Anti-Terror Task Force to Target Protesters

So much for the dawn of a new day for police-community relations in the wake of the Eric Garner chokehold death and other high profile homicides-by-cop:

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Thursday that the NYPD is establishing a new anti-terror strike force.

The unit of 350 cops will be specially trained in high-tech weaponry to deal with protests, “lone wolf” attacks and evolving threats posed by terrorists, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported. The Strategic Response Group, Bratton said, will be dedicated to “disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities.”

This makes Sen. John McCain's (R-Senility) "Get out of here, you lowlife scum!" snarling directive to Code Pink protesters harassing Henry Kissinger (War Criminal-Senility) yesterday look positively beneficent.

 “It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris,” the commissioner said.

Bratton compares the peaceful protesters of #BlackLivesMatter to the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. He actually thinks that the people staging die-ins at Macy's are just as dangerous as the terrorists who blew up a hotel in India. He thinks that anybody who speaks out against state-sponsored violence and economic oppression is not only low-life scum, but low-life scum deserving to be executed on the spot. With machine guns.

Funding for the new squad is expected to come from both the city and federal Homeland Security grants. “They’ll be equipped and trained in ways that our normal patrol officers are not,” Bratton said. “They’ll be equipped with all the extra heavy protective gear, with the long rifles and machine guns — unfortunately sometimes necessary in these instances.”

At least he admits that the anti-personnel squads will be abnormal. At least he admits that New York City will now have its own jackbooted Gestapo. Because those "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" signs present a clear and present danger to the powers that be. Bottom-up democracy rearing its ugly head is an imminent threat to fascism. People congregating in public spaces and raising their voices represent an unfortunate instance of independent thought and action that shall not be tolerated by the Homeland Security State. Also, since the weapons manufacturers need a constant stream of revenue, and the politicians require a constant stream of bribes from the high tech weapons industry to maintain their own tenuous holds on power, the new task force is a creative new excuse for the rich assholes of the military-industrial complex to make a whole bunch more money.

They are actually selling this brutal campaign against citizens as a plus for community policing. See, the anti-protest terror squad is designed to free up the regular cops from having to deal with demonstrators and terrorists, allowing them to canoodle more with the folks in the neighborhoods. The brass does not address the possibility that the folks in the neighborhoods are often the same people who join in the protests.

Is this another iteration of the Good Cop/Bad Cop divide-and-conquer method of controlling the serfs? It sure sounds that way.  This new strategy will absolutely separate the good cops from the bad cops, relieving the stress of never knowing precisely what their job description is supposed to be.

Roy Richter, president of the Captains Endowment Association, said he supports the move. “That’s a great idea,” he told Kramer. “To the extent that you relieve the drain on resources in the neighborhoods by assigning an officer to an anti-terror function … I think that’s a very positive thing.

“There’s been a dialogue that’s been happening, which is  positive. Any time you have a dialogue and develop a relationship and can see the people you’re speaking to, so this further assists that,” Richter added.

And let's not forget the subways. Somehow, I don't think Bratton's placement of cameras in every car is designed to catch those dreaded "manspreading" perps. I think the cameras will simply make people aware that Big Brother is always watching them, make them think twice about abusing public transportation in order to exercise their rights of free speech and assembly.

The commissioner said he will also ask Mayor Bill de Blasio for more funding to buy more Tasers as an alternative to the use of force. Bratton reportedly wants at least 450 cops — five or six at each of the city’s 77 precincts — to carry Tasers on them, not leave them in their cars, Kramer reported.

Tasers as an alternative to the use of force? People have been known to die from being tasered. Tasers have been known to be over-used by police officers. How about some lessons in street psychology and public relations instead?

Bratton admitted he had more work to do to bring up the morale of the department. A poll done by the NYPD found that a majority of cops fear getting sued or being disciplined by the department.

OK, they finally cut to the chase. This ever increasing, heavy duty weaponization of the police, this characterization of protesters as scary criminals, is just being done to assuage the hurt feelings of the cops. It's all a big fat sham, a bribe for the union rank and file to prevent any more turning-of-backs against the mayor at police funerals. Machine guns are a testosterone booster for the armed servants of the ruling class and a buffer between struggling oppressed people and the thugs of hypercapitalism.

It's not a coincidence that New York City has the highest wealth disparity in the country. It has the highest concentration of billionaires in the world juxtaposed with some of the most extreme poverty. And it wants to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention.