Here's a scene from Saturday's protest in Salt Lake City.
If this is how Amerika's storm-trooper cops treat a 67-year-old leukemia patient who walks with a cane, how the hell do you think your average able-bodied black man gets treated by police in the 'hood?
The old guy's crime? He was taking pictures when the cops swooped in to "dominate the battlespace."
“I thought they were just coming down the street and all of a sudden they came charging at me,” he told KTVX television. “Ten minutes before the armored vehicles showed up that’s when I got there,” said Tobin. “When I went down there to take pictures there was no mob scene. It was just a bunch of people standing around taking pictures. I was at the end.”
Afterwards, Tobin says a group of people then came to his aid trying to call an ambulance, but one couldn’t get through.I DON'T KNOW exactly at what point your average cop in the United States became your average Nazi storm trooper, but here we are. In the last 10 days, we have heard -- and seen -- story after story after story after story of ordinary, peaceful folk being brutalized by "(fill in the blank's) finest" while "boogaloo bois," vandals, looters and arsonists run amok as America recoils in civil-disobedient horror at . . . well . . . the kind of crap you see here. And a lot worse.
“They stayed with me,” he said. “Bandaged up some of my cuts on my arms.”
Frustrated, Tobin went home. The next morning, he says he received a call from Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown.
“He said that’s not the way the police are supposed to act, and he was going to look into it with internal affairs and the review board, and take action,” said Tobin. “I told him whatever you’re going to do is fine with me.”
Tobin, who has Leukemia, has a visible scratch on his head from his fall.
“My shoulder still hurts a little bit,” he said. “My rib on the back is still sore, but the main problem is my knee.”
If given the chance, Tobin shares what he would tell the officer who knocked him down.
“I’d just say, I hope you don’t do it again.”
Repeatedly, murderously worse.
But it's OK. The police chief is going to look into it. The trouble is, America's police chiefs have been "looking into it" for the last 55 goddamn years. Maybe the mayor will appoint a commission.
Or maybe not. President Caligula probably would fire off some mean tweets calling him a pussy.
IT SEEMS we live in a land where "pro-life" politicians -- like Donald Trump, "the most pro-life president ever" -- just can't satiate their blood lust, and now your average, unarmed African-American just doesn't hit the spot anymore. Now we have cops pointing weapons at the heads of toddlers.
In that case, the Long Beach, Calif., police have promised to launch a "review." Don't hold your breath.
Meantime, maybe some cops will take a knee or do a silly dance with the early shift of protesters. Hell of a great way of getting limbered up for the main event.
P.S.: Judging by his apparel, it seems that the Utah victim of wanton police brutality is a Nebraska fan. Haven't Nebraska fans suffered enough?