Normalizing the Police State

Normalizing of torturenormal police 3

There hasn’t been too much fuss about this kind of oppression. Some guy got tasered when he asked John Kerry a question, but his fellow citizens mostly laughed about that. Jay Leno had a lot of fun with the “Don’t taze me, bro” stuff. Good times had by all.

Students like Ryan O’Neil got tasered at UCLA:

Kathryn Winkfein, a 72-year-old great-grandmother, was tasered (twice) by an officer for getting shouty after she was pulled over for a traffic offense. Youtube commenters – ever the empathetic bunch – said Winkfein was “asking to be tasered.” Another said Winkfein clearly has to take some “responsibility” for being tasered. Worse than the police state itself are the people who can’t rush to defend the oppressors quickly enough. That student was asking for it. Grandma shoulda kept her mouth shut.

Digby calls this the “normalizing of torture.” Not only are people unsurprised by tasering these days, but they watch it for entertainment on Youtube. This normalizing goes beyond tasering, however. It’s now normal for the state to monitor citizens, and for any kind of mass protest to be immediately restricted by the government.The terrifying conclusion to this normalization of the police state is featured in the latest issue of Harper’s. (h/t Digby)

More toys to come

Taser’s distributor has announced plans for a flying drone that fires stun darts at criminal suspects or rioters.  

Oh, goody. It’s like if a thousand tasers rained down from the heavens. Other nifty inventions include a “Shockwave Area-Denial System,” which blankets the area in question with electrified darts, and a wireless Taser projectile with a 100-meter range, helpful for picking off “ringleaders” in unruly crowds. 

It all sounds like science fiction. Sane individuals read stuff about the taser-firing drones and think, “That’ll never happen!” But consider that thirty years ago, people would have laughed at the idea that police would one day be permitted to electrocute citizens for getting mouthy.And considering what else the Pentagon has worked on in the past, I wouldn’t put anything past these people:

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