Different Approaches, Same Results Using Police…

Similar results can be achieved using dif­fer­ent approach­es. Take, for instance, the approach­es gov­ern­ments use to con­trol the mass­es, even though their gov­ern­ing philoso­phies may differ.
In com­mu­nist China, for exam­ple, dis­si­dents and those who believe in a reli­gion are forcibly removed from their homes and placed into what the Chinese Government call reed­u­ca­tion camps; the west­ern world refers to them as con­cen­tra­tion camps.
The goal of the Chinese Government is to get its one point three bil­lion cit­i­zens to think and act as a mono­lith, all in con­for­mi­ty with the com­mu­nist par­ty’s ideals.
In Saudi Arabia, the heads of dis­si­dents are chopped off in the pub­lic square, and their blood washed down the drain, or they are beat­en, stabbed, and chopped into lit­tle bits and dumped like garbage…

Regardless of the gov­ern­ing ide­ol­o­gy, be they repres­sive monar­chis­tic despo­tism, the equal­ly rigid com­mu­nism, or the more nuanced and less coer­cive meth­ods of the west­ern world, the end game is the same; full con­trol of the masses.
In the United States, the world’s old­est func­tion­ing democracy,(barely) the gov­ern­ment does­n’t chop off the heads of those who crit­i­cize it; I guess we still have a lot to be thank­ful for. (sar­casm)
It nei­ther forces peo­ple into reed­u­ca­tion camps, but peo­ple are brain­washed into being loy­al to the gov­ern­ment and its insti­tu­tions by a com­plic­it cor­po­rate media, pub­lic and pri­vate cor­po­ra­tions, and agen­cies, accom­plish­ing the same results.
In ball­parks and at sport­ing events, the mil­i­tary is held up almost as a god to be wor­shiped. Military fly­over, huge dis­plays of the American flag, and patri­ot­ic dis­plays are obligatory.

For gen­er­a­tions, Hollywood trot­ted out one cop show after anoth­er that paint­ed the police as heroes to be respect­ed and revered. Night after night, day after day, tele­vi­sion net­works pep­per the pub­lic with cop shows that depict police as good guys, ver­i­ta­ble saviors.
The nation gushed over those Holywood cops (The shield. Law & order. Blue blood. Chicago code. NYPD blue. The unusu­als. Naked city. Happy Valley. Streets of San Fransisco. Castle. Monk. Wallander. Inspector Morse. The bridge. Sledgehammer. Cracker. Starsky & Hutch. Life on Mars. The fall. Southland. 21 Jump street. Andy Griffin. Criminal minds. Police squad. Miami Vice. CSI. Boomtown. Barney Miller. You get the pic­ture; the list is endless.…..
Today they even have ride-along cops shows. On these chore­o­graphed pro­pa­gan­da events, spe­cial cops are cho­sen to behave in ways that one would expect police offi­cers would behave. The event is record­ed by the media, which then regur­gi­tates it to the pub­lic. This is designed to counter the dev­as­tat­ing images of what polic­ing in America is in real life.

For mem­bers of the minor­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ty police are pros­e­cu­tors, judges, and exe­cu­tion­ers; no amount of chore­o­graphed pro­pa­gan­da can wash away the real­i­ty of what peo­ple across the globe can see today, thanks to social media.
Whether it’s China or Saudi Arabia, or the United States, the police are the weapon of choice used against the people.
Ironically, the police come from the very peo­ple they abuse and kill to fur­ther the desires of the rich and powerful.
For Blacks in the United States, the imagery depict­ed on tele­vi­sion of nice cops may as well be from the plan­et Uranus. Nothing like this hap­pens in their com­mu­ni­ty; noth­ing like that hap­pens to them.
For them, police mean total dis­as­ter, oppres­sor, liar, abuser, killer..

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.