Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Gordon Fitch wrote:
>
> [clip]
> You & I & Justin are not at all likely to be killed by the NYPD. Cop
> violence is one area where race almost completely dominates. I bet a
> black lawyer in an Armani suit is more likely to get hassled or shot
> than a scruffy white anarchist.
>
Just to complicate things. Police (and prison-guard) violence goes far beyond the _present_ needs of repression (or of "law and order"). Morover, the ruling class & their various adjuncts must be at least as aware as anyone on this list of the sheer buffoonery (in terms of alleged goals) of the war on drugs and all that part of the war on crime dependent on the war on drugs. (I'll overlooks as disputed territory the remainder of the war on crime.) I think it can also be claimed without too much dispute that some proportion (small, but measurable) of police killings, beatings, destructive house searches, & arbitrary jailings _do_ resemble (qualitatively) death-squad practice. And the phrase "police brutality" is in many ways a euphemism for what actually goes on in the city & county jails and police stations of the u.s. And in reference to prisoner on prisoner violence (including especially rape), there is at least a case to be argued that it is more than merely overlooked by prison and jail management. Also of course there is the growing tendency to treat ever younger and younger "criminals" as adult offenders.
The _excess_ of violence for current purposes needs explaining. Could it be death-squad training? Having a reserve as it were for death-squads if and when needed?
Carrol