While so many Americans are concerned about loosing their "Civil Liberties", they fail to realize that many Americans never had these "civil liberties", or should I say, "individual rights", which supposedly guaranteed the right of free movement, speech, and privacy. For many, these so called rights never existed, they've only been noticed as "luxuries" - obtained only by the rich. In cities like Los Angeles, Bronx, Cincinnati, Chicago, etc. where exploitation is, and just always has been at all-time high, especially in poor black/minority communities where police repression, and convert drug operations by the CIA are at their worst, countless people all over this country have become afraid of even going outside. Why? Not because of terrorism, but because of the state. Because people can't drive down the street without getting pulled over twice a week by police, with the excuse that "they look like a gangbanger". Or walk down the block without being hassled, or continuously criminalized as police search them down and plant marijuana in their pockets. Contrary to the media, in reality, America has become a place where if you're not rich, and most likely not white, you're subject to the oppressive consequences of racial profiling, brutality, prisons, and fear.

Many Americans fail to realize that their country, (yes, America), has more people locked up in prison than any other country in the world. The majority of people sitting prisons don't even belong there. So why are they there? Because prisons are a business. They bring in the money to keep the U.S economy sky high, just as drugs, oil and wars do. They keep Wall Street pumping greed through private pockets, and serving corporate interests. This is why the prison system is designed to keep people locked away. Not for security, but for money. The majority of people locked up in prison, serving 3+ year/month sentence's are there based on priors. Without even committing a crime, continuously one, and then another has his life ruined. Ripped from the palm of his or her hands, it happens too many times. And yet for those who actually do commit "a crime", these "crimes" mostly petty drug offenses. So let's not forget to look at the big picture here. Who brought drugs into this country? The CIA, whom continuously saturate our streets with these drugs, and for a single purpose; To make profit. The more drugs smuggled into this country by the CIA, means the more people locked away in the prisons, and this means more money pumped into the corporate economy. Alot of money that is. Billions of dollars. This allows the government to continuously carry out manipulative measures that exploit communities, and turn them against one another. And by dosing so, this disables any potential unity, and grassroots strength within these communities, therefor disallowing these communities to come together and take a stand, and take back what belongs to them. Because this would pose threat to interests of the state.

Now how could anyone call such a democracy? That's absolutely ludicrous. Anyone in their right mind knows that we are indeed a plutocracy. That the state serves one interest, and that's wealth. Because wealth is power, wealth is control. Wealth makes up the state, and the state is that "organized democracy"; the police department. The FBI. The Governor. The mayor, and what not. It's become obvious for many that the state only play's the "essential" role in society to influence the situation that decides between those who have, and those who have not.

So it becomes apparent that many of us do not have these "promised" civil liberties. Many of us cannot walk the streets without being in a state of constant fear, waiting for "what's next" to come. Many of us can't go outside without somehow being arrested, and not knowing why. Many of us simply live in fear, afraid to question the law, afraid to actively challenge authority. Afraid to be seen as a black, or Hispanic male, with 2 strikes, fearing that any day can come to hold the dread of ripping apart a life struggling to get back on the right track, with two kids to support, and or a young mother striving to feed her children. Being caught up in such a clamp down, these people can't even question, nor challenge authority so that someday they may be able to live a better life. But for those of us who are still lucky enough to openly go out and question authority, peacefully where everyone can see it, we constantly see blood, we see the wrath of the state, and it's repressive force; tapping away at our phones, profiling our every move, beating us to the ground with batons, tear gassing us, or shooting us in the back and faces with rubber bullets.

Many people don't have a voice. Many people don't have justice. Many people don't have freedom.

That means none of us do.

How many Americans have their rights taken away by regular criminal civilians every year?

How many people of color are killed by people of color every year?

Or are injured/raped/robbed?

Should the government be doing anything to protect these people?

Which is the bigger threat to the average person living in a poor urban neighborhood in this country:

a. the risk of being killed/injured by another civilian?

or

b. the risk of being killed/injured by a cop?

statisitacally, the odds of being killed or injured by another civilian are hundreds of times higher than the odds of being killed by another cop.

This is not to justify, or excuse, racial profiling or police brutality.

Rather, my point is to try to give you some perspective. You act as though the cops run around harrassing and brutalizing people for kicks! In reality they are responding to a horrific situation which is not of their making. To criticize them without considering the entire circumstances is ridiculous.

If criminals were paid like police are, through our tax dollars, then I would want to hold them to the same high standards as I hold the police. As they really are of two different camps it is not fair to compare them. When it comes to hurting people perhaps it is true that criminals take the lead, but then they have different motivations.

I have to swallow hard as I type this because abusive police are every bit the criminal that the thug on the street is. The only difference is that you can never hold a policeman accountable for his/her corruption or abuse, and they are well paid for the privilege.

And ask yourself this: what criminals are allowed to pepper spray hundreds of people on the street with impunity? While criminals may account for a large percentage of random terror, the police are systematic about it. We have every right to be angry about abusive police with unlimited authority.

Criminals are paid. They are the police. They are the FBI. They are the CIA, the national security apuratus. Usually anywhere from k / year to hk+ / year.

The people in prison for petty crimes, are paid too. About an hour.

We have all the petty theives locked up in prisons, while the grand theives are running the country.

People are also wrongly convicted countless times. Simply because they "look the wrong way", and/or their subject to racial profiling. 60% of the prison population is black. And that doesn't even include latino's.

The majority of people in prison shouldn't even be there. As I said, the majority of people in jail are there based on Priors. So you can see just why there are so many people locked away in the U.S prison system. And for no fucking reason.

Secondly, when you talk about "criminals roaming the streets" .. Think about this ... "unlawful" offenses, e.g: drug dealing, or robbery is the effect of economic inequality. Most people who sell drugs don't do it to get rich. They do it because it's survival. If you're poor, you deal dope. That's how it goes. We don't need prisons. We need education. We need EQUALITY. We need FREEDOM.

If you think what i'm telling you is wack, then why don't you go interview some inmates down at the county jail.

as part of my job.

For the most part, I am very damn glad they are there.

Just last week, I interviewed a guy who admitted to molesting 18 children.

I guess he's just a "petty thief" there because of "priors" in your book.

I guess you think that, compared to him, a cop is the real bad guy.

Why don't you actually go out and get some research to back up your positions. Frankly, they sound pretty ridiculous.

I've yet to meet a non-violent offender who got more than 90 days. I know there out there, somewhere, but there the exception, not the rule.

The researchers analyzed a representative sample of Department of Corrections inmate files, including information on juvenile criminal activity, to create a profile of criminal activity for prison inmates in Milwaukee County. They found that:

Three of four inmates are in prison for a current violent crime conviction.

Most inmates in prison for a current non-violent crime had previously committed a violent crime.

About 91 percent of inmates had a current or prior adult or juvenile conviction for a violent crime.

I think you completely missed my point. There's a big difference between "petty theives" and criminals.

Someone who molests children obviously shouldn't be allowed to openly interact with others society. They are obviously someone that needs to be delt with.

Are the majority of people in prison rapists, and murderers? No. The majority of people in prison are - without coinsidence - the ones most subjected to economic inequality. They are not murderes, rapists.. etc. And I share these views not by assumption, but by personal experiance, i've been to county jail before. I know many others who've been there as well, alot longer than I have.

There is one thing some people don't seem to understand about my argument. When I talk about the majority prison population, it automaticly excludes murderers/rapists.

you "automatically exclude rapists and murderers" when you talk about the "majority prison population"?

That's like saying the majority of football players are women -- because when I talk about football players, I automatically exclude the men.

Why would you exclude murderers and rapists who are in prison from your definition of prisoners?

I'm talking about the majority of people locked up in prison. A murderer is someone who murders someone. yes? A rapist is someone who rapes someone. yes?

Someone who punches someone in the face is not a murderer, nor a rapist. When excluding murderers/rapists, that doesn't mean your necessarly automaticly excluding "violent offenders".. What I was trying to explain, is that the majority of people in prison arn't rapists, nor murderers. Yes, there are alot out there, even in the police department. But the majority of people in jail do not consist of murders/rapists. They were excluded from my argument because I was not talking about these offenders, I was talking about the "petty theives", the majority of people in prison, in relation to the "grand criminals". But nevertheless, somehow this whole argument took a COMPLETLY different term. Now we are argueing on something completly different than what I originally brought up in the above article. My original argument had more to do with someone who doesn't commit any unlawful act, or might have done so in the past (a prior) and had already cleared it up, but yet has their "civil liberties" taken away from them. Continuesly. Simply out of racial profiling, being "suspected" . etc. etc.

maybe you should interview cops and the FBI too :) .. (note what i said earlier about the GRAND THEIVES)



Fifty-year-old Mike Ruppert is the publisher of From the Wilderness, a newsletter and Website devoted to exposing the CIA's involvement in the drug and arms trades. He's a former Los Angeles narcotics cop who was drummed out of the force for telling his superiors that members of his own department were actually CIA agents protecting drug shipments. His column, "CIA Drugwatch," is a new feature in HIGH TIMES.

HIGH TIMES: When did you first know you wanted to be a cop?

Mike Ruppert: I was still in high school when I took a police-science course from an L.A. police sergeant, and I knew then that I wanted to be a cop with the LAPD. I was totally in love with the mystique of police work and the camaraderie. So when I started college at UCLA in 1969, I took a job as a police student worker. It's like an intern-you work part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer. I went to the LAPD academy, Class of November '73. I had a perfect rating report coming out of the academy. I was transferred to the Wilshire division to an area then called the Jungle, which had the highest per capita crime rate in the city. I excelled at police work, loved it. I was a total adrenaline junkie.

What was your specialty?

Narcotics. And when I was there we didn't have to manufacture crimes. It was everywhere, like grabbing popcorn out of the air. Serious stuff-robbery, burglary, rape, car theft, heroin dealing. Nobody in those days arrested anybody for marijuana. For about three months, even though I still had a policeman rank, I wore plainclothes, and ran informants, wrote search warrants and did all the things a narcotics detective does. I also worked with burglary detectives and robbery/homicide detectives in the Wilshire division, but I loved narcotics. I had a flair for it.

Had you smoked at that point in your life?

I'd tried it in high school. I took one hit and didn't get high. I just wanted to belong. But I was so concerned about being clean for my background at the LAPD. I smoked marijuana later, as a cop, when my fiancée, who was a CIA agent, introduced me to it.

Who was your fiancée?

In December of 1975 I went into my favorite bar and met a very beautiful woman named Teddy. I didn't know it at the time, but she turned out to be working for the CIA. She was beautiful, intelligent, fun. And we fell in love. She'd grown up with the niece of the Shah of Iran. But not long after I met her I began to hear stories that she knew some fringe organized-crime people, and I told her that bothered me, because I was a total straight- arrow cop. But she'd say, "Don't worry about it." Then on the heels of that she disclosed that she knew people at LAPD, some very powerful people, working organized-crime intelligence. I was intrigued by this, but at the same time I was totally in love, totally obsessed with her.

What was her cover job?

She didn't have one. She'd left a job as a bookkeeper for a restaurant in L.A. that was a mob hangout where the FBI also went, and she'd been living in New Orleans and talked about having met Carlos Marcello. So there was a mystique and lots of unanswered questions. We moved in together, and right after that all these things started happening to my career: I got loaned back to narcotics again, then worked with homicide. I had three years on the job and then got chosen to attend the DEA narcotics-enforcement school in Las Vegas, which is normally reserved only for full-time dope cops. There was no question I was good, and I was marked as a climber, but this was ridiculous!

You didn't know she was CIA then?

No. But I was beginning to suspect something, because shortly after we moved in, she took a trip to Hawaii-in '76-and when she came back she said she'd been in a room with 50 kilos of cocaine and 1,000 M-16s. I remember saying to her: "If I'm ever in a room with 50 kilos of cocaine somebody's going to jail, and it's not going to be me." She told me not to worry about it. Then, right after we got engaged, we went to Mexico. She told me she worked for the government, but wouldn't say for whom. She said it had to do with organized crime, firearms and drugs. She said her people were more interested in where the firearms went, not the drugs. I was amazed that they didn't care about drugs. I would never get involved in anything that overlooks drugs. I couldn't. I was a cop. That spelled the end of the relationship.

How so?

In January 1977 she left very suddenly for parts unknown, with instructions that I was never to repeat what she'd told me about herself to anyone at LAPD, ever. I didn't intend to. But later that year, in April or May, I found out Teddy was in New Orleans, and shortly thereafter I got her address. Now just after that, someone broke into my car and took my gun-I'd been in a bar and had left it there-and then I went home that night and found out someone had burglarized my place and taken pictures of Teddy. I came to the conclusion that they were going to kill her and use my gun. That's when I went to LAPD and told them about Teddy and her knowing some of the CIA guys working at LAPD.

How did they react?

They looked at me like I was crazy, and told me I was having delusions and needed to go to a psychiatric hospital. Except for my captain, an exceptional officer. He knew I was telling the truth and after the interview said, "What can I do to help you?" I told him I needed a vacation. I went to New Orleans.

Did you see Teddy?

Yes. I arrived in July 1977. She told me that the CIA was watching the movement of stuff on the docks controlled by Marcello, and that a lot of stuff was being shipped out to Iran. And at the same time there were a lot of barges going out to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, which was where drugs were coming in. They were being dropped off in international waters at the oil rigs, where divers would take them and put them on the rig pilings deep in the water. When service boats went out to take the food and such to the rigs they would also pick up the drugs. It was perfect. Customs never searched the barges. Then, in the same week, I met people working for Brown and Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. They were all shipping out for Iran, and I learned that guns were going onto these Brown and Root ships. It was just madness. I told the intelligence guys at LAPD what was going on in New Orleans. That was a big mistake. They sent me to a city psychiatrist.

The LAPD simply couldn't believe the US was involved in guns and drug trafficking?

They didn't want anyone talking about it. The easiest way to get rid of me was to say I was crazy. But my psychiatrist, after those six weeks, concluded I had combat fatigue, but was not crazy. The city restored me to full duty without restrictions. I went back to work. And then the Iranian revolution started. I suspected those guns were going to Iran for the revolution, but I didn't know why. The CIA did overthrow the Shah, but the guns were not going there.