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I was raised to trust police officers implicitly. Get separated from your parents? Something scare you? See something wrong? Find a police officer. That should always be your first choice. They're there to protect you, and they will help you.
But these days I'm coming to be more and more frightened of the NYPD and what it's become.
It started when I found out that they were working with the CIA to spy on American citizens. In New York. In New Jersey. On people and communities who had nothing more suspicious about them than the fact that they were Muslim. CAIR asked for a legal investigation months ago, but it doesn't seem that anything has come of it.
The CIA has no jurisdiction within US borders. They're not allowed to engage in racial profiling. The NYPD has no jurisdiction outside New York. But somehow they teamed up to needlessly spy on people in New Jersey based on nothing more than raw racial profiling.
It doesn't just stop there. The NYPD has sent intelligence officers to India and other countries. NYPD counter-terrorism agents were among those who responded to the Mumbai bombing.
Watch this video (Part 1 Part 2). It's part of a larger documentary about how our country has changed in the 10 years since 9/11. It shows how the NYPD has become a paramilitary counter-terrorism organization. Snipers, cameras, helicopters capable of watching from miles away or even (with thermal imaging) through walls, and a semi-secret underground headquarters that looks like something out of a totalitarian sci-fi thriller.
And then you start seeing what happens to the Occupy protestors across the country. Not just in CA, where police have beaten and peaceful protestors (claiming that linking arms to form a human chain was not a non-violent act), or pepper sprayed them (actually knocking them down and spraying down their throats several were hospitalized). But in NYC, where the movement had been peacefully demonstrating for two months, the NYPD staged a midnight raid. Swept in at 1am, made hundreds of arrests, destroyed the tents with saws, destroyed computers, destroyed thousands of books, threw everything in the trash. All the while refusing access to the press, turning away reporters, telling them their credentials didn't matter, shoving them back, arresting those who tried to get close enough to get the story, and clearing the news copters out of the airspace. Protestors got a temporary restraining order saying they were allowed to be in the park, tents and all, but police still refused access and arrested anyone who tried to get in. For the entire day until a judge finally ruled that the eviction was legal, after all. (It's a strange situation because the park they're occupying is privately owned public property which didn't have rules against tents or sleeping or eating or anything until well after the protest started.) The park is open to the public 24/7, but tents are not allowed. Since then, the police have taken to confiscating and trashing food, books, and anything else they feel like. It's heartbreaking seeing what happened and is still happening to the once-vast OWS library. Not to mention the first aid tent.
Spying, racial profiling, working outside their jurisdiction, beating peaceful protestors, destroying thousands of books and valuable personal property, and more. It's out of control. We're heading towards a police state. It frightens me. And I don't know what to do about it. No one is going to campaign against counter-terrorism.
Don't get me wrong. We do need a measure of vigilance to keep us safe in this modern world. But we'll never be 100% safe. And if we give up our civil liberties to get there... to say "the terrorists win" would be trite and cliche, but I'd say we'd be giving up more than we gain. And we're just letting it happen, quietly.
The first step towards finding a better, healthier balance is to notice what's happening and start talking about it.
But these days I'm coming to be more and more frightened of the NYPD and what it's become.
It started when I found out that they were working with the CIA to spy on American citizens. In New York. In New Jersey. On people and communities who had nothing more suspicious about them than the fact that they were Muslim. CAIR asked for a legal investigation months ago, but it doesn't seem that anything has come of it.
The CIA has no jurisdiction within US borders. They're not allowed to engage in racial profiling. The NYPD has no jurisdiction outside New York. But somehow they teamed up to needlessly spy on people in New Jersey based on nothing more than raw racial profiling.
It doesn't just stop there. The NYPD has sent intelligence officers to India and other countries. NYPD counter-terrorism agents were among those who responded to the Mumbai bombing.
Watch this video (Part 1 Part 2). It's part of a larger documentary about how our country has changed in the 10 years since 9/11. It shows how the NYPD has become a paramilitary counter-terrorism organization. Snipers, cameras, helicopters capable of watching from miles away or even (with thermal imaging) through walls, and a semi-secret underground headquarters that looks like something out of a totalitarian sci-fi thriller.
And then you start seeing what happens to the Occupy protestors across the country. Not just in CA, where police have beaten and peaceful protestors (claiming that linking arms to form a human chain was not a non-violent act), or pepper sprayed them (actually knocking them down and spraying down their throats several were hospitalized). But in NYC, where the movement had been peacefully demonstrating for two months, the NYPD staged a midnight raid. Swept in at 1am, made hundreds of arrests, destroyed the tents with saws, destroyed computers, destroyed thousands of books, threw everything in the trash. All the while refusing access to the press, turning away reporters, telling them their credentials didn't matter, shoving them back, arresting those who tried to get close enough to get the story, and clearing the news copters out of the airspace. Protestors got a temporary restraining order saying they were allowed to be in the park, tents and all, but police still refused access and arrested anyone who tried to get in. For the entire day until a judge finally ruled that the eviction was legal, after all. (It's a strange situation because the park they're occupying is privately owned public property which didn't have rules against tents or sleeping or eating or anything until well after the protest started.) The park is open to the public 24/7, but tents are not allowed. Since then, the police have taken to confiscating and trashing food, books, and anything else they feel like. It's heartbreaking seeing what happened and is still happening to the once-vast OWS library. Not to mention the first aid tent.
Spying, racial profiling, working outside their jurisdiction, beating peaceful protestors, destroying thousands of books and valuable personal property, and more. It's out of control. We're heading towards a police state. It frightens me. And I don't know what to do about it. No one is going to campaign against counter-terrorism.
Don't get me wrong. We do need a measure of vigilance to keep us safe in this modern world. But we'll never be 100% safe. And if we give up our civil liberties to get there... to say "the terrorists win" would be trite and cliche, but I'd say we'd be giving up more than we gain. And we're just letting it happen, quietly.
The first step towards finding a better, healthier balance is to notice what's happening and start talking about it.