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A 6-minute YouTube video by yours truly and Mark P. Ferri, about the loss of freedom in America.
Posted on 07/09/2013 5:34:35 AM PDT by Renfield
Excerpted from "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces"
Sal Culosi is dead because he bet on a football game — but it wasn’t a bookie or a loan shark who killed him. His local government killed him, ostensibly to protect him from his gambling habit.
Several months earlier at a local bar, Fairfax County, Virginia, detective David Baucum overheard the thirty-eight-year-old optometrist and some friends wagering on a college football game. “To Sal, betting a few bills on the Redskins was a stress reliever, done among friends,” a friend of Culosi’s told me shortly after his death. “None of us single, successful professionals ever thought that betting fifty bucks or so on the Virginia–Virginia Tech football game was a crime worthy of investigation.” Baucum apparently did. After overhearing the men wagering, Baucum befriended Culosi as a cover to begin investigating him. During the next several months, he talked Culosi into raising the stakes of what Culosi thought were just more fun wagers between friends to make watching sports more interesting. Eventually Culosi and Baucum bet more than $2,000 in a single day. Under Virginia law, that was enough for police to charge Culosi with running a gambling operation. And that’s when they brought in the SWAT team.
On the night of January 24, 2006, Baucum called Culosi and arranged a time to drop by to collect his winnings. When Culosi, barefoot and clad in a T-shirt and jeans, stepped out of his house to meet the man he thought was a friend, the SWAT team began to move in. Seconds later, Det. Deval Bullock, who had been on duty since 4:00 AM and hadn’t slept in seventeen hours, fired a bullet that pierced Culosi’s heart.....
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
A 6-minute YouTube video by yours truly and Mark P. Ferri, about the loss of freedom in America.
Puritanical leftism at its very finest. Disgusting story.
Nice.
The discussion on Salon is interesting. The people are pointing fingers (liberal v conservatives) at each other rather than the cause. The Conclusion of the article states it best:
“So long as partisans are only willing to speak out against aggressive, militarized police tactics when they’re used against their own and are dismissive or even supportive of such tactics when used against those whose politics they dislike, it seems unlikely that the country will achieve enough of a political consensus to begin to slow down the trend.”
One guy finally spoke up and said:
“kwais7
1 hour ago
@Damon @dmac2949 @Red XIV @carlc2210
Damon, Damon, Damon.
It is not a “No True Scotsman” argument. You are both right.
“True” liberals are opposed to police overstepping their authority.
AND
“True” conservatives, support and uphold the Bill of Rights.
So why are our rights stepped on? Because ‘politics as usual’ tends to trump moral conviction on both sides.
I am a conservative, but right now my favorite reporters are Radley Balko, and GlennGreenwald. “
But aren’t republicans viewed as the “law and order” party? Honestly, I think this transcends politics. We’ve created these giant police forces (because we’re obsessed with “security” now”), and they need something to keep them busy.
The story itself is digusting or the police behavior in the story is disgusting?
The whole point of the story, though, is the reason this is getting worse is that both the Left and the Right give a free pass to police brutality as long as it's against people they don't like.
It all starts with the puritanism of the left and the food Nazis and gambling Nazis. I’ve been carrying on about this for years. Next, we will have a swatting over someone having a Big Gulp in NYC.
Case in point?
Exhibit A: President Obama has killed far more people using Predator and Reaper drones than President Bush ever did. In his FIRST TERM, Obama authorized over SIX TIMES as many drone strikes as Bush did over TWO terms. Apologies for the capitalizations, but that is truly amazing. Yet, the same Liberals who were protesting Bush's 'murder by drones' are largely quiet over Obama's.
Exhibit B: Remember the Patriot Act? Imagine the furor on the Right had it been created under Obama. 'nuff said.
The thing is that the attrition of freedoms and rights, and what makes America America, has little to do with Right or Left. Those are just delivery vehicles for ideologies from Republicans and Democrats, one of which can be bad for the country and the other being far worse for the country faster. There is a difference between being a Republican and a Conservative, and being a Democrat and a Liberal. Nowadays both main parties are just altered versions of each other ...like the difference between a Jaguar and a Leopard. Different species, different types of spots, and the jaguar is somewhat larger than the leopard, but both will easily kill you and eat you, and for the matter the leopard has killed more people!
The country has been on a slippery slope for quite some time. Again, compare the average Democrat from the late 1970s to the average Republican today. The 1979 Democrat would be far more conservative in a number of areas than the current Republican.
There are many things Conservatives and Liberals can hit each other on - very many - but they shouldn't forget about the greatness of the country that enables them to do so, and they should both be against certain things. Be it cops feeling they can have B-movie actors drive armored vehicles into living rooms, or presidents passing decrees that are patently unconstitutional.
I tend to think of it as leftwing because of my personal experience. A very good friend of mine was swatted because of local politics. He went against the left wing city council, and while it’s too long a story, he ended up with cops on his roof and at his front door, guns drawn. Miracle he wasn’t killed. A perfectly decent man who almost had his life destroyed.
Which is the disgusting part? The police actions? Or the fact that someone reported on them?
Disgusting on so many levels.
For those who might not have been pauong attention, I’ll say it again....cops are not your friends.
We need leaders who will cut government back to its appropriate size. Local government can't create these excess SWAT teams without federal dollars, and the feds are only doing it to buy votes. But where would we find an honest small government politician these days, one who would protect our right to keep and bear arms and our right to choose a Big Gulp? I hope someone rises to the occasion in the next four years, but where would we find a leader who stands for liberty?
The left is puritanical but this story is not an example. Notice the point that the state spent $20 million to promote the lottery.
This is the state defending it’s territory, The gambling graft belongs to the state and they need to kill all interlopers.
I think they have their eyes on prostitution next.
The conservatives in this country simply do not have the media to “create a furor”.
Nough said.
You may be totally correct, thanks for the info!
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