Occupy Wall Street Mass Arrest Resembles Infamous, Costly Police Tactic, Critics SayWASHINGTON -- Ben Becker, 27, sat in the back of a police-commandeered transit bus on Saturday night, his hands placed tightly behind his back in plastic cuffs. He'd been marching on the Brooklyn Bridge as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. And like hundreds of other activists railing against the inequities of the financial system, he had been swept up in a mass arrest by the New York Police Department.
Becker was one of the first placed in custody. His bus filled up fast. They waited, tied up for hours, and did not know their charges, Becker said. For many, this was new: the march, the chanting, the arrest.
"Some of the teenagers on the bus were extremely nervous," Becker said.
But this was a scenario Becker knew well. He was the named plaintiff in the Partnership for Civil Justice's 2001 federal class-action lawsuit against the District of Columbia, known as Becker v. D.C. That case stemmed from the D.C. police department's mass arrest of anti-IMF/World Bank demonstrators on April 15, 2000. Becker was one of nearly 700 people arrested during that march. He was 16 at the time.
On Tuesday, the Partnership for Civil Justice filed yet another class-action lawsuit -- this one again on behalf of Becker and others arrested on the bridge.
"I was telling the young people -- the teenagers -- the people who had been protesting for the first time, when we were sitting on the bus for hours, I was telling them the similarities to April 2000," said Becker, who is currently an adjunct professor at City College of New York and a graduate student studying history.
The mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge resemble a clear, premeditated police tactic that has come to be known as "trap and detain," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice. The tactic goes something like this, she said: the police permit and escort marchers to proceed with their activities before suddenly corralling them into a closed off area and arresting everyone in one sweep.
The police will use a side street, a park, or, in the case of Occupy Wall Street, a bridge -- usually an area where the people trapped cannot disperse, and where they end up having to beg the police to leave, Verheyden-Hilliard said. Journalists, tourists and legal observers are often caught up in these dragnets. A reason for the arrests is crafted after the fact, she said.
The NYPD says its officers warned the activists not to take the motorway. “There were claims police had not issued warnings,” Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the police, stated in an email to The New York Times. “In fact, warnings were issued and captured on video.”
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
Verheyden-Hilliard said the fact that the so-called warnings were videotaped shows premeditation. She added that the warnings were bad theater -- police were speaking inaudibly into a bullhorn; they were for show only, she said.
Police departments may have popularized the tactic of snuffing out and intimidating protests during the anti-globalization movement a decade ago that criticized corporate capitalism. But Verheyden-Hilliard said the method has gone international in the last couple of years.
"It's been used in London and in Toronto. They call it 'kettling' there in Toronto," she said. “It's a particular tactic, a refined police tactic -- you get boxed by police on all sides or, even easier, when there are buildings or a bridge and you block the front and the back."
The tactic has been deployed by police in Oakland and other cities as well, according to Verheyden-Hilliard. But it was D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department that made "trap and detain" infamous.
On April 15, 2000, according to court records, demonstrators had gathered in front of the Department of Justice on Pennsylvania Avenue NW and marched to a spot close to the International Monetary Fund on 19th Street NW. Police were very much a presence during the march. As the crowd headed toward Dupont Circle, where it was set to disperse, the activists were suddenly penned in on a side street by the police, according to Becker and court records.
The department at the time justified the arrests by arguing that the officers were trying to prevent chaos in the streets. "I apologize for nothing we did," the then-Police Chief Charles Ramsey said at the time. "They have the right to sue us just like they had the right to protest."
Along with the mass arrest, several plaintiffs in the Becker case alleged that they were beaten by D.C. cops. The court case produced a video that showed a police unit charging a group of demonstrators and beating them in the face with batons. The officers had obscured their badge numbers. Another plaintiff said he had been injured with pepper spray and alleged that the cop's attack had been unprovoked.
"There was a police line in riot gear," Becker remembered. "They refused to let us go. We turned around and the police line blocked. We were chanting for almost an hour, 'let us go!'"
Becker said he heard the same chants on the Brooklyn Bridge this past weekend. People were chanting their lungs out when the march started at 3 p.m. Saturday at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, he said. It soon passed City Hall. Only 15 minutes in, thousands of demonstrators had picked out a few favorites.
"Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!" they chanted.
"We are the 99 percent!"
And in honor of the recent execution of a Georgia inmate: "We are all Troy Davis!"
Throughout the march, the throngs stayed on sidewalks. If people spilled onto the streets, police were there within seconds to admonish them to get off the roadway, Becker said. Becker and Joshua Stephens, another demonstrator interviewed by HuffPost, said everyone complied without hassle. "It was a very closely-monitored and marshaled protest up to the Brooklyn Bridge," Becker recalled.
There had been a demonstration the previous day at One Police Plaza over a pepper-spray incident. A white-shirt cop had indiscriminately sprayed several women in the face; it had been caught on tape and gone viral. Becker said a thousand people showed up and said their piece without getting hassled by police.
The march became a bottleneck at the bridge, Becker said. The demonstrators first had to cross a street and then pass a narrow entranceway. Becker said he saw no cops as he passed on to the bridge.
When Marcel Cartier, 27, started marching on the bridge's motorway, he said the police only insisted on keeping one lane open for cars. "We began marching on the street with police right next to us not saying anything," he told HuffPost. "The most that was said -- 'Excuse me brother, could you move over?' They kept one lane open for cars. It was fine. It was perfectly okay for us to be on that street on the bridge."
After about 15 minutes on the bridge, the march came to a halt as the police formed a line and stopped the marchers, Becker said. Cartier and Becker both moved up to the front.
A police official took out a piece of paper and read from it into a bullhorn. "It was inaudible," Becker said. "I couldn't hear."
Cartier didn't get the message either. "I heard absolutely nothing," he said. "No announcement that they were going to arrest people." He didn't know he was in trouble until three others were hauled away. Then a cop pointed at him and a few officers pulled him out and cuffed him, he said. He was the fourth activist arrested that day.
Becker, before he was arrested, asked an officer: "Why are you doing this?" He pressed that the police were the ones blocking traffic. Another cop grabbed him and escorted him to the police bus, he said. It would be the second arrest in his life, the first being in April 2000.
"I certainly was not expecting or wanting to be having a repeat encounter," Becker said. "The arrests in 2000 were horrible for the people that went through them...There is still a lot of legal work to be done to correct that. This movement that's developing has to take this on as a major issue."
The April 2000 lawsuit resulted in record settlement with the District of Columbia in 2009 agreeing to pay $13.7 million to those arrested. The litigation also resulted in a ban on the "trap and detain" tactic. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman wrote that it reminded him of the old discredited police responses to anti-Vietnam War protesters -- "when thousands of demonstrators were arrested on a theory of 'group' probable cause on the steps of the Capitol, in West Potomac Park, and on the streets of the District of Columbia."
A subsequent case was brought against the Metropolitan Police Department over the arrest of 400 individuals in Pershing Park in September 2002 for, once again, demonstrations involving anti-globalization activists.
Like the other "trap and detain" cases, the police surrounded the downtown-D.C. park and hauled away everyone inside -- including tourists and nurses who weren’t necessarily involved but were merely taking a break from a nearby convention. That case, also filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice, was settled with the city in late 2009 for $8.25 million. A second lawsuit stemming from Pershing Park has yet to reach a settlement.
The NYPD, Verheyden-Hilliard said, should expect a similar fight. "I think people have to recognize the police are acting deliberately and intentionally," she said. "It's not that they're reacting to some protest or misconduct or that they're overreaching or maybe they had probable cause to arrest someone. They did not have probable cause to arrest anyone. They have been engaged in a pattern and practice to suppress dissent for years."
"They ordered the arrest buses from Rikers," she added. "When you are ordering arrest buses, you are intending to make mass arrests." huffpo
Police Tactic ''Trap and Detain'' Multi-Million Dollar Payouts in The Past
Rough Justice Under Rick Perry ''Incendiary'' Documentary
Rough Justice Under Rick Perry
Two Austin filmmakers examine how the Texas governor and bad science abetted the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.
By Tim Murphy
When MSNBC's Brian Williams asked Rick Perry during a recent GOP debate if he ever worried that his state had executed an innocent man on Perry's watch, the three-term Texas governor didn't hesitate: "No sir, I've never struggled with that at all." Maybe he should have: As Steve Mims and Joe Bailey detail in their new documentary, Incendiary, the state's 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the murder of his two children was based in large part on arson science that had been thoroughly rejected by the scientific community—something that Perry had been informed of before the "ultimate justice" was served.
Inspired by David Grann's masterful 2009 New Yorker story about the case, the Austin filmmakers set out to chronicle the flawed forensics behind the execution. They soon found themselves in the middle of a pitched political battle involving Perry's apparent maneuvering to put a thumb on the scales with the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Mims and Bailey spoke recently with Mother Jones about the Willingham case, arson science, and how they navigated the politics of capital punishment.
Mother Jones: What about Grann's story, and the case specifically, made you think "we need to make a film"?
Joe Bailey: I was so fascinated that the law and science and political forces were all animated in a life-and-death story. We saw that as a rare thing, and we thought that a documentary format allowed us the opportunity to explore the case in our own way and illustrate these things that seemed really fascinating—properties of fire, the human dynamic, and the appeals and petitions for clemency. We didn't expect it to erupt into this sort of political theater that it became: Just when we started making our film is when the shakeup of the Texas Forensic Science Commission happened, and it became sort of a dynamic and hilarious—darkly hilarious—struggle to document.
MJ: The centerpiece of the film, the forensics expert who explains why it wasn't arson, is Gerald Hurst. More, including movie trailer and this interview with Rick Perry talking ''Science'' which has to be the biggest contradiction of terms in the whole wide world. More including a trailer from the documentary and this clip of Perry explaining his killing comfort zone.
America is being, blown away, washed away, and not least in Texas, burnt away. But the jury is still out on climate change science. Whatever you say Rick.
A few vids on tricky Ricky and climate change.
''I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data''
We are seeing weekly, almost daily, scientists coming forward and questioning the original idea that man made global warming is what is causing the climate to change''
''Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said, here is the fact; - Galileo got outvoted for a spell''
He doesn't help himself does he? Galileo got outvoted for a spell, yes you fucking moron. Rick Perry, a latter day Roman Inquisition, with all the brains of the first.
Isn't odd that nobody can seem to offer up ''all these scientists'' or in Ricky's case name one? He reminds me of another bunch of batshit crazies that are always quoting ''more and more scientists.'' I was about to (ok I will) link to the crazies of the of the Fred and Wilma, but I can go one better than that. At the bottom of the page there is a video of Arnold Mendez, who I have to tell you, though you might have trouble believing me, is a science instructor at Texas A&M. Funny that Texas should pop its head up again.
Give me that ol' time religion.
“A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but if you waste 15 million of them, apparently you get Texas.” - Keith Olbermann.
Still with me? Now I wouldn't ask anybody to sit through two hours of Arnold Mendez's Noah’s Ark Seminar, but do try to watch a few minutes of this
Arnold Mendez has his own tag on this blog, lots of photo's if you can't bear the video. Here is a comment left by a poor soul that had the misfortune to have Mendez as an instructor.
Arnold Mendez is Beyond an Idiot he is dangerous. Let me tell you why. Arnold Mendez taught/teaches almost all the General Chemistry Laboratory Classes at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. On his own initiative, he added an indoctrination on why Radiological Carbon Dating is a farce. He required the students to go to HIS listed fraud sites and write a report (basically supporting his crap). I was forced to do this for a grade in his class along with almost 1,000 students in a single semester. When this situation was revealed to the University, they did absolutely nothing! Any reputable (REAL) University would have fired ANYONE who did this on the spot. I guess TAMUCC is just another Liberty University. DO NOT ATTEND this university if you want a ACTUAL Science Degree. I am still highly offended by this situation.
Alma Telescope Begins Study of Cosmic Dawn
Alma Telescope Begins Study of Cosmic DawnOne of the 21st Century's grand scientific undertakings has begun its quest to view the "Cosmic Dawn".
The Atacama large milllimetre/submillimetre array (Alma) in Chile is the largest, most complex telescope ever built.
Alma's purpose is to study processes occurring a few hundred million years after the formation of the Universe when the first stars began to shine.
Its work should help explain why the cosmos looks the way it does today.
One of Alma's scientific operations astronomers, Dr Diego Garcia, said that the effective switching on of the giant telescope ushered in a "new golden age of astronomy".
"We are going to be able to see the beginning of the Universe, how the first galaxies were formed. We are going to learn so much more about how the Universe works," he told BBC News.Alma consists of an array of linked giant antennas on top of the highest plateau in the Atacama desert, close to Chile's border with Bolivia.
It has been under construction since 2003. With the addition of new antennas, the telescope has been able to see progressively deeper into the cosmos and discern star formation processes in ever greater detail.
The full testing and commissioning of its 20th antenna has enabled Alma to record events that have never been seen before. It is now that the first scientific discoveries can be made.
As a taster of what is to come, the European Southern Observatory, one of the organisations that run the facility, has released the first images taken by Alma. They show - perhaps appropriately for the occasion - the collision of two galaxies known as the Antennae Galaxies.
These colossal collections of stars can be seen using optical telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. But Alma, which gathers light that is not visible to the eye, is able to pick out clouds of dense cold gas from which new stars form.
The images show concentrations of the star-forming gas at the centres of each galaxy and also in the chaotic region where they are colliding. It is here that new stars and planets will be born.The image was taken using just 12 antennas. The sharpness and resolution of images will increase dramatically as more antennas are added. The aim is for Alma to have 66 antennas by 2013.
So what do the researchers hope to discover? more
Democracy Now! Reporters Win Landmark Settlement Over 2008 RNC Arrests
I have an article posted on on the 2008 RNC and video The eye of the Storm, Portland Oregon 2002. A link and a taster at the bottom of the page.
This is no way to treat my girlfriend.
Press Freedom Victory: Democracy Now! Reporters Win Landmark Settlement Over 2008 RNC ArrestsAMY GOODMAN: As we reported in yesterday’s headlines, a final settlement been reached in our federal lawsuit challenging the police crackdown on journalists at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Democracy Now! producers, Nicole Salazar, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and I filed the suit last year against the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments, the Ramsey County Sheriff and Secret Service personnel. The lawsuit challenged the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the 2008 RNC that resulted in our arrest.
We were among dozens of journalists arrested that week in St. Paul. More than 40 were arrested. On September 1, 2008, the opening of the convention, Nicole and Sharif were covering a police crackdown on street protests. Nicole’s camera captured her arrest and assault by the officers. As the riot police came at her shouting, "On your face," she shouted back, "Press, press."
NICOLE SALAZAR: Watch out! Watch out! Press!
POLICE OFFICER: Get out of here! Move!
NICOLE SALAZAR: Where are we supposed to go? Where are we supposed to go?
POLICE OFFICER: Get out of here!
NICOLE SALAZAR: Dude, I can’t see! Ow! Press! Press! Press!
POLICE OFFICER: Get down! Get down on your face! On your face!
NICOLE SALAZAR: I’m on my face!
POLICE OFFICER:Get down on your face!
NICOLE SALAZAR: Ow! Press! Press!
[SCREAMING]
AMY GOODMAN: That was Democracy Now! producer Nicole Salazar, screaming as the riot police took her down, bloodying her face. Sharif Abdel Kouddous was arrested next. I rushed to the scene and asked to speak to a commanding officer to get Sharif and Nicole, accredited journalists, released, whereupon I was ripped through the police line and arrested.
POLICE OFFICER: Ma’am, get back to the sidewalk.
DENIS MOYNIHAN: Release the accredited journalists now!
AMY GOODMAN: Sir, just one second. I was just running from the convention floor.
DENIS MOYNIHAN: You are violating my constitutional rights. You are violating their constitutional rights.
POLICE OFFICER: Sidewalk now!
AMY GOODMAN: Sir, I want to talk to your superior —-
POLICE OFFICER: Arrest her?
AMY GOODMAN: Do not arrest me!
POLICE OFFICER: You’re under arrest.
POLICE OFFICER: Hold it right there. You’re under arrest. Stay right there. Back up. Back up.
POLICE OFFICER: Everybody, you cross this line, you’ll be under arrest, so don’t do it.
CROWD: Let her go!
AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and I held a news conference in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan where hundreds are camped out with the Occupy Wall Street protest. We were joined by our attorneys to announce the settlement. We begin with Steven Reiss of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
STEVEN REISS: There is a reason why freedom of the press is in the First Amendment, because without freedom of the press, there is no democracy, and that’s a lesson that applies not just abroad, and we’ve seen many times in recent months abroad, it applies here as well. And for freedom of the press to be vindicated, it takes journalists with the courage to vindicate those rights, and three of those journalists are here with you today.
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you all for coming out. It is very important that we reached this settlement today with the St. Paul, Minneapolis Police, and the U.S. Secret Service. To challenge how the authorities are dealing with press at public events. On September 1, 2008, my colleagues and I were covering the first day of the Republican Convention in St. Paul. I was on the convention floor interviewing delegates, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, Democracy Now! producers, were out on the streets covering the protests. I got a call on the convention floor that Sharif and Nicole had been arrested and had been injured. I raced to 7th and Jackson, the parking lot where I heard they were. The riot police had formed a line, had fully contained the area. I went up to them, asked to speak to a supervising officer to have my colleagues released. They were credentialed like I was, very clearly, I was wearing the top security credentials that allow me to interview presidents and vice presidents, congressman and delegates, issued by the authorities.
It wasn’t seconds before the police ripped me through the police line, twisted my arms back, slapped the handcuffs on, pushed me against the wall, and onto the ground. I was pleading with them not to arrest me, but that’s precisely what they did. I was then brought over to Sharif Abdel Kouddous, his arm was bloodied, he was handcuffed. We were saying very clearly, "You must release us now. We are wearing our press credentials." Whereupon the Secret Service came over and ripped the credentials from our around our necks. I was then taken to the police van, where Nicole was; Nicole Salazar. She was handcuffed. Her face was bloodied, and she described quickly what happened. She said they have been covering the peaceful protests while I was convention. That the riot police had moved quickly in on them. They were in a parking lot. She was backed against the parked cars as they shouted, "On your face." She filmed, but the same time, showed her press pass and shouted, "Press, press." They took her down from in front and behind, onto the ground, her face in the ground. They had a knee or boot in her back. They dragged her leg, which was bloodying her face in the ground.
The first thing the police did was pull the battery out of her camera, if you were wondering what they wanted to stop happening. Nicole was doing her job. She was recording the public protest outside the conventions, which was supposed to be a celebration of democracy. Sharif was there. Sharif Abdel Kouddous, our senior producer, told the riot police to calm down. They pushed him up against the wall, kicked him twice in the chest, bloodied his arm. They face felony riot charges. I was arrested with a misdemeanor. They took me to the police garage where the cages were erected for the protesters. Sharif and Nicole were taken off to jail.
We were held for hours, ultimately released because of the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people from around the country who responded to the video that was put up by independent reporters. The video of our arrest went viral; the most watched Youtube video the first two days of the convention. We believe that is what freed us. The response, the outrage of people around the country. We were simply doing our jobs. It is our job not only to be on the convention floor, but to be covering the corporate suites, to find out who is covering these conventions, who is sponsoring these conventions, and also to be in the streets where the uninvited guests are. The thousands of people who also have something very important to say. Democracy is a messy thing and it’s our job to capture it all and we shouldn’t have to get a record when we try to put things on the record.
ANJANA SAMANT: Hello everyone, moreWe were not alone in our arrests. More than 40 reporters were arrested. Let this send a message to police departments around the country as we move into the next conventions in Charlotte and Tampa, that the police must not violate our freedom to cover what is happening in the streets. It is not only a violation of freedom of the press, but a violation of the public’s right to know, and we are particularly gratified to have come out of this settlement with the training agreement on the part of the St. Paul Police Department, working with the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, to come up with a training manual and a training process, so that the St. Paul Police, and they will urge the Minneapolis police and the state police to do the same, will be trained in how to deal with reporters; not to engage and arrests of reporters or to engage in unlawful arrests at all.
More at Further Tales From a Police State and The Big Fascist Picture Show
More recently: Police State 4: The Rise of FEMA includes a brief review.
Extra! Extra! Read All About The Daily Mail's Fabricated Amanda Knox Story
Hat tip Kevin Arscott and read the rest at Angry Mob
There is further reading here: Nick Pisa Does It Again! Absolute Slime Slanders About Amanda Knox’s Testimony!
But I must post a disclaimer, I know nothing about the Amanda Knox story, although were I to hazard a guess, I don't think I would be be a million miles away. Having given over enough of my life to one media circus, three years in fact, the last thing I needed was an interest in another one.
For you Mister Dacre, and posterity of course.
Paul Dacre and The Daily Mail Making Shit Up! Shurely Not, Shurely Shome Mishtake?
MailWatch has the story, and I have a few piccies for you. Just a few of what can be found throughout my various ex-blogs in the sideber.
Does Dacre and his McMail hold a special place in my heart? You might say so.
Just in passing, I have featured previously, a story by the offending hack, Nick Pisa.
Caricature du jourGeorge Carlin - On Language
When some disingenuous pol is caught lying his (or her) arse off, they weren't lying like a bastard, no not at all, they just ''Misspoke.''
Well that's alright then.
I didn't create this world of ours. I merely recorded it.
I write of the great, eternal truths that bind together all mankind. The whole world over, we eat, we shit, we fuck, we kill and we die. Marquis de Sade
I heard the other day that the Marquis de Sade's old château was on the market for fifteen million Euros. The masochists offered twenty million, and the sadists turned 'em down.
Drive on.
George Carlin - On Language
"You can't be afraid of words that speak the truth. I don't like words that hide the truth. I don't like words that conceal reality. I don't like euphemisms or euphemistic language. And American English is loaded with euphemisms. Because Americans have a lot of trouble dealing with reality. Americans have trouble facing the truth, so they invent a kind of a soft language to protect themselves from it. And it gets worse with every generation. For some reason it just keeps getting worse.
I'll give you an example of that. There's a condition in combat. Most people know about it. It's when a fighting person's nervous system has been stressed to it's absolute peak and maximum, can't take any more input. The nervous system has either snapped or is about to snap. In the first world war that condition was called shell shock. Simple, honest, direct language. Two syllables. Shell shock. Almost sounds like the guns themselves. That was 70 years ago. Then a whole generation went by. And the second world war came along and the very same combat condition was called battle fatigue. Four syllables now. Takes a little longer to say. Doesn't seem to be as hard to say. Fatigue is a nicer word than shock. Shell shock...battle fatigue.
Then we had the war in Korea in 1950. Madison Avenue was riding high by that time. And the very same combat condition was called Operational Exhaustion. Hey we're up to 8 syllables now! And the humanity has been squeezed completely out of the phrase now. It's totally sterile now. Operational Exhaustion: sounds like something that might happen to your car. Then of course came the war in Vietnam, which has only been over for about 16 or 17 years. And thanks to the lies and deceit surrounding that war, I guess it's no surprise that the very same condition was called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Still 8 syllables, but we've added a hyphen. And the pain is completely buried under jargon. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I bet you, if we'd still been calling it shell shock, some of those Vietnam veterans might have gotten the attention they needed at the time. I bet you that.
But it didn't happen. And one of the reasons is because we were using that soft language, that language that takes out the life out of life. And it is a function of time it does keep getting worse.
Give you another example. Sometime during my life toilet paper became bathroom tissue. I wasn't notified of this. No one asked me if I agreed with it. It just happened. Toilet paper became bathroom tissue. Sneakers became running shoes. False teeth became dental appliances. Medicine became medication. Information became directory assistance. The dump became the land fill. Car crashes became automobile accidents. Partly cloudy became partly sunny. Motels became motor lodges. House trailers became mobile homes. Used cars became previously owned transportation. Room service became guest room dining. Constipation became occasional irregularity.
When I was a little kid if I got sick they wanted me to go to a hospital and see the doctor. Now they want me to go to a health maintenance organization. Or a wellness center to consult a health care delivery professional. Poor people used to live in slums. Now the economically disadvantaged occupy sub-standard housing in the inner cities. And they're broke! They're broke. They don't have a negative cash flow position. They're f--kin' broke! Because a lot of them were fired. You know, fired. Management wanted to curtail redundancies in the human resources area. So many people are no longer viable members of the work force. Smug, greedy well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It's as simple as that. The CIA doesn't kill people anymore, they neutralize people, or they depopulate the area. The government doesn't lie, it engages in disinformation. The pentagon actually measures radiation in something they call sunshine units. Israeli murderers are called commandos. Arab commandos are called terrorists. Contra killers are called freedom fighters. Well if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part of it to us, do they?
And some of this stuff is just silly. We know that. Like when the airlines tell us to pre-board. What the hell is pre-board? What does that mean? To get on before you get on?
They say they're going to pre-board those passengers in need of special assistance ...cripples! Simple honest direct language. There's no shame attached to the word cripple I can find in any dictionary. In fact it's a word used in Bible translations. "Jesus healed the cripples." Doesn't take seven words to describe that condition. But we don't have cripples in this country anymore. We have the physically challenged. Is that a grotesque enough evasion for you? How about differently-abled? I've heard them called that. Differently-abled! You can't even call these people handicapped anymore. They say: "We're not handicapped, we're handy capable!" These poor people have been bullsh-tted by the system into believing that if you change the name of the condition somehow you'll change the condition. Well hey cousin ... doesn't happen!
We have no more deaf people in this country. Hearing impaired. No more blind people. Partially sighted or visually impaired. No more stupid people, everyone has a learning disorder. Or he's minimally exceptional. How would you like to told that about your child? 'He's minimally exceptional.' Psychologists have actually started calling ugly people those with severe appearance deficits. It's getting so bad that any day now I expect to hear a rape victim referred to as an unwilling sperm recipient!
And we have no more old people in this country. No more old people. We shipped them all away and we brought in these senior citizens. Isn't that a typically American twentieth century phrase? Bloodless. Lifeless. No pulse in one of them. A senior citizen. But I've accepted that one. I've come to terms with it. I know it's here to stay. We'll never get rid of it. But the one I do resist, the one I keep resisting, is when they look at an old guy and say, "Look at him Dan, he's ninety years young." Imagine the fear of aging that reveals. To not even be able to use the word old to describe someone. To have to use an antonym.
And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started And fear of aging is natural. It's universal, isn't it? We all have that. No one wants to get old. No one wants to die. But we do. So we con ourselves. I started conning myself when I got in my forties. I'd look in the mirror and say, "Well...I guess I'm getting ...older." Older sounds a little better than old, doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. I'm getting old. And it's okay. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die. I'll pass away. Or I'll expire, like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a terminal episode. The insurance company will refer to it as negative patient care outcome. And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a therapeutic misadventure.
I'm telling ya, some of this language makes me want to vomit. Well, maybe not vomit ...makes me want to engage in an involuntary personal protein spill. scribd.com
