A Police Force Out of Control

There have been many abuses of Police power and authority throughout history. As a society we tend to tolerate them when an investigation finds in favour of the abused with recommendations ensuring it never happens again.

Unfortunately for the Metropolitan Police force, the abuses are happening faster than relevant inquiries can placate the public with a popular placebo.

The Tottenham riots (which should now be more accurately referred to as the 'London riots' as they extend to parts of Enfield, Walthamstow and Wood Green) are viewed by the media as having taken root in the shooting of Mark Duggan on Thursday. Initially Police statements referred to a gun being found at the scene. A shot it seems had been fired at Police and a bullet was found lodged in the radio of a Police Officer. Now unofficial Police sources are scurrying away from that statement citing the bullet in the radio as being 'one of their own' - It would appear then that Mark Duggan fired no shot - though this of course is not definitive.

Mark Duggan is no longer thought to have shot at Police.

It reminds me of an earlier Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, standing triumphantly before live TV cameras and announcing a suspected terrorist had just had his head filled with seven bullets on a tube train in London. By next day, he too was rowing backwards when the victim was revealed to be no more than an innocent, unarmed man, John Charles de Menezes who was heading off to work. The seven bullets in Mr Menezes head were fired over a period of thirty seconds at point blank range whilst he sat on his seat on a tube train - no officer was convicted of any criminality - their only culpability it seems was to be guilty of over enthusiasm in trying to get a good job done.

Since then there has been no shortage of controversy delivered to the in-tray of the incumbent Commissioner by the rank and file and associates. The death of another innocent man, Ian Tomlinson, after an aggressive push from a Police officer during the G7 protests, a coroner happily producing Police friendly autopsies on victims of Police aggression, officers colluding illegally with the media, and what for me is a prime example of a Police force out of control - The physical removal (for removal read 'dragging') of Cerebral Palsy sufferer Jody Mcintyre from his wheelchair during the student protests in 2010.  That shocking and shameful action was further compounded by the media mouthpiece of the British Government, the BBC, implying Mr Mcintyre had it coming to him for 'rolling towards officers' and doing so armed with political beliefs. The whole sorry episode and the unbelievably ignorant interview conducted by Ben Brown at the Beeb can be found HERE

Given that the Tottenham riots of 1985 were pre-empted by 'over enthusiastic' Police action leading to the death of Cynthia Jarrett - and we were promised it would never happen again; does it appear we've moved any further forward? If anything the indiscipline is growing. Some would argue that Britain is the European nation most at risk of becoming a Police state containing as it does more CCTV cameras per head of population than any nation in the world, a DNA Database held by Police of persons whether innocent or not ('Who knows you may commit a crime in the future' seems to be the justification), and an Independent Police Complaints Commission which quite frankly is anything but independent.

As stated earlier - the population are ordinarily placated by reassurances that action will be taken to ensure such wrongdoing by Police Officers will never be repeated. It is heartening then, that when the cesspool of corruption and vice the Met and the Murdochs were wading in was revealed, Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson had no hesitation in resigning. The job, for the moment, has been entrusted to Clarissa Dick.  The same Clarissa Dick who was the senior officer in charge of the operation which led to an innocent Mr Menezes receiving a head full of bullets.

Methinks the Met have learned nothing. It's a Police force out of control.

There's something wrong with the planet...

I don't mind admitting that there were tears yesterday when I made this short film...

Rory

Deficit, What Deficit?

So Senator Boehner thinks he's come up with the answer to the problem which threatens to cripple America - He can find ways to trim $1.4 trillion from annual budget expenditure. President Obama on the other hand can not only wade in with cuts to the budget but can raise revenue by taxing the rich. All because of course, the American Government is borrowing more money than it can raise. Regardless of who wins out, the folks who lose out are the little people, particularly those on the bottom rung of the ladder - but generally speaking, it's the lowest income earners who get hit hardest. I'd like to bring something to your attention, it's something every American citizen should be aware of and I first became aware of it by accident on a particularly infamous date.

On the 10th of September 2001 Donald Rumsfeld admitted before Congress and live television that the Defence Department could not account for $2.3 TRILLION Dollars it had been allocated - it had 'vanished'. This was news which of course was 'buried' beneath the rubble of the following day's tragedy - coincidence? Maybe. Just in case anyone doubts the accuracy of what I say; here is Mr Rumsfeld making that statement...

Now forgive me for possibly coming across as a simpleton - but when you hear the above admission and then add to this the Federal Reserve admission that they shelled out $9 TRILLION in bail outs to banks (some foreign) - then precisely where is the crisis? It seems to me the meagre sums (by American budgetary standards) can actually be found by good auditing (especially in the DOD) and by pushing the banks for better collateral and some return on the $9 trillion which was thrown their way (What the Fed Reserve got back in return was $9 Trillion worth of junk bonds which are about as safe as a cop in Ciudad Juarez). (See video below)

 

As a group, the poorest in society and the lower middle class are responsible for paying the largest amount of money in tax revenues to the US Treasury. So let's recap - The Banks and other ailing financial institutions were bailed out with $9 Trillion dollars of Tax revenue, thereby ensuring business as usual for the fat cats who made such a demonstrable mess of our economy. Effectively then, the poor came riding to the rescue of the rich. In this next week if Obama gets his way the poor lose - If the Republicans get their way the poor lose - banks collapsed and and the poor lost. Yet one group of individuals walk away from all of this unscathed - The rich.

It seems accounting is not the only thing the American Government has a problem with, logic and justice are evidently work in progress.

Rory

A Good Day for Burying Bad News

Tuesday 19th July was a special day - Rupert Murdoch and his son James were being called to account before a Parliamentary committee - The eyes of the world were fixed upon them. I should've known the Government would seize the moment to do 'something' while our gaze was averted - I should've, but I didn't - and yes they did.

While we were all watching the shaving foam farce - the death certificate of one of Britain's finest institutions was signed - The National Health Service and all that it represents was done to death and one of the biggest lies this current Government has ever perpetrated went unnoticed.  Health Minister Andrew Lansley, announced that large chunks of the NHS would be farmed out to private companies. The services which represent £1 Billion worth of NHS expenditure include Adult Psychological Community Services and wheelchair services for children. This flies in the face of EVERYTHING promised in the ruling parties manifesto pre-election. Be sure that it represents the first steps in the complete privatisation (aka corporate profit) of the NHS.

The British have few institutions left which they can rightly feel proud of - the NHS is one, it ambles along, it gets starved of cash by successive governments but it is always there, ready and willing to assist those in need at no cost.

Is it too late to reverse this idiocy?

The answer lies with the British People themselves, but how many of them know what took place while they watched one fat-cat get hauled over the coals?

For a more in depth look at this issue please see the Daily Telegraph and THE DAY THEY SIGNED THE DEATH WARRANT FOR THE NHS

Rory

Obama - the only sane man in the asylum?

I listened intently to Obama's speech and the riposte from Boehner - Obama wins hands down. But do the Republicans really care about the legitimacy of Obama's pleas? Ultimately this is the question which has to be answered. I used to credit Republicans (though I have never supported them) with at least the ability to see sense, acknowledge reason when confronted with it - not any more. They may know that he's right, they may know that what he's asking for is 'just and fair' under the circumstances, but greed is a terrible thing. I think some wag who posted the image below on the internet today just about summed it up...

Rory

If Truth Be Told...

There's something happening here,

What it is aint exactly clear.

There's a man with a gun over there,

Telling me I got to beware.

I think it's time we stop children, what's that sound?

Everybody look what's going down.

By way of brief explanation - I now have two Blogs, one for humour, one for giving full vent to my anti-Murdoch Marxist mania (and other things which piss me off in an ever increasingly insane world). I'll strive to write faithfully, truthfully, honestly - I won't always get it right but you won't be left questioning the hidden meaning or who the propaganda served - because there will be none. What you read is what I think. It's all just my honest to goodness perspective on what's going on around us...

The world is in a pretty bad way - it needs everyone to pay attention to what's going down.

With that said - watch this space. :)

Rory