Ravenschlief

If the corporate plutocracy sends their police goons after me in pursuit of financial restitution regarding illegal usage of their media, I don’t want to go quietly. My few dollars could disappear into a metaphoric mattress, I’d like to live quietly until they come. I’d turn the repo men away with a few threatening words and a shotgun.

I want to wait in whatever home I have until they come to take me away for unpaid fines. I want to tell them to leave the premises. I want to go about my daily business in the face of their regressive orders. I want to dare them to beat the hell out of me. I want to call them corporate thugs to their faces.

I want to do all these things, but I’m not a brave man. My life is precious to me and imprisonment is a hilarious concept. Throw me in a big cement building with a bunch of books and fascists? I could think of worse places to spread black words.

Remember, my friends, they can beat you, they can impoverish you, they can kill you, but they can’t kill an idea! This is our land, where we take our stand! Stop SOPA now!

In elementary or pre-school, my peers and I were reprimanded for hurting one another. The teachers would tell us off, send us to some sort of punishment, or even home to the big boss if things got really nasty. But that was only the start, our peers would look at us differently, talking in hushed tones about how dangerous ‘that kid’ is. There was no positive aspect of violence outside of the invisible shootouts that we mimed in the school yard.

So, when I see adults like the Oakland PD shooting canisters of pressurized gas into crowds of unarmed people, young and old, I can’t imagine why we think that it’s OK.

Why can a person slap on a badge and then hurt you ford doing virtually nothing? If you fight back you are in the wrong, even if they are going to beat you within an inch of your life. “They’re just doing their jobs.” If you think that the police exist to protect you, you’ve got the wool pulled over your eyes. The police force exists to protect the powerful, not you and me.

People hurting people. Really, that’s all you’re doing. Lay down the badges and stand with us on the right side of history.

Why is it common among the anarchist community to glorify police violence? 

I’ll never forget, a couple of years ago there was a riot on the campus of The Evergreen State College. I watched from a hill overlooking the whole affair. I saw the group getting angry, flipping over a car, chasing the police off with minimal violence. (besides the car) Once they were gone, a couple guys walked by in all black. Arriving late, one of them cracked his knuckles and said, “I’ve never punched a cop before.” Realizing that they’d left, they went to vandalize the already smashed cop car. 

I never understood why this guy was so excited to punch a cop. I am not particularly against violence as a means for political revolution, but why would you target the police? Unless they are an immediate threat to you or your friends, they are just people. Sure, some of them are fascists, but what of those motivated out of a genuine interest in civic duty? Wouldn’t it be better to make friends with them?  Remember that the cops are just employees.

For your consideration:

Would you want to hit a Walmart employee when they tried to stop you from shoplifting?