Men in Black

Black by definition is “Without any moral light or goodness; evil; wicked;
caused or marked by ruin or desolation.” Why then are we allowing our police
officers to wear black. Why do we equip our U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
agents in black with hob nail black boots. Why do we permit communities to
organize SWAT teams in black garb.

These are not questions rather moral imperatives that require correction in a
democratic society that praises Constitutional safeguards above life itself.
Patriots died to preserve our liberty. Profiteers pass legislation using that
name to rape us of those same liberties. These same elected officials
compromise universal good by enabling legislation that puts weapons of war into
the hands of municipal police departments.

Millions of words have been spilled lamenting police use of force that
resulted in deaths. The racial card has been played in a political game that
enables political advantage. What has become clear through all the posturing is
that the school bully is now wearing black and making life and death decisions
on the streets of America.

You remember him, don’t you. The fat kid. Not too smart, sloppy, a bully
pushing his overweight around. Sometimes he would gather a few pals around him
and they would form a gang. He didn’t disintegrate in time. A few of the slobs
were able to pass a simple civil service test and become police officers. They
are just as fat, just as mean and surly and continue to work their cruelty on
civilians that cannot defend themselves.

Not all police officers are crooks that steal money and heroin from drug
dealers. Not too many are cruel vandals that torture handcuffed prisoners by
shoving the handle of a toilet plunger into their rectums. Only a few shoot or
beat prisoners. All are afraid to go against those that do. Informers will find
rats in their lockers, failure to have back up arrive when danger arises in the
street and will be shunned.

Men in black view the job as ’them against us.‘ The ’us’ is a contagious
disease. It has become infested with the wrong sort of person. There is lack of
proper supervision with routine inspections through undercover operations to
screen out bad officers. The system is weighted against a civilian that makes a
complaint.

In the federal system the arrogance of power has corrupted as pure power will
corrupt. Legislation has given federal prosecutors and agents absolute power.
It doesn’t matter that the person is innocent or guilty, it is that the person
is powerless in the face of brutal men in black.

There is no abiding it. The surly, loud, rude police officer at a traffic
stop. Reaching for his gun, fat belly sticking out over the belt, he struts
toward an elderly woman’s driver side door. Sure it is part of their training;
training without common sense and manners is not training it is imposition of
martial law. Stop and frisk is certain to arouse passions in America’s large
cities. It was always done and always countenanced. If contraband was
discovered then the police officers would lie about how it was acquired.

Pre-Mapp the drug dealer held onto his heroin for dear life and never let it
leave his hands. Post-Mapp every heroin dealer had dropsy. Never was a glassine
envelope of heroin removed from the suspect on the street. He dropped it to the
ground where the policeman picked it up without ever having lost sight of same.
Every criminal complaint read alike. Every police officer lied to suit new
Constitutional interpretations of the law of search and seizure after the
famous Mapp v. Ohio case in 1961. The police officers were refused entry. Mapp
asked to see their search warrant. They had none. Waiting about for a few hours
outside the police came back and showed the woman a piece of paper. They were
too sloppy, lazy or without the requisite proof to get a search warrant. The
U.S. Supreme Court reversed the state court conviction in a landmark decision.
Bad police work by incompetent bullies. Meanwhile Mapp languished in jail in a
corrupted state system.

We crossed from North Dakota into Canada to the International Peace Park. The
ideal of the founders was to have a place where beauty could reason moral
direction toward world peace and harmony. Putting the park between two
countries thus made sense for the founders. A customs post was established on
the road. Canadian officials were nicely uniformed and, in keeping with their
dress code, well mannered, friendly and welcoming. They did not forget to do
their jobs efficiently and said “Welcome to Canada,” when they handed documents
back.

Returning was another issue. The U.S. Customs officers were clad in black.
They wore hob-nailed combat boots and were obviously armed to protect America
from any peace process the Peace Park could attach. The officer that handled us
was arrogant, surly and impolite. We were American citizens with all proper
documentation returning from three hours at a place of hallowed ground. He
searched the trunk of the car.

I had to ask a question although my female companion feared the thought of
even talking to the man in black. I couldn’t help it, so asked why they
searched the car after we only crossed into Canada to visit the International
Peace Park for a couple of hours. I had stepped out of the car and was dressed
in my tourist clothes, T-shirt, flip-flops and shorts. It had been a beautiful,
sunny day.

“You could meet somebody over there and transfer something to your car,” the
nasty customs agent responded.

Well I guess that made sense. I got my surly answer. There was no cordial
“Welcome home,” that I was used to years ago returning to the U.S. from abroad.

A federal Border Patrol Agent harassed a woman of Latin origin in a parking
lot. Totally uncalled for and beyond the scope of what the agent was doing
responding to a suspicious group of Latin men that had been out fishing
offshore. The rude exercise of power upon a totally innocent passerby and the
subsequent illegal search of her car is typical of the rampant exercise of
power by federal authorities on the streets of America. When one was asked his
name, to be able to report the incident, he simply pulled on his shirt where a
badge was embroidered and said this is my name. No name, no badge number, no
recourse. Fear of being thrown into a lock up by these evil men with cunning
and power ended the issue without further complaint.

Do not blame the fat bully. He will always infest school corridors and
playgrounds. Do not blame the military for training recruits to be killers. Any
review of U.S. conduct against enemy and ally alike in Vietnam will make it
apparent that the people we were there to save fared no better than those we
were there to kill. Look at footage returned by news cameras from any of the
Arab countries in the current conflict. Innocent people are treated viciously
by U.S. military armed head to foot in the garb of war. Blame yourself for
electing dolts that tame you, keep you in fear with lies about weapons of mass
destruction.

The killing fields of Cambodia were planted with corpses by black clad
communist soldiers. Black clad Arabs brandishing black flags remain like
pirates of old, intimidating by their sporting colors. Black is the symbol of
evil. Why then do we allow our police officers to wear it. Worse yet why do we
tolerate their black conduct.