Tag: warrior cop

Drone Cop. Part I: Destroying Citizenship by Dehumanizing Police

November 23, 2015

Remember “RoboCop,” Paul Verhoeven’s landmark sci-fi thriller movie? A future monolithic corporation controls a crime-infested Detroit. It transforms a dead police officer into a cybernetic law-enforcement “unit” called RoboCop. The cyborg hero devastates urban criminality, and soon the streets are safe.[1] RoboCop is little more than an cybernetic enforcement drone; the remains of his humanity … More Drone Cop. Part I: Destroying Citizenship by Dehumanizing Police

A Teachable Moment: Criminalizing Everyone

May 29, 2015

A recent “dust-up” in Santa Fe, New Mexico, between the school district and the police department ought to be an important “teachable moment.” But the opportunity to resolve institutional overreach and get back to basics is likely being ignored. It all started when a highly respected middle-school teacher Marcy Slaughter allegedly threw a paperback book … More A Teachable Moment: Criminalizing Everyone

Death Dance: The Downward Spiral of Police-Citizen Conflict

January 9, 2015

Maybe New York Mayor De Blasio’s public statement acknowledging the problem almost everyone is aware of was the tipping point. He described having cautioned his “bi-racial” son about the dangers of interacting with a police officer in New York City. The NYPD reaction was immediate outrage and public expression of disrespect for the man with … More Death Dance: The Downward Spiral of Police-Citizen Conflict

Images of American Violence: What Sense Do They Make?

September 26, 2014

I watched the entire dash-cam video over and over again. The South Carolina State Trooper shot a young black man when he reached for his drivers license as directed. Many major news outlets played it. Maybe that is because it wasn’t a gruesome bloody scene and the victim fell beyond the dash-cam range upon being … More Images of American Violence: What Sense Do They Make?

Gaza, USA; Ferguson, Palestine: Pounding nails in Freedom’s Coffin

August 25, 2014

We’ve all heard the old saw that “to a man with only a hammer for a tool, everything looks like a nail.” Video of the escalating massive military incursion onto the streets of Ferguson, MO, reminded me of that metaphor again last week. Suddenly, U.S. mass media has awakened to the militarization of local police … More Gaza, USA; Ferguson, Palestine: Pounding nails in Freedom’s Coffin

The Incredible Darkness of Being…Confronted by a Racist Cop

August 19, 2014

The recent police killing of a young black male which has gained national media attention is in most ways not unique. We never hear of most of them. What distinguished Michael Brown’s murder and generated so much outrage was the fact that it was so clearly a “killing of choice,” not of necessity. It’s not … More The Incredible Darkness of Being…Confronted by a Racist Cop

Incarceration Nation

May 21, 2014

The U.S. imprisons a greater portion of its citizens than any other nation in the world. We also incarcerate a larger absolute number of prisoners than any other nation, even China! What does this tell us about our culture and about how “social control” is exercised in America? One thing is certain: more and more … More Incarceration Nation

The Incredible Darkness of Being…a Cop: Warrior or Peacemaker in a Dangerous World. Part III

April 13, 2014

Note: A condensed version of Part III of this series was published in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Sunday, April 13, 2014. It is hard to imagine, after watching the police video footage of the shooting to death of a mentally ill homeless man, James Boyd, by Albuquerque police on March 16, 2014, how that … More The Incredible Darkness of Being…a Cop: Warrior or Peacemaker in a Dangerous World. Part III

The Incredible Darkness of Being…a Cop: Warrior or Peacemaker in a Dangerous World. Part II

April 11, 2014

We Americans have a strange schizoid view of public service. A dedicated Santa Fe school teacher finally quit recently, because he had a family to support and he could make much more clerking at Trader Joe’s with better and cheaper health insurance, working much fewer hours and not having to take his work home every … More The Incredible Darkness of Being…a Cop: Warrior or Peacemaker in a Dangerous World. Part II

The Incredible Darkness of Being…a Cop: Warrior or Peacemaker in a Dangerous World. Part I

April 9, 2014

Almost everyone would agree that the world is a dangerous place these days. Technically, the U.S. has never fought a war on its own soil. Nevertheless, expanding the West and the capture of parts of Mexico were executed on the lands of others, as was the original establishment of the thirteen colonies of New England, … More The Incredible Darkness of Being…a Cop: Warrior or Peacemaker in a Dangerous World. Part I