I penned a postover the weekened in which I derided Obama's decision to wimp out - and essentially roll over and take it up the a** - from the Cambridge Police Department in respect to the controversy which arose last week in the wake of the foolhardy handcuffing and subsequent arrest of Professor Gates on charges of disorderly conduct.
Post: 07/25/09
http://ijulian.blogspot.com/2009/07/barack-obamabeer-bust-politics-poorly.html
An LA TIMES editorial in the morning daily (July 28th Edition) is obviously a response to my put-down of the Prez for wimping-out!
In a nutshell, writer Jonahan Zimmerman takes the position that because the conduct of Police in other Nations is much worse than here, that Americans should look the other way in respect to wrongdoing on the part of Law Enforcement on these Democratic shores.
For starters, Zimmerman proceeds to note that Transparency International (which surveyed 70,000 people in 69 countries for its Global Corruption Barometer in 2009) reported that 24% of the respondents confessed to paying bribes to police (and/or Officials) in the past last year.
According to the eye-brow-raising expose - citizens from around the world routinely identified the police as a "force" that was the most corrupt institution in their societies - ahead of the judiciary, collection agencies (!), and so forth and so on.
However, in addition to being corrupt - taking bribes, extorting money, that sort-of-thing - police officers routinely abused or murdered civilians with impunity in other foreign countries, without exception.
An Amnesty International country-by-country report noted that the abuses included brutalities such as - assaults with truncheons (Armenia), electric shocks (Bahrain), cigarette burns (Mauritania), sexual assaults (Pakistan), and suspension by the wrist and ankles (Yemen).
Based on these statistics, the Los Angeles Times concluded that while our system is not perfect, miscarriages of justice - including police corruption and brutality - happen every day.
Does that mean we should trivialize them or sweep the nasty business under the rug and out-of harm's way?
The editorial staff did concede, however, that any reasonable person would not deny that some police officers unfairly target racial minorities, especially minority males.
Although admitting that in view of the foregoing arguments, the Gates incident amounted to a high-charged one, they took a wild leap and - in the final analysis - concluded that from an International perspective the Gates fiasco was but a mere tempest in a teapot!
"Nobody got shot or assaulted. No money changed hands . And, whatever indignities Gates might have incurred, they paled next to the abuse that so many people in other nations receive at the hands of their own police."
What a cynical misguided jaundiced view of things!
It is because shocking incidents like the Gates matter are on the rise and there is a growing trend towards corruption in the Law Enforcement sector in the U.S. that we - as a polite Society in a just civilized Nation - must be ever-vigilante to ensure that the kind of fascist Police States that prevail elsewhere around the Globe do not have the opportunity to gain a foothold here.
The Gates' controversy has sounded a warning bell.
And, for whom does it toll?
For you and me, big brother!
Although admitting that in view of the foregoing arguments, the Gates incident amounted to a high-charged one, they took a wild leap and - in the final analysis - concluded that from an International perspective the Gates fiasco was but a mere tempest in a teapot!
"Nobody got shot or assaulted. No money changed hands . And, whatever indignities Gates might have incurred, they paled next to the abuse that so many people in other nations receive at the hands of their own police."
What a cynical misguided jaundiced view of things!
It is because shocking incidents like the Gates matter are on the rise and there is a growing trend towards corruption in the Law Enforcement sector in the U.S. that we - as a polite Society in a just civilized Nation - must be ever-vigilante to ensure that the kind of fascist Police States that prevail elsewhere around the Globe do not have the opportunity to gain a foothold here.
The Gates' controversy has sounded a warning bell.
And, for whom does it toll?
For you and me, big brother!
