By Nathan Barton

Good morning! Cops on the rampage, nation wide, or so it seems from stories in the last couple of days.

An attorney has intervened against the unjustified stop of a black handyman in a wealthy DC neighborhood by cops.  And tells the cops to get out of the neighborhood.  Of course, they didn’t listen.  And won’t.

DC is bad, but as usual, New York City holds “pride” of place. Lots of news about New York Police Department and they way they care for people this week.

A NYPD officer stopped and stole $1300 from a man on the street. And then he pepper sprayed his victim. Or so the video seems to show.  No reason, except of course black young people at night on the street can’t have any LEGIT reason for carrying that much money, can they? Another NYPD officer has punched out a 16-year-old for illegally smoking a cigarette.  While the kid was on the ground, no less.  Threat to safety?  Right.  Yet ANOTHER NYPD cop is being investigated AGAIN – this time for pistol-whipping an unarmed 16-year-old teenager.  Apparently because he ran away from them. I may have already mentioned the NYPD cop and the NY State trooper who have been charged with raping a woman in a casino in New Jersey. A NYPD cop broke the lens off a TV1 (that is, a “legit” news broadcaster) camera when he harassed a reporter interviewing students about unwarranted actions by – who else? cops!

NYC is not the only really bad place, of course: in Detroit, a road-raging off-duty cop, pulled his Glock on a family in a mini-van.  He was arrested and is being “investigated.” Investigation has determined that he has already received remedial training because he can’t operate a motor vehicle safely, which seems to be the root of the Glock incident.  But that didn’t stop the police department from letting him continue to drive, carry a weapon, and assault people when he cuts them off in traffic.

It is not just big cities.  In Arkansas, a K9 police dog broke loose from his handler and mauled a handcuffed man for at least 90 seconds ON VIDEO, while the cops told the guy to “stop moving” and failed to pull the dog away.  The man’s crime?  Someone reported that he – gasp – had a gun (he didn’t).  Oh, and in Florida, a man convicted and on probation for “illegally” releasing county records was put in a hospital for “observation and testing” after a SWAT team attacked his home in response to a false claim that he made a threat on Twitter.  These days, K9 and SWAT are a commonly used tool for “patrolling the streets” and dealing with false accusations – BEFORE any investigation as to the truth of those is done.

The abuse, the theft, the beatings and rapes and killings and other crimes are not limited to the cops on a street beat, of course.  They imitate and follow the lead of their superiors, who are allowed to do this by the “civilian” elected officials that supposedly supervise them.

In a WaPo EXCLUSIVE, there are reports that “Police agencies nationwide routinely buy vehicles and weapons with money and property seized under federal civil forfeiture law from people who were not charged with a crime.” (It is WaPo that capitalizes “Police,” like the name of a deity.)  The story goes on to state that these asset seizures fuel MILLIONS of dollars in police spending: self-sustaining reactions that consume more and more freedom. It goes hand in hand with the tyranny, the abuse, the tortures, beatings and killings that cops deal out more and more commonly in the nation.

Back to DC, where I started this commentary: Is it any wonder that one left-wing DC council member, though opposed by his own staffers, wants to take guns away from cops?  What a novel idea!  Why NOT?  We know that they terrorize many people – indeed more than criminals, it seems, these days.  But just taking away the guns is not enough: take away their power and the immunity from going through the same court system as anyone else.

But I’m not done with the cops yet: Let us go back to St. Louis, where even while protests against the killing in Ferguson continue, yet ANOTHER cop has killed yet another black man with no real reason that has been revealed.  So the crowd is protesting: marching with their hands in the air and chanting “Don’t Shoot.” Last week, “Police clashed with protesters in St. Louis on Thursday for a second night after an officer killed a black teenager, ahead of a weekend of planned rallies in the area over the August killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. Throughout the night, as many as 400 demonstrators spread out across several city blocks in south St. Louis, angrily shouting and chanting at rows of police officers, many of whom were clad in riot gear.” (10/10/14) It turns out that thousands of people flooded St. Louis streets for the protests on Saturday.  It is reported that at least seventeen people were arrested by cops: I am sure many of them were beaten and otherwise mistreated.  I guess they should be grateful they were not killed.  Did you think to thank your local cop for not killing you this week?  (A five or ten really shows how much you appreciate that, by the way.)

There ARE people who have been (and are) good police men and women:  peace officers who really are dedicated to helping people, stopping crime, dealing with problems, and trying do the right thing. People like Tony Ryan and his brother officer Norm Stamper in LEAP. But they are becoming more and more rare, and their reputation is dragged down by the thugs in uniformed gangs that are a disgrace to a once-free land.

Mama’s Note: Few or none of these “good police” are doing anything substantial to rein in those who are aggressing against others – but instead lie and cover for them most often. Since it is basically impossible for anyone to effectively expose the corruption and remain employed as police, the vicious cycle is perpetuated. Add to that the fact that even the so called “good police” have no problems most of the time “enforcing” the immoral and illegal prohibitions, even if they manage to refrain from outright abuse of their victims. And, lastly, they are paid with stolen goods, even if they are not engaged in directly stealing from the people on the street.

So, they can be called “good” only if you can overlook all of that. I’m not inclined to do so.