Incoming!!!
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the once again stellar, sun drenched, wicked windy and all round great island of Nantucket! Great to be with you again on this beautiful Friday afternoon on Cape Cod, Hyannis/Hyannis Port to be specific, and it is difficult to believe it is already August 15th, in this late year of 2014…
I say late because it is equally hard to believe that an officer of the LAW would gun down an unarmed man in cold blood in this 21st century America, according to now 2 very good witnesses. I know from whence I speak. Read “Taking Fog to Nantucket” and you will get some echoes of police brutality coming from what happened to me in 2003, on a gorgeous summer day just like today. I will not get into the details save this–According to 2 witnesses only 20 feet away in the then “Atlantic Cafe” in lovely tree lined, gas lamp lit, cobblestone downtown Nantucket, an officer approached me on India street on August 2 of that year, and began to hassle me with aggressive and rather scary behavior. He asked me to take my hands out of my pockets, to wit I obliged, and then he suddenly handcuffed me with my hands behind my back, then tripped me with tremendous force and guided my unprotected head directly into the sidewalk below, face first, blood gushing out of my head as the officers did nothing to help, as I was in a coma by then. Yes sir, a true ’slam dunk’, as one of the witnesses stated in sworn affidavits. Like the witness ‘Tiffany’ (I just watched on last night’s “Last Word”, with Lawrence O’Donnell, only on MSNBC) stated regarding the ‘incident’ in Ferguson, Missouri only days ago, where a young, 18, black male was apparently shot down by another out of control officer sworn to ‘protect and serve’. According to Tiffany, the man surrendered, with his hands up, but the officer tried to kill him anyway. In his case, the officer succeeded. In mine, I am still recovering...but alive, thank God.
On Wednesday night, the Ferguson Police Department pulled out all the stops, turning that town of 22,000 souls, a suburb of St. Louis, into Beirut. That’s right folks, let’s really turn up the heat and show the whole world what little boys can do with new toys from Uncle Sam, or rather the failed policies of the George W. Bush administration, i.e. the bloated budget for “Homeland Security”–rocket propelled missals, tanks, more sub-machine guns, destroyers, aircraft carriers and small, tactical nuclear devices! “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning, it smells like victory!” (credit the classic film, circa 1979 “Apocalypse Now”, starring Robert Duvall).
I suppose that movie dovetails nicely with the history we are talking about here. For it was not too long ago, where 4 young students were gunned down at Kent State in Ohio, but it was, as Rachel Maddow pointed out (TRMS, at 9 p.m. eastern, again, only on the station that tells it like it is, MSNBC, chalk full of rare concepts like TRUTH and Compassion, with that very real Light of Justice being behind it and all, hopefully bringing that HOPE back to the U.S. community at large–stay tuned America!) before that incident that ended most of the police brutality aimed at the then anti Vietnam War protestors, mostly in the late 60’s and early 70’s, culminating in a rare period of peace and calm across the nation once again, yes, but before that happened, there were many, many cases of police brutality, and little to no arrests regarding their blatant disregard for the LAW they are supposed to ‘protect and serve’.
This is far from over. The nation is watching, lo, the world, as the Missouri State Police took over for the FPD for at least last night, as the police riots were not on display again. However, according to Tiffany the witness at that scene in Ferguson, the officer drew his weapon and fired on an unarmed man, multiple times, killing him on the street like a dog. Think about it people! When that man, who had been hit in the back by bullets emanating from the officers handgun while he was in pursuit, yes, when he turned to face the officer with his hands in the air, complete surrender…the officer unloaded at least three more rounds into his body. According to Tiffany, he went down in three seconds and presumably died on the spot. But we don’t know, for, again, according to witnesses, hundreds on the scene, the police left the body in the hot sun for four hours, never taking a pulse or even doing anything remotely decent, such as dignifying the now big time under federal investigation crime scene.
The United States of America is not up for sale and the people who live, work, love, learn, eat, laugh, breathe, play the eventually pass from this earthly plane, hopefully after a long and fruitful life, deserve better than what they are getting from people in positions of power, i.e. many police officers who take the law into their own hands and never get punished for their crimes. There will be a price to be paid and it is high time these local police departments fess up to what they have done and redeem themselves. We are a civilization, not a target practice range. These people, the African American community of Ferguson and fill in the blank U.S.A., have a RIGHT to a good education, good food, good drinking water, good hospitals, good roads, good housing and good police officers. We must embrace our differences with love and understanding–not bullets, brawn and brainlessness.
This has been a tough week, “…looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue”. (credit the classic 1980 film “Airplane“, starring the late, great Lloyd Bridges, who also stated in that comic gem, “…get me Rex Kramer!” Please, help bring this crazy plane of hate and violence down for a landing. Have a great week end folks and be kind to little things, especially the weak and the vulnerable. “…what you do unto the least of us, you do unto me.” Or did not the evangelical wing of the fake grass roots, corporate, plutocratic owned ‘tea party’ get that memo? Or scripture? Or Gospel from their number one guy, Reagan? I mean Jesus? PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
