Column by Alex R. Knight III.
Exclusive to STR
One of the latest techno-gadgets government has taken to employing against the public in order to further cement its grip on control by perpetuating a reign of terror are, of course, tasers. They are touted as an allegedly non-lethal means of coercing an uncooperative person into compliance with a government goon. Yet, according to a May 2013 study conducted by Amnesty International [3], these “non-lethal” devices have caused 540 deaths since American police departments and other law-enforcement (read politician opinion enforcement) agencies began using them en masse in 2001. Several of these victims have been people with pre-existing heart conditions, or even children. That’s right: Children. Dead at the hands of these tortuous devices.
Most iconic, perhaps, was this September 17, 2007 incident [4], where University of Florida student Andrew Meyer was tased and arrested by police after confronting Massachusetts Senator John Kerry about his membership in the secretive Skull [5] & Bones [6] Society. “Don’t tase me, bro!” became a temporary catchphrase both repeated humorously, and as a grim reminder of the escalating callousness of state power.
Naturally, my sympathies tend towards the latter.
We have seen, heard, and read much about – and are becoming frighteningly accustomed to – an ever more aggressive, belligerant, and militarized police force in America. [7] Cops who train, act, and employ tactics like soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan, rather than protectors of basic peace. Indeed, many of them are former soldiers who have returned from those battlefields. The only effective difference, really, is that they generally dress in dark blue instead of desert camouflage. To them, we non-governmental “civilians” are foreign enemies and they, an occupying army. We are chattel in their eyes, and they have determined to be our masters – judge, jury, and executioner. And of course, the politicians don’t mind this one bit. In fact, it’s all just part of the plan.
Contemplate this for a moment, as well: How was it that for over two centuries of policing in America, cops did not have tasers and yet, somehow, mysteriously, chaos did not reign, America did not fall, and the world never came to an end? In fact, is it not true that since the introduction of tasers – a potentially very lethal torturing device – the general level of police misconduct, abuse, violence, and brutality has dramatically escalated? At the very least, over 540 people would likely still be alive today were it not for the police having been given full government sanction to use tasing as a means of compelling compliance with their orders. One of the original arguments in favor of police possessing tasers was so that deadlier methods, such as use of actual firearms, would not have to be employed as often. Yet in truth and practice, tasers are most often used, not in any life-threatening situation, but whenever a cop begins to become annoyed.
Let’s get real – tasers are a tool designed to acclimate the public to a heightened level of fear and terror at the hands of the State’s gendarmes. They are also employed in order to make the job of the police less physical and more fun – to feed the psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies of those whose prime purpose is keeping the politicians and other bureaucrats safely nestled in their ivory towers of lordship. It’s certainly not about protecting us – in fact, I don’t think it ever really has been. It’s about controlling us, and making us fear the State. And as those in political power come to fear the populace more, it creates a vicious, deadly whirlwind of which little good can ever come.
[8]
