Chris Christie’s New Jersey: 61 Year Old Grandmother Body Slammed During Traffic Stop

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s performance at last week’s Republican party debate showed that he is all about big government fascism and would be a menace to America were he to win the presidency. Much to our good fortune the big fat bully has about as much chance as a snowball in hell of being elected to national office. He could however end up as Attorney General in a “Jeb!” administration where he would be allowed to trample whatever remains of the U.S. Constitution like a wild elephant that has stumbled across a meth lab.

The big man makes no bones about how much he adores the police state. Whether it be calling for Rand Paul to be hauled in front of a tribunal for opposition to illegal domestic surveillance or vowing to loose the federal government dogs over legal marijuana in Colorado. So it isn't surprising that some cops in Jersey may share his zeal according to a horrific story about how a 61 year old grandmother was put into the hospital after being body slammed during a traffic stop.

The New York Daily News reported on the incident in the piece entitled “Grandmother Body Slammed by New Jersey Cop During Traffic Stop, Family Claims”:

A 61-year-old grandmother is out of the hospital after she was allegedly body slammed by a New Jersey cop during a traffic cop.

Antoniette Dilorio had been placed in a medically-induced coma following Friday's incident in Clark. Officers had stopped her son Fortunato Riga for going through a stop sign when she apparently tried to intervene.

"All of a sudden he grabbed my mother-in-law by the arm, lifted her off her feet in mid-air and slammed her on the ground," Riga's fiancee Crystal Palmieri told ABC. "All you saw was blood pouring out of her face."

Dilorio's front teeth were knocked out and she suffered multiple fractures, NJ.com reported. She was feeling well enough to be released from University Hospital in Newark this week, according to the news website.

Riga was charged with obstruction and the injured Dilorio was hit with obstruction and resisting arrest charges, according to NJ.com.

The Union County Prosecutor's Office is investigating the incident, and the family is still looking for an explanation. Riga and Palmieri's young son, who is just 5, was in the car.

"My mom is 61 years old, if she weighs 105 pounds it's a lot," Riga told ABC. "They tried saying my mom jumped on the cop's back. My mom grabbed the cop and said 'why are you going after my son like this?'. He was like, shut up boom and just slammed her, she went face first."

The officer was defended by Clark Mayor Sal Bonaccorso who claimed that the woman jumped on his back but an ex-Marine versus a frail sixty one year old is more than a bit of a mismatch and could be seen by some as excessive force. While Mr. Riga has a history of violations and sounds like more than a little bit of a scumbag, it still isn’t an excuse for pile-driving granny into the pavement. Mayor Bonaccorso seems to be an adherent to the Chris Christie school of “punch you in the face” dispute resolution which only serves to reinforce New Jersey’s stereotype as a state populated with hostile people who act like muscle men for the mob. The governor of course is the biggest one of them all.

California Cop on Leave After Attacking Woman With Baseball Bat

The northern California city of Walnut Creek is the location of a bizarre incident that has landed a local police officer on administrative leave. Gregory Thompson, who is described as a 53 year old police veteran was arrested in August for allegedly attacking a woman in the early morning hours as she walked in a residential area. Not that police brutality is anything to be surprised about in 2014 America, especially with the federal government encouraging more aggressive attitudes by giving away surplus military equipment. What makes the Walnut Creek case an oddity is that officer Thompson was off duty and wearing a mask when the attack took place.

According to a story from the website of Oakland television station KTVU entitled "Walnut Creek officer accused of beating woman with bat":

A man who’d been in charge of upholding the law for three decades is now accused of breaking it.

Richmond police arrested an off-duty Walnut Creek Police Officer for allegedly donning a mask and beating a woman with a baseball bat on August 16. The attack happened around 2 a.m., in a residential neighborhood on Clinton and San Pablo avenues in Richmond.

53-year-old Gregory Thompson has been with the Walnut Creek Police Department for 30 years. He was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and felony vandalism after the attack.

Neighbors on Clinton Avenue recalled the commotion they heard the morning of the attack, around 2 a.m..

“We'd already gone to bed, kept hearing a banging, thumping noise,” neighbor Carus Culver, said.

Richmond police came to the area after getting several calls from neighbors about a woman screaming

“Police came knocking on our doors,” neighbor Jason Peneyra, said. “They were looking for a suspect.”

That suspect turned out to be Thompson

“A woman came down the street yelling that he had tried to attack her and another woman,” Culver recalled.

Richmond police found Thompson sitting in his car nearby and said he identified himself as a law enforcement officer. Investigators found a mask on the floor of his car and a baseball bat in the trunk.

“It's alarming for a police officer to do that,” Peneyra said. “That's weird. That's really weird.”

But what is even more “weird” is an account from the website of the San Francisco Chronicle that provides additional detail on the contents of Thompson’s car:

Richmond Police Capt. Bisa French says the 53-year-old Thompson was not wearing a police uniform or in a patrol car at the time of the alleged random attack. Officers discovered Thompson inside a car and found a ski mask as well as a baseball bat, two guns and zip ties.

The presence of the "zip ties" adds a particularly kinky element to the story.  If this is what some cops get their kicks out of doing on their off time then it is obvious that there are terrible personality types being attracted to the police profession. In addition to recruitment problems there seems to be an absence of proper training as well as protocol and adequate internal controls are not being implemented. You would think that regular psychological evaluations would be a requirement for police work these days to quickly detect trauma related disorders. Such screenings are badly needed  now that the quaint old slogan of “to protect and to serve” has been tossed away in favor of the unspoken rule of “to search and to destroy”.

This is seriously strange story but alas there will be tales that even stranger forthcoming as America completes the transformation into an authoritarian, fascist police state.

Dog Owner Watches as Arkansas Cop Shoots Her Beloved Pet in the Head

A police officer in the sleepy burg of Alexander, Arkansas is responsible for the latest incident of “puppycide” after busting a cap into the head of a beloved family pet in front of it’s shocked owner.The dog, a large Mastiff-Shar Pei was mortally wounded by the jumpy cop and later had to be “put down” in an act of mercy as it was obvious that the dog would not recover. The new phenomenon that is the shooting of dogs by police is evidence of a very troubling state of law-enforcement in America. I mean for God’s sake, why do these guys continue to insist on summarily executing poor, unarmed animals who don’t have a chance? It seems to be an intimidation tactic and a power trip by uniformed government thugs hellbent on sending a message to the human owners not to fuck with them.

The shooting of the latest victim, which was named “Boo” is detailed in a story on the local website Arkansas matters entitled "Family Looking for Answers after Officer Shoots Dog":

A family is grieving tonight over the loss of their dog shot by an Alexander police officer on Thursday.

The officer says he felt threatened, but the dog's owners' say something else.

In a police report, issued by the Alexander Police Department, the officer describes a vicious dog that came at him.

But the pet's owners say that's just not true.

They call the Mastiff/Shar-Pei mix a sweet dog with a big bark, but no bite.

Linda Barton says she saw an Alexander police officer shoot her dog in the head.

Barton says police came to her home after she called about an issue involving her grandson.

She says the issue was never resolved and now Barton faces another one.

Her granddaughter Kailey Northern said, "She was just beside herself. She was just traumatized. 

She was just crying and screaming on the phone he shot my dog, he shot my dog."

Barton said the dog, named Boo, got away from her and circled the officer with his tail wagging.

She says he was being protective but never tried to hurt the officer.

But the police report states something different.

The officer says the dog ran aggressively towards him.

He says he couldn't get back in his car and as a last resort fired one shot at the dog to stop the threat.

But Boo was still alive.

Northern said, "It was inhumane how he went about the situation."

The family says the officer left the home, not offering to help the suffering dog.

After calling local vets, the pet owners realized he wouldn't survive and put Boo down.

The family would like to talk to the Alexander Police Department about their policies on aggressive dogs and perhaps making some changes so this doesn't happen again.

We did talk to the police chief briefly about this incident, he sent us a news release on the police report yesterday.

But today, we could not get a hold of him to answer questions on the department's aggressive dog policy and training.

Regarding the “department’s aggressive dog policy and training”, Alexander Police Chief Horace Walters has just implemented a policy to “shoot and kill” dogs if they are “threatening a person’s life”. While the policy specifically mentions “stray” dogs that has obviously been waived if you happen to be a member of the local Deputy Dawg police force.

Poor training and lax procedures are a given with many American police departments in 2014, one needs only to pay attention to the daily reports of “puppycides”, beatings, shootouts that end up with innocent bystanders dead and rampant harassment to see this trend. But more ominously it almost seems like police running amok has become standard operating procedure here in The Homeland.

Notable from the story on Arkansas Matters are a few of the comments which I found to be of  interest. For example one respondent who goes by the name of “Dan Canfield” asks:

Why is it that cops are the only ones who seem incapable of dealing with dogs without killing them? Somehow the mailmen, UPS drivers, etc, etc. manage to survive their daily encounters with dogs without killing them..

This is one heck of a good question too. Delivery drivers, process servers, census takers, mail carriers and even pizza delivery personnel manage to perform their duties despite the presence of dogs, often growling ones and have done so for years. But those jobs are not exactly the type of gigs that attract authoritarian types with an ax to grind and psychological/anger management issues. It just seems that the standards of what it takes to be a police officer have devolved over the years from “to protect and  serve” into “to bully and humiliate”.

This probably has as much to do with a culture that glorifies violence and the reverence of the police as seen in thousands of television shows and movies as the militarization of the country itself post 9/11. Particularly with the endless series of Middle Eastern wars that are ongoing and bipartisan. It is all extremely profitable and greatly benefits corporations and connected individuals within the military-police-surveillance industrial complex despite the mushrooming social costs of living in a country that becomes less free every day.

If you happen to be a dog owner give your pet an extra hug and bit of attention today and pray that the midnight knock doesn't come to your home.

Crew Member of Cops Reality TV Show Shot Dead by Police

In an incident that is most surprising because it did not happen sooner, a crew member from the hit Fox reality show “Cops” was shot to death while on the job producing future episodes. The chosen police unit in Omaha, Nebraska were likely enjoying their moment in the television limelight until a response to a robbery went terribly wrong. In rolling up at a local Wendy’s fast food restaurant, the cops engaged in a shootout with the suspect that ultimately resulted in the death of audio technician Bryce Dion who was hit by a stray police bullet.

According to a story on the incident on CNN’s website “'Cops' crew member killed in police shooting”:

A crew member working on a taping of "Cops" was inadvertently shot and killed by a police officer during a robbery in Omaha, Nebraska, local officials said Wednesday.

Bryce Dion, an audio technician, is believed to be the first member of the "Cops" production staff killed in the 25-year history of the television show.

The production company behind "Cops," Langley Productions, said in a statement that it was "deeply saddened and shocked by this tragedy and our main concern is helping his family in any way we can."

Dion, 38, had been in Omaha all summer, helping with the production of future "Cops" episodes. The production company described him as a "long term member of the 'Cops' team and a very talented and dedicated person." His resume lists credits on "Cops" dating back to 2009.

Todd Schmaderer, the Omaha police chief, confirmed at a Wednesday afternoon news conference that a bullet fired by an officer struck Dion during a shootout with the robbery suspect, Cortez Washington, who was also killed.

Schmaderer described Dion as a friend to the officers that he'd been embedded with.

"This is as if we lost one of our own," Schmaderer said. "That is the grieving process we're going through right now."

Dion and a cameraman were traveling with police officers who responded to a robbery inside a Wendy's restaurant on Tuesday night. Schmaderer said the suspect, Washington, fired two shots at the responding officers, who responded with a barrage of gunfire.

It was later discovered that Washington had a pellet gun that fired plastic bullets.

The story is getting much attention today as it should by such prominent media outlets as the  USA Today “Police fired shot that killed 'Cops' crewmember”, The New York Times  “Police Shooting Kills Crew Member Working for Reality Show ‘Cops’”, ABC “Omaha Police Bullet Kills 'Cops' Film Crew Member” and of course Fox “'Cops' crew member killed by police officers”.

According to a local news source, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer has already said that the officers were “justified” in firing their weapons. The question though is that if the perpetrator of the robbery knew that he was using a fake gun then why would he have pointed it at the police knowing full well that he would be gunned down like a dog by the guys with the real guns? Was the presence of the "Cops" film crew a mitigating factor in the shooting in that the officers wanted to look more like bad-asses on television? I suppose that this will only provide one more example to those pushing for President Barack Obama to appoint a national police Czar.

What is never discussed as one of the causes in the rise of police violence in America today is that culture plays a big role. Cops has now been on the air for over a quarter of a century and given the bent for authority worship that now exists in America it will probably continue to be shown for decades more. There is after all no shortage of material with the police state nearly fully implemented. It is the ultimate form of bread and circuses served up to the beggared and enslaved citizens of a rotting empire. There are also the movies, endless other police television series and violent video games that further contribute to the worship of the police, not a healthy trait of a supposedly "free" society.

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do when they’re coming for you, bad boys!

Horrified Wal-Mart Shoppers Watch Cops Beat the Living Crap Out of Man

With the exception of the annual Black Friday door-buster sales, Wal-Mart stores normally aren't the venue for beatings so it was a shock to shoppers watching police pummel a man in the middle of an aisle on Saturday. In  yet another display of escalating police violence, cops in Greenville, South Carolina pursued a man  into the friendly neighborhood Wally World over the weekend and then after chasing him down commenced to pummel him - before they Tasered him. The victim, who by accounts as well as in video footage appeared to be intoxicated, was pursued into the big box store where he was subdued by two officers. One of whom punched the man in the head multiple times despite pleas from Wal-Mart customers to stop, landing up to 20 blows.

According to reports from Greenville television station WSPA-7 in a story posted on their website entitled  "Video Spurs Questions Of Arresting Methods After Deputies Tase Man Inside Walmart":

An arrest Saturday led to some witnesses thinking the arresting officers went a little far.

In a video sent to 7 On Your Side, you can see a man lying on the floor of the Walmart on Whitehorse Road and the deputies attempting to arrest him. Witnesses from the scene felt the officer's actions went too far, but the Greenville County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident.

According to Greenville County Master Deputy Jonathan Smith, deputies responded around 1:00pm Saturday to a call about an intoxicated man outside the Walmart.

He said the first deputy arrived to find the man acting erratic outside the store. The deputy approached the man and tried to speak to him. The man apparently kept repeating "I'm 911" to the deputy before walking away inside the store.

Smith said the second deputy arrived and the decision was made to enter the store and arrest the man. He says the man was resisting enough that a deputy had to use a taser in order to arrest him.

Smith said the man was taken outside the store and transported to a Greenville hospital. Smith said the man is undergoing evaluation to determine if he was under the influence of alcohol or other substances.

Several videos have surfaced of the incident on the internet. Smith says they are reviewing them and will comment further at a later time.

A reasonable person might figure that the nation's police forces would be very careful in the aftermath of incidents in Ferguson, Missouri as well as cognizant to how easy that it is to trigger a public relations nightmare but not the boys in blue in Greenville who are now enjoying their ten minutes of fame.
Robby Soave comments in a blog post at the libertarian website Reason online "Cop Hits Man in the Head 20 Times as Onlookers Plead 'Don't Punch Him No More'":

Once the cops have pinned a non-violent suspect to the ground, how many times are they allowed to punch him in the head? Is it fewer than 20? I would say so, but I'm not a Greenville County, South Carolina, deputy.

Greenville officers approached a man at a Walmart parking lot on Saturday. The man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and didn't respond to police questions or instructions. Eventually, the officers followed the man inside the store, where they attempted to detain him. The deputies claim the man resisted, though video footage of the incident certainly makes said resistance look passive, rather than violent. But once the two cops had the man on the ground, one of them immediately began punching him in the head. I count at least 20 blows.

Onlookers were horrified, and begged the deputies to stop. Many thought the treatment of the man was cruel, according to WSPA.com. "Please don't punch him like that, don't punch him no more," said one witness. (More video footage can be seen here.)

The man was eventually tasered and then taken to the hospital. Police have not given his name or explained what the charges against him are. The department is reviewing the footage, however, to determine whether the deputy acted properly when he punched a helpless man in the head over and over and over again.

Maybe the victim was being an A-hole, was overly obnoxious or just guilty of the cardinal sin of not being sufficiently subservient to the police but the beating is another ugly look at the terrible state of law-enforcement in the post-9/11 iteration of the U.S.A. that is referred to as The Homeland. The South Carolina Wal-Mart thumping would be far less disturbing were it to have just been an isolated incident. Instead it provides  another piece in the much larger mosaic of police violence in America circa 2014.

The beatings, tear gassing, Taser attacks, body cavity violations (including anal probes) and obvious setups have now become all too frequent in American law enforcement. I know that there are good cops out there - and seeing crap like this must really piss them off - but the system itself is badly broken. We can see it on a daily basis and unless there is a national effort to demilitarize the police and enforce accountability we are all going to wake up one day in a fully fascist state. The analogy of the "boiling frog" has never been more evident nor as relevant to American society as it is today.
From Wikipedia:

The boiling frog story is a widespread anecdote describing a frog slowly being boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability or unwillingness of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.

How's the water today folks?

Cop Kills Wyoming Police Department's Own Dog

Chalk up yet another dead dog onto the scoreboard of animals killed by police in this sick new era of search and destroy law enforcement. Usually the furry, four-legged victims are shot and killed execution style, often in front of the owners in overly aggressive raids. Some times at the wrong address and others during trespassing as in a recent incident in Chicago. This time however, it was just plain stupidity as a police officer from a hick Wyoming town called Mills left the department's own K9 animal locked in a police vehicle to suffocate on a summer day.

Details are provided in a  report from the website of the Casper Star-Tribune that is entitled "Mills police officer faces charge in death of K9 left in hot car":

A Mills police officer faces an animal cruelty charge following the death of a police dog that he allegedly left in a hot patrol car for several hours.

Zachary Miller, who has been with the police department for four years, is charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty in connection with the death of K9 officer Nyx, a drug detection dog.

The officer left the dog in his patrol car for more than six hours while the vehicle was parked outside the police department, according to an investigator's affidavit filed in Natrona County Circuit Court. The car was running, but the air conditioning was off and the windows were up.

“It’s not normal to leave a car running that long,” said Mills police chief Bryon Preciado. “I’m not justifying it. He shouldn’t have been here that long.”

Preciado said there is no policy on the time frame for leaving police dogs in patrol cars.

The affidavit states Miller arrived at the police department at 5:30 a.m. on July 9. Miller left shortly after to respond to a call with the only other officer working that day, Jake Bigelow. The two returned to the police department with Nyx in the vehicle about 6 a.m.

The officers went inside the department, leaving the dog in the car, and did not return to the car until about 12:20 p.m. The outside temperature had gone from 53 to 86 degrees, according to the affidavit. Police dogs are allowed inside the station, Preciado said.

During the time the officers were inside Miller was training Bigelow on patrol-duty procedures. Miller is no longer a training officer, Preciado said.

The story of the broiling of poor Nyx is indicative of some of the low-grade types that police work often attracts as well as a reflection of poor training. If officer Miller was indeed involved in "training" another officer the only thing that was taught was how not to treat a department and public asset as well as how to kill a dog. The negligence in the animal's death is not only embarrassing but a waste of taxpayer dollars. This is something that is more often seen by some mouth-breathing moron of the type that leaves their own children in hot vehicles for extended periods of time, which like actual police shootings of dogs happens all too frequently in our star-spangled Idiocracy.

This sad and lamentable tale of the stupidity of an agent of the government has drawn widespread attention. Reuters reports on it "Wyoming officer charged over death of police dog in hot car", it is in The Guardian "Officer charged in hot-car death of police dog", the New York Daily News "Wyoming cop charged with animal cruelty after death of K9 dog left in hot squad car" and dozens of other sources. The Casper Star-Tribune also reports on protests by animal rights activists "Protesters call for action after death of Mills K9 officer Nyx" who should perhaps be a bit more visible during an actual "puppycide" pet assassination than an egregious act of idiotic negligence such as this.

Surveillance Video Threatens National Debate Over Police Militarization

The surveillance video that was released on Friday by police in Ferguson, Missouri nicely serves to change the subject from the threat of the militarized police into yet another racially charged issue. The video does appear to show the teenager Michael Brown, who was gunned down by a local police officer in the process of committing what may be a crime. However, the series of events leading up to the shooting of Brown and the overwhelming response by fully weaponized police shock troops to the protests (and rioting) are two separate issues and should remain as such.

What is shown on the video, taken in a convenience store flies in the face of the narrative that Brown was a gentle giant instead of an intimidating, brown-skinned version of the incredible Hulk. The Ferguson police also can't get their stories straight about whether or not Brown was being stopped as a suspect in the stealing cigars from the convenience store.  Brown certainly was not an innocent, more likely was a bit of a gangsta and there will inevitably be more reports verifying his true nature. As for the video release, quite frankly the timing of it stinks of a deliberate distraction. There is after all a lot of money to be made in arming the police with battlefield style equipment and nobody with a vested interest wants to risk the killing of the goose that laid the golden egg.

Just when politicians and critics were beginning to acknowledge the danger of the heavily militarized police forces by publishing columns as Senator Rand Paul did in Time and calling for legislation the video was launched into the media spin cycle. After a day of relative calm when the armored St. Louis County goons were replaced by Missouri Highway Patrol, unrest again broke out in Ferguson last night in a reaction to the video release.

According to a story in The Guardian entitled "Ferguson police clash with Michael Brown protesters again overnight":

Police in riot gear clashed overnight with small groups of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri amid signs of renewed tensions over the shooting of an unarmed teenager by a local patrol officer.

 The flareups, breaking a period of relative calm, came after police released surveillance footage that implicated Michael Brown, 18, in the theft of a packet of cigars from a convenience store a few minutes before he was shot. Brown's family condemned the revelation as a "character assassination" designed to smear the teenager and divert attention from the actions of police.

One of the flashpoints in the early hours of Saturday came at the store where the robbery was alleged to have taken place. Police fired a teargas canister at a crowd of around 200 people who had gathered there. Some protesters threw bottles at officers in riot gear and shouted "hands up, don't shoot", the chant that has come to characterise the protests. According to some accounts, Brown had his hands up when he was shot.

A small crowd later looted the convenience store. A meat market was also looted and other businesses had windows smashed. Police did not intervene.

Ironically the store that was looted is the same one that the surveillance video allegedly came from. My personal opinion is that there is never an excuse for looting and those who engage in it are the worst type of criminals and parasites. They should be shot on sight - by the owners of the property exercising their Second Amendment rights.

The fact is that the truth about Brown and the officer who killed him should be kept entirely separate from the response of the militarized police in the aftermath. Authorities and the courts will appropriately deal with sorting it out over time as an investigation is conducted. Still, no matter what Brown did which -  appears to be shoplifting - or as it is now being called by some in the media "strong-armed robbery" it does not merit an extrajudicial execution by police.

The cop, if he believed that he was being threatened by Brown then all that he had to do was to call for backup and once more units arrived an arrest could have been made. Tasers could have been used to subdue Brown being that he was not armed and his fat ass could have been thrown into a jail cell. It's really that simple. The race-baiting should be left to the racists on right-wing radio and FOX News as well as professional charlatans like the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Both of whom have made a very nice career of descending like buzzards wherever they can find a fresh carcass to feast upon and to sow the seeds of racial discontent wherever they land. The only winners in a system where race is only used to divide and conquer are those who are a part of an entrenched and corrupt establishment.

The primary and most dangerous threat to the future of freedom in America are the militarized police forces and the mass surveillance apparatus that serves as the central nervous system of the police state. Let us not waste the opportunity to fight back now that there is real pressure being exerted on the war zone style response of heavily armed Kevlar coated police goons in Ferguson.

It is very important to keep our eye on the ball and to keep these two issues separate as the greatest benefit will be to those who profit from the continued militarization of the police.

Let the courts handle the criminals - whether they be uniformed ones or not.

Woman Armed With Cordless Drill Gunned Down By Police

In a bizarre incident police gunned down a 19 year old woman who was wielding a black cordless power drill.  San Jose police allegedly were responding to a 911 call from a woman threatening to kill her family with an Uzi if they didn't show up. As is becoming ever more typical in the American police state, the cops did show up and the incident ended with a hail of gunfire. Granted the power drill did somewhat resemble a gun but one would expect that professionally trained police officers would be able to somehow tell the difference in broad daylight. The incident took place before 11 am on a clear California morning not in darkness which would have at least made the inability to identify the drill as not being a gun more feasible.

According to a story on the incident from the San Jose Mercury News entitled "San Jose police: Officer shoots, kills drill-wielding woman who threatened her family":

The young woman called 911 and said she was going to kill her family with an Uzi if the cops didn't show up.

When they arrived, the 19-year-old woman emerged from her home with what looked like a weapon in each hand. Officers yelled at her to drop what she was holding.

She released something from one hand but continued approaching them, still holding a larger item.

As she drew closer, Officer Wakana Okuma fired and the woman crumpled to the ground.

That's how police and witnesses described the dramatic scene Thursday morning that ended with the fatal shooting of a mentally ill woman in front of her duplex on busy Blossom Hill Road, two blocks east of Oakridge Mall in South San Jose.

Police later discovered that the woman had been holding a power drill, which was painted painted black and measured about 13 inches long on one end and 12 inches on the other, they said in a news release.

But there are still many unanswered questions about the city's second officer-involved shooting of the year, including who the woman was and why she threatened her family.

But police said the 911 call required a quick and strong response.

"We had a call, somebody with an Uzi threatening to kill family members," San Jose police spokesman Officer Albert Morales said. "It was a very serious situation, a very dangerous situation for our officers."

Note that Morales’s statement addresses that the situation was “a very dangerous situation for our officers", an all too familiar refrain that underlies the “us versus them” mentality that has manifested itself within the psyche of American police personnel. Other than taking out the woman with extreme prejudice there apparently wasn’t much thought given to any others who could have been caught up in the crossfire. Just acceptable collateral damage to the shoot first and ask questions later police here in The Homeland.

There seems to be a growing reluctance to actually attempt to deescalate such situations or use non-lethal methods to deal with potential threats, it is always all about the cops now. That such violence is becoming more commonplace should be very alarming to Americans, especially when combined with the ongoing militarizing of the police.

Rand Paul: Demilitarize the Police

In writing a piece  published by Time magazine, Senator Rand Paul once again despite the nearly insurmountable odds that he faces shows why he represents the best opportunity for change in America. A large part of the change that is needed to save the republic from fascism is a rollback of the militarized police state and the surveillance colossus that underlies it. The menace of the government showering surplus battlefield equipment from the endless wars on local law enforcement is the most important story of the last decade yet has been largely ignored. That is until this week’s over the top response to the protesters in Ferguson, Missouri brought the imagery of weaponized police thugs and their Gestapo tactics against the citizenry out into daylight.

There is a reason why the entrenched occupiers of the U.S. government and in particular the Democratic party is terrified of Rand Paul and it is that he and he alone is speaking to these issues. Paul’s piece in Time is drawing good reviews and justifiably so. It is entitled “We Must Demilitarize the Police” and I excerpt the following:

The shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown is an awful tragedy that continues to send shockwaves through the community of Ferguson, Missouri and across the nation.

If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there would have been a distinct possibility that I might have smarted off. But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot.

The outrage in Ferguson is understandable—though there is never an excuse for rioting or looting. There is a legitimate role for the police to keep the peace, but there should be a difference between a police response and a military response.

The images and scenes we continue to see in Ferguson resemble war more than traditional police action.

AND

When you couple this militarization of law enforcement with an erosion of civil liberties and due process that allows the police to become judge and jury—national security letters, no-knock searches, broad general warrants, pre-conviction forfeiture—we begin to have a very serious problem on our hands.

AND

The militarization of our law enforcement is due to an unprecedented expansion of government power in this realm. It is one thing for federal officials to work in conjunction with local authorities to reduce or solve crime. It is quite another for them to subsidize it.

Americans must never sacrifice their liberty for an illusive and dangerous, or false, security. This has been a cause I have championed for years, and one that is at a near-crisis point in our country.

September 11, 2001 - the day that changed everything - opened a Pandora's box in this country that is going to need a titanic mass effort to close. The nation's police have been radically transformed from a force that operates under the longtime American tradition of "to protect and serve" into "to search and destroy". The brutal invasion of armored goons in Ferguson, Missouri provides a wake up call that all Americans could be subject to police run amok when a certain substance hits the whirring fan blades and that day is coming. There are a number of percolating problems that could trigger the imposition of martial law in America: economic collapse, a terrorist attack, an Ebola outbreak or just some phony crisis ginned-up by the establishment as an excuse to eliminate potential dissenters and to lock down their ill-gotten gains. It is of the utmost urgency that Americans act to disarm the militarized police before that day inevitably arrives.

Rand Paul may never be president, the current system is too corrupt for a real maverick (unlike that old phony John McCain) to rise to that level. However, Senator Paul can do his country an enormous service by getting existential issues like the rise of the militarized police, unconstitutional NSA surveillance and data-mining as well as  the proliferation of flying drones into the national debate. There is also that matter that under Obama, the chief executive has now been granted the power to extra-judicially order the killing of American citizens which Paul has also denounced.

2016 may be the last opportunity to reverse this very dangerous path that America has been dragged down since 9/11 and the unprecedented expansion of the police state that the attacks were used to justify for political gain and profits. The ability to shift the debate to the real issues is what Rand Paul brings to the table and he continues to do exactly that with his call for an end to the militarizing of the police. This is not a partisan political issue but one that affects all Americans and any attempts to paint it otherwise are a disservice to the country.