A couple decades back I was pulled for some bogus issue by a young Deputy sheriff in a rural southwest county. I got out of my truck — I was really puzzled as to why he had stopped me and thought maybe my old Ford was leaking parts or something. The Deputy went ballistic: swearing and screaming and almost foaming at the mouth for me to get my MFing ass back in my MFing truck etc. He was in a white heat rage.
All that changed the moment I handed him my license. “Oh. Mr [last name] oh. You related to Fish [last name] ? “ I told him Fish was indeed my brother. I was stunned to see the Deputy suddenly go all Eddie Haskill polite on me. My brother- then president of a local chapter of a really really nasty outlaw gang- notorious Aryan Nazi s and just Not Nice People. But Mr Deputy plainly thought otherwise . Now maybe he and I might go on a ride together, go shoot some guns some time blah blah blah…..
Obviously I got off with a handshake and more blah blah blah, but I was badly shaken . Wondered how a non white male might fair with this asshole running around with a badge and a gun. A few years later I broached this to the High Sheriff. Glad to say that the department had gotten wise and this jerk was no longer there….
But I am not too assured by what I have seen over the past decade- Wildlife offices with that ‘Obama -as- target’ on an inner office door, Black Lives trashing on FB. Charlottesville.
I was thinking perhaps this is rural Law. Nope. Now comes yet another disturbing report via the Guardian www.theguardian.com/...that CHP investigators are cozying up with Traditional Workers Party [TWP] — a group that is “intimately allied with neo-Nazi and other hardline racist organizations” and “advocates for racially pure nations”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
CHP investigators portray recent violence as instigated by anti Nazis and even go so far as to promise to protect one of the TWP leaders…. and are on tape :
Officers also worked with TWP member Derik Punneo to try to identify anti-fascist activists, recordings revealed. Officers interviewed Punneo in jail after he was arrested for an unrelated domestic violence charge. Audio recordings captured investigators saying they brought photos to show him, hoping he could help them identify anti-fascist activists.
The officers said, “We’re pretty much going after them,” and assured him: “We’re looking at you as a victim.”
Pretty obvious that local level activism is badly needed- Gabe Ortiz wrote about the 200 mile zone and some of its implications www.dailykos.com/… Add to this a further lurching to the right among our local law enforcement and …..well…. it might be wise to pay close attention at our neighborhoods .