Go figure it happened in Utah over the weekend. It seems that about 90 well armed police officers raided a rave party in the Spanish Fork area of Utah County. Wikinews has a good account of what transpired here. Many of the attendees say that the police acted in a rather heavy handed manner. Busting a rave with semi-automatic weapons, gas masks and camouflage could quite possibly have me thinking the same thing. There are a few witness accounts including this one at Kos. There is also at least one bit of video footage online currently. Just remember it's big so if you're on dial-up don't click that link.
It shouldn't surprise me that this happened in Utah being as a conservative state as it is but it does. Or at least the show of force that was exhibited does surprise me. Admittedly, I've been out of that scene for more than a decade and haven't been keeping up at all. It seems to me that this incident is just another example of the police state that we are allowing to grow in this country due to our complacency. It can start by targeting so-called undesirables and outcasts but then slowly creeps into our daily lives. In a large way these types are our first line of defense against the coming police state that no one notices. Until it's to late. I hope there are some lawsuits in this case that judgments will go against the various police agencies involved.
Of course the creeping police state started long before this. One could date it back to the Seventies or the creation of the DEA and quite possibly even farther back (Prohibition even?). But I've been noticing it more and more in the last five years or so. The phrase "9/11 changed everything" comes to mind as the moment when many Americans decided they were OK with more of a police state. It makes me very close to allowing my paranoia to slip in.
I just have no ideas about how to push back. I doubt if one could get elected on a fewer police platform. Too many people have never learned Yoda's lesson and let the fear take over.
Any ideas?
2 comments:
Yeah - I've got some ideas! Rock 'n' Roll! Rock 'n' Roll will never die, and Rock 'n' Roll is as American as apple pie and putting duct tape on the windows. If we can kick out the jams we just might become part of the solution and not part of the problem, as MC5 would say. Those silly raver kids are so far gone on their dumb-people's drugs and are holding their events illegally that they're just begging the amped-up cops to break out the heavy artillery. I bet these cops stare at their gas masks and machine guns at headquarters and just dream of the day they can bust that stuff out and take out some teenager with a glow-in-the-dark pacifier and glow sticks. I bet they justified the use of force by saying there could have been dangerous drug dealers at the location. The growing police state is troublesome, but remember all, prohibition was repealed and I believe weed will be legal in our lifetimes. Never underestimate the power of the people in this country. We'll accept a little intimidation by our own government because we're too distracted by Banana Republic catalogs and sales at Target, but once we get pushed too far we camp outside the President's ranch and heckle him for headline coverage in the news. Just remember, freedom don't come for free. Prepare for the revolution ...which may not be televised, but just may be computerized!
Okay, I just saw that video footage and read the story and I need to append what I wrote earlier. Those were not silly raver kids, they were totally smart and on it, and they were attacked brutally without cause. This truly is an example of fascism flickering in the United States. I don't want to go to the trouble of moving to Canada, so I'm gonna' try to figure out what I can do to keep America from becoming Franco's Spain!
Revolution!
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