Another Outrageous Shooting - WHY?

Because we are night owls here, out of sync with the rest of the world, and because we don't watch TV news, your Head Trucker often does not see the big stories until a day or two after the rest of you.

Overnight, I had a chance to get caught up on the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  And I am furious.  Not all the details of what happened are yet available, it seems, but the HORRIFIC video shot by a bystander clearly shows Blake walking away from several policemen following him with drawn guns.

By the time he reaches the door of his SUV, one officer is close enough to grab his shirt.  As Blake continues to open the door and tries to get into the vehicle, the officer starts shooting him in the back - seven or more shots can be heard.

Why shoot a man in the back who apparently was not armed and not threatening the officers?  Walking away from police who were yelling at him to stop was a totally stupid thing to do, granted.  But from what I can see on the video, there is NO EXCUSE for what the cop did.  He could have stopped him several other ways besides shooting him.

And it seems Blake's three young children were in the SUV at the time, watching all this.  HORRIBLE.

Blake is in hospital fighting for his life.  And rioters are tearing up the city of Kenosha.

Has no one told the police in Kenosha - and all through the rest of the USA - to fucking STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE?

Three months after George Floyd was slowly, agonizingly murdered on a pavement in Minneapolis, and this shit is STILL HAPPENING?

DOES NO ONE HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER THE COPS ANYMORE?

IS THIS AMERICA OR AMERIKKKA?   IS THIS A POLICE STATE?  Does anybody CARE??

Sorry to sound so extreme, guys, but there's no reason for this shit to still be happening.  Every cop in the nation should have gotten the word by now.  WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE COPS ON THE STREET, AND WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT???

I don't condone or excuse all the rioting and violence at all.  But obviously, it's not going to stop as long as the cops keep MURDERING people at will, with no punishment and no control.  Of course the country is going to fall apart if it doesn't STOP RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

And if the cops are a law unto themselves, then NOBODY IS SAFE.  They can kill anybody they please, anytime, anywhere.  You or me or Grandma or Uncle John.  Anyone.

Black lives matter.  Justice matters.  Simple human decency matters.  I don't know what else to say.

I know I don't want to hear pretty words of sympathy and sorrow from any goddamn politicians high or low, left or right.  I want somebody to take real action, take control of the cops, and STOP THE MADNESS NOW!   STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE!!  JUST STOP STOP STOP IT!!!

God bless Jacob Blake and his family.  God help us all.


P. S. , 8/26/20 -- I just saw an opinion piece by a journalist in Wisconsin saying, "I don't believe any police academy trains them to murder someone like that." Oh, but they do.  That's the problem.

See my June 11 post, "Killer Cops - The Why and the How," for a couple of eye-opening video reports on this very subject.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent . . .

Now a howl of anguish is going up among some conservative Congressmen over the so-called "intrusion" of a federal judge on the interrogation of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  Last week, early on, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-So. Car.) called for the Tsarnaev brothers, once apprehended, to be held as "enemy combatants" under the Patriot Act and tried by a military tribunal.

However, the Obama Administration decided - quite rightly, your Head Trucker believes - to prosecute Dzokhar, an American citizen, in the usual way through the civilian court system.  And it behooves us all to pay attention to this discussion about civil rights.  Listen to what Judge Napolitano, himself a conservative, has to say about the matter on Fox News:



Why should you care? Because next time it could easily be your ass on the line. As witness what happened to that Elvis impersonator over in Mississippi whom the feds swooped down on last week:

Now mailing poisoned letters to the President is an act of terrorism. Supposing instead of having access to an attorney, who quickly procured a dismissal of charges, Elvis had instead been scooped up from his house, hauled off to Guantanamo, and thrown into some dark hellhole there? Far away from all eyes, out of earshot, without attorney, family, friends, or anyone to help him. And you see how easily it very well could have been you, bud: someone you pissed off online who wanted revenge, or just a careless statement by a friend, relative, or neighbor, and bingo! You're busted. It does happen. All the time.

That's exactly why our English forebears invented such concepts as habeas corpus and trial by jury in open court, to name but two: to ensure that if the cops do make a mistake - and they make plenty, being only human beings, after all - that you won't have to suffer for their mistake.

In this particular bombing case, regardless of what Tsarnaev's mom says about it all being just a big hoax with paint instead of blood, I do think it very likely that the cops got the right man - and he happens to be an American citizen. But it's important to ensure, in fact demand, that he be accorded all the rights that the Constitution guarantees to each of us. Just the same as you would want to be treated. Because that's how the system works. If we let the cops start picking and choosing on their own who gets to be treated fairly and who doesn't - then we will very soon have a police state, where anyone can be arrested at any time and held incommunicado for years, if not for life, at the mere whim of a cop or official. And that's a place you really don't want to go.

Watch this eye-opening, but very entertaining presentation by a law school professor about your civil rights when questioned by police. Pay attention - this is good stuff to know.

Note: I apologize for the spacing errors between paragraphs, caused in some mysterious way whenever I add more than one video to a blog post. Nothing I've tried fixes it. Oh the wonders of technology!

Russ's Notebook: Key West Cops

One-third of them are gay.  And some of them ride trick horses.


Photo:  Justino Esteves, who is not one of Key West's finest.  But don't you wish he was?

Busted for Nudity - In His Own Home

This morning's cuppa Joe may cost a Fairfax County, Virginia, man two thousand bucks:



Should the guy keep his clothes on - what do you think, Truckbuddies?