Local and world cops

Cops, I mean—jeez. Just when I thought 2014 couldn't get any worse in terms of police relations with blacks, here comes this big chunk of Ugly from Chicago. I honestly can't imagine the trial of officer Van Dyke (Great—worst cop in the country has my surname. How charming) lasting more than a day or two. The prosecutor simply shows the 2014 shooting video on Day One, and then says, “There ya go. I'm done. Thank you.” End of story. The defense tries to sell the ole “trigger got stuck” story for about half a day before it caves in, accepts reality, and begins making a deal for Van Dyke to do his time in minimum security country club jail.

So, yeah. That's a bad one. But let's remind ourselves that this horror isn't new. It's been going on for years. Decades. Centuries. Cops murdering black people in the most insane, malicious, ignorant ways imaginable. Quite honestly, it's a story that I don't need fleshed out in any real detail. I know it's true and I know it's grim. Extremely grim. In fact, maybe it's so grim that it dooms us in some way that I can't imagine and haven't considered.

A few days after the Laquan McDonald video was released, cops in San Francisco shot up an old homeless guy. Mindless, needless completely unnecessary emptying of guns into a small semi-delirious dude who any of the officers present could've manhandled without a sweat. You see the video and you think, “Jeez, boys, you've got nightsticks and pepper spray and handcuffs and what the fuck is up with all the firepower? Burly, 36-year-old cops can't tackle and subdue a spindly old babbling septagenarian alcoholic?”

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So I've been reading up on the Islamic State. It looks like these guys are determined to be serious troublemakers for the near future so I'd figured I better bone up on 'em a bit. The troubling point made in the book I'm reading—a lot of the higher ups in the IS movement are fundamentalist apocalypticists. Scary. When it's comes to fanatics, there's nothing worse than fundamentalist apocalypticists. A lot of these IS guys are totally into the Muslim version of Armegeddon and The End of Days, and that means they're capable of making some rather wacky decisions designed to fulfill their Prophecies of Doom. Isn't that just super comforting?

In the Nov. 19 issue, I mentioned that Anyplace, USA, could now be considered a target in the aftermath of Paris, in the reality of This New War. San Bernandino makes for a dandy Anyplace. We now begin to reap the consequences of unthoughtful and massive destabilization of the Tigris/Euphrates zone of humanity. Oops. With IS supporters now a threat to places like the Donut Bistro and Bart's Poodle Shop, Saddam Hussein doesn't look like such a horrible guy after all.