American Septic-ism

File it under, I told you so.

I don’t recall which excessive use of force incident it was, so many years ago, when many of us discussed it on Open Salon.  That’s a sad statement all by itself.  But, when the subject of body cameras arose for the first time, so many started saying that this is what needed to happen to put a stop to these all too frequent incidents.  

At that time, I said, body cameras on cops wont make a dent in these because if some police officer is going to something that he is not supposed to, he can take the thing off, or turn it off.  Lo and behold, when Breonna Taylor was shot 8 times in her bed in Louisville Kentucky, the three officers had no body cameras on.  Then again, last night, national guardsmen and police officers in Louisville were involved in a shooting.  A black restaurant owner was killed by police as police dispersed the crowd.  To top it off, wouldn’t you know it, neither the guardsmen nor the cops had body cameras on.  

I think we all know that our government is setting us up for the “Melvin.”  A President was impeached, and the US Senate would not even allow evidence or witnesses at the trial.  We have probably been in a failed state for quite a while, but there can be no doubt now.  We are living under a kakistocracy.  The chickens have come home to roost.  Kosher Salaami has said for years that the wealth disparity in our world is a great threat to our society’s stability.  Now we have had a pandemic arrive, which our incompetent and cowardly President calls a hoax, and over 20% of the public is out of work.  Among those who do still have jobs, the least fortunate of us must leave home and risk Coronavirus, while the more fortunate work in such a way that they can work from home and have less risk.  That employment/risk divide folds into the massive level of unemployment to provide a national disruption force.  

CEOs of many of our companies are stepping up into the leadership vacuum.  You may have noticed.  We are getting emails with messages that support the protesters.  Several national bank and regional bank CEOs have issued messages that say things like “I Can’t Breathe”, and “Black Lives Matter.”  I am getting emails from various businesses, and I am sure you have too, that are not hawking their wares, but rather issuing messages like the various boards of directors from these very establishment, private sector enterprises.  I say again, these messages are coming out of the private sector, and are addressed to the public.  Our public sector has essentially left the field.  President Trump is telling the Governors of the states to “dominate” the protestors, and calling them weak.  Trump is not one of us.  He wants us to be given a beating.  He has lost the private sector, but he still has the National Guard, and the police.  Be wary of those dudes.  If they kill one of you, they will huddle to avoid accountability.  If they arrest an official who has murdered, they may send it to a grand jury.  If they give a charge, it may be lower than the crime deserves.  If the federal system gets ahold of the case, William Barr sits at the top of that pyramid and will act at Trump’s behest to make the crime go away, or possibly even pardon the criminal cop after the fact.  And don’t expect those body cameras to be present or operable tonight.

This is what a failed state looks like.