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Rose City Gulag
Alex Ansary / January 18th, 2006
There's a term I once heard: Think globally, Act Locally.
This activist philosophy makes a lot of sense. In my own research into the police state control grid, I've discovered an interesting parallel. My journey into the strange world of global corruption has taught me a few things about forecasting the coming storm. A meteorologist will predict whether it will rain or not, but few accurately can truly predict the weather for us. No one blames the meteorologist when he's wrong, yet many real PATRIOTS are now being condemned when they are right. Many of us are seeing the coming global super storm of the surveillance society that’s quickly become the vehicle of our enslavement. I quickly decided that I would also seek out the truth and get 'outside the box', away from the war machine's spin on network TV. While investigating the march towards world government, I have noticed the symptoms of the police state all around me in my home town of Portland, Oregon.
When they say, "It's a small world after all," I shrug in this case. The Portland Police and other local law enforcement agencies including the FBI, have adapted themselves to meet the challenge of the war on terrorism. In a war based on lies and misinformation, it is natural that the "People of the United States" are protesting in thousands of cities around the world. Unfortunately, it isn't the police officer's job to get to know the community anymore. The days of knowing your local cop and how his family is doing are OVER. What is happening overseas in Iraq and the corrupt war around the world is affecting police departments everywhere. Their place in society is regressing from:
‘public servant’ to ‘strong arm of the global elite.’
If you were to ask several police officers what the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 is, only a select and educated few could answer you correctly. That is not part of their training.
From the assault on protesters at WTO protest around the nation prior to 9/11, to the FBI's targeting of local peace groups, we’ve seen the local police become submissive cogs in the machine and doing exactly as told without asking questions. I recently wrote an article about the propaganda that the media uses to condition us to accept these dark changes in our society. The truth is that the militarization of the local police has been happening long before September 11th, 2001 in the both United States and other parts of the world. The diabolically tentacles of the elite have been carefully installed long before George W. Bush assumed the throne. Big brother was already being established decades ago and talked about. Most Americans haven't noticed how dangerous this is because many of the changes have been incremental and seemingly unrelated to each other.
Prior to moving to Portland, Oregon at the age of 13, I lived 30 miles outside of town in a rural city known as Aurora, Oregon between 1980 and 1993. Until recently, I have never taken the time to be grateful for what we had when he had it. Aurora had little crime, was loosely populated, and many residents had land or were farmers. My grandfather had a carpet business and I remember the rides to the airport where we would hop in his plane and just fly to the coast without worrying about security. My grandfather and I were very close, although our political views are different. During WW2, he flew a B-29 Fighter plane for the Marines in the South Pacific and I respected him. We had property and I was always exploring the wild life and nature. My uncle Bruce was a party man for awhile but during his generation (70s and 80s), but the trouble he got into then would get him jail time today. The police knew the residents, and he wasn't a threat to the community. The neighborhoods are still safe there today and there are still only a handful of cops. Today I look towards tomorrow's world and shiver. That reality is going away for many Americans.
How times does fly. It is now 2006 and we live in a totally different world. I've seen the changes in the relationships between the community and local law enforcement. Portland has had it's own share of tales about police brutality that dates all the way back to their beginning (about a century ago). During the late 60s' and early 70s' there used to be a basement of in the old jail on 3rd Avenue in Downtown Portland where suspects and targets were tied down and beaten with sand filled hoses against their legs. I know of one such victim personally.
Phil Stanford, a writer for the Portland Tribune, wrote a expose about Portland's dark and shady past entitled Portland Confidential. Using a wealth of sources, (anonymous and credited), stanford revisited a time that Portland’s civic leaders have long tried to forget: the corruption filled 1950s. In short, digestible, one newspaper column sized vignettes, Stanford message: Portland was a bad, bad town.
In totality, this book barely scratches the surface to the documented evidence that the police state control grid has found a welcome home in Portland, Oregon. On both the national and local level, corruption within the city or government and military/police can occur for three basic reasons:
1) The committee or persons responsible for holding the public servants accountable have no respect for the U.S. Constitution or have a lack of knowledge about it. The Posse Comitatus Act is also avoided or misunderstood.
2) Conflicts of interest are a common occurrence, as the tradition of protecting the power structure within is enforced. People are paid off as well through bribes or campaign donations.
3) The media protects the authority figure over the public. This is usually because the power monopoly owns most of the media, or has cronnies in position of ownership or influence.
During the Vietnam war, a growing number of Oregonians began to protest in the city streets. In Portland, Oregon, PSU students staged a protest which turned very deadly in 1970. This was known as the first time the Portland Police have had to deal with a crowd of that size and intensity. The separation between the local cop and the average resident grew even more during the 1980's, also due to the drug war.
Jim Redden, another local author, wrote about the surveillance that police have been conducted against our own citizens, including the creation of snitch programs such as DARE and TIPS. Television has helped corrupt officials and officers get away with illegal spying and harassment every day. This can been seen at the national network level, or their local affiliates. The new and secure requires "extreme measures" to protect us from ourselves.
Series network dramas play their role quite well in marketing and branding the new police state America. It's plot usually consists of the 'hero' or 'homeland security' defeating the terrorist cells using more vicious tactics than decent ethics or morals would allow in normal conditions. It's amazing how quickly our values change when there is a perceived threat in our midst, be it real or manufactured.
What few people realize is that one of the CO-creators of the series COPS, was a former Portland Police Officer. This idea that the Portland Police have only become dangerous after 9/11 is false. That’s because no one claims that. The police state in the 'State of Oregon' has been here for some time and has experienced different stages of progress. In the Pre 9/11 world, our wonderful public servants expanded the criminal arrests of low level drug users drastically. As a result, local city, counties, and states were able to participate in the prison industrial complex. Later the concept of ‘privatizing’ the new industry was introduced. In 1994, the majority of Oregon Voters responded to increasing violence crime by passing Measure 11. This measure took away the judge's discretion when it comes time to sentence someone convicted of a violent crime. To this day, if you're changed with battery or assault, you could get 10-20 years under the mandatory sentencing guidelines. One thing that prevents everyone from getting the maximum penalty is the reality that the our area’s county jails and state correctional facilities have become quickly overcrowded.
In a world where nothing is free, 'we the people' have paid the tax burden and debt for the prisons- the wars, and unfit representation. Freedom is something that has quickly flow away in the war on drugs and all we got out of it is another group of corporation entities that make money off the enslavement of the population. Our rights have become privileges, not 'God Given Rights'. Every time the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office transports an inmate from facility to facility, they are charging the taxpayers 50-75 dollars each way. This is barely the start. That doesn't even count the amount to feed, house, or provide medical care for the incarcerated.
Lately our local papers’ headline every week has been blasting the news that Multnomah County needs more jail space or our city and normal way of life will fall apart. They have an empty facility on the west side of town that has remained empty since it's creation a few years ago. The state is broke and the failure of the other state' economies has resulting in massive homeless migration to our city. There are more ways to deal with drug addicts and the homeless than incarceration, which is anything but rehabilitation. The Meth epidemic is real and serious. But the concentration camp mentality will not keep our streets safer. In fact, most defendants get stuck in the system because they find out it's hard to get out once you're in. The local Fox News affiliate is doing nothing to serve the public interest with it’s militarized ‘Meth Watch’ program that is scripted to frighten the viewer. Sadly, Fox News is not the only news outlet in town that’s made itself out to be an infomercial for the local prison industrial complex.
The attitude of having "nothing to fear, thus nothing to hide", has got to go. In our city, we have seen innocent people harassed for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and racial profiling has become commonplace, even with an African American Chief of police. In Old Town/Chinatown, (a district in downtown known for heavy illegal drug usage) the police have imposed unconstitutional restrictions of even suspected drug users to curb the problem. This tailored form of ‘zoning citizens’ has also spread to a dozen other neighborhoods in the city with several problems and is a model that several other police departments use to enforce the durg laws.
On August 23, 2002, Antiwar activists gathered in Downtown Portland, Oregon to voice their dissent during George Bush's visit. Things became very violent between the police and the protesters but this was really a flashback to the May Day protest in 2000 where demonstrators where herded into Waterfront park without a clear exit. Bicyclist groups such as Critical Mass have had their fair of harassment as well in recent years. A new documentary entitled, "Still we Ride," details the targeting of these types of groups.
Lately the stories have been much more lethal. It's normal today to open the paper and read about another local cop who kills someone who is mentally ill, or someone who frightened the officer. People have died trying to resist arrest or drive away, as in the Kenda James trial. The Perez Case also related to the use of deadly force. Since the trials, the relationship between the Portland Police and the citizens has become very clear. A police officer is entitled to "killing someone if they feel that they are afraid". Countless officers are documented to have been acquitted in Portland, Oregon after murdering someone when they didn't have to.
Let us take another moment to reflect on our past. Back in April 2003, after a large demonstration that shut down the Burnside Bridge, Republican Senator John Minnis proposed Senate Bill 742. It identifies a terrorist as a person who "plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly. This clearly targeted protesters. Fortunately it didn't pass, but that did not stop the shootings in Portland and the new use of tasers. This has already caused several deaths. Some victims have been in their pre teens and many senior citizens have also been shocked.
The police state is here even if your not under attack or investigation. For example, the state has begun to show interest in having all vehicles installed with RFID technology designed to track you and tax you based on you mileage. At the same time that we are being exposed to this, we find out about the plans for national ID cards, and the phasing out of the local State driver’s license. . Last week it was announced that in order to fly in the future, you will need another ID. State ID's will become invalid. The right to travel and be secure is going away everyday. Who will enforce these intrusive laws? You guessed it. Your local police department.
On August 12th, 2005, Anthony J. Hilder and myself found ourselves in a checkpoint on the Burnside Bridge. The police had used the pretext of a shooting the week before as an excuse to set up shop. Instead of investigating a crime scene, they set up a checkpoint to find drivers without valid tags or papers. The disturbing thing was that no one was concerned about this behavior, not even the homeless. They made their money very quickly that night, and nothing was said in the morning about it. I will be featuring this footage in an upcoming film.
A month later, I was in NE Portland where there was a shooting the night before. The Portland Police sent out the CERT Team, a militarized swat force with semiautomatic weapons. They were there all day in an apparent stand off, but the response was quite extreme. The one of the problems is that too many people are letting their fear allow the police to take over their lives. Television as a whole (with the exception of cable access and a small fractionalized handful of other broadcast stations), and mainstream news papers have absolutely FAILED to investigate the guilty and report the truth in so many cases. Those of society who haven't felt the brunt of this oppression yet, will shortly.
I am not against a sense of order and the rule of law. I belong to no party. I am not an anarchist nor do I preach any kind of violence towards the government nor each other. Violence and greed is the very thing what we are fighting against and attempting to move away from. The violence, the death, the destruction, and the war is killing our planet is going to tear apart our urban cities. As the systems of control eliminate the middle class in America and create the HAVES and HAVE NOTS, the police are going to have a homeless population on their hands that no modern jail house will ever be able to fill.
In the 21st Century we must stop thinking in our 20th Century brains. We are not slaves, we are not serfs, nor must be bow to the throne of England, nor the throne of Bush, Inc. It's time we remembered what made this country great and desirable, otherwise we will be reading about freedom and democracy in a text book, in the past tense. Looking within and at the local level, we can spot out the coming push to a one world police state where all the decision making will be centralized, globalized, and micro managed. Without room for culture, dance, health, or love, the soul of America will become infected and soon die. This is why I fight, and if you love freedom... you will too.
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