The US Has Devolved into a Police State

The US Has Devolved into a Police State

Paul Craig Roberts

Yesterday I posted at this URL — https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/01/09/democracy-america-oxymoron/ — a news report and two videos of a white female school teacher being removed and brutalized by a black police officer from a public meeting of school teachers with the school board while the school teacher was engaged according to the rules in normal conversation with a school board member.


The school board is comprised of both genders and both races. (Yes, I know that today we have more than two genders and there are more than two races.) Obviously, the school teacher was removed at the order of the school board or some member of it.
The school teacher is surprised to be interrupted in her conversation with a school board member by a policeman. She attempts to continue the conversation and is ordered to leave the room by the black cop. She complies with the black cop’s illegal order. As she leaves the room, the black cop knocks her down, handcuffs her, calls backup, and sends her to jail.
This is an accurate picture of America today. The woman did nothing, broke no law, no school board rule, no meeting rule, complied with the black cop and was still brutalized and arrested. The black cop as he brutalized her kept saying “stop resisting.” It is perfectly clear from the video that there is no resistance only assault by the black cop in what is clearly a criminal action against a member of the public by the police.
Will the black cop get away with it. Of course.
What was it all about.
The meeting was about the school board’s approval of a raise in salary for a school board member equal to the annual pay of school teachers, while the teachers themselves received not one cent.
The white female teacher assaulted by the black cop wanted to know why resources needed in the classroom, where class size had increased by about one third, were instead going to school board members who really did not do anything except collect high salaries.
This is a fair and honest question, but it was one the school board did not want to hear. So the school board had the uncle Tom black cop brutalize and arrest the white female school teacher.
As I said, this is America today.
The same thing is going on everywhere.
Consider, for example, America’s colleges and universities. According to a number of reports, 75 percent of budgets go to administration. When I attended Georgia Tech there was a president and a dean of students. Today universities have enormous administrative staffs. They have presidents, chancellors, vice chancellors, provosts, vice provosts, assistant vice provosts, deans, associate deans, and assistant deans for affirmative action, politically correct speech and demeanor, women’s rights, minority rights, homosexuals’ rights, and transgender rights. America’s universities are overrun with administrators. Education hardly exists.
Full time faculties are shrinking. In place of established professors students are taught by adjuncts who are paid a few thousand dollars to teach a course.
As Ron Unz has shown, Harvard University, for example, has endowment income sufficient to allow every Harvard student to attend tuition free, but continues to charge a monsterous price. It is not the education that Harvard students pay for. It is the network connection, not the education, that is valuable.
There are many things to be learned from this school board meeting atrocity. First, it is not just white cops who assault black people. Cops, whether black or white or rainbow in color assault the general public, white, black, brown, the young, the elderly, cripples in wheel chairs, the family dog. The cops, irrespective of race brutalize the public. There is no race safety. The police are a brutal force whose only function is to suppress all dissent against the bosses. All lives matter, not just black lives. The police actually kill more white people than they kill black people.
The police are the enforcers of the thievery practiced by the One Percent. The main function of the police in America is to suppress the citizens. That is what the black uncle Tom cop is doing at the school board meeting.
One of America’s greatest disadvantages is “law and order conservatives.” These peoples’ paranoid fears of crime have enabled the creation of the American Police State. Moreover, these people are completely illogical. The police seldom, if ever, prevent a criminal act. The function of the police is to investigate the act and to pin it on someone, innocent or guilty. If an American is so scared by crime, he/she can use the carry laws to arm themselves.

Facebook developing ‘Portal’ gadget which will let it put microphones and cameras in people’s homes

In George Orwell’s 1984, the oppressive rulers of Oceania use devices called telescreens to closely monitor and repress citizens.
Now Facebook looks set to follow in the Party’s footsteps by putting its own firm’s microphones and cameras into people’s homes.
The social network is planning to release its first ever piece of consumer hardware which will be called Portal and cost a whopping $499 (£368), a website called Cheddar has claimed.
The device will feature a 15inch screen, a wide-angle camera with facial recognition and microphones to allow voice control.
It’s expected to use facial recognition to allow people to log into their accounts without having to type in passwords and will be dedicated to video chat.
The gadget has been designed by a shadowy Facebook department called Building 8 that’s also working on mind-reading technology.

‘Rather than position the device as a smart assistant akin to Amazon’s Echo speakers, Facebook intends to pitch Portal as a way for families and friends to stay connected through video chatting and other social features,’ the website wrote.
‘Facebook plans a formal product introduction in early May at its annual developer conference and hopes to ship the device in the second half of 2018.’
Apart from the potentially grave privacy implications of letting Facebook’s cameras and microphones into your home, there’s another clear fault with the gadget: it costs almost as much as an iPhone or iPad but probably does a lot less.
Although Facebook has not officially commented, Andrew Bosworth, the company’s vice president of augmented and virtual reality, wrote on Twitter: ‘Can’t comment on speculation but can confirm it’s going to be an exciting year for AR/VR’.

Facebook now has more than two billion users (Photo: Reuters)

Building 8 is a top secret Facebook division which used to be headed up by Regina E. Dugan, former boss of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is dedicated to military research.
Last year, Facebook admitted its own research wing was working on technology which can read people’s minds at 100 words per minute.
Will Big Zucker end up watching us all?

New York State Police to start using drones

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) -

New York State Police will soon begin using unmanned drones to help support law enforcement missions like public safety, disaster response and traffic safety.

Governor Andrew Cuomo made the announcement Wednesday.

The program is launching sometime this month with four drones, one of which will be used by the State Police right here in Western New York. The other three will go to State Police in Central New York, the Hudson River area, and the Capital region.

By April 2018, an additional 14 aerial drones will be deployed throughout the state. 

"The idea is to have the drone capability locally available to the troop commander so it's an asset they can deploy readily and rapidly," explained Captain Scott Reichel. He leads the planning and research division for NYSP. "A lot of cost savings that we expect to see once we start utilizing drones for some of these operations. They won't replace manned aircraft. There will still be a need to transport personnel, equipment, things like that that cannot be done by a drone."

7 Eyewitness News asked Captain Reichel whether New Yorkers should be concerned with the drones and any potential invasions of privacy.

"We have no intention to just monitor people and keep an eye on people," Reichel said. "There's not going to be a Big Brother aspect to it. There are specific missions for the drone when it will be deployed."
The agency has policies on the books that limit drone use to specific situations related to investigating crimes or responding to emergencies.

"This state-of-the-art technology will improve emergency response, improve operational and cost efficiencies and increase Trooper safety," Governor Cuomo said. "We will continue to implement innovative technologies to improve our ability to protect New Yorkers across this great state."

Governor Cuomo says the drones will be more cost-effective than manned aircrafts like helicopters and can be used in dangerous situations and environments without putting State Troopers in harm's way.

Police will be able to use the drones to document and reconstruct motor vehicle crashes and photograph crime scenes.

Any Trooper who operates the drones will have to be FAA certified and undergo 32 hours of hands-on training with the systems.