I think the Illuminati with the NSA came in 5 years earlier and created Snowdawg, just to fuck with Snowden and inception him into our collective consciousnesses. Snowden x NSA
-
As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.
U.S. Government spying on entire U.S., to nobody's surprise
- Thread starter frito bandito
- Start date
- Status
say what you will backyardbogfan, but leave out the insults. we are having a civilized discussion.
Here is something to ponder on the way to run errands or picking up the kids, did you know your in the middle of a battle field ?
SWAT Cop Says American Neighborhoods Are 'Battlefields,' Claims Cops Face Same Dangers As Soldiers In Afghanistan
One of the central themes of my book is that that too many cops today have been conditioned to see the people they serve not as citizens with rights, but as an enemy. My argument is that this battlefield mindset is the product of a generation of politicians telling police that they're at war with things -- drugs, terrorism, crime, etc. -- and have then equipped them with the uniforms, tactics, weapons, and other accoutrements of war.
Over the last several days, the popular online police magazine PoliceOne site has been rolling out a series of opinion pieces in response to my book. As you might expect, most of them are critical, although a couple have been thoughtful.
One essay by Sgt. Glenn French was particularly disturbing. French serves as commander of a SWAT team in Sterling Heights, Michigan. French doesn't criticize me for arguing that too many police officers have adopted this battlefield mindset. Rather, he embraces the combat mentality, and encourages other cops to do the same. Referring to an article I wrote here at HuffPost, French writes:
“What would it take to dial back such excessive police measures?” the author wrote. “The obvious place to start would be ending the federal grants that encourage police forces to acquire gear that is more appropriate for the battlefield. Beyond that, it is crucial to change the culture of militarization in American law enforcement.”
We trainers have spent the past decade trying to ingrain in our students the concept that the American police officer works a battlefield every day he patrols his sector.
Note the choice of words. Not neighborhood, but "sector." Although I suppose such parsing isn't even necessary when French just comes right out and declares America a battlefield. Note too that French isn't even referring to SWAT teams, here. He's suggesting that all cops be taught to view the streets and neighborhoods they patrol in this way.
French then tosses out some dubious statistics.
The fact is, more American police officers have died fighting crime in the United States over the past 12 years than American soldiers were killed in action at war in Afghanistan. According to ODMP.org, 1,831 cops have been killed in the line of duty since 2001. According to iCasualties.org, the number of our military personnel killed in action in Afghanistan is 1,789.
Cops on the beat are facing the same dangers on the streets as our brave soldiers do in war.
Even accepting French's preposterous premise here, his numbers are wrong. The U.S. has lost 2,264 troops in Afghanistan, about 22 percent more than French claims. Moreover, more than half police officer deaths since 2001 were due to accidents (mostly car accidents), not felonious homicide. Additionally, depending on how you define the term, there are between 600,000 and 800,000 law enforcement officers working in the United States. We have about 65,000 troops in Afghanistan. So comparing overall fatalities is absurd. The rates of cops killed versus soldiers killed aren't even close. And that's not factoring in the soldiers who've come home without limbs. The dangers faced by cops and soldiers in Afghanistan aren't remotely comparable.
As I've pointed out before, the actual homicide rate for cops on the job, while higher than that in the country as a whole, is still lower than the rate in about half of the larger cities in America. If cops on the beat face "the same dangers on the streets as our brave soldiers do in war," so does everyone who lives in Boston, Atlanta, or Dallas.
That is why commanders and tactical trainers stress the fact that even on the most uneventful portion of your tour, you can be subjected to combat at a moment’s notice.
I think French's choice of words in this passage speaks for itself.
What is it with this growing concept that SWAT teams shouldn’t exist? Why shouldn’t officers utilize the same technologies, weapon systems, and tactics that our military comrades do?
We should, and we will.
Again, it's hard to even respond to this. You're either alarmed to hear this kind of language from a domestic police officer, or you aren't. And if you aren't, I don't think there's much I can write to convince you otherwise. I highlight it here only to point out that it is indeed a domestic police officer who wrote this. I've been criticized at times for making the argument that too many cops in America today see their jobs in this way -- that I'm exaggerating when I write or say that some cops see American streets as war zones. Well, here it is.
Black helicopters and mysterious warriors exist. They are America’s answer to the evil men that the anti-SWAT crowd wouldn’t dare face.
The second sentence is undoubtedly true. I'm not opposed to SWAT teams. When used properly -- to defuse an already violent situation, where lives are at risk -- they perform marvelously. I am opposed to using them to raid organic farms in response to nuisance violations, or to storm animal shelters to kill baby deer. Or, more to the point, to serve search warrants on people suspected of consensual drug crimes, the reason for the vast majority of the 100+ SWAT raids conducted each day in America.
One could argue that French is merely one cop, and there's no evidence that his essay, alarming as it may be, is representative of any significant percentage of law enforcement officials. The problem is that his essay appeared on PoliceOne, one of the most popular police destinations on the Internet. It's a part of a series of essays that the editors of that site chose to run in response to my book. If French's perspective isn't representative of a significant portion of law enforcement, it's difficult to see why PoliceOne would have chosen to run it. At the very least, the editors don't appear to have found it objectionable enough to exclude from the series.
It's also worth noting that French trains other police officers. He has also written a book on policing. So his perspective and approach to the job is getting passed on to other officers. Moreover, there's ample anecdotal evidence that plenty of other law enforcement officials share his perspective. Here, for example, is the sheriff of Clayton County, Georgia in 2008:
"The war on drugs in Clayton County, as in most jurisdictions, I liken it to the Vietnam War," Hill said. "Hit and miss, there is no clear win — we don’t know if we’re gaining ground or not. What we want to do is we want to change our strategy. We want to make this more like a Normandy invasion."
Here's a Milwaukee detective and former SWAT officer writing in National Review a few years ago, chastising Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo for pushing for reform after his home was invaded and his dogs were killed by a SWAT team in a botched, mistaken raid:
Sorry if Calvo and his mother-in-law were “restrained” for “almost two hours.” Would you rather have them be comfortable for those two hours, and risk officers’ lives and safety? Calvo should be able to understand what the officers did and why they did it.
Municipal police departments do fight a war on the streets of this country daily. This incident should not be considered overkill (to take a word from Reason’s Radley Balko), but sound police tactics.
Here's Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, explaining how he will instruct his officers to ignore the state's gun laws:
“My message to my troops is if you see anybody carrying a gun on the streets of Milwaukee, we’ll put them on the ground, take the gun away and then decide whether you have a right to carry it.”
There are lots of examples like these. The sheriff in Orange County, Florida recently referred to his agency as a "paramilitary organization." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently referred to NYPD as "the seventh largest army in the world.” I've recently written about the disturbing culture of police t-shirts, which dehumanize the citizens they serve and make light of police brutality. ("We get up early, to beat the crowds.")
Incidentally, a few notes about Sterling Heights, Michigan, where Sgt. French works. According to the city's website, in 2010, Sterling Heights was rated the safest city in Michigan with a population of 100,000 or more people. It was also named one of the 100 best cities in America to raise a family. In 2008, it had the lowest crime rate of any city in Michigan. From 2005 to 2010 (the last year data was available) it had all of 10 murders, in a city of about 130,000 people. This is the "battlefield" where Sgt. French works. I'd be curious to know what the residents of Sterling Heights would say upon learning that the commander of their city's SWAT team views each of them more as potential combatants than citizens with rights.
The lead essay for the PoliceOne series on militarization is a review of my book by Lance Eldridge. It's titled: "Police militarization and rise of the warrior journalist: Radley Balko’s new book on police militarization — and subsequent articles by him and others — signals the radicalization of America’s discourse on civilian law enforcement."
PoliceOne published an essay by a SWAT leader and police trainer that urges cops to view American streets and neighborhoods as "battlefields," absurdly claims that working as a cop in America is as dangerous as serving in a war zone in Afghanistan, and says cops should look at the citizens they serve as potential combatants.
Yet it is those of us who find all of this troubling who are the "radicals."
Radley Balko is a senior writer and investigative reporter for The Huffington Post. He is also the author of the new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.
SWAT Cop Says American Neighborhoods Are 'Battlefields,' Claims Cops Face Same Dangers As Soldiers In Afghanistan
One of the central themes of my book is that that too many cops today have been conditioned to see the people they serve not as citizens with rights, but as an enemy. My argument is that this battlefield mindset is the product of a generation of politicians telling police that they're at war with things -- drugs, terrorism, crime, etc. -- and have then equipped them with the uniforms, tactics, weapons, and other accoutrements of war.
Over the last several days, the popular online police magazine PoliceOne site has been rolling out a series of opinion pieces in response to my book. As you might expect, most of them are critical, although a couple have been thoughtful.
One essay by Sgt. Glenn French was particularly disturbing. French serves as commander of a SWAT team in Sterling Heights, Michigan. French doesn't criticize me for arguing that too many police officers have adopted this battlefield mindset. Rather, he embraces the combat mentality, and encourages other cops to do the same. Referring to an article I wrote here at HuffPost, French writes:
“What would it take to dial back such excessive police measures?” the author wrote. “The obvious place to start would be ending the federal grants that encourage police forces to acquire gear that is more appropriate for the battlefield. Beyond that, it is crucial to change the culture of militarization in American law enforcement.”
We trainers have spent the past decade trying to ingrain in our students the concept that the American police officer works a battlefield every day he patrols his sector.
Note the choice of words. Not neighborhood, but "sector." Although I suppose such parsing isn't even necessary when French just comes right out and declares America a battlefield. Note too that French isn't even referring to SWAT teams, here. He's suggesting that all cops be taught to view the streets and neighborhoods they patrol in this way.
French then tosses out some dubious statistics.
The fact is, more American police officers have died fighting crime in the United States over the past 12 years than American soldiers were killed in action at war in Afghanistan. According to ODMP.org, 1,831 cops have been killed in the line of duty since 2001. According to iCasualties.org, the number of our military personnel killed in action in Afghanistan is 1,789.
Cops on the beat are facing the same dangers on the streets as our brave soldiers do in war.
Even accepting French's preposterous premise here, his numbers are wrong. The U.S. has lost 2,264 troops in Afghanistan, about 22 percent more than French claims. Moreover, more than half police officer deaths since 2001 were due to accidents (mostly car accidents), not felonious homicide. Additionally, depending on how you define the term, there are between 600,000 and 800,000 law enforcement officers working in the United States. We have about 65,000 troops in Afghanistan. So comparing overall fatalities is absurd. The rates of cops killed versus soldiers killed aren't even close. And that's not factoring in the soldiers who've come home without limbs. The dangers faced by cops and soldiers in Afghanistan aren't remotely comparable.
As I've pointed out before, the actual homicide rate for cops on the job, while higher than that in the country as a whole, is still lower than the rate in about half of the larger cities in America. If cops on the beat face "the same dangers on the streets as our brave soldiers do in war," so does everyone who lives in Boston, Atlanta, or Dallas.
That is why commanders and tactical trainers stress the fact that even on the most uneventful portion of your tour, you can be subjected to combat at a moment’s notice.
I think French's choice of words in this passage speaks for itself.
What is it with this growing concept that SWAT teams shouldn’t exist? Why shouldn’t officers utilize the same technologies, weapon systems, and tactics that our military comrades do?
We should, and we will.
Again, it's hard to even respond to this. You're either alarmed to hear this kind of language from a domestic police officer, or you aren't. And if you aren't, I don't think there's much I can write to convince you otherwise. I highlight it here only to point out that it is indeed a domestic police officer who wrote this. I've been criticized at times for making the argument that too many cops in America today see their jobs in this way -- that I'm exaggerating when I write or say that some cops see American streets as war zones. Well, here it is.
Black helicopters and mysterious warriors exist. They are America’s answer to the evil men that the anti-SWAT crowd wouldn’t dare face.
The second sentence is undoubtedly true. I'm not opposed to SWAT teams. When used properly -- to defuse an already violent situation, where lives are at risk -- they perform marvelously. I am opposed to using them to raid organic farms in response to nuisance violations, or to storm animal shelters to kill baby deer. Or, more to the point, to serve search warrants on people suspected of consensual drug crimes, the reason for the vast majority of the 100+ SWAT raids conducted each day in America.
One could argue that French is merely one cop, and there's no evidence that his essay, alarming as it may be, is representative of any significant percentage of law enforcement officials. The problem is that his essay appeared on PoliceOne, one of the most popular police destinations on the Internet. It's a part of a series of essays that the editors of that site chose to run in response to my book. If French's perspective isn't representative of a significant portion of law enforcement, it's difficult to see why PoliceOne would have chosen to run it. At the very least, the editors don't appear to have found it objectionable enough to exclude from the series.
It's also worth noting that French trains other police officers. He has also written a book on policing. So his perspective and approach to the job is getting passed on to other officers. Moreover, there's ample anecdotal evidence that plenty of other law enforcement officials share his perspective. Here, for example, is the sheriff of Clayton County, Georgia in 2008:
"The war on drugs in Clayton County, as in most jurisdictions, I liken it to the Vietnam War," Hill said. "Hit and miss, there is no clear win — we don’t know if we’re gaining ground or not. What we want to do is we want to change our strategy. We want to make this more like a Normandy invasion."
Here's a Milwaukee detective and former SWAT officer writing in National Review a few years ago, chastising Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo for pushing for reform after his home was invaded and his dogs were killed by a SWAT team in a botched, mistaken raid:
Sorry if Calvo and his mother-in-law were “restrained” for “almost two hours.” Would you rather have them be comfortable for those two hours, and risk officers’ lives and safety? Calvo should be able to understand what the officers did and why they did it.
Municipal police departments do fight a war on the streets of this country daily. This incident should not be considered overkill (to take a word from Reason’s Radley Balko), but sound police tactics.
Here's Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, explaining how he will instruct his officers to ignore the state's gun laws:
“My message to my troops is if you see anybody carrying a gun on the streets of Milwaukee, we’ll put them on the ground, take the gun away and then decide whether you have a right to carry it.”
There are lots of examples like these. The sheriff in Orange County, Florida recently referred to his agency as a "paramilitary organization." New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently referred to NYPD as "the seventh largest army in the world.” I've recently written about the disturbing culture of police t-shirts, which dehumanize the citizens they serve and make light of police brutality. ("We get up early, to beat the crowds.")
Incidentally, a few notes about Sterling Heights, Michigan, where Sgt. French works. According to the city's website, in 2010, Sterling Heights was rated the safest city in Michigan with a population of 100,000 or more people. It was also named one of the 100 best cities in America to raise a family. In 2008, it had the lowest crime rate of any city in Michigan. From 2005 to 2010 (the last year data was available) it had all of 10 murders, in a city of about 130,000 people. This is the "battlefield" where Sgt. French works. I'd be curious to know what the residents of Sterling Heights would say upon learning that the commander of their city's SWAT team views each of them more as potential combatants than citizens with rights.
The lead essay for the PoliceOne series on militarization is a review of my book by Lance Eldridge. It's titled: "Police militarization and rise of the warrior journalist: Radley Balko’s new book on police militarization — and subsequent articles by him and others — signals the radicalization of America’s discourse on civilian law enforcement."
PoliceOne published an essay by a SWAT leader and police trainer that urges cops to view American streets and neighborhoods as "battlefields," absurdly claims that working as a cop in America is as dangerous as serving in a war zone in Afghanistan, and says cops should look at the citizens they serve as potential combatants.
Yet it is those of us who find all of this troubling who are the "radicals."
Radley Balko is a senior writer and investigative reporter for The Huffington Post. He is also the author of the new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread965983/pg1
If you have negative feelings towards Snowden...its proof that MSM has a nice grasp on your entire thought process...
These Media POS bastards hate Putin so much...all this Anti-Gay crap they're trying to throw on Russia is a joke..
>>>>>>>edited off topic over the top comments, Storm does it again>>>>>>>>>>>
If you have negative feelings towards Snowden...its proof that MSM has a nice grasp on your entire thought process...
These Media POS bastards hate Putin so much...all this Anti-Gay crap they're trying to throw on Russia is a joke..
>>>>>>>edited off topic over the top comments, Storm does it again>>>>>>>>>>>
Last edited by a moderator:
Well, I've heard America termed as Battlefield America, so it doesn't surprise me.
I don't have any feelings towards Snowden. He may even be an intelligence operative.
Why is his existence a public affair in a world of near total media control? He's gone from a no-name among Joe Public to household name. Why and what for? Who's shaping your thoughts and for what reason and how are they doing it?
I don't think there are many good guys out there, mostly bad guys masquerading for the benefit of your deception, and a bunch of misguided and confused people commenting on it, to keep everyone confused and choraled into a certain thought process, hailing from 1,000 points of light.
Its no longer just a term, its reality.
It's just time we should realize it's someone else now, it may be us or a loved one tomorrow.
Police taser man to get him off a roof, choke & drag him face-down
[YOUTUBEIF]xyg32CPyKNc[/YOUTUBEIF]
its a war on us.
you can look more of this abuse at copblock.org it happens every day.
Kucinich: Do Away with the NSA!
[YOUTUBEIF]soVS4s44xVg[/YOUTUBEIF]
I don't think Mr. Kucinich always gets it right, but you can tell he knows right from wrong . He sounds very interested in learning about the constitution and following it.
Last edited:
Can't say no to a black man, that would be racist.
silly comment imo, this crap has nothing to do with skin color.
In the game of Blue v. Red, race baiting and racial undertones are relevant and always present. You are correct that skin color has nothing to do with anything, but it is an easy way for them to divide and conquer.
Actually that'd be Chelsea E. Manning to you.......
http://news.yahoo.com/bradley-manning-says-wants-live-woman-120700028.html
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Bradley Manning plans to live as a woman named Chelsea and wants to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible, the soldier said Thursday, a day after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for sending classified material to WikiLeaks.
Manning announced the decision in a written statement provided to NBC's "Today" show, asking supporters to refer to him by his new name and the feminine pronoun. The statement was signed "Chelsea E. Manning."
"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," the statement read.
Manning's defense attorney David Coombs told "Today" in an interview that he is hoping officials at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., will accommodate Manning's request for hormone therapy.
"If Fort Leavenworth does not, then I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure they are forced to do so," Coombs said.
Coombs did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press on Thursday.
an odd turn of events that explains absolutely nothing.
It does not really matter what he does in his private life. he exposed the indiscriminate killing of AP journalist and children.That was a real crime.
They tried to get dirt on snowden but they could not find anything except him mooning a camera, and that he was some what rich and then tried to portray his ex girl, as a stripper, when clearly she was not .
That's going to happen to all the people who are now going to expose the practices of the government.Its all they have to draw attention away from their own wrong doing.
then he should have kept that to his motherfucking self, am I right???
of course your point might have more meat to it if this info were leaked though his doctor's office maliciously.
but no, for some reason he made his private life public, am I right??? Manning made it public, right???
So I'll take no flack for reporting what some zero made public on his own. He could have just gone to jail and keep quiet about his sexual proclivities.
My big problem w/this situation is is that this jerk expects taxpayers to ante up for his transformation.......
well you have to wonder what they did to him in those 3 years. seems he was never very tough, but they still mistreated him. in the end he had to recant all his beliefs and last shred of pride in doing what he thought was right. they made him admit that he was bad and what he did was bad. he basically had a choice, humiliate yourself and you can have half a life or stay principled and go to hell on earth for 60 years. that kind of pressure will fuck with anyone's head. no idea what his mental problems are, but i know he did show the world that war crimes were being committed in Iraq.
btw. if they let him go free he could earn his own money and pay for his own treatments, lol.
btw. if they let him go free he could earn his own money and pay for his own treatments, lol.
As usual S4L ya hit the nail on the head. I don't give Two shit who any one chooses to have sex with, but if you want privacy,,, keep it private!
The sad part is that our fucking bleeding heart Govment is more than likely going to provide this TYRANT all the hormones IT wants.
I say they should deny this Ludacris EXPECTATION, and leave a nice long rope in its cell every night, and hope it becomes truly unbearable to live with being born Male, or maybe find a conscience, and hang itself.
Peace; Twisted
The sad part is that our fucking bleeding heart Govment is more than likely going to provide this TYRANT all the hormones IT wants.
I say they should deny this Ludacris EXPECTATION, and leave a nice long rope in its cell every night, and hope it becomes truly unbearable to live with being born Male, or maybe find a conscience, and hang itself.
Peace; Twisted
If the 5Th. estate would do its dam job and do some investigative journalism, instead of being in bed with this administration,,, well some of these Whistleblower, traitors, or what ever we choose to call them would not feel they have to make the decision to break the oaths they take as soldiers, and Americans.
I agree that a lot of what has been disclosed is Fucking OUTRAGIOUS, to se the shit Our Govment is up to. Unfortunately I lost faith that any Men that get the power our Govment has, WILL use to keep them in power, no matter what.
We have gotten so far away from the integrity, and ideals of Our founding fathers, they would not recognize it as the country they sacrificed so much to build.
Peace; 1TT
I agree that a lot of what has been disclosed is Fucking OUTRAGIOUS, to se the shit Our Govment is up to. Unfortunately I lost faith that any Men that get the power our Govment has, WILL use to keep them in power, no matter what.
We have gotten so far away from the integrity, and ideals of Our founding fathers, they would not recognize it as the country they sacrificed so much to build.
Peace; 1TT
i was addressing the article and its narrow minded approach. you would be correct about it changing nothing, because it would be besides the point of who the real criminals are in he matter.
no flack intended.
taxes are another story i don't think anyone should be paying anything, but one guys hormone shots is not going to break the country,perhaps we can call it even for being imprisoned for doing the right thing.
- Status
