These two “D-side” songs from early rock still speak today to the heart and soul, and grasp with their fingers your head and hand: Don’t talk to strangers, by Dio, and Don’t get fooled again, by Daltry and The Who.
They can be in the political way.
The former is metaphorically about the potential benefits of taking a chance, and (maybe being a savior?) when involving people in your life that are not your usual sort. “Don’t hide in doorways/they may hold the key that opens up your soul. Don’t smell the flowers/they’re an evil drug to make you lose your mind.”
— Over-indulge on New Year’s Eve and are now looking for a resolution, at this mid-month later point, to make up for it? We have an answer while the iron is still hot to strike. As all January is being celebrated by many as a dry month, like Lent, though some drinkers are going more whole hog then ever, again like Lent, at least at its bookends. The former are getting their drinks without any alcohol, and in some establishments on the east end of The Hill, you’ll get a whole heavenly host of them flavored with a variety of ingredients that include NA ginger beer for zip. At Hudson Tap, there is an even larger list of NA specials, about a dozen across three drink categories, that also have a bit of a kick provided by various main ingredients. If you are listening to the hell-bending being on the other shoulder, who is hawking drinks with several main sources of flavor or buzz, you can go to Buffalo Wild Wings and a number of other spots selling things like Salted Carmel (not caramel) Expresso Martinis. And if you join their rewards club, offered is a free big burger for new members who make a $15 purchase. This from the folks who have been supplying you with six free buffalo wings following Minnesota Gopher victories. Badger fans will pass, something the Gophers have often had difficulty doing. —
The second is not being swayed by evil powers (in government?) that may try to take you down the wrong path, and exploring the dangers of doing such. “Let the men who spurred us on/sit in judgment of our wrong … I tip my hat to the new constitution/take a bow for the new revolution …” The first line was sung sincerely, the second with major sarcasm, and emphasis is put on protecting your family. “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss … The parting on the left, is now the parting on the right.”
So, as ICE has also now been seen in Stillwater and River Falls and reports of arrests here come from multiple sources — so don’t tailgate that SUV in front of you — but open your homes to Somalis, or others wrongly sought? These are things now being done. It’s far past a trigger point, one woman said on an online community bulletin board, so my home is yours if you aren’t safe, bringing a mixture of responses that included that she was putting herself at risk. In an interesting dichotomy right-wingers would both love and hate, she said, I have no fear, I have a gun. (I will not travel.)
A white friend of mine who also has Somali friends, found themself in the uncomfortable position of having to choose whether to help them or not, when they were about to essentially go underground for protection. Bring back the Underground Railroad? Or the Diary of Anne Frank? Or a combination of the two?
Or like I said to the Somali, I think, driver the other day upon leaving his taxi, “You be careful out there.” Perhaps I should have tipped him very big so he could have stayed home from work where there might be ICE waiting — a practical way for people to help — like even that is a safe haven. Meanwhile over in the Twin Cities, ICE has gotten more rough and tough by the day, and a second shooting occurred, and the agent was attacked by three people after engaging in a pursuit. Hey, he had the ability early in the full-fledged attack to simply walk away and ditch the arrest, but ….
Whatever thus, the sheet of ICE will soon come crashing down. Like tariffs were. ICE and inciting riots, insurrections without resurrection and protestations without resolutions: This will be Trump’s legacy. And lately, under his watch if not under his command, chemical irritants and tear gas have been deployed. Might as well be Agent Orange. When you are going to lengths like sitting on someone’s head with the benefit of full riot gear, and even then you don’t let up — as hey buddy, he’s out of the fight.
The matter came to a (sub)head over family dinner recently, with a group of mostly Republicans. Without taking sides or picking aides (it apparently wasn’t good enough) a reference was made to ICE agents hiding behind HIPPA regulations when they’ve said to have gotten an owie. The predictable silence ensued but did not linger long. Perhaps they should have talked. At the family dinner table where different factions are forced to come together, and letting it play out over a scandalous feast, is perhaps where our problems as a country and world citizens begin to be solved.
Here are some other tips: If you have to deport, just slow the fuck down and do it in a non-violent and legal way. These people have been around for years and maybe decades, in a system that wasn’t perfect but worked, so a few more months to do it right would do just fine. Get officers proper training and education, do not practically go around and dig them up off the street to “serve” by quickly hiring thousands of new agents. Have the majority of the training be in crisis management and de-escalation, negotiation, journalism for writing more accurate and balanced reports, and even law. And if an agent gets all hyped up on scene, get him outta there and have him cool off with a desk job until he’s shown to have changed his ways.
For it is a quagmire that constitutes the different kinds of legal, and not, for immigration warrants and warranted activities, (like the various agents actually understand the differences), so it’s plural, which are only the start of regulating (or justifying in the absence of court authorization, or followup for the alleged criminality) of who is allowed to do just what.
So training: It becomes the final bugaboo. Simplify the above legal scenario, and make it come from just one kind of judge, to provide consistency, and here’s the rest of the solution.
Put agents behind a desk and not patrolling first for six months, especially if doctors, not fellow cops, see even a blip instead of an ink spot on the soon-to-become-mandatory-if-not-already psych test. Test for various types of ego control and rage disorders before you give them a badge. And also evaluate for any more such conditions.
In short. Test the cops more than the criminals.
In all these cases I’ve seen in my writing, there appears to be at least one common denominator: The police said they were attempted to be run over with a vehicle and were “dragged.” Believe such reports? Yes I also believe in Santa Claus, but Rudolph can’t be charged … because he’s not a human.
On the videos I don’t see any dragging, or even front tire direction showing any danger to any agents, by going under any vehicle, unless you gotta wonder if they’d purposefully (and premeditatively?) throw themselves under the bus. Munchausen Syndrome by proxy? Or psychosis/bipolar? Or anti-social personality? Seriously, from what I’ve seen, early on, all we’ve got here that’s more than getting your foot run over by one tire, is a serious lack of coordination, as an agent stumbles on snow around the corner of a vehicle and gets successfully to the driver’s side and THEN opens fatal fire. Flag you for a desk job or an easygoing patrol?
People often have been shown following agents orders and still being shot, if they did not comply instantly. Give it a rest for a minute, dumb-ass! You are now supposed to have “internal bleeding” despite the fact that video shows little contact with the car and the agent was photographed shortly afterward standing upright and appearing OK. Also, realize the people you are dealing with may or may not be receptive to the presence of you or any other police officer. And past disorderly conduct citations can simply mean you yelled at the wrong person too loudly. Put such a person face-to-face with a major adrenaline junkie with a gun? Does this sound like it’s going to have a good outcome? And yes, some especially minor offenders are just that, but let’s have the punishment fit the crime, and all you Bible thumpers should be aware of what the Good Book calls for, and in addition what it does not.
Because of social media, news now travels in real time, but also is playing out in video, which amends a past video, like the one before it. So there’s no body-cam “evidence” to hide behind. Just HIPPA rules making it difficult for news outlets to verify what agent injury has actually occurred, if any.
Back to the front of that dinner table, or was it followup conversation? Traffic violation histories were aired, and should provide a cautionary tale …
In the two other-than-routine traffic stops, if they would be guilty by skin color more than violation, don’t those saying pass-the-roast-beef realize that today such actions constitute an automatic one-way ticket to incarceration — or worse. This could happen to YOUR kids!