Obama calls CIA torturers “patriots” who “damaged America’s standing”

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 3 Comments
Before we begin, does anyone need take a hard look at himself in the bathroom mirror?

Before we begin, does anyone need take a long look at himself in the bathroom mirror?

Maybe you heard about this, but yesterday the Senate Intelligence Committee released the summary version of its six-year investigation into CIA torture during the Bush administration. The summary is 525 pages long. It describes detainees who were subjected to medically unnecessary rectal hydration procedures, detainees who were deprived of sleep for as long as a week, detainees made to stand on broken feet—you know what? Let’s just go ahead and call them prisoners. Once you’ve waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for the 183rd time, he’s your prisoner. The president has condemned these behaviors as torture. But he refuses to comment on whether they produced meaningful intelligence that deterred terrorist attacks.

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Wilson jury does not indict; Obama appeals to rule of law

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 1 Comment
Protestors flee from tear gas last night in Ferguson, MO. Photo by Justin Sullivan of Getty Images

Protestors flee from tear gas last night in Ferguson, MO. Photo by Justin Sullivan of Getty Images

Yesterday, a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of unarmed back teenager Michael Brown. The decision was made in the morning but not announced until 8pm, presumably to encourage would-be protestors toward sleep. That did not work. The National Guard protected the local police station, freeing police officers to disperse protests and then quell riots. From the White House, President Obama called for calm. “First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law,” he said. “And so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make.” Meanwhile, at Five Thirty-Eight, Nate Silver observed that of the 162,000 cases that went before federal grand juries in 2010, only 11 declined indictments.

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Jay Nixon declares state of emergency “to protect civil rights”

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 1 Comment

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon carefully holds two contradictory ideas in his head.

Yesterday, Governor Jay Nixon issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in Missouri “to protect civil rights” ahead of a grand jury’s decision on whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. You may remember Wilson from August, when he shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown and touched off protests followed by riots in the largely black suburb of St. Louis. You may also remember the term doublethink from George Orwell’s novel 1984. I quote Gov. Nixon’s executive order:

I further direct the Missouri State Highway Patrol together with the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to operate as a Unified Command to protect civil rights and ensure public safety in the City of Ferguson and the St. Louis region. I further order that the St. Louis County Police Department shall have command and operational control over security in the City of Ferguson relating to areas of protests, acts of civil disobedience and conduct otherwise arising from such activities.

If there’s one thing guaranteed to protect civil rights, it’s the Highway Patrol, city and county police departments acting as a unified command over areas of protest. If there are two things that do that, it’s a unified police command with plenty of tear gas.

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Feds to consider maybe not giving tanks to cops

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 2 Comments
Local police serve the people of Ferguson, Missouri.

Local police serve and protect residents of Ferguson, Missouri.

Perhaps the most jarring element in the lede to this Times story about the militarization of local police departments is the appearance of “silencers” on the list of equipment the federal government gives to police. Obviously, cops need silencers so they can fire their guns without people knowing about it. They need body armor so that combat in the streets poses little threat to them, automatic rifles so they can spray a bunch of bullets in a short period of time, and mine-resistant trucks so they can make music videos. And we need something to do with surplus military equipment since 9/11.

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Cop’s counterpoint: If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 0 Comment
Mug shots of four LAPD officers acquitted in the beating of Rodney King

Mug shots of four LAPD officers acquitted in the beating of Rodney King

Yesterday in the Washington Post, LAPD veteran and professor of homeland security Sunil Dutta published an editorial titled I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me. Black Post subscribers throughout the nation dropped their newspapers and froze. A few were shot between one and 19 times. But that wasn’t anybody’s fault, because the cops are under a lot of stress—mostly from dealing with us all day. As Dutta puts it, “It’s not the police, but the people they stop, who can prevent a detention from turning into a tragedy.” Losing my goddamned mind after the jump.

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