who do you ask for help when you're raped by the police?

a small group of people seems to rarely require the intervention of force

once you expand that to the size of a village
you realise that occasionally the marginalised and irresponsible
might be driven to do things
that the community would rather prevented
with sufficient vehemence
to tolerate the use of force

this is why we as a community have a police force
a group of people trained and armed
to deliver the intervention of force

the action of the police force at large
as a cultural entity
are largely uncontroversial

most people in the community
do not commonly perceive themselves
to be under the thumb of the police
and most of the time would consider the law
and the style in which it is enforced
to be reasonable

we are thankful that for the most part this force is not misused
the police force does little to maneuver itself politically
it does not apppear to have much of a public policy agenda

this is at it should be

if we then go out one further level
from the national to the international arena
where the international equivalent of the police force
is a military force
we find the military forces of the 'allied' nations
being used in very controversial and wilful ways

regardless of whether you think the military action
by the 'allied' nations in the middle east is justified
most people who live in those countries do not

maybe it has always been the way
that the more powerful will oppress the less powerful
and steal from them

in previous centuries the expansion of empire was laudable
murder and theft were just the cut and thrust of life
and international politics

now it is not

the values of the community
which have allowed untold centuries of bloody conflict
have changed

but the international empire-building actions
which those values supported and justified
have not

and so the gulf between what is actually going on
and what is publically admitted by the government to be going on
seems forever widening

our governments have become increasingly deceptive and hypocritical
and we know this

this is more significant and pressing
than international mass-murder

we are being forced into pulic submission
forced to openly accept that we are not self-governing
but rather, that we are ruled
and that we are powerless to do anything about it

what would you do
if you saw the police rob a bank
or burgle a house?

what would we do
if everybody knew
the police were corrupt
and operating wilfully
pursuing their own ends
and the interests of their friends?

the answer is
nothing

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