- Spot on, Derek! It's lurking. Ever present. Some never encounter it. For many it's always there. Archived Message
Posted by Der
on April 2, 2020, 6:52 am, in reply to "Re: All States are Police States! We don't SUDDENLY live in a police state"
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Certain communities - those on the receiving end - underline how it's a police state. The people of Northern Ireland would certainly be in little doubt. Those from the Nationalist community, at any rate, when they decided to resist and fight back. (And it was never a religious war. Despite what our media tells us. A compliant media is very much part of what it means to live in a police state). Also, Moslems, Blacks, many of the poor would be in little doubt we live in a police state - especially those who resist and find themselves in prison for some "crime" or other. Pretty much anybody who resists will soon discover it's a police state. Thanks to the coronavirus the white middle classes are now getting a taste of it. Just a sniff really. Will they now join with their fellow workers in the struggle? Hold hands with the great unwashed? Not on your life. Probably the only encounters they ever had with the police before were in regards to some traffic offence. And traffic offences are treated notoriously leniently. Certainly they've been unlikely to meet the police in any confrontational sense. Most see the police as their protectors. Whereas round my way if you see somebody being arrested, especially a black person, you take a photograph of them and you make the police aware that you have taken a photograph. It's a way of saying "we want them back in the same condition in which they were taken from us". It's been fascinating to watch the middle class XR activists wake up to the fact that we live in a police state and woe betide you if you don't behave. Though, generally, as they discovered if you're white and educated the 'woe' is limited. Which probably means they still don't see it as a police state. And blame it on the odd rotten apple cop. But there's hope. That's why I have time for them. Though getting arrested and being put in a police cell is a far cry from going to prison. For some time Britain has had the highest prison population of Western Europe. Mostly composed of people who decided to resist. And many of them consisting of Blacks, Moslems and the poor. We should see them as heroes. Not criminals. They've been taken away from their families for having the audacity to shout "this will not stand". Speaking truth to power, no less. Next time any of you are in an alternative bookshop head for the anarchist magazines. Pick one up, look at the price and then look under it and it will say "Free to prisoners". Anarchists know what it's all about. |