2011 DIVERSITY FAIR, NOTES, PART 1- What is our police department doing with high school age “explorers?” They’re uniformed and have their own shoulder patch. Exploring what? The limits to which they impose their weight against peoples’ rights? I’m at a civic festival in Confluence Park, across from a canopy whose shade does not conceal a mass of blue uniforms, adult officers bulky with bullet-proof vests and leather, holstering all manner of law enforcement weaponry, and CSPD apprentices, skinnier for lack of the armor and accouterments, but otherwise dressed exactly like police officers, and adopting the swagger which comes of trooping the colors, emboldened by the anonymity of the requisite Ray-Bans.
I don’t know what the CSPD think they’re doing. Community outreach would be far better accomplished in t-shirt and shorts. I can’t help but think that the authority communicated by the uniforms is being abused in this setting. I’m reminded immediately of the menace which fascist youth groups projected over even their parents. These kids are strolling around the event like appointed hall monitors. Patrolling, some of them would you believe, with their thumbs looped on their leather belts. If they had clubs they’d be twirling them.
Of course, they stroll pretending it means assimilation, as if submission to authority is a normal ingredient of any balanced community. I suspect that’s what the early indoctrination “explores.”
Actually, the Explorers get their name because they’re “exploring law enforcement as a career.” Yes any profession would be something an apprentice might want to explore, but police craft is one which requires alerting the public that this uniformed person does not have full-on authority/responsibility over you. Well, responsibility is probably what they’re most concerned about.
No one should doubt the craft of policemanship bears complexities worthy of journeymen, but I’d rather recruits came into law enforcement in the more common manner, after a college education.
Well, this IS the EVERYBODY WELCOME Diversity Fair, so we can’t exclude the Fascists. But do the city’s traditionally marginalized populations really feel welcomed by such an asserted police presence? I’m thinking of the immigration-challenged circles. But in general, how welcome do you suppose Hispanic, African, or Native Americans feel with white kids semi-officially playing cop?
Presumably the Klan was excluded from invitation, like any hate-group, because it offends the hatees. Probably law enforcement should take a backseat too, and not pretend that policing be considered a cultural component of a community.
It’s given me an idea however. Maybe the point could be brought home if we injected the event with worse than these crew-cutted crackers. How about a para-militarized presence?
I’m thinking cops in riot gear, patrolling like it was no big deal. In protest situations it’s become the norm, imagine if the average non-protester were to see the face of the US police state. Would citizens be so comfortable if instead of officer friendly, or junior uniformed friendlies, the event was patrolled by storm troopers. The CSPD knows better than to expose itself like that, but imagine a riotous development to draw them out.
Or, why not assert a pseudo-authoritarian presence for them?
If not riot gear, maybe a paramilitary uniform, American dark blue, with plenty of USA insignia, the American eagle made to look a little Germanic, let’s say. Jack boots, riding pants, leather straps, and black gloves a must.
Technically, the force could pretend to be a secret service, community outreach for the NSA or the plethora of intelligence agencies. The idea would be to present a dark, ominous authority. Handing out small fliers that read “Please take no notice of us, if you’ve done no wrong, you’ve nothing to be afraid of.”
I used to be a Boy Scout. Thought cops were the coolest, Adam 12, Dragnet, the only slightly toned down Reefer Madness propaganda of the 60s and 70s…
Truth, Justice and the Americ oh you know the rest of that crap.
Took 16 years to train me up like that and 5 minutes alone with real cops to completely destroy it.
Sir, at the event we took turns fingerprinting younger kids at are booth, while not doing this we walked around to pick up trash and enjoy the festival. We were not patrolling, we never once threatened anyone, and to accuse us of racism disgusts me, are advising Police officer that day was a Officer of African-American decent, and the top Cadet Sargent was of African-American decent as well. and as for the other two officers that were there were stationed there to make sure that no hate crimes were committed against the homosexual community that had booths at the event. And i was the only cadet there that was wearing Ray-Bans, if i would have known that the sun glasses reflected a negative image i would not have worn them. Are program helps us to get a job in law enforcement, it does not grantee a job, it’s like jrotc for law enforcement not rotc, we do not become officers threw this program. we still have to go to collage and still have to apply like everyone else. I do respect your 1st Amendment right to your opinion on us, but i do feel that this is false journalism. The only other thing that we were charged with at the event was to fine a missing kid, which we did. to call me a fascist relay does offend me, however all i can say i hope we do not come across as this image again, God bless you.
Yes, you’re a good little uniformed puppet.
Your PIG mentors certainly have very little of your untarnished belief in the sanctity of the First Amendment, they’ve often beaten me down for talking back to them.
Of course they also had to have a gang of their buddies to make sure I couldn’t fight back.
But you are a very good little uniformed
Pigletpuppet.You’re dooming yourself to a lifetime of pretending you have power when all you have is the backing of a gang, none of whom is emotionally capable of attaining power on his own. Just like you.
Enjoy your power trip until it eats you.
…and your only friends will be your sick sadistic Gestapo and people who are, like yourself, to cowardly to question their so-called “authority”.
So you had a couple of Uncle Toms as mentors? Big fucking deal.
It was RESERVATION cops who sold Bigfoot and Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull to their deaths.
It was REZ cops who sold Leonard Peltier to the FBI for a killing the FBI committed.
Does that mean that the White anti-Indian soldiers who killed them weren’t anti-Indian?
And, Junior Cop, it was Police who crucified Jesus so your fake religious crap-talk doesn’t make me look upon you as any better than any other deluded Back the Badge coward.
Easy Jonah, you’re criticizing a kid, a third grader to judge by his spelling, I didn’t think they started cop training that young, but seriously, education obviously bears quite a lot of the blame here.
I give Cadet Johnson huge credit for ending his note by expressing that in the future he hoped they not project the image which offended me. Coming from a trained cop, that would be a public relations response, but from Cadet Johnson I’d say he’s showing sensitivity and maturity.
Wow. Remind me to stay out of Colorado Springs. Don’t want to piss off some psycho reporter who runs a second class blog. As an explorer for six years in another state I can easily say that 90% of our public appreciate our presence at large events and appreciate seeing youth being trained in a way that will better prepare them for a career in law enforcement. This program keeps youth off of the street and out of gangs… You need to do a little more research before defaming a group of hard working youth that will probably be more successful in life then you could think of being.
Are you frigging kidding me? If your 90% guestimate is accurate, that’s 10% who don’t appreciate your presence. Stick to “protect and serve” instead of parading your hillbilly recruits like puppy pitbulls who everyone knows will grow into calcifying craniums and get real mean soon.
BTW I talked to the two African-American officers in charge, I asked them why none of their Explorers were youth of color. Their answer? Because black and Hispanic youth of even that meager level of education know to aim for better work than being a policeman. An uneducated dumb kid who already wants a license to beat his fellow citizens is a scary prospect.
Oh, and cadet, you ARE joining a youth gang. One which wears uniforms not of blue shirts or red shirts like Crips and Bloods, perhaps, but the police uniform, very standardized throughout the world, is very much “flying colors”.
Your usual “gang members” have their own turf, to defend against interlopers. The Police gang, on the other hand, claim the entire world as their “turf” and demand Obedience from everybody, especially from those “ten percent” who they DON’T in any way represent.
And thank you for the usual retort that anybody who doesn’t obey you must be mentally unfit, which is considered by the police to be a crime punishable by severe restraints.
I know quite a few people who are categorized as mentally ill, and their treatment at the hands of the police are even worse than those of us who have “talked back” to Your Royal Uniformed Majesties.
The standard retort to that is “they ALL say that”, but you know what? ALL the Cops “say that”. Funny how that works, a member of the largest and most vicious gang on the planet preaching about gangs.
And the crimes committed by The Badge include murder and torture, theft of entire nations and starting with the theft of freedom.
It’s Military POLICE who run the torture centers like Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram AFB, the Egyptian and Belarus and Taiwan and South Korean torture centers to whom the Empire, backed by their Loyal and Unquestioning Cops, send the illegally harvest “unlawful combatants”.
Maybe the lowly non-cop street gangs would like to have that much taxpayer funded power, but they’re not large enough to compete with YOUR gang, because your’s is so well organized. Big deal. You’ve successfully committed yourself to the Might Makes Right philosophy.
Think how exactly that could be turned around, yes? If you personally or any individual cop or small group of cops meets a larger force and are cut off from their own gang, then the larger force would have an equal right to do as they wish with the outnumbered cops. And can you think of an answer to “why not?” that doesn’t involve Might Makes Right?
By the way, here I’m expanding your sneer at smaller gangs, so weak and powerless… the perfect targets for sadists…
And throwing it back to you. It takes a few more words but really, do you want to live your life based on short snappy slogans? Might makes right, oderint dum metuant, (google it) Shock and Awe, Peace through Superior Firepower, Pax Americana, My Country Right Or Wrong, Love it or leave it, The Policeman is Always Right,….Those are slogans, kid. They have to be short and snappy and chanted as though they were true in order to convince the users that they’re true.
And theyre the staple of Imperial Propagandists, the Oderint Dum Metuant one comes from the Roman Emperors Nero and Caligula and is still used by the United States Corporate Empire.
It was the Police State which they had inherited that crucified Jesus, then they persecuted His followers as a “crazy” group of Middle Eastern Religious Fanatic Terrorists.
Their heirs in the Capitalist Empire are as I type this “gassing their own people”, the crime for which Saddam Hussein was hanged, They “kill their own people” every day, especially as their gang partners in the U.S. and NATO militaries have de facto claimed ownership of the entire world, using the same rationale that Saddam Hussein used to annex Kuwait and Hitler used to annex Hungary and President Polk used to annex a third of the land mass of the nation of Mexico.
Maybe you had the necessary attention span to have read all that and maybe you had enough spark of curiosity to have checked out any of the statements made.but I doubt it. Military and Paramilitary training, such as the training of which you’ve been a victim, teaches the disciples (you did mention the word “discipline”) obedience even when your masters are WRONG.
When you used the name of God to justify that you took His name in vain.
Rather than fear those who report and use words to defy your empire, maybe you should fear those victims of your Imperial Police who have grown tired of Might Makes Right and decide to pick up a gun. That’s pretty much always the case with cop killers.
Your comrades beat them into submission once too often and their choice of how to rebel against your regime included offing a pig.
You would be right to worry about them, but their response isn’t motivated by somebody like me criticizing you. Their response is a quite natural response to abuse.
You would be even more right to simply not join into a gang that has such a long history of providing such abuse. As to your expressed need for others to discipline you, that’s just too bad and I really can’t make the decision for you to find a way to discipline yourself.
Remember, you ARE the one who said that YOU need such external discipline.
I am a first time vistitor to your blog and I can say I am greatly sadden you have taken this stance on this subject matter. I was a Colorado Springs Police Explorer and for the 4 years. I can say I have never given back to my community so much. If you had truely done your research you would know that many of the great officers that patrol the streets of Colorado springs were explorers. If it were not for being a explorer and having the guidence of the officers on the street I would not have gone to college and got my degree. I would not have a sense of civic pride that still runs deep in me to this day. I noticed you did not actually speak with the explorers you noticed or any of the officers that were surpervising them. this again sadden me. because if you had, you would have spoken to a group of people who not only enjoy gving back to the community but also believe that they have found there true calling in life. and in a world where many people wander around after highschool and college trying to find themselves shouldnt we be happy there is a few that know the path they want to follow and begin to make the right decisions to achive those goals. also I noticed that you believe that this young men and women are there to show a sense of power over people, I can not disagree with you more. They are there for those small situations where some might need help. a child getting lost in the crowd, someone lossing there purse. they are not there to assert power in anyway.
when I was an explorer when did many community service projects but our largest was called Christmas unlimited, During the days leading up to Christmas we would deliver christmas present to children whom officers had come into contact with over the fall that we knew where not going to have a christmas. I personally dressed up as santa for three 3 years and worked with officers and youth that both donated there time during the holidays to spend all day and sometimes late into the night delivery presents to these children. So before you say that we as explorers are being trained to become the next police state do your research the officers that are supervising the Explorers are good ethical hard working men and women and to this day when I tell people that is what I did in highschool, I say it proudly.
Brother Jonah. Your self-appointed title (Brother) is a clear example of your hypocrisy. You cast aspersions on a minority group (Explorers) for actions taken by others hundreds or even thousands of years ago. You haven’t posted one example of brutality or intolerance these Explorers had shown during this civic event; however, you have shown your own intolerance by spreading unprovoked hatred towards a group that is different then you. You clearly like to abuse your power as a journalist by writing a biased article, and then have the audacity to ridicule another who responds, exercising the same first amendment right. You look foolish and lack professional integrity.
I’m certain you will attack my views too, in self-righteousness sense of silencing dissenters, just like other tyrants have done throughout history. (i.e. Adolph Hitler, Fidel Castro, Osama bin Ladden, etc…)
By the way, what was your role in helping you fellow man, in looking for the missing child?
For the record, I was never a member of the Police Explorers. I am, however, a member of the human race. An organization you are welcome to join.
And for police actions done today. It’s wonderful that the supporters of Explorer Cadet cops are so understanding and even-handed.
Why, you and Cadet Johnson have deduced that anybody who criticizes cops or cop lovers must be a criminal and worthy of punishment, and that any reports of police brutality or the Blue Wall cover up of Police brutality must be the imaginings of a psychotic criminal and dismissed automatically. And in a completely unbiased manner too!
I look forward eagerly to Cadet Johnson becoming a Weal Wive Gwowed-up Powice-officer Man so he can defend me and my rights, especially the First Amendment Rigts he so fervently adores. His mommy must be so proud.
Unprovoked hatred? I suppose being beaten while handcuffed and helpless for daring to not grovel to your Fucking PIG heroes isn’t provocation. I’m sure if you’re ever on a jury deciding a police brutality case you’ll do the Right Thing and make sure the poor, innocent Police aren’t persecuted any more. Lick them thar Gestapo Jackboots.
Your Police “heroes” are gassing people, beating people down, today and every day, for actually USING our First Amendment rights but that’s OK with you. Apparently with Junior Pig Johnson too.
And yes, if Jesus comes to Colorado Springs this coming Sunday the CSPD will tell Him to get a haircut, a shave and a job and lose the donkey.
And they’d still crucify Him next Friday. The nature of cops has never changed. It’s all about control and obedience, power tripping in other words. Nobody becomes a cop unless he wants to have power over his fellow man. It’s why I turned down a badge when the Air Force offered me one.
And the statement stands, if you need external help, like Ian said “if it hadn’t been for explorers I would have never gone to college” that’s a bullshit statement.
How the HELL would you know that you wouldn’t have gone to college? I went to college without once being an explorer and a not-very-gung-ho Boy Scout either.
I’ve met your “honest thrifty kind trustworthy loyal brave clean and reverent” CSPD cops who were beating us up for marching in a parade for which we had paid the license. We must have “provoked” that, I suppose, by saying that Peace is better than War. And it’s not a one-time occurrence, they have a very definite pattern of Police State Dictatorial thug tactics and outright violence against any who don’t bow and worship your Empire. They sure weren’t attacking the Military parade entries who were saying that a Babykilling War based on lies was a GOOD thing. I guess it’s easier for them to find the courage to attack people who are avowed to peace. You know how it is with bullies, right? They won’t attack somebody who might kick their knees up between their eyeballs. Got to make a reputation protecting us from our First Amendment Rights because that’s the ONLY way they’ll make their reputations.
I’m not saying there isn’t bad in every group; I’m sure you’ll admit there are some people associated with your organization that don’t portray your principles in the best light. What I am saying, you seem to be the one who is attacking the weak (Explorers) and accusing them of brutality and being baby killers just because they are looking to emulate some you may not agree with your way of thinking.
If you were truly looking to influence the “Police Mentality” you are to passionately against; you might want to start by stopping all of the name calling and the use of foul language against children, and focus on documentable issues that expose wrong doing of those in positions of real authority. Who is being the bully here?
yeah right.
I heard worse than that on any given Scout outing.
A bully you say? I’ve had a few fights but none of them were gang-related on my end. Not so with the cops. They’ve got an intractable urge to control other people and they do it with violence.
Do you know what scouting was formed to teach kids?
How to be soldiers, child soldiers to boot.
Yep. You ought to read the book “Scouting, For Boys” which was written by a British Army officer who was “apalled” at the shocking number of scout (army scouts) who were killed. Mostly children. Yep. The British, ever so civilized, used children in their army for a long long time. They put them in jobs like Bugler, Drummer, and Scout. An army scout has to be able to get close enough to the enemy to count them and their guns, take notes and get back to deliver the notes.
Sure, it’s a job that would be ideally filled by somebody with a small stature and without the adult fear of being killed. Much like Motocross racers are usually kids. They’re lightweight and fearless. Another word for “fearless” is “incredibly foolish” but that’s another story.
Rather than campaign to stop using children for high risk jobs like scouting, or standing in FRONT of the army making a lot of noise with fife, drum and bugle…”hey! Here we are, shoot us!” and campaigning to end child labor which was equally apalling, using kids as miners for instance because they fit into small places better…
Instead he publishes a book and starts an organization to start training young boys to be better soldiers. Wonderful.
To bring it back around to the present day, you know who Shirley T. Black is? She was the ambassador to the U.N. under Reagan and Bush the Elder. You might remember her better under her maiden name Shiley Temple, as in the child star. Yeah. THAT one.
One of the most distasteful things she ever did was accept and carry out the order to block a United Nations resolution in the Security Council banning the use of child soldiers, either in militia, non-governmental organizations or organized armies.
Go ahead, ask WHY the Reaganites vetoed that.
It was because of JROTC and Scouting. Because they actually ARE a paramilitary training regimen.
As the police state regime kicks into higher gear, as the clampdowns on civil rights and liberties worldwide under one umbrella organization grows, more vicious every day, as the same police state apparati have declared the Geneva and Hague conventions against torture, killing civilians, and holding people against their wills without benefit of law, training kids to be cops (and soldiers) is a really distasteful enterprise.
As to his being a “child” to be in Explorers you have to be 16 unless they radically changed it.
I was only 16 the first time a PIG beat me up for not calling him “sir”.
If the Police State are going to rob them of their childhood or youth by turning them into uniformed thugs, how would that be better than one reading foul language and being challenged to actually QUESTION his leaders rather than obey them unconditionally?
I wasted a few years believing the lies they fed us in school and scouting. My awakening was a little bit ruder than seeing naughty things written about the cops.
What did you learn in school today
dear little boys of mine?
What did you learn in school today
dear little boys of mine?
I learned the policeman
is my friend
I learned that justice never ends
That murderers always die for their crimes
even if we make a mistake sometimes!
…and that’s what I learnt in school…
that’s what I learnt in school!
Somebody put this guy on a watch list. Bashing explorers for helping the community is a new low but hey im not suprised anymore.
Have fun being a Police State Fascist Suck, bitch.
They’re not “helping the community” and never were, they’re training American Children to be Babykillers and Gestapo like you, Punk.
Or just bootlicking slaves of a Fascist state. Like YOU.
What are you going to do about it, Puke-a-sore-ass Rex? Huh?
You’ve already just suggested having your gang of Uniformed (and plainclothes) Thugs illegally harrass and maybe arrest me for legally speaking out. Not able to do it yourself, COWARD?
Put Yo Momma on a “watch list” boy
You’re not smarter than or superior to ANYBODY.
Just a pig-loving right wing troll who’s scared to stand against a crippled man without having his Pig Gang backing him up.
I would invite you to rot in Hell along with all the others who believe that Children should be raised up as slaves and hit-men for your “superior” culture.
Some of your “elite” actually want a return to child labor and disguise it as “Christian Love”, say that the kids who were worked sometimes to death in the mines and mills not even a whole century ago in America, or were employed as soldier-slaves, were given an “opportunity”
Sure, an opportunity to never have an education or a real future, to be lied to by Capitalist Propagandists, fed a dream and denied any chance of gaining that dream.
That’s the Hell in which scouting was spawned. Even today, your capitalist masters have children working as slaves, soldiers and even prostitutes, just far enough beyond the borders of the “Good and Mighty” United States.
And you use Scouting as a brainwashing tool to get American kids to accept and embrace the thought that America is so very much better than those other countries that we have a right to exploit them.
I would invite you to burn in Hell but it seems you’re already there and drawing others into your satanic clutches.
LOL @ this guy.
Good luck to you in life…your might need it.
You’ve got your secured position as a slave to the Fascist state. LOL@your_Stupid_shit.
That police boot polish you’ve got thickly coating your tongue must taste really good to you.
Sieg Heil am Deine GestapoFuhrers
By the way, your service to your masters in enticing young children into your abased and, really, meaningless lifestyle of servitude then brainwashing them to accept that as The Only Way To Succeed, not really appreciated by them. I’m just honest enough to tell you while they’re just filling your head with propaganda.
You’ll never know freedom.
Why try to change this guys opinions, you never will, he is so filled with hate he is acting like the police that he says beat him. How could anyone speak to a group of young men and women who are trying to make a difference in this world this way. You should really look at yourself in the mirror. Are you related to Hitler at all ?
Thanks for everyone that stood up for the Police Explorers. It is a great program.
Yes, I realize that you want us to believe that either Scouting, Explorers, or the Police are so drama-queen upset because we poinsted out that your favorite program to teach kids subservience to your hate-filled Police State is in fact a program to teach subservience that the cops, scouts and explorers are crying themselves to sleep every night.
You must learn a few things.
We will say or write whatever we wish
We will NOT ask your opinion
I personally never apologize for being right.
The Cops you worship so much, protecting “us” as in
Only the wealthy part of “us”?
They tear gassed an 84 year old woman in Seattle
They shot an iraq Vet in the head with a rubber bullet
Broke his skull
Then tear-gassed the people who were trying to give first aid
The Cops are Protecting us from Freedom.
All for their and your Corporate Masters’ benefit
And exactly nobody elses, not even their pet suckups.
They’re attacking, right now, Americans who dare to disagree, building the Corporate Fascist State their masters want. They’ve purchased, in Colorado Springs, a Riot Wagon, an urban tank, in anticipation of using heavily organized Police Brutality, AGAIN, on Colorado Springs citizens who for some reason you and all the other Back the Badge MORONS haved decided, in all your glorious power, to not actually be citizens of either Colorado or America.
Tell me something, is it fucking lonely up there on your pedestal?
Maybe your PIG heroes will let your Explorers watch the videos of them beating down unarmed civilians.
In New York they first arrested anybody they could see who had a camera, I guess they don’t like having their misdeeds broadcast to the world while they’re doing them.
Your Pigs and your Junior Brainwash Program are all guilty and if you don’t like people saying that then
Y’all can just line up and take turns helping yourselves to a Texas Sized All You Can Eat Buffet Of KISS MY LIBERAL ASS