Gun Tottin' Cops.

      I have been silent for a few days, (you hadn't noticed), my internet connection went down for almost a week, so I had to do with the real world for a while, but I'm now back connected to the cyberworld.

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 Inverness.

     Slowly, slowly, the guns come on to our streets. First special occasions, then routinely at airports, now walking our streets. The establishment is always fearful that the people will one day wake up and realise, we don't need our lords and masters, and then do something about it. Inverness, one of the areas with the lowest crime rate in the country, and there are cops strutting around the streets with guns strapped to their sides, Wyatt Earp's of the north. 

     The powers that be are now going to look at this. A bit late, should the issue of putting guns routinely on the streets not have been discussed before it happened, or is this sort of decision to be left to the whims of some over zealous authoritarian police chief? Sooner or later we will have an armed police force patrolling our streets. The establishment is well aware of the economic future the people of this country are facing, and the fear of civil unrest will always shape their thinking. Let's not forget, the police are not there to protect you, but to protect them, our lords and masters. 

Luton.

This from Anarchist News:

1. What happened to Mike Brown is a tragedy that can’t be put into words. A less spoken tragedy is that it’s the day to day reality for so many of us–especially those of us who are young, who are people of color, who don’t fit the cops’ idea of an acceptable, law abiding citizen. How often do the police kill someone? In St. Louis, it seems like almost every month. We often don’t do anything about it, or feel like we can. The last few days have been different.
2. People in Ferguson have shown–through gathering, talking and debating with each other, protesting and rioting– that this tragedy won’t be yet another one placed on our already over-burdened backs.
3. Day to day, we don’t have a voice. Working people, people of color, poor people, the disenfranchised – we don’t have an official media that will argue our interests like the rich and middle class. We don’t have a police force we can call like the middle class or an army like the rich. We only have each other. Large protests and rioting gives us a voice, gives us power. These actions let us take back some of our dignity.
4. The 1960s saw many urban uprisings: riots and looting where fed-up, voiceless people were able to have a voice and, for once, the nice things that are constantly kept out of our reach. One of the police and government’s biggest fears is that people will realize we don’t need them and their mentality.
5. In response to the urban uprisings of the ‘60s, police developed a two-fold strategy. First, that police from then on would have counter-insurgency training, gear and weaponry, and would use it as their day to day way of patrolling neighborhoods where poor people and people of color live. We see the effects of this constantly: getting pulled over not by one cop but 3-5 cars worth, having ourselves groped, our shoes taken off, having the doors of our homes kicked in.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Armed Police, Stop And Search, Democracy??

      Another matter that is raising the hairs on the back of my neck is the recent case of a driver being stopped for speeding in Aberdeen and it turns out that both police officers had holster guns strapped to their sides. These were later joined by another two police officers, who it appears also had holstered guns. Four armed police for a speeding offence. Some time earlier it appears that three police officers were seen walking through the streets of Inverness to a disturbance in a restaurant, all three were armed with holstered side arms. Is this Scotland, land of the supposed, unarmed police force, or the US of A? Slowly, slowly, little by little, the police in Scotland are being armed, not by parliamentary legislation, but the designs of the chief constable of Scotland. He has apparently stated that this is not a political matter, it is a policing decision, and he will make the decisions. Well so much for "democracy".

       Still going on about the policing in Scotland, it seems that we are a nation of very dodgy characters. The latest figures show that we in Scotland suffer stop and search intrusions, nine times more than the citizens of New York. Obviously the police in Scotland view the people of Scotland as nine times more criminal than the NYPD view their citizens. Either we are a nation of dodgy criminals, or we are cursed with a more authoritarian police force. I know where my opinion lies.

      Armed police started appearing in our cities, airports etc. under the guise of anti-terrorism, now it seems that they are needed to stop speeding offenders, and to stop disturbances in restaurants. Lets go the whole-hog and arm traffic wardens, job centre employees, security attendants in shopping malls, you know how crazy some people get during the sales. The poison seeps through every fibre of society, authoritarianism, control, intimidation and repression.

     Let's get together and insist that the guns get off our streets. You can't trust a person who could get angry and has a gun, whether they have a fancy uniform or not.

Visitann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk