Criminal Behavior: Main Street, Wall Street, and the Global Beat, by Roy Morrison (OP/ED)

Sensational crime news has clarified the new rules on crime with and
without punishment in the United States. Listening to the District
Attorneys and Dick Cheney, I’m reassured it’s all for the better.

But it’s important to teach your kids and yourself the rules. Step out
of line and who know what might happen.

First, you can be killed with impunity for the crime of walking while
black, playing with a toy gun, or breathing while black. Even an
indictment has now become a grave threat to the sanctity of law and
order.

Second, if you are rich and part of a powerful financial institution
who commit control fraud, cook the books, bankrupt the world economy,
put millions out of work and into the streets, there will be no perp
walk. You will no even lose a single mansion. 1,000 bankers went to
jail in the 1980s after the savings and loan debacle. It’s now too
risky to enforce the law and make bankers nervous.

Third, the largest financial institutions responsible for the global
financial collapse have been anointed as “too big to fail”. This
is likely to guarantee a forthcoming future collapse, since risk has
been wisely removed from speculation. And if you are worried that the
Dodd-Frank law unduly burdens the bankers, the Congress is taking
steps to roll back the modest financial reforms.

Fourth, torture of terrorism suspects by the CIA and it’s contractors,
reminiscent of methods of the /Stasi/ and /Gestapo, /will go
unpunished. The most we expect is that our torturers will be granted a
pardon indicating what they did was technically illegal, violating the
UN Convention Against Torture and the older Geneva Conventions on
treatment of prisoners of war.

Fifth, non-judicial execution of Americans has been embraced. The
President regularly attends meetings where votes are taken on who
shall live and who shall die, usually though drone attacks that kill
not just targets but any nearby unfortunates. This, we are to
understand, is a crucial tool in the long war against terrorism.

Sixth, all information, conversations, telephone calls, e-mails,
images, your face, your car, everything to do with you can be
appropriated by the national security state and used at the discretion
of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the President
(POTUS) to prevent terrorism, or whatever else they decide in their
infinite wisdom is a threat to their power, their fortunes, their
friends fortunes.

Seventh, all information of all sorts can also be gathered and
employed for commercial purposes by friendly corporations interested
in providing services for us.

Eight, your location and not just your communications will soon be
added to the data cloud from a network of sensors and cameras that
identify you and track you and vehicle and everything else you own.
What American with nothing to hide could possible object to being
protected by our all encompassing security state.

Nine, the role of elected government is now limited to passing
blanket resolutions authorizing for an indefinite period of time war
that is limitless in time and space against our newly designated
enemy. The government will be empowered yet again to take all steps
necessary to protect the interest of freedom loving people.

I feel safer and more secure by the day.

I do have one reservation. Coming from a law enforcement family, I’m
disgusted by the you-tube videos of police violence that reflects a
combination of racism and cowardice. I’m similarly repulsed by
descriptions of CIA torture. It probably never occurred to our brave
torturers that we are inviting abuse of captured American soldiers.
Otherwise, all hail Big Brother.