We hold these truths to be self-evident
That all men
(Except the homeless, gays, minorities and Muslims.)
(Special note: men doesn't include women - Cf. Hobby Lobby, Scalia)
are created equal
(save those born to the one-percent, who are more equal than others)
And so it came to pass that on May 24th, 2014, in a country born 238 years ago of the fight to throw off tyranny, in a state as bountiful as any place on Earth...
A homeless man died after falling from a rooftop after he was Tasered by police officers...
Carlos Ocana, 54, a transient whose friends said he had mental health problems, climbed up a billboard atop the roof of a one-story at 5th and San Pedro streets on May 24, the L.A. Times reports. When LAPD officers and a SWAT team were unable to get him to come down after he had gone down and then back up a ladder, officers shot him with a Taser.
Because Freedom!
Our Founding Fathers had this revolutionary idea that independence and a Bill of Rights would mean cops going around, pretty much randomly, shooting people off buildings, tossing flash bang grenades at babies, and repeatedly, blow after blow, punching defenseless women by the side of the road.
...the police didn't allow Ocana's friends to talk him down from the billboard, even though they knew he had mental health issues.
Because Freedom!
If you didn't want to get shot by a taser-mad cop, why did you climb up the billboard in the first place? The billboard felt threatened. The police were sympathetic to the billboard. Stand Your Ground is not only for white men, it is for corporations owned by white men. It all follows logically.
...Ocana had tried to surrender by waving his t-shirt, and was terrified by the SWAT team's intimidating presence; they were carrying large guns.
Because Freedom!
You need a SWAT team in battle armor to deal with every mentally ill person. It's part of the Constitution.
Pastor Cue Jn'marie, a skid row street preacher, told police. "What are we going to do so someone doesn't get shot on the streets of Skid Row because they're mentally ill?"
It's a good question. Partly because it seems to have no answer. Someone asked in my diary yesterday about
a cop who tipped over a parapalegic in a wheelchair "What can we do?" How to channel the rage.
Sadly, after noting innumerable incidents of police terror and brutality, I have no answer.
There seems to be no stopping the juggernaut that is the militarization and increased brutality of police in the United States, even as crime continues to diminish.
Oh, wait. There is an answer.
Because Freedom!