Sunday, October 22, 2017

Militarization Of Our Oppression

Funny how education opens your eyes. You spend your whole life in a fair amount of peace, blind to the suffering that ails your neighbor. But with education comes the ability to solve problems. Its not good to present a problem without a solution.

Something occurred to me. Military has a role, to fight enemies. So when you see military you have some level of fear, automatically. Sure, you can say your filled with pride and all that. But that's when your faced with individual military personnel. We should be proud of them. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about military-like responses, military-like gear, military-like formations in response to civilian problems. That's what I'm talking about.

Imagine this, your a resident of let's say, Syria. Your a civilian and there are two opposing forces always at war. Whenever you see military anything, it means bloodshed. Even when those uniforms are there to defend you, a healthy amount of fear exists. 

So what am I talking about, how does this relate to LGBT or anything? Glad you asked! When the protests in Charlottsville were met with white nationalists in militia gear the police didn't act with fear against them. These people showed up with camouflage and riot shields, armed. How did the police react? Without much concern. Someone ended up murdered. 

Let's look at Ferguson. When a man was murdered by police and people took to the streets in anger and outrage, they were met with a fully militarized police force. Then everyone wonders why people raged against them. The presence of a military indicates an enemy. In Ferguson, that enemy was the black community. 

In prison, we see military-like personnel. Which indicates the presence of an enemy still. In this case, its the inmates. Pants tucked into black boots, large utility belts filled with accessories. All meant to invoke fear, obedience. News flash...YOU CANNOT TRUST WHAT YOU FEAR!

What happens if an LGBT person is assaulted? Who can we turn to? These people act like our enemy. In prison I understand this, there are dangerous men here. But what about residents of communities in the free world? Most are only guilty of being poor. A seemingly criminal act these days, along with being black, or gay, or trans, or Hispanic. 

Then people wonder what's wrong with us...

With Love
Jeff 

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