Life is cheap

It makes sense to me that the standards for a society are set by people in the highest positions of leadership and responsibility. So when the folks at the top operate in certain ways it can only be assumed it’s out of their perspective or an acceptable perception.

I am always fascinated by the average citizens misunderstanding of what their government is about or up to. I am also always amazed at the naïveté of those who think that the armed bodies of men (and women) that we suppose are here to protect us are our protectors rather than protectors of the status quo.

If I were to access the actions by those in charge and in power, I would assume that life is cheap. Judging from the U.S. government’s efforts to snatch people in Africa (Libya, Somalia) opposed to U.S. imperial hegemony, also known to us as terrorists, anyone that gets in the way is fair game.

I know they pretended to abort their Somali attempt to snatch an Al-Shabab leader because children were in the way, but they are lying. Children haven’t stopped them before. Just ask the many nations this country has bombed in the name of who knows what.

They aborted because sometimes you have to bring behind to get behind and this time the Somali’s brought more than their share to the fight. So the usually brave U.S. Special Forces decided that it wasn’t their day and aborted the mission. Incidentally, the U.S. government employs its own kind of national terrorism by killing anyone that gets in the way of their attempt to squash all opposition to its purposes in the world.

We see this carried out in the U.S. drone warfare program. Those who are killed who were merely bystanders or neighbors or relatives that had nothing to do with the targeted terrorist. And the U.S. government’s policy in response to the killing of the innocent, a certain amount of collateral damage is acceptable.

The U.S. congress is putting on another dog-and-pony show for the purpose of making you and me believe the government is broke and that they will have no choice but to raid our hard earned entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. Because the rich folks aren’t going to kick in their fair share and neither are the corporations because after all, life is cheap.

In the nation’s capital a woman runs into a blockade. She isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, she is blockaded and surrounded. Fearing she could be a terrorist, police kill the mentally disturbed woman.

She ironically thought President Obama was out to get her, so she wasn’t completely crazy as the head of U.S. imperialism is clearly the main figurehead of an outfit whose goal is to take all it can from everybody and everything it can and to exploit every natural resource for profit it can. And when it is done leave what is left of the carcass of humanity it has picked dry to fend for itself because after all, life is cheap.

A Georgia woman’s fiancé is having a medical emergency due to diabetes. She dials 911, police respond to the call. Police kill him claiming he had a knife. Strange response to a medical emergency but in the U.S. life is cheap!

In the Twin Cities a young man was sentenced for the murder of Mark Eric Henderson, Jr. and the rape of a few young women he held hostage and terrorized in a Woodbury hotel room. However there was a twist. Woodbury police killed Henderson, Jr.

Henderson was one of the hostages. Yet when he tried to escape by making a run for it, Ballinger shot at him. So it may be safe to assume that the guy who fired the shot was probably coming out of the door.

It appeared Woodbury police didn’t have the patience to notice that young Henderson didn’t have a weapon. They had time to yell for him to get on his knees (supposedly), which tells me they could see him. The police shot him supposedly because he didn’t comply with their commands.

Of course it seems to the average person that a bit more patience could have been employed and consequently police would have recognized that he was not the gunman, and Henderson could have told them himself. But the rules demand — or more pointedly allow — the police to shoot on almost any pretense. Failure to comply with a police order for any reason is reason enough for them to kill you. Notice I didn’t say shoot you, I said kill you. Cops in the U.S. are mandated to shoot to kill. Life is cheap!

Terrance Franklin clearly pissed off Andrew Stender who beat Franklin unconscious with his fists and a flashlight and Lucas Peterson, Michael Meath and other Minneapolis law enforcement officers.

So they killed him and conspired to cover up. If you think I exaggerate read the police report and the autopsy. Franklin was murdered and they will likely get away with it because after all, in the U.S. life is cheap!

Mel Reeves welcomes reader responses to mellaneous19@yahoo.com.