Crime

This Feels Like The End

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I had wondered for decades about what could have happened if the American public had reacted differently to the Kent State massacre. What if the majority of Americans reacted with enthusiastic approval rather than shock and horror? What if there were no consequences for the guardsmen or the State? What if there was no compensation for the victims? What if we had a new paradigm going forward: protesters can be shot? Full stop.

We’d have the end of the Republic. The USA would officially become a white nationalist fascist state. We’d have a dirty war, like Chile or Argentina. Maybe we didn’t know how close we came between 1968 and 1974. It seems Hunter S. Thompson and Alan Moore did.

This week, we had a smaller incident in Kenosha, Wisconsin (two dead, one wounded, as opposed to four dead and nine wounded), but the significance could be greater than what happened 50 years ago in Ohio. This time, we had a right wing, teenage shooter, who the police witnessed and didn’t arrest. They let the shooter get back to his car, and drive back to his home in Illinois, over 30 miles away. This kid, Kyle Rittenhouse, crossed state lines twice (possibly without a driver’s license), and violated a town’s curfew to cause trouble. And then he shot first. And while brave young men tried to chase him down and prevent what they thought was a massacre in progress, he shot two more.

Before he was arrested, the police used law enforcement language to describe his terrorist act. His actions were described the way the police would describe one of their own. Kenosha police chief Daniel Miskinis sad, “Last night a 17-year old individual from Antioch Illinois was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place.” I really don’t care that the chief later condemned the violence. The fact that he used the words “individual” and “conflict” to describe a boy suspected of of a mass shooting is all I need to conclude that the police are reluctant to stop right wing gangs. And indeed, they are. Many police are members of right wing gangs themselves. They see right wing gangs as “friendlies.” And this attitude is reflected in police behavior. The Kenosha police distributed water to right wing “militia” members earlier this week, but today they arrested a group preparing free meals for protesters.

But the most disturbing news of all this week, is that the loudest voices on the right are trying to re-define who can be shot. In the case of the Rittenhouse, the right wing is arguing that an armed man being chased has the right to shoot his pursuers. This would mean that anyone being chased has the right to open fire. It becomes a license to kill. Meanwhile, the reason we have unrest in Kenosha is because a black man was shot seven times in the back and paralyzed for failing to obey police instructions. It is possible that the victim, Jacob Blake, was not told he was under arrest, and angrily walked to his Dodge Journey in defiance of the police behind him. After he was shot, police found a knife in his car, and concluded that Mr. Blake must have been walking to his car to get his knife and…stab four officers with their guns drawn? But this justification after the fact seems to imply that any black person who owns a knife, holding it or not, can be shot.

Now, the US has not yet become a fascist state where dissenters are rounded up, tortured, imprisoned or shot, but look at how quickly we got here. And we have to acknowledge that this is all tied to the rise of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which has grown significantly more popular in 2020. QAnon is a vast conspiracy, which is able to include a lot of out of context quotes and events to support the existence of a decades-long, underground child abuse economy run by powerful Democrats. It’s actually a repeat of old conspiracy theories involving children being kidnapped and forced into sex slavery. One of the pillars of QAnon, is that the left wing, being a demonic and sadistic segment of the population, need to be brought to justice in a sweeping week of arrests they call “the storm.” Alternatively, if Donald Trump -a president they believe knows about the Democratic child trafficking, rape, and even their eating of children- fails to bring them to justice, then patriots should act and attack Democrats with deadly force. That’s no exaggeration. That’s the logical conclusion a lot of QAnon followers reach in their education. The evil Democrats include celebrities, Jews, elected officials and coastal, wealthy elites. The first violent incident involving a QAnon follower that I know of was in December 2016. Donald Trump was president-elect. The next incident I am aware of happened at the Hoover Dam in June 2018. The convicted guy in that case wrote letters to Trump and was a fierce QAnon believer.

QAnon is not a benign cult or subculture within the GOP. It is aggressive, on the offensive, and is taking over the whole party. It is evolving into a violent faction of our society. And they don’t restrict themselves to Internet comments and wild conspiracy research. If true believers in QAnon are convinced that Democrats are a satanic army, then that army must be confronted and defeated. An increasing number of those under the cult’s spell are lashing out, whether it is at mask mandates, local government hearings, or at anti-racist protesters.

As one who studied the right wing militia movement from roughly 1977 through 2000, I am a little surprised that the violence from the right continued after Trump took office. The movement was known to flare-up when a Democrat was president, and cool down when a Republican took office. But now it's on the offensive -and has intensified- with a Republican president, which doesn't bode well for the future.

One of the reasons I wish Gore won in 2000 was that we'd have a chance to smother and prosecute right wing terrorist groups. But Bush won, and their activity cooled down to the point that they just attacked reproductive health clinics and the occasional mosque or synagogue, and the media didn't cover it. So if they are in-charge and angry now, imagine how furious they will be when they are no longer the ruling minority.

Or, imagine a worse scenario: Trump wins re-election, and they still commit acts of violence in our cities, while the police stand by and let them roam. They evolve into the GOP death squads, as QAnon fully takes over the party. Our nation begins to have scenes of unarmed citizens under fire, similar to the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. I will never forget the fall of Sarajevo. I saw it live on CNN International and BBC News. Aside form the obvious reactions of “this is horrible,” and “why won’t NATO and the UN stop this,” I didn’t think that something similar could happen in the US. That can’t happen here.

But my historian father, Uncle Tim has always reminded me, it can happen here. It can happen anywhere. It has happened on every inhabited continent.

In order to prevent it from happening here, Donald Trump must lose. And even then, there will be bloodshed in the weeks to come. Win or lose, the right win is going to react with extreme violence.

Be safe, everyone.


Mexico Drug Wars Escilating



While Glenn Beck is hysterically predicting the imminent collapse of the Mexican State, it might be a good time to ask if Mexico is in danger of becoming a 'failed state.' Outside of this asked the same question about Russia, given its extreme division between rich and poor, its high rate of underage drinking, and its widespread alcoholism. The answer on Russia I received was that Russia was in a state of social decay. Given the events in northern Mexico these last 6 months, I am tempted to say that the political decay is similar to that in Russia, albeit for different reasons.

I am very late joining the discussion about Mexico. But here goes. The spiking drug violence in Mexico is not isolated to the city of Tijuana or the states of Baja and Chihuahua. Crime is also spiking in the Cancun region, where killings and kidnappings have become commonplace. The same is true in dense suburbs of Mexico City, where murder and kidnapping is on the rise after a decade of decline. The drug war in Mexico is being waged by both local police and the army. To this blogger, it seems that coordination among all law enforcement and military is very loose. Also, there is no standardization of uniforms or equipment among the police forces. A lot of police officers are in street clothes, which can confuse citizens, and has led to tragic incidents of mistaken identity, vigilantism, and police brutality. Further complicating things, all agencies have been compromised by corruption. Just two days ago, the police chief in Cancun was arrested for alleged involvement with the torture and murder of an Army general, who had been sent to Cancun this month to coordinate a new anti-gang task force.

Some other recent developments in the last week:

Reuters, February 6th: Mexico drug gangs threaten cops on radio, kill them

AP, February 9th: Mexican drug violence spills over into U.S.

Reuters, February 10th: Drug gang clash with army kills 21 in Mexico

It was one of the bloodiest scenes this year in a spiraling drug war that killed more than 5,700 people across Mexico in 2008, damaging the public's faith in President Felipe Calderon and raising fears of a spillover into the United States.

Calderon deployed the army and federal police to tackle drug violence at the end of 2006, triggering a series of vicious turf battles between rival cartels.

New York, Hell's Kitchen, Tuesday, 15:00 Hours...

...do you know where your dead neighbor's body is?


Photo by Flickr user Susan NYC used under a Creative Commons license

So two seniors took their neighbor's body to the Pay-O-Matic check cashing shop on 9th Avenue yesterday afternoon, and tried to cash his latest Social Security check. Apparently, he passed away on Monday of natural causes. One of the men was the deceased's roommate. So these two men not only neglected to have his body removed or inform any surviving kin, but they attempted to use the body in an act of fraud. Only in New York, right?

I could see this working if his two buddies wheeled him in a wheelchair. But they were wheeling him in an office chair, and in broad daylight (on unseasonably warm day, in fact). And as my girl said, maybe I'd understand this plot if the two friends were teenagers, who were being foolish, thinking they could fool the clerks. But they are both 65 years old, just one year younger than the deceased. As far as we know, they have clean records. And yesterday afternoon, on 51th and 9th, just blocks from my office, there they were, desperately trying to cash a $355 Social Security check. Quite sad, really. This is our city. Full of desperate people who do foolish things. Now before I sound like Megan McArdle and judge these guys as lazy, or not really poor, or just boozers, I have to say that it is certainly possible that they needed $355. Anything is possible.

The Pay-O-Matic logo. It's fitting, right?

And I couldn't resist: