Public Servants or Corporate Security?

Written on November 4th, 2016 in politics Comments Off

an Open Letter to Law Enforcement and National Guard in North Dakota – Published on ZNet, by Winona La Duke, Ann Wright and Zoltan Grossman, Nov 2, 2016.

So you joined law enforcement or the National Guard because you wanted to uphold the law, protect innocent civilians against the bad guys, and help your community in times of need. Instead, they’re having you blockade unarmed people who are trying to hold a prayer vigil, chasing them with armored vehicles and ATVs, raiding their tipis and sweat lodges at gunpoint, and shooting them (and their horses) with pepper spray, concussion grenades, tasers, and rubber bullets. You thought you’d be the cop on the beat or the citizen soldier, and they’ve made you into the cavalry riding in with Custer.

If you signed up for the National Guard, you swore a solemn oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States…against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” This is a good time to read the text of that Constitution, including the First Amendment that prohibits abridging the free exercise of religion, or “the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Article Six of the Constitution defines “all Treaties made” (including those with Native nations) as “the supreme Law of the Land.”

The religious rights of Native people are further enshrined in the Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, both of which have been literally plowed under by the Dakota Access Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners and Enbridge even hired private security goons, who on September 3 unleashed attack dogs on Native people praying to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” On October 27, praying people holding tobacco and sage had their arms stomped until they released the offerings. Impersonal numbers were written on the arms of the arrestees, who were held in dog kennels. Genuine law enforcement or military wouldn’t take sides or turn a blind eye to these shameful violations of constitutional rights, but protect the lives and property of all residents, whether Native or non-Native. If you deny others their humanity, you lose your own .

Yes, some of the water protectors are trespassing on private property and locking themselves to pipeline construction equipment. Their actions are part of a long tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience in the face of tyranny, from Henry David Thoreau to Martin Luther King Jr. Remember the Boston Tea Party, in which rebellious Americans posing as Indians took direct action against British tea taxes? The only real difference at Standing Rock is that they’re not posing as Indians. When we visited there, we met many prayerful people who were justifiably angry—what if an explosive oil pipeline or train threatened your home, your drinking water, or your kids’ school? … //

… You’re probably being kept in a bubble of skewed briefings and biased media coverage. But it is our hope that this letter will be shared widely so it reaches you through your friends and family (DoD Directive 1325.6 allows military personnel to possess one copy of unauthorized printed material that is “critical of government policies or officials”). We hope that you read it with an open mind, and act according to your conscience. As the German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote on the eve of World War II, “General, your tank is a powerful vehicle. It smashes down forests and crushes men. But it has one defect: It needs a driver….General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.”

(full text).

Links:

EXCLUSIVE: WikiLeaks did not receive Clinton emails from Russian govt – Assange, on RT, Nov 3, 2016: … The Clinton camp has been able to project a neo-McCarthyist hysteria that Russia is responsible for everything. Hillary Clinton has stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 US intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications. That’s false – we can say that the Russian government is not the source,” Assange told the veteran Australian broadcaster as part of a 25-minute John Pilger Special …;

Blair went ‘beyond the facts’ & damaged UK politics when advocating for Iraq invasion – Sir John Chilcot said, on RT, Nov 3, 2016;

Canada: Tighter mortgage rules lessen economic vulnerability – Poloz, on The Globe and Mail, by BRENT JANG and BARRIE MCKENNA, Nov 1, 2016:
The federal government’s new measures to tighten mortgage lending rules will reduce the risk of economic shocks to Canada’s financial system, says Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz …;

Sharia Councils – discrimination against women? Baroness Cox vs Mohammed Shafiq (DEBATE), 11.13 min, uploaded by RT, Nov 1, 2016;

Aleppo was like Paris before war – city’s only female taxi driver, 3.21 min, uploaded by RT, Oct 30, 2016 … after five years of conflict, Aleppo lies in ruins. Still, the city’s only female taxi driver, who lost her son and husband in the Syrian war, hopes that one day her city will be rebuilt;

zu Peter Sloterdjik:

Tod Liebe Verlangen Weiterentwicklung, auf HBB, 26. Sept 2005;

… and this:

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