Detroit's'dictator' pulling out military equipment against protesters

[AllPurposeAtheist]

As some of you may or may not know Detroit is now governed by an appointed dictator known as an 'emergency manager' and they've been shutting water service to tens of thousands of low income residents recently which is a direct threat to public health and safety all in the name of selling the city off to private hands and the highest bidder. Ironically Detroit is geographically located on the banks of one the worlds greatest fresh water lakes. This is unprecedented in this nation, but when protesters try to stop the private company contracted to shut off water they pull out military high frequency sound devices to break up the protesters

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/21/1315395/-Military-device-used-on-Detroit-protest-against-WaterShutoffs?detail=email

[DunkleSeele]

APA, I'm seriously wondering: what the hell is going on in the US? I am quite concerned about the whole situation over there.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

APA, I'm seriously wondering: what the hell is going on in the US? I am quite concerned about the whole situation over there.

Right wing takeover I fear.. You have to give the FBI and CIA credit. They're really good at propaganda and fooling the sheep in the name of FREEDOMâ,,¢
Every cop car has 'to protect and serve' on it, but anymore the only interest they protect and serve is that of corporations and the wealthiest people. They're becoming nothing more than a privatized army slowly but surely.

[DunkleSeele]

Right wing takeover? Reading the various statistics I got the impression that the US are slowly veering towards more liberal positions, at least the younger generations. Could it be that these are the last attempt of a dying monster at maintaining their power? Or am I just too optimist?

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I'm not sure. Some things seem much more liberal, but on the same hand we have extremely militarized police here. Even small, sleepy towns with very low crime rates have police equipped to do battle with their boogiemen.
Something interesting I read from Oregon. .. The rate of gun related deaths is about to outnumber the rate of automobile accident deaths. In 9 states it already has, Oregon and Ohio included. The public as well as police are increasingly militarized with relatively no restrictions, but on the same hand automobiles are HIGHLY restricted, but the public is blissfully unaware.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Begin Rant

"Liberal" in US politics isn't much better than "Conservative." The only real difference is that liberal politicians are much better at cloaking themselves in acts of goodwill, such as Obamacare.

In reality, if you want to sum up how Liberal politics operate here, look at the Cliven Bundy incident back in April. The media was very good about showing everything wrong about the guy, which is how they get everyone on board with the government's actions. Analyze the details, though, and you see the Bureau of Land Management with snipers, S.W.A.T. equipment, the whole works; the BLM is not a law enforcement agency, and in fact the local police were getting ready to side with Bundy for this very reason. Agencies like the BLM are where a lot of that military surplus from the Iraq war is going, though, and it's basically Obama's way of getting around the limitation prohibiting our military from policing Americans.

Fast-forward to today, and now you see more of this equipment being deployed against American citizens, again at the order of someone who is not from Law Enforcement, but this time in a part of the country where Law Enforcement will cooperate.

I must sound like a "rawr, liberals are bad" type of guy, so I will simply throw in that the only reason the Conservatives aren't doing this is because they don't currently hold the Presidency or a strong legislative majority.

End Rant

[Solitary]

More and more we are heading toward a fascist State, if we aren't there already.  Solitary

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Yeah Hijiri..be a good little soldier and mouthpiece for the libertarian party and blame it all on liberals and Obama. This stuff goes WAY further back before Obama was born, but let's go ahead and muddy the waters with Obama bashing.

[GrinningYMIR]

Fascism is different, we aren't becoming fascist, but I wouldn't argue against being called a police state soon. Honestly, what I truly want for this country is not what is currently going on, we're being force fed propaganda, being terrified out of our wits, and mind controlled with endless entertainment. Perfect scenarios for a takeover right in front of our eyes.

[aitm]

Begin Rant

Agencies like the BLM are where a lot of that military surplus from the Iraq war is going, though, and it's basically Obama's way of getting around the limitation prohibiting our military from policing Americans.


End Rant

Do you really think Obama gave a shit what some jack-ass was doing over in the short grass of Montana or Colorado or whereever? I doubt he even ever heard of the situation until about week three of it and someone said in some meeting...."oh hey, Fox is blaming you for some DA in dipshit ville who wants a rancher to pay his taxes and brought it some heavy and now the under ground- ground hogs are gathering for a bbq"

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Yeah Hijiri..be a good little soldier and mouthpiece for the libertarian party and blame it all on liberals and Obama. This stuff goes WAY further back before Obama was born, but let's go ahead and muddy the waters with Obama bashing.

Did I utter the word "libertarian" even once in that post? No? Perhaps that's because it was not relevant to my point. And fine, I'll grant that it's been going on longer than Obama. Obama's the man in office right now making these decisions. He's the one I'm gonna name. Deal with it.

Are you not the least bit disturbed that there are entire sectors of government being given this military surplus (some of which aren't even law enforcement agencies, like the BLM), and next to no one in the mainstream media is commenting on this?

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Do you really think Obama gave a shit what some jack-ass was doing over in the short grass of Montana or Colorado or whereever? I doubt he even ever heard of the situation until about week three of it and someone said in some meeting...."oh hey, Fox is blaming you for some DA in dipshit ville who wants a rancher to pay his taxes and brought it some heavy and now the under ground- ground hogs are gathering for a bbq"

Yes, good, focus on the fact that I mentioned Obama, completely ignore the fact that the BLM employs snipers. EARTH TO AMERICA, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?

[aitm]

well I got my wacked brother and his buddy every fricking hour posting some crazy ass shit about Obama being Satans new head of his private army...head of the illuminati....smuggling mexicans, muslims, afghans, orangutans, dinosaurs into the US and bring about its demise. And "not stopping the war soon enough" and "ending the war and making all those deaths worthless" and "not getting involved in the shooting down of a civilian jet" and "having secret agents kill all of seal team six", Bin Laden is living in the white house...Its all about obama so yeah, one kinda needs to separate the crazy or the rest is deemed crazy as well. eh?

[Shiranu]

Sorry, but yeah HB's post had nothing to do with Obama other than using his name because he IS the president atm and frankly the Democrats are nothing more than Republican-slightly-lighter (the only thing they are "lighter" on is social issues, in terms of regulations and economic issues they are just as bad).

Right wing takeover? Reading the various statistics I got the impression that the US are slowly veering towards more liberal positions, at least the younger generations. Could it be that these are the last attempt of a dying monster at maintaining their power? Or am I just too optimist?

*Edit* - I made a long post, but I erased it because it was just getting too much... I'll try to make it shorter...

Coming from said younger generation...

A. Money runs American politics. While we look down on places like Colombia, Mexico, etc. who's governments are run by illegal drug money... we have set the system up to be run by legalized corporate bribery. This means that even new candidates coming into office are tempted extremely heavily to vote against public interest because it is very expensive to beat an incumbent politicians... and you have to go in debt to either your party or your lobbyists (or both) to do so.

B. While we are socially "liberal" (no where near European standards, liberal here would be considered pretty right-wing in much of Europe), we are still economically very centralist to conservative on both sides of the isle. Americans don't particularly care about issues outside of social issues which gives politicians carte blanc to pretty much do what ever they want (for the most part). And that ties into the lobbyist... if your voter base doesn't care and you are making big money to vote one way.... why wouldn't you?

C. Americans simply don't get out and vote, especially in the primaries, nor do they stay educated about the various politicians views and how it may effect them. American turn-out for voters is pathetically low... although I have seen numbers from Europe that shows your guy's is going down as well which is not a good sign. If Independents would find a candidate earlier than the point where it reaches Romney/McCain v Obama, Bush vs Al Gore/Kerry, etc... there might be a chance of more moderate candidates winning. As it stands though the radicals get through the primaries because the only people voting at the primaries are the radicals.

There are so... so many more issues but I could probably write a 100 page essay on all the issues and not scratch the surface, nor do I personally know all the issues.

[aitm]

Begin Rant

and it's basically Obama's way of getting around the limitation prohibiting our military from policing Americans.




End Rant

yeah, that sounds like an innocent comment of "whatever president is in charge at the time"...of course it is.