Op-Ed by Matt Agorist
Earlier this month, Stephen Carr, 27, of Fayetteville, Arkansas was siting in his patrol car when London T. Phillips, 35, approached his car and opened fire. Carr was murdered in cold blood, having been shot 10 times. Carr became one of several officers in 2019 to die in ambush-style attacks.
These apparently unprovoked attacks on individuals who were not directly involved in threatening the life of anyone are a hindrance to the progression of liberty and police accountability.
Random acts of violence will only serve to undo what little progress those of us in the peaceful movement have accomplished and in fact will reverse it and prevent any future progress.
In fact, it is already happening — even when cops are the murderers.
Earlier this year, after four cops were shot in Houston during a raid on an innocent couple all based on lies, Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi took to the airwaves to threaten anyone who criticizes police.
“If you’re the ones that are out there spreading the rhetoric that police officers are the enemy, just know we’ve all got your number now, we’re going to be keeping track of all of y’all, and we’re going to make sure that we hold you accountable every time you stir the pot on our police officers. We’ve had enough, folks. We’re out there doing our jobs every day, putting our lives on the line for our families.”
He never apologized once it was discovered that his officers were likely shot by friendly fire and the two cops responsible for the raid had lied to obtain a warrant. Nevertheless, the divide between the police and the policed grew further. And, it apparently seems to keep growing.
On a daily basis, people take to our Facebook pages and the comments section of this website to call for the death of cops. This needs to stop.
Violently attacking the government creates victims out of the ones we are trying to expose as criminals.
Those who initiate and support such violence will be complicit in creating the hellish police state that will inevitably ensue as a consequence of their actions.
We can simply look back to 9/11 as an example of what is to come if this violence continues.
Prior to 9/11 the TSA did not exist, indefinite detention did not exist, the NSA did not spy on American citizens, the police weren’t given armored assault vehicles, and Americans could not be assassinated without trial.
If these acts of aggressive violence against the state continue, we can expect to see what little civil liberties are left to be whisked away in the name of protection from the ‘domestic terror threat.’
We can expect to see peaceful activists rounded up and detained indefinitely. We can expect to see homes raided of individuals who are speaking out against the state. We will see more and more checkpoints, and less and less unmolested travel.
If you think that the American people can somehow win in a war against the military industrial complex that the US has built up in the last two decades, you are seriously delusional.
Your AR-15 will do nothing against thermal imaging predator drones equipped with Raytheon’s small tactical munitions designed for blowing up single homes. They will not stop the MRAP as it plows through your front door. No matter how you slice it, the most well-armed American citizen, is no match for the hundreds of billions spent annually by the US on warfare.
No, this battle will not be won with weaponry as the US spends more annually on defense than the next 13 largest militaries in the world—combined.
Also, the above scenarios don’t take into account the public’s support. If a group of people rise up and claim to be freedom fighters and they do not have the support of the citizens, well, that “revolution,” was over before it started.
If anyone thinks that killing cops and/or praising the death of innocent people, will amass public opinion in their favor, again, they are seriously delusional.
Even if a large group was able to get public support and engaged in a war against the government, imagine the horrid reality that would ensue. The US would literally be a war zone and quickly languish into third world status.
As a former Marine, I know that before I woke up to this tyranny, I would have done anything my leaders told me, including initiating force against Americans; especially if there were an increase in prevalence of unprovoked violence against the state like we’ve seen over the years.
However, I also know first hand how people can change once presented with the information that frees them from their statist bonds. Most of these police officers are simply brainwashed into thinking they are doing the right thing. They just need to see their true reflection enough times to realize that they are not. It is up to you and I to provide this reflection.
That is why we must win the hearts and minds of the people within the state. We must expose as much of their violence and corruption as we can, for that is what wins support; not murder.
We must show that those of us who stand against the drug war, attacks on civil liberties, and gun rights, are the good guys. We are not some violent group of terrorists who are quick to don the pitchforks and torches and beg for blood.
Removal of due process, the initiation of violence, and abuse of power; these are tools of the state, not of the peaceful revolution.
Those who would take an innocent life to incite change are no different than the mass murdering sociopaths within the government.
‘But police are not innocent,’ some will say. What are statements such as that one, other than calls to remove due process and act as judge, jury, and executioner, just like the corrupt police?
Yes police uphold a system of immoral laws that lead to the harassment, kidnapping, and death of innocent people. But these are mere symptoms of a much larger problem.
The police state didn’t suddenly pop up overnight. It’s a product of society. More accurately, it’s a symptom, of a sick society, that we are all complicit in creating.
Our only means of changing this sick society, is changing ourselves. We have to remove our dependency upon a group of people who use violent coercion to achieve what they refer to as “order.” When enough of us do this, the police state becomes irrelevant.
To quote Butler Shaffer from his eye-opening book, The Wizards of Ozymandias,
“We will not become free when the state goes away. Rather the state will go away once we are free.”
Taking an aspirin for a headache only masks the symptom of the headache, it does not eliminate the cause.
One cannot eliminate future headaches by constantly taking aspirin, in the same manner that one cannot change a violent state by acting within the rules of that state; violence will only be met with more violence and more support for the state.
The new system is being built and it is quickly showing the obsolescence of the old.
But here is the kicker, all these alternatives go away as long as people keep initiating senseless violence. We can say goodbye to all these positive aspects of society reacting peacefully to the police state. Every act of senseless violence is a step backwards in the fight for freedom.
Do not mistake this as a call to pacifism. No one is advocating that you lay down and lick the boots of tyrants as they oppress you.
Self-defense is a natural right. This is why we see cases like Kimberly Moore, 54, and Eduardo Padilla, 33, not being charged for defending their home from cops who unlawfully raided it.
The actions that we are taking now like filming the police, photographing and documenting their corruption and standing up to their immoral rule, are the real catalysts of change; and again, they will all go away if the violence continues.
This one photograph from Kent state, showing the murderous nature of the police state did more to incite change than any amount of violence could ever do.
The video of Eric Garner did not lead to the indictment of officer Pantaleo, but it set off a wave peaceful resistance like we’ve never seen. Sports figures, movie stars, news casters, and even law makers rallied together to put an end to this senseless police brutality.
If you think that we are losing this battle, think again.
Police are frequently contacting The Free Thought Project and asking how they can help stop this ridiculous police state and we are working with them to find new ways.
There are organizations like LEAP (formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, now Law Enforcement Action Partnership) that are fighting the odds and standing up to their own peers and seeking peaceful change.
There are officers and entire departments quitting their jobs when the corruption becomes too much to handle. Entire departments are also fighting to end the drug war and supporting gun rights.
There are movements across the country which are forcing police departments to carry their own personal liability insurance. This would stop the unaccountable flow of tax payer dollars to pay for police misconduct, and hold the officers directly responsible for their actions.
We are winning and can beat these tyrants. But if people continue to stoop to the same level of senseless violence and removal of due process as them, we will not only lose, but guarantee that there will never be another opportunity to resist again.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” —Martin Luther King Jr., from Strength to Love, 1963
We must show that policing society does not have to be like this. We must expose the faults of this archaic system of using violence to solve every problem that arises.
We must show that there are alternatives to this type of policing and these alternatives will eventually make the old system obsolete. This has already begun.
We are now witnessing the free market reacting to an incompetent and violent police state by creating alternative means of community security.
Apps like peacekeeper, which connects community members directly to each other to foster community interdependence by empowering community members to protect one another, have popped up over the years as a reaction to police violence and corruption.
Organizations like the Threat Management Center in Detroit are popping up in response to police incompetence and negligence, and they are proving to be magnitudes more effective than actual police.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.
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