Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 09 2003 @ 05:03 PM CDT

Supprise! America IS a police state. I have no doubts that in the future, it will become a complete autocracy with the usual requisite secret police. I can\'t believe this actually still supprises people.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 09 2003 @ 06:22 PM CDT

It doesn\'t surprise anyone in Seattle- I assure you.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 09 2003 @ 06:42 PM CDT

no it doesn\'t!

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 09 2003 @ 08:52 PM CDT

Fuck. Don\'t break your arms patting yourselves on the back over how wise and perceptive you are, guys.

This stuff does actually surprise people who are not activists or have no experience with the police. An article like this from a clueless person is more likely to be recieved well by your average Seattle PI reader than the in-crowd focused, rhetoric-laden, ideological diarrhea that passes for analysis in most activist circles.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 09 2003 @ 09:29 PM CDT

i don\'t see either of these things as monolithic or somehow mutually exclusive.

most people in Seattle either were downtown during the WTO, (and hence got their asses thumped) or saw it on TV, and saw plenty of Seattle Pigs beating up nice middle class white protestors, and most people understand at a basic level that cops get out of hand sometimes.

Plus, the SPD has the highest civilian kill rate of ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY (percentage wise). So, we know that communities of color in Seattle don\'t have too many illusions about State power and the police...

That all said, I agree with the thrust of your statement, that most people still need a little prodding, and the above Seattle PI piece is a great way to do that.

Now if we can only get a REAL Police Accountability Mechanism!

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Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, June 09 2003 @ 11:33 PM CDT

you mean a firearm?

\"Now if we can only get a REAL Police Accountability Mechanism!\"

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 10 2003 @ 07:43 AM CDT

I tend to agree that most people in the Seattle area are not shocked by what the cops do. Every since the WTO protests there has been a long string of events in which Seattle cops and cops in Tacoma acted in very repressive ways, even killing folks. The problem that I see is that most of the activists still do not understand that the cops are just like the troops in Iraq, they are there to act in the interests of the ruling class. Many activists think that the thing to do is to get the city council to do something or to get some type of review board, and since the city council is just as much a part of the system as any other part of the ruling class, that is a dead end for activism If the city council had any interest in the well-being of the people they would have had resisted the WTO and the LEIU coming to Seattle in the first place. So how can people ask folks who the cops are working in their interests to have the cops stop working in their interests? As anarchists we should not be trying to reform a system that can never function in our interests. Rather we must break the illusions of reform that is bogging down the struggle and take the idea of direct social resistance to the communities.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, June 10 2003 @ 10:36 AM CDT

Why the attitude, Shawnie? Most people in Seattle are quite aware that the police have shot off pepper spray and tear gas nearly ten times over the past couple of years. What does this have to do with rhetoric? In crowds? What\'s your fucking problem? You think people don\'t notice this sort of thing? And when you can find the \'in-crowd\' that you mentioned...point them out to me. I imagine they only exist inside your head. Such pointless bitterness over nothing...

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Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, June 13 2003 @ 02:43 AM CDT

I just happened to notice this comment in a search.

Blah. In-crowd? Meaning those of us in activist circles who communicate in cryptic rhetoric (everything from \"affinity group\" to \"imperialist\" to \"Victory for the Forces of Democratic Freedom!\") and who write long-winded essays that would require an average person to carry a copy of Roget\'s Thesaurus (Leftist Ideologue Edition) in order to interpret them.

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