when we were protesting in the West Bank sometime in 2006.” By Steve Sweeney Morning Star (6/3/20) Officers from the U.S. police force responsible for the killing of George Floyd received training in restraint techniques and anti-terror tactics from Israeli law enforcement officers. Floyd’s death in custody on Memorial Day, the latest in a succession of police killings of African Americans, has sparked continuing protests in U.S. cities. At least 100 Minnesota police officers attended a 2012 conference hosted by Israel’s Chicago consulate, the second…

“With heavily armed men in full combat gear occupying the visitors galleries in the Michigan state capitol, we are one trigger-pull away from what happens every day in places like Kabul and Mogadishu and Tripoli. With tens of millions of people out of work, they’re talking about cutting food stamps and canceling the unemployment bonus they just passed. Every day, there is more evidence that nothing is working the way it should in a country gripped by the biggest crisis it has faced in decades.” By Lucian K. Truscott IV Salon (5/23/20) What is a failed state? It’s a country that…

    [Editor’s Note: This amazing episode of ‘This American Life’ profiles the brutal, inhumanity of American asylum policies on the southern border. In the midst of our own struggles these days, we cannot lose our humanity by ignoring the terror inflicted on innocents in our name and on our dime. To do so is to lose our humanity. — Mark L. Taylor] This American Life (5/15/20) Last week, our episode “The Out Crowd“ won the very first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a radio show. This is the episode that won, with some updates on the stories. Hear what the Trump administration’s…