Feel you’re being protected and served?
By Tim Martin, Eureka Times Standard
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Jim Pasco, executive director
of the largest U.S. police union, recently offered a shocking
statement to the press. He vowed to strike back at Quentin Tarantino
for comments the movie director made against police brutality at a
New York rally.
Pasco said he had a plan to
hurt Tarantino “economically.” The Patrolmen’s Benevolent
Association, a union representing New York City Police, the Los
Angeles Police Protective League, and the Philadelphia Fraternal
Order of Police called for a boycott of Tarantino’s movies,
including his latest picture “The Hateful Eight.”
In other words they are
blackballing the filmmaker Don Corleone style: “Nice movie you got
there, Quentin. It’d be a real shame if somethin’ happened to it,
ya know?”
After Pasco called for a
boycott of Tarantino’s films, the director appeared on “Real Time
with Bill Maher” to clarify his position. “The [police] unions
are saying that I am a cop hater, which is slander because I didn’t
say that,” he told Maher. “They’re implying that I meant that
all cops are murderers, and I wasn’t. But the thing that’s really
sad about it is we actually do need to talk to cops about this. We
need to bring this to the table.”
What kind of police do you call
on the police? Law enforcement has become a predatory culture in
America. Cops are morphing into thugs and criminals. They beat,
choke, shoot, pepper spray, and Taser unarmed citizens. Police unions
have transformed into terrorist groups that threaten any and all
critics. Pasco’s plan to financially cripple the “Natural Born
Killers” director proves that many police departments are not
interested in protecting citizens, but in maintaining their unchecked
right to act unlawfully.
Has it ever occurred to cops
that their aggressive and violent behavior is the main reason they
have such a terrible image problem?
Since when did the police
become a crime mob that issues threats and warnings of harassment and
intimidation? Pasco’s gang-like threat to Tarantino was a warning
so illegal and egregious it boggles the mind. It clearly illustrates
the totalitarian idea that any criticism of authority is punishable
by law. It also reveals how much some people want our free society to
be markedly less so.
This is exactly what black
people have been complaining about for decades. Surprise! We are all
black now.
The Department of Justice needs
to wake up. Law enforcement groups are becoming domestic enemies like
the white supremacist groups Ku Klux Klan and Stormfront. There is
too much police brutality in this country. Bullying only incites
public anger. The public will tolerate unrestrained cop misconduct
only so long. If police continue this current trend, they will force
violence against themselves.
Cops have killed unarmed people
using illegal choke holds and excessive force. The city of Chicago
recently fired an investigator who tried to hold two officers
accountable for beating a mentally ill man to death. Police need to
get over themselves and address the weekly unnecessary murder of
people over trivial issues. Many officers do a good job, but
unfortunately, they also enforce a code of silence that protects bad
cops. Until the cover-ups stop, all law enforcement will be tainted.
More transparency and accountability is needed. Police should be
working overtime to eradicate criminals from their own ranks instead
of finding ways to censor a filmmaker’s freedom of speech. And
judges must stop giving officers a free pass of “badge
truthfulness” in court.
The Fraternal Order of Police
and their over-the-top strawman Jim Pasco offer no help whatsoever.
They only increase the problem.
I applaud Quentin Tarantino’s
bravery in speaking out against criminal cops and their terroristic
grip on society. Protesting injustices peacefully is what makes
American great. Many police officers have lost their moral compass
and are abusing the badge. Even worse, they are protected and
insulated by a system that allows them to continue to do so. Cops who
kill unlawfully are murderers, pure and simple. Pasco is merely
trying to deflect the issue by claiming Tarantino was referring to
every cop as a murderer.
We were once an extraordinary
country where people were free to speak their minds and criticize
power without fear of retribution. Those days are over. America is no
longer extraordinary. With the arrival of our police state we have
become just another Iran or Russia. If we continue to turn a blind
eye to police violence it will only grow worse. It’s long past the
time to do something about this problem. Our entire legal system has
gone to the dogs.
Tim Martin resides in
Fortuna and writes this column for the Times-Standard. Email him at
tmartin@sitestar.net.
URL:
http://www.times-standard.com/opinion/20160116/feel-youre-being-protected-and-served
© 2016 Eureka Times-Standard (http://www.times-standard.com)
I was catching up on my "Times-Standard" news when I came across this article from Tim Martin and just had to post it. I'm sure it took a lot of courage to write. Personally, I've refrained from writing about the lawlessness that plagues our area and the dire consequences they portend. Personally, I believe you "reap what you sow" consequently, the people (most of them anyway) deserve what they got.
"Paranoid and delusional," and scared crapless - every encounter is a time-bomb ready to go off. The people of Eureka must really enjoy playing Russian roulette. See: Eureka Police - When the Police Use Force
"Paranoid and delusional," and scared crapless - every encounter is a time-bomb ready to go off. The people of Eureka must really enjoy playing Russian roulette. See: Eureka Police - When the Police Use Force
--Joe
