I’m not sure about the rest of you, but I’d be very pleased if the police stopped threatening us.
Every long weekend, every concert, every public gathering, they threaten us. They use the language masters use on slaves. This language is specifically calculated to instil fear into us.
Australia is right now at the start of its annual Australia Day long weekend. Police forces across the country have informed us via the media they will be “out in force”.
Are you clapping in glee?
Because the police always come out “in force”. They cannot come out and just patrol, or be “on hand”, or maybe just watch from a distance and respond if required. No, no, no.
They must be “out in force” and we must repeatedly be made aware of this using language loaded with threat. Because language is important.
And of course, in the wake of the recent tragedy at Bondi Beach, we have been informed the police will not only be “out in force” but they will be armed with “long-arm weapons”. That means assault rifles. But “assault” is very weighted word, is it not? Best just use a less confronting term when describing their armament. Because, like I said, language is important.
And they are armed like this, according to them, to “provide a sense of security to the community”. Because the community, presumably, feels all warm and snug and ensconced in the arms of “safety” when it sees the police wandering around with machine guns.
How could it not, right?
Glad you asked.
Let’s just examine the recent record of our vaunted police heroes in providing us the safety we all desperately and apparently need.
Not too long ago, two vile fuckers started shooting people at Bondi. One of them was disarmed by passer-by. The other was shot by a detective with a handgun. The machine gunners arrived after it was done and dusted.
A while back, some fucker was running around Sydney’s CBD stabbing people. Happily, he was brought down by citizens wielding milk crates and bar stools. Once again, the police machine-gunners were absent, as well as the police with handguns. Luckily, there are milk crates and bar stools everywhere in Sydney.
A few days ago, some fucker allegedly shot a bunch of people in a remote outback town and is now in the wind. The police have been unable to find him. Even the “specialist” ones flown in with their machine-guns specifically to do just that.
A few months back, another fucker shot and killed some police in the Victorian high country. He’s in the wind too, and that’s despite many millions of dollars of tax-payer money being spent in searching for him. The police have told themselves he must be dead. And in some mine-shaft. And that is why they cannot find him. Or his remains.
A few years ago, we had the Lindt café siege. The police covered themselves in glory there too. They stormed the café after spending the day trying to work out what to do. Then they “accidentally” threw some flash-bang grenades into a closed glass door, deafened, blinded, and basically blew themselves up, then ran away, then went charging back in and shot a few hostages, killing one, as well as the gunman. It was a cluster-fuck, to put it mildly. The Coroner’s Inquest was somewhat uncomplimentary.
“It is apparent the accidental deployment of two SP9 distraction devices in the foyer played a key role in the delayed entry of Charlie and Delta teams, forcing them to retreat. Further, the number of SP9s used overall was problematical.”
Really? You don’t say, Mr Coroner. How many were used, and used by police who had no hearing protection, of course?
“A total of 11 SP9s were deployed during the EA (Emergency Action). The UK Experts (they had to get these in because our gibbons heroically demonstrated how shit they are at stuff like this) had no hesitation in concluding that this was too many.”
Do have a read of the Coroner’s Inquest for yourself. It contains wondrous little bon mots from the police like: “I think I shot. I’m not sure. I don’t know if I shot. I think I shot.”
lindt_cafe_findings-and-recommendations.pdf
So once all of this is objectively considered, questions arise?
Why do the police still keep threatening the citizens? Why do they keep militarising themselves to the point of farce? Why must we be subjected to this “out in force” kabuki theatre every time there is a large public event or a national holiday? Why is there a discordant horse-and-pony show every time our police are faced with a major crime involving a mass shooting, a mass stabbing, or some hostage crisis?
The answer is obvious. They’re just shit at this police business. They are simply incompetent.
I demand and expect a professional and accountable police force. That is what I am being invoiced for via my taxes. And I am not getting that, am I? None of us are.
We have all made a compact with our rulers. We have given them a monopoly on the use of violence. This is how modern states as opposed to tribal society’s work, right? It is a foundational concept.
Alrighty then. I’ve done my bit. I have ceded to my rulers my right to take revenge or seek justice on people who do me wrong. For their part, our rulers have empowered other citizens (the police) to act on the state’s behalf when it comes to administering violence – the violence I can personally no longer use when seeking redress for wrongs committed on me.
Nowhere in that compact did I agree or even anticipate living under constant threat by the very creatures apparently tasked with keeping me safe from harm…unless, of course, that is not the task of the police at all.
And it’s not, is it? The task of the police is simply to ensure our compliance to the law under threat of violence. Safety doesn’t figure in that. How can it? How does “If you don’t be safe, I am going to beat/Taser/shoot you!” play when it is articulated? What has that threat to do with anyone’s actual safety?
And yet, here we are. That is the threat. We are threatened by the police each and every day of our lives. Publicly. Hell, they put up billboards stating we must: “Stop it or cop it”, and “You’re in our sights”. I really dig that one. People do not have sights. People have “sight”. Objects have “sights”. Surely you don’t need me to tell you what those objects with sights are? Of course, you don’t. You already know.
You know because you are being threatened with them every day.
