Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Runaway state





















Stuck together with Krazy Glue: police, prosecutors, judges, prison guards--and the National Parole Board.

A cop rapes eight women, including a 15-year-old? Four years in jail. Considered a "moderate risk" to reoffend, he's turned loose on the community anyway.

No punishment for the killers of Robert Dziekanski. No punishment for a second killing by one of those RCMP officers--other than a three-month
suspension of his driver's licence.

A young activist challenges The System. He's arrested, and arrested again for taking part in a university panel discussion. Bail conditions are imposed by a justice of the peace: he is not permitted to express political opinions in public. Threats of punishment are made by jail officials if he refuses to accept the conditions.

Then a trumped-up complaint against him is lodged by two Crown attorneys, who claim that jotting down a licence plate number is a violation--sorry, two violations--of the Criminal Code. And there's no way this bogosity would have taken place without the approval of
Dalton McGuinty's Attorney General.

Funny how these different state roles all fit so snugly together.

The Iron Heel is crushing one citizen at a time, pour encourager les autres. Continued police impunity. The rule of law suspended whenever the state feels like it. The corporate media complicit by their silence. I mourn for a country that I no longer recognize.

It can happen here. In fact, it is happening, under our disbelieving eyes.

What should we do about it?


UPDATE: (October 28) More--more than you want to know--on police impunity here.

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