Written by: Former Law Enforcement Officer

So I set out to research and report my findings on the impending police state in America. I’ll get to this momentarily, however I feel the need to touch upon a few housekeeping items first. We’ll start with my background.  I was a police officer for the better part of a decade.  I hold degrees in Public Administration, Law Enforcement and have a couple thousand hours of training in everything from defensive tactics, active shooter, riot control and dozens of other law enforcement topics. That’s as much as I can reveal and remain anonymous at the moment.  Needless to say, I have a unique perspective on police politics and the direction it appears that we as a nation  are heading, in reference to the militarization of civilian police forces.  It is a complex issue and cannot be fully explained in a single sitting.  The social, political, financial, ethical and specific situational factors are all connected and important relationships here often go overlooked.  All are pieces of a much larger puzzle that we must recognize and incorporate if solutions to problems are to be found.  You’ll find I speak quite vaguely at times but for good reason.  The fundamental problems we are having all relate to communication, understanding, compassion and empathy between us and those who we find ourselves oppressed by. It’s a two way street.  That is all we have ever asked for.  That is all we strive for. When you have these things, the trust and freedom that we all want will follow.  I digress, however I hope to  touch upon these topics in the future.

I cannot proceed without first talking about the elephant in the room; Ferguson.  I still have friends at the police department where I started my career.  I have discussed with them at great lengths, both sides of the situation. As at the time we did not have all the facts, much of the conversations were more philosophical in nature.  There is no doubt about it.  This situation sucks.  I know what it’s like to be in a situation that jumps off and you feel your heart thump like it’s in your throat.  Trust me, cops get scared.  They have to in order to stay alive.  Every one of these situations that pops up, where an officer apparently used excessive force or disproportionate force, there is a single particular moment that determines the outcome of the event.  There is always a transition during an encounter when an officer interprets his subject’s actions as hostile and has to make a decision as to what is appropriate action to take to overcome said hostility.  This moment is where situations are either resolved correctly or the officer succumbs to the adrenaline dump which just occurred and goes all Dirty Harry.  This moment is where lives are saved or lives are lost.

An officer needs to be able to navigate, observe, respond and remain clear minded, regardless of what is happening to him or around him. The ability to focus under extreme stress and make accurate assessments of threats, then act accordingly is what police need to be able to do.  Well guess what?  From my experience, the majority of cops throw everything out the window when the shit hits the fan. Not all, but most. I’d say, around 25% of all cops I have encountered have the experience,  knowledge, understanding and judgment to handle the most intense of situations correctly. The other 75% aren’t monsters (though some are), they are just unintelligent, untrained, and panic when the heat is on.  These 75% make it through the encounter but usually in a manner which demonstrates poor safety technique or stomps on the rights of the accused. Disproportionate force is a daily occurrence across the country, but you never hear about these cases because they are not news worthy and usually, through creative articulation, are covered up within the incident report. One thing that can prevent incidents where officers totally lose their shit when the heat is on, is training.  This is where politics enters the equation; internal politics, that is, usually between departments within a police agency or between the governing body and the police department.  Budgets determine training allowances, and who controls budgets? Politicians.  I’ll go into the ins and outs of budgets and politics at a later time.  Anyway, just remember that whoever controlled the police budgets in Ferguson also has blood on their hands, as I promise you, police training in Ferguson is most likely non-existent.   Additional budgets for police almost NEVER result in more cops on the street, especially now. Additional budgets usually go to raises, equipment and training.  Trust me, I have seen more cowboy cops with no training then I care to admit.  You want your police properly trained.

When police act using proper methods, incidents like Ferguson DO NOT HAPPEN. If the incident went down in Ferguson like I heard it did, then Mike Brown was murdered, plain and simple.  If Brown was running away from the scene, regardless of the crime, shots are not authorized.  Period. If this is actually what happened, there will be justice.  Trust me, police departments will eat their own at every opportunity.    One last observation of the initial Ferguson incident before I move on; Why the hell is the media calling his actions in the convenience store a robbery? I am not familiar with Missouri law, but from my experience, Brown’s actions were not consistent with a robbery.  For a robbery to have taken place, the use of force had to affect the taking of money or property from the person of another, blah blah blah statute stuff.  That did not happen here.  Brown appears to have taken the cigars and attempted to walk out with them. Snapshot: an attempted retail theft is occurring, a misdemeanor at best.  The clerk then follows Brown and attempts to recover the cigars.  Brown grabs him by the throat and pushes him back during his attempt to get away.  Snapshot: Brown did not take any money or property from the cashier, therefore no robbery occurred.  What he did commit was called resisting a merchant and possibly a battery but usually the resisting a merchant charge contains the battery charge itself.  The media is attempting to portray Brown as a gangsta hoodlum who goes around robbing stores.  I have even seen Facebook pictures of him with a gun, posted by the media.  An unarmed kid gets shot and the media treats him like another Travon.  Disgusting, regardless if he jacked some blunts or not.  As I sit here, they just announced the curfew which will be imposed from midnight through 5 am.  Big mistake. By the time this is published it will have happened already.  I hope no one was hurt.

Now I am going to attempt to tackle the subject of the impending police state in America. Is it coming? Is it not? The answer is….I hope not.  When one looks at trends in crowd control and the factors that have led other nations to a police state, one would absolutely determine that the current path we’re on is taking us there.  Hell, if one were to trace the rise and fall of civilizations over the past few millennia, it would be a no-brainer to determine the inevitable police state, regardless of what’s going on today.  It is difficult for me to explain the situation without pointing out some fundamental factors that often go ignored.  There is a micro view and a macro view, much like everything else in life.  The police force is made up of individuals.  Individuals who all come from different backgrounds, education, beliefs and personal moral value.  On a daily basis, the individual is forced to adapt to a police culture, which often conflicts with the personal belief systems held by the individual.  Some adapt better than others.  I myself took great pride in helping people and arresting people who truly deserved it.  There are some situations where the officer has no choice in his actions.  If an officer responds to a domestic disturbance, odds are someone is going to jail. Not necessarily because they deserve to, but agency policies are governed almost completely by a CYA mentality, and an unsupported allegation can lead to a physical arrest regardless.  Due to policies like this, the individual is sometimes forced to go against their own moral beliefs and make an unsupported arrest because if they don’t, they risk losing their career, pension etc. A single incident can sink a police career and no cop is willing to lose everything just to save a single innocent person from going to jail.  I point this out because it is necessary to separate the individual officer from the organization which he is representing.  As much as we need understanding and compassion from our oppressors, we need to be as equally understanding of the dilemmas the individual officer has to deal with when he is forced into situations by his superiors that he fundamentally disagrees with.  This is important because when protestors turn violent, they are not hurting the agency involved, they are hurting the individual.  I guarantee that there are officers in Ferguson who are forced into a situation that they never thought they’d be in and don’t want to be there.  None of those officers, however, are willing to lose their everything and disobey their commanders.  They are just following orders.  The problem is, where have we heard that before? This dilemma is what troubles me most when I see protestors and police clash.  Individuals get hurt and the system just churns on, unaffected.

Many of the signs of a police state are already in effect. Surveillance is everywhere. The CIA and NSA, even after being caught spying on Americans illegally were just like “oops” and then continued completely unabated and backed by congress.  I can’t even get started on the totality of the system and disgusting crimes committed by those who are supposed to be looking out for us, we’d be here all week. I will say however that the actions of these agencies are the single biggest indication of an emerging police state.  Personally I hate the term police state, as when the term comes to mind, I envision SWAT officers on every corner asking to see my papers.  This is not the reality of a modern police state, not in America anyway, not yet.  The reality of a police state in America is much more subtle.  I choose to refer to it as an integrated police culture. It starts with the invasion of privacy, the monitoring of communications, implementation of laws like the Patriot Act and extends as far as manipulation of the media and outright and intentional deflection from real issues that matter to the cheez whiz we are bombarded with every day on television.  I have even read what I determined to be credible evidence that international news figures Anderson Cooper and William F Buckley were CIA plants.  I personally watched a video of former CIA chief William Colby testifying before a congressional oversight committee.  When asked if the CIA has ever planted operatives in the US news media, he responded by saying that he would prefer to answer that question in an executive session, which means the public will never hear his answer. You tell me, what scares you more, SWAT officers on every corner or the intentional manipulation of your mind through a carefully controlled media? I can’t answer that, but the latter is already in effect and has been for decades.  It’s these subtle societal shifts that indicate a police culture more-so than the outright intrusions by police.

Now there are several other factors which would lead one to the conclusion that we are heading toward a police state.  The change in appearance and function of police has gone from your happy go lucky Andy Griffith police figure, to the officer who looks like he took a wrong turn somewhere near Baghdad.  The intimidation of citizens is an absolute sign of a police state.  The external tactical vests are becoming more prevalent for everyday street officers.  The AR-15 is now a standard issue weapon for most police departments.  The appearance of modern day police officers scares people.  The shift from feeling protected by police to being afraid of them is widespread.  All of these are micro level shifts that are again indicators of an emerging police culture. I have first hand knowledge that the militarization of police forces is being driven by the military industrial complex and not for reasons you might think.  The last agency I worked for was in the process of acquiring multiple armored humvees from military surplus.  The bottom line is they were cheap and the agency was approached by US government military surplus salesmen.  So the war machine churns on, perfectly good military supplies  are surplussed to make way for brand new weaponry and machinery.  Completely unnecessary but those government contractors need to get paid right?  The financial greed of military manufacturers is definitely a contributing cause to the emerging police culture.

I could go on all day pointing out the signs of the integrated police culture that is saturating our society.  I choose, however, not to continue to put forth all the reasons why I believe this cultural shift is occurring.  It is. I choose to stand up and shout all the things we need to do to prevent it.  In this day and age, the fight cannot be won with guns and Molotov cocktails.  This fight can only be won with words and ideas, with psychology and technology.  Get out of the house and protest the federal government’s “legal” invasions of privacy. Protest the military industrial complex and it’s reach into your hometown.  Protest the manipulation of the media by our intelligence community.  Stand up for what you know is right. Remain peaceful but make your voice heard.  This is your life and your country.  Do not let your freedoms slip away.  Get out and vote.  We still have to use the system to beat the system. Our time is now. Always remember, knowledge is free.

Links: Hide your identity from your internet provider & government and surf anonymously

Written by: Veritas

Isn’t it strange that even WikiHow has a page titled “How to Become a 21st Century Social Activist?”   In fact, you can even teach yourself How to learn from Social Media by learning of the best time to make a post or how to structure your message to gain the maximum amount of exposure.  With activists organizing movements and collectively taking a stand, it is apparent that we have entered a new age of campaigning in the digital age.  The magnitude of the role that social media plays in our lives is staggering, especially with outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Change.org which collectively foster more than 650 million global users.  As an activist, social media is an incredible tool that allows your message to march across a multitude of different channel and outlets.

Our evolving society has turned our world into a brilliantly connected social platform, enabling us to create, spread and support messages and/or movements from around the globe.  Political activism and employing the use of social media go hand in hand.  The most successful movements and activists have taken advantage of the social media platform to remain at the top of this ever-evolving game of political activism.  When it comes to social change, we have taken incredible leaps over the past couple of decades.  Times are different from the anti-war protests of the 60s‘.  As we embark further into a more advanced society, connected by hundreds of digital means, the flow of information has become a large mystery pile, ripe for exploration. The utilization of social media has integrated our world into an immediately connected social outlet of voices.  Apps, computer software, smart phones and tablets have made our lives easier to share our thoughts with like-minded individuals who have the same ambitions and goals.  In today’s world, an activist without social media would be like a protester on a street wielding a blank sign and chanting in a language no one understands.

Social outlets are strengthened by the methods in which they are employed.  For example, political activism campaigns use a plethora of different social media platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Change.Org, Blogs, Vlogs, alternative media, live streaming videos).  All of the foregoing social media platforms have altered how we receive and transmit message.  When President Obama won the election for his second term, the use of social media was the driving force behind reaching the “uninformed” or “low information” voters.  .  An an independent study of  political advocacy groups, 33 out of 34 groups examined use at least one social media platform to engage their stakeholders.   Consider that the average Facebook user spends 55 minutes on the site each day; 50 million Tweets are sent every 24 hours; 2 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.  A well organized and digitally savvy group of individuals are able to reach a large demographic and spread a message effectively, efficiently and most importantly, immediately.  Within the political world, it is imperative to maintain a strong web presence and to create a slogan or an image to market your “brand.”

There are a plethora of different movements that are propelled into cyber-space every hour and every minute of every single day.  Movements ranging from the  prevention of sexual assault, to protesting with a hashtag topics via twitter, to “stop bullying” movements, and to movements involving Coders who write open source security software for users online; all of which were spread out and very successful crusades.

Digital activism has proven to be a potent tool to spread an agenda or message.  For example, the Arab Spring employed the use of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in order to sprout millions of digital users in order to spread a message across a vast area of land.  Today, avenues of social media have shifted the paradigm of social activism.  Just 10 years ago, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were not even in existence.

However, social media does indeed have its disadvantages and it can negatively impact a movement and in some cases have a reverse effect on the movement.  Just this past spring, a massive social media campaign, dubbed “The Million Man March on Washington,” attempted to gather millions of patriotic Americans to meet and march on the capital to demand change.  The movement acquired a strong leader and gained a great deal of steam.  What went wrong? Why did less than a 1,000 people show up?  The number of participants is debatable; however, you can be assured that there were nowhere near one million participants in attendance.

In a recent video by UNICEF, there commercial, “Likes Don’t Save Lives,” portrayed an aggressive campaign to demonstrate the weaknesses of “likes”.  See Below:

It’s hard to argue with Malcom Gladwell.  In his Oct 2010 New Yorker article, he pointed out that “it is not right to compare social media ‘revolutions’ with actual activism that challenges the status quo ante.” He argued “that today’s social media campaigns can’t compare with activism that takes place on the ground.”  Indeed, it seems that social media lacks one key component, the actual physical presence of people.  Merely hitting the “like” button about a protest in Washington D.C. on a page with 100,000 likes isn’t going to scare a government office.  But 100,000 people in front of the White House will.  Yet, in the case of the march, lack of organization and financial instability crippled the project; unable to give its followers proper direction on how to act, when to act, what to do, and where to do it, not to mention that there was no clear cut message.  Although communication was plentiful, without a strong front line, organizing and acquiring funding capabilities, the movement was lost.

Political Activism and Social media are two powerful tools, yet only if combined and planned carefully.  “So many people are open to “like”, “share” and “comment” for social issues and it makes sense. Things like this play on our emotions. But how many of us actually put our money where our mouths is and help change the world. Very few.”

Slacktivism or Slacktivist, “a pejorative term that describes “feel-good” measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel some amount of satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort..” The term has been thrown around the urban dictionary, forums, and digital conversations lately and the verdict is out: no self-respecting activist wants to be called a “Slacktivist.”  Nonetheless, it correctly depicts the less motivated social media activists.  Doug McAdams, states,  “those who are most committed to social movements are those who have personal relationships with people most affected by social injustice.”  If this is the case, millions of patriots around the country have causes to stand by, or injustices they have seen in which to get up and act.  It’s our choice that keeps us where we are and using the correct tools gets the job done right.

Let’s be clear, activism doesn’t have to be full time.  We have lives to run.  Nevertheless, simply tweeting what you feel to a few thousand followers isn’t going to create action, unless an action is created by the originator through effective, efficient and dedicated work.  Social media activism is rendered ineffective if not used properly.  The message has to be pushed, and supported with high levels of organizational assistance, time and hard work; surely a task that most people would not openly embrace.  But you can still participate and do your part.  If legislation comes across your town you don’t agree with, speak up.  If you see a protest for a cause close to you, pull over and join. It doesn’t hurt to participate, engage and then use what you did to publicize it online.  It shows commitment & credibility.

Keep in mind that being a social activist has its responsibilities. As Malcolm Gladwell said in The New Yorker in 2010, ” it doesn’t involve financial or personal risk; it doesn’t mean spending a summer being chased by armed men in pickup trucks. It doesn’t require that you confront socially entrenched norms and practices. In fact, it’s the kind of commitment that will bring only social acknowledgment and praise,” also stating, “the platforms of social media are built around weak ties. Twitter is a way of following (or being followed by) people you may never have met.”

Perhaps he is correct; meeting like-minded people can only increase your chances of influencing the movement.  Only internet activism has increased while the physical presence of activists seems to be on the decline.  However, many campaigns around the world have seen notorious success.  Just recently, movements as simple as #CancelColbert, which was in response to Colbert’s racism skit, or the sensitive campaigns as awful as #kony2012 have a large following.  Remember #BringBackOurGirls?

The important thing to remember is not how information is received, but what is done with that information once it’s in your hands.  Modern day social activism is taking “action” on all fronts through a combination of means, involving social media and physical campaigns.  It also means, meeting up with like-minded people, having discussions to bring about social change, and coming up with solutions.  Then, organize, create clear messages, gather, and participate in protests or social media movements and act responsibly.  At the same time, it’s important not to alienate yourself.  We’re all humans with different backgrounds & social upbringings and acting as if “you know best” can be a destructive force working against you.   Social Media Activists come in many shapes and sizes nowadays.  From combat soldiers, to hacktivists, to the modern day digital activists, and the ever strong blue and white collared workers; we are the front line of the massive population to bring about social change.

Don’t forget, there are many of us out there, dying to talk with someone else about the horrible problems and amazing issues going on around you and me.  Find someone to help you on your quest, while you help them on theirs.  Start a conversation, be open minded, listen, speak your thoughts and repeat.  Before you know it, you’ve joined in or started a revolution that was just waiting for you to step up and make that difference.

Don’t be afraid, we’re here.  We’re everywhere.

We are Anonymous, We are legion, We never forgive, We never forget.

Expect us.

Follow me or send messages/comments to:

Twitter:  Veritas Anon@EtCognitio

Links: Hide your identity from your internet provider & government and surf anonymously

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Sources:

http://deepcor.com/news/1097/social-media-and-the-changing-landscape-of-political-activism

http://business.time.com/2012/06/21/social-media-before-the-internet-tales-of-victorians-comic-book-fans-phone-phreaks-and-cbers/

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/2/hashtag-activismcancelcolbert.html

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/15/social-media-social-activism-facebook-twitter-leadership-citizenship-burson.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RwZEjiSHOqc  (Likes dont save lives)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXAUqilOaw (History of Activism)

http://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/
http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/protest.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-history-of-activism/2013/05/13/1228fcae-bc15-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_gallery.html
http://www.historyofpoliticalengagement.dept.shef.ac.uk/2011/01/03/social-movements-and-the-history-of-activism/

http://mashable.com/2011/08/15/online-activism/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/social-media-activism/

http://mashable.com/2010/10/09/social-media-activism/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/07/1267458/–New-Day-Is-political-activism-on-the-decline-Not-if-you-ve-heard-the-long-sigh-of-support#

Before ensuing about the story, lets first look back two years and figure out what exactly went wrong when Syria became totally blacked out – a sudden disengage from the rest of the world, which resulted in a 3 day Internet blackout in 2012. Well now, the question was! Was it the Syrian Government behind this blackout?

The dim-out took place exactly during the period of intense and profound ongoing civil wars in Syria. So, as it is supposed, it was assumed that it was the fault of the Syrian government. But, the Syrian Minister stood his ground and made it clear that the government had not disabled the internet, instead the outage was caused by the cable cut by the terrorists to emphasize their existence. Although, when investigated it didn’t seem likely to be a terrorist’s work.

And so, the question came up again on who exactly was the reason for this Syrian Internet Blackout? Well, the answer to that was NSA. The very agency responsible for number of other major happenings.

National Security Agency (NSA) – the agency powered with the strength of God, had ruled over the confidentiality and privacy of the entire world from countries to personages. This organization had the access to read anyone’s data, infringe into large fibre networks, and can narrow out anyone, at any place and at any time.

SECRET BEHIND SYRIA’s 2012 INTERNET BLACKOUT

The latest revelation from the global reconnaissance whistle-blower Edward Snowden removed the mask from yet another Agency’s secret- a 2012 incident that took Syria’s internet status from “Online” to “Offline” was caused by the NSA was nothing but a blunder.

Written by: Annon

In an interview with esteemed journalist James Bamford from Wired magazine published today, Snowden stated that their elite hacking unit in the NSA, very well known as Tailored Access Operations(TAO), inadvertently took most of Syria of the Internet World Map, while make an attempt to insinuate the country’s traffic.

WHAT IF NSA SUCCESSFUL

The TAO unit had supposedly been making an effort to mount a malware by exploiting a liability in the router of the main Syrian ISP that would have allowed the agency to readdress the traffic from the central router to the system tapped by NSA’s turmoil packet capture system and the Xkeyscore packet processing system.

THAT Oops! MOMENT

Instead, the renowned TAO hackers successfully executed it, but to their dismay the plan backfired, as the unit accidently rendered the router, the very equipment it was trying to tap, causing the Syrian Internet to go under the sea. Snowden describes that instant as an “oh shit” moment at the TAO centre, where the NSA feared the moment when the Syrian Government would realize what they had done.

The incident proved to be really ironic, where the other parts of the American government was trying to keep Syria Connected, the TAO was trying to revert the damage done by them and cover their tracks, to no avail.

“Fortunately for the NSA, the Syrians were apparently more focused on restoring the nation’s Internet than on tracking down the cause of the outage,” Bamford inked. Snowden told him that someone joked, “If we get caught, we can always point the finger at Israel”.

It had been largely misunderstood to that the dim-out was caused by one of the opposing parties within Syria, be it the government itself or its rebels. This thought occurred to them since, there have been numerous occasions rooting to similar outages. While the Syrian government stood by its ground blaming the “Terrorists” for the outage caused.

This recent Snowden’s confession pronounces a humiliating part of US intelligence agency, but at the same time, the disclosure also made the list of perpetrators that people will consider, as such incidents are prone to occur there.

Links: Hide your identity from your internet provider & government and surf anonymously

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Resources:

http://thehackernews.com/2014/08/nsa-accidentally-took-down-syrias.html