Police State
Have you ever wondered where George Orwell’s book “1984” went? Is it a relevant view of the future? Have you even read the book “1984”? Do you even know what I am talking about? Well most of you who may be reading this article probably never read it and some of you might have not even heard of it due to the school curriculum. The sad part of it is that George Orwell’s vision of the future is here and now. This bleak view of what was to come is here in Vancouver B.C. Canada. Other countries are not necessarily exempt but I live here.
British Colombia has taken many steps towards this nightmarish future. The government led by Gordon Campbell has made laws that are not evenly enforced. He has also limited free speech (which is a slippery slope). His government has made a law that prohibits criticism of the government by organizations for three months prior to the election. This means that IE: if the fire fighters association or the nurses union publicly criticizes the status quo or talks about the short falls of the Campbell government, they could face fines of more than one thousand dollars or even jail time. Just breathe in that air of freedom. Never forget in this province you have a right to their opinion.
The suspension of speech no mater how insignificant (and this is not insignificant) is the first step towards full suspension of civil liberties. One must remember that freedom of speech protects unpopular speech because popular speech needs no protection. Governments hate opposition, especially opposition by the people. This is obvious from the law banning the rights of organizations to criticize the government. What next, clamp down on news services? After all if the government nationalized news papers they could stop pesky- opposition opinions and get right down to the business of governing right, whether the people like it or not. The masses don’t understand how hard it is to run a province/country, so why let them talk into official matters.
The fact is that Governments try (and often succeed) to enact abusive laws. Usually they try to sell it to us as a new fight against crime or that it is for our own safety. They promote cameras everywhere so they can reduce crime. What a crock. There is no evidence that “big brother” reduces crime, in fact it just creates an atmosphere of potential abuse by law enforcement. If you are victim of crime you can get police to help you. But if police are the criminals then who will protect you?
The public must in all ways be vigilant in scrutinizing law enforcement to remain safe. We as a people collectively licence government to create militias and police forces . They like to call themselves a police service thereby making themselves sound warm and fuzzy. Whatever you call it we give them the right to carry loaded guns and other weapons to protect the citizenry from the criminals at large. We send them for training in many aspects of policing including self-defense and weapons training. We do this so the bad guys and their activities are curtailed. We in turn expect law officers to treat the rest of us with respect. However the police have begun to think of themselves as somehow above the people they are sworn to serve and they see all of us as the enemy.
This is a dangerous thing when the people that we entrust with guns and many other technical means begin treating us with disdain and suspicion. The public must hold police to a higher standard, after all we aren’t allowed to carry loaded weapons. Police have been involved in many iffy circumstances but haven’t had to face up to them. Many police officers have been caught drinking and driving in the past year. This is where their punishment should be more severe but it never is. The fact is that they are charged but in almost all cases their trial is either stayed or they get a slap on the wrist and back in the squad car they go looking to arrest the public for the same behavior. Believe me the public won’t get a GET OUT OF JAIL free card.
Now don’t get me wrong, the law must be enforced but it should also apply to the police and considering the betrayal of public trust, it should be more serious if police break the law. What kind of message is it for the public when they get off after committing a crime? Not just they don’t see jail time but even if they are suspended for a time they still get their salaries, raises and even get promotions during a suspension. As in the case of a West Vancouver officer caught with alcohol levels higher than the legal level,( she was pulled over by police in an neighboring suburb) she received such special treatment. The officer not only didn’t loose her job but returned to it at the higher rank of Sargent. If it was you or I in the same circumstance you could be assured that neither you nor I would be getting a salary while we were in jail and jail is where we would be. “Some pigs are more equal than others” George Orwell writes in his book Animal Farm. The shame of her case is that everybody in her police detachment were also drinking but just weren’t caught (outside of their jurisdiction), so most of them that day were probably legally drunk and some of them probably even went back to work right after the celebration. I wonder how many times such incidents are actually covered up.
Just a sidebar: how come MADD (Mothers against drunk driving) isn’t denouncing this behavior by the police. Very strange. Normally this organization is very vocal about those who drink and drive and rightfully so. What makes me uneasy is that when police are caught for this infraction MADD is conspicuously silent. Not only should the police receive the same treatment as anyone else but it should be more severe. This is breach of confidence. The police must operate by example, they must show that the law is equally enforced, which should include them.
There might be a consensus that believe that a DUI is not the most serious of infractions, however the law is the law and law officers should be the first ones to follow said law as they are the ones enforcing it. The sad truth is that police are excused from much more severe crimes. Try murder, yes I said murder. There have been many, to say the least, suspicious shootings and use of tasers resulting in the death of a suspects. (Don’t pick up your cell phone around them, they might consider it a lethal weapon). Now understand that suspect means someone under suspicion, it doesn’t mean guilty. A very important point. The police cannot be judge, jury and executioners. The police are hired and trained to take risks, this is the job. Killing suspects is not. We, as a society, pay fire fighters to also take risks. Never would it be acceptable if a fire fighter decided that fighting actual fires is too risky but still remained as a fire fighter. These are heroic people who take incredible risks every time they go out and all without shooting or tasering some one to death with the excuse that “I was afraid of that 96 year old man with the spoon in his hands”.
Here’s one example which is in the news now. The Robert Dziekansky debacle. This case is tragic and there were failures on every level. Government departments must take responsibility for their role in this tragedy (they won’t and haven’t more than a 18 months later). But it was the police that killed this innocent and unarmed man from Poland on October 14, 2007. The circumstances surrounding this event is, to say the least, bizarre.
This ( by all accounts) gentle man comes to Canada through YVR (Vancouver International Airport). His mother who lives in B.C. comes to pick him up with a friend. For some reason Mr. Dziekanski isn’t processed through security at the arrivals level but is left to languish in the secured area of the airport for hours upon hours. No one at the YVR assisted Mr. Dziekanski. To be fair Mr. Dziekanski didn’t speak English but no translator was provided either. No one was respecting his culture or uniqueness.
Meanwhile his mother is understandably concerned she and her friend made several inquires but were told that Mr. Dziekanski was not in the security area, even though the staff could clearly see him on security cameras. She was eventually told that he had not cleared security and was not anywhere at the airport so she should go home. This is after many inquiries through many officials, some of whom were aware that he was indeed in the security area of the arrivals level. Not knowing what else to do and trusting the public officials (paid by her and our taxes) she left for home.
At about the time his mother and her friend began to leave YVR poor Mr. Dziekanski became frustrated and caused a bit of a ruckus. There was a passenger that offered his assistance to an airport employee. He spoke polish and wanted to help but was told that his services was not required, so he left. In fact there was two separate offers for translation and both times it was rejected by officials. Mr Dziekanski by now was tired, frustrated and scared as anybody would be considering his circumstance. In the wisdom of YVR officials the solution wasn’t a translator, but the police.
So in come the gang, four police officers supported by four airport security personnel. This must have looked like the old Communist regime he remembered from years before. This certainly couldn’t be, this is Canada not the KGB. He has nothing to fear?
The RCMP officers approach Mr. Dziekansky like a bunch of thugs and not like peace officers wanting a solution. The poor Mr Dziekanski is now very afraid and grabs a stapler off a desk to protect himself. They yell at him which understandably scares him all the more. He is then, without warning, tasered by the lead officer, (while he has his hands up mind you) he screams and begins to go down. The same RCMP officer tasers Mr. Dziekansky again while he is falling down from the first blast of electricity. The officer stated that he shocked him the second time because he feared for his own life. Understandable, who wouldn’t be afraid of an unarmed and already subdued man falling to the floor. The poor officer might of gotten a hang nail or something, from this limp body. Hope the poor officer didn’t get a paper cut when he wrote his report in which he lied because he didn’t know about the civilian video that had been shot.
Anyway the poor victim of police brutality, Mr Dziekanski, was now lying on the ground incapacitated. Now the young and brave officers, four of them, pounce on this middle aged man and zap him three more times. They then quickly handcuff this menace to society, and hit him a couple of times for good measure with a baton, I guess because they could see he was still breathing. After they subdued him they all stood up and ignored this dying man. An emergency fire rescue person arrived to check for his vital signs. Mr. Dziekansky was still evidently breathing although with shallow breaths. The brave RCMP officer denied the fire rescue person access to Mr.Dziekanski. Ambulance paramedics arrived about 15 minutes late and they were finally granted access but found the poor Mr Dziekanski DOA (dead on arrival)
In my opinion and the opinion of any sane person, these police officers committed willful murder of an unarmed, mild mannered, middle aged man. Even before an inquest could begin, it was announced that none of the officers would face any charges. If you or I were to face a knife wielding killer and during the struggle killed the assailant, we would be arrested and jailed and would likely spend many weeks there while waiting for an inquest to be formed. But four strapping young officers, trained in hand to hand combat and psychology, couldn’t subdue an old man without killing him. For them, no charges would be laid. These young tough guys were afraid of him? Ridiculous!
You would think that at this point the absolute worse part of the story is over. Not in the least my red eyed readers. When the whole thing was over a spokesperson for the RCMP tried to vilify this poor slaughtered man. Unaware that there was a civilian (a hero in my estimation) shooting his own video. The spokesperson also announced that somehow the airport security video of the events leading to and encompassing the tragedy, had somehow disappeared, still not realizing that there was a definitive video of the incident.
A few days later the aforementioned video was shown on the news. (I am rarely impressed with network news here in Canada but I was now). It was now obvious that the police and their representatives had lied in order to cover up this abhorrent police action. Even after this embarrassing video surfaced the RCMP wasn’t backing down, still spinning this criminal action by the RCMP as justifiable. Again trying to vilify this gentle man even though they, the RCMP were clearly in the wrong. There was a small public outcry but essentially it was ignored.
There have been no internal sanctions against these men by the RCMP. These same officers are out on the streets carrying loaded guns and tasers. Because there were no reprimand of any kind for their actions let alone jail time, these officers and likely other officers might feel much easier about killing suspects because there are obviously no consequences for such behavior, even the top brass of this national militia were willing to lie (to the people that pay their salaries) to cover up a defacto screw up if not an out and out crime. How can they be trusted when lying is their first instinct.
Don’t misunderstand me, I do understand the need for police, to find and investigate dangerous criminals. But what happens when they become the criminals, where will the public get help then? This is why they need probable cause, warrants and a strict code of conduct which must be policed by civilians.
This brings us to public cameras and technology designed to track civilians and that means you. They’re promoting this technology as a way to reduce crime and keep us all safe. What a pile of scented dung. If you lock up every human being in their own cell, there will be no crime either except by the operators of the prison and the government that controls them. Public camera technology is the next step to take away all your civil liberties. Benjamin Franklin so brilliantly said (paraphrased) “A person who gives up liberty for security deserves neither”.
The technology for this invasive system is dangerous. Do you trust anyone to know everything about you? Let alone a stranger? The more an official body knows about an individual the easier it is for them to create a circumstantial case against said individual. With thousands of images and sound bites the Government and their agents can construct evidence in any sequence to cast any person in whatever light they want. They have the money, time and the technology. This is all designed to take away any individuality in people, they want everyone to tow the party line.
The next step will be to convince the public that an electronic chip surgically placed under your skin will be best for your safety. With this technology you won’t have to carry a driver’s licence or any other ID because it will be on the chip and with just a swipe of a wand the information will be available to anyone with an electronic reader. The chip will also have your birth date, your education, probably your grades, it will contain info about your parents, your spouse your political leanings and even your attitude etc. It will likely have your medical history and your potential mistrust of authority. Oh, and no one will manipulate the information because as we all know governments and police never make mistakes. lie, cheat, embezzle or do any other negative thing because as we all know they are all angels looking out for us.
The next step will be your home. This is a dangerous place, you might have unauthorized knick knacks. The powers that be will try to convince you that if they had a camera in every room of your home they could increase your safety. With this technology they could see if there was a fire somewhere and send the fire trucks immediately, or if you fell and hurt yourself they would dispatch an ambulance to tend to you. However there might be a sexual position that isn’t sanctioned or has been deemed a crime and the police would be sent to arrest these sexual deviants. They could be sent to a re-education camp so they could teach you the government’s accepted sexual positions for your own safety. Lucky for us this is just around the corner so we can feel safe real soon.
This technology can and will be subject to abuses. They can and will pursue more and more control over your life as they will make more and more decisions for you. And if you don’t like it, there will be many ways to re-educate you in seeing that you are wrong and they are truly right.
Take heart in the deepening gloom that next time you are mugged and beaten to an inch of your life, it will be done by a duly appointed official.
