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And The Winner In The "Worst Idea At The Wrong Time" Category Is...

Tyler Durden's picture




 

The undisputed winner in this year's "Worst Idea At The Wrong Time" category is the poor suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, a town which was looted, burned and generally eviscerated on several occasions in the past few months as a result of public anger first at the murder of Mike Brown and subsequently, the acquital of the police officer who shot him.

Why? Because according to Bloomberg, in order to close a municipal budget gap - and keep in mind the prevailing poverty in the region has been widely attributed as one of the reason for the escalating violence on either side of the law - Ferguson plans to boost revenue from public-safety fines and tapping reserves.

According to Ferguson's finance director, Jeffrey Blume, revenue from violations, which already represents the city’s second-largest source of cash after sales taxes, are projected to rise to 15.7% of receipts in fiscal 2015, up from 11.8% currently. In 2013, fines brought in $2.2 million, or 11.8 percent of the city’s $18.62 million in annual revenue, according to budget documents.

This means that local cops will now have an even bigger, and more aggressive quota of miscellaneous, petty offenses to fill, in order to collect money from an already impoverished population, and in the process antagonize said population even further, more than likely leading to the same if not worse outcomes that caused the riots in the first place.

From Bloomberg:

To close a projected deficit for fiscal 2014, which ended June 30, the municipality will deplete a $10 million capital-projects reserve, Jeffrey Blume, Ferguson’s finance director, said in a telephone interview. For the current year, the city is budgeting for higher receipts from police-issued tickets.

 

“There are a number of things going on in 2014 and one is a revenue shortfall that we anticipate making up in 2015,” Blume said. “There’s about a million-dollar increase in public-safety fines to make up the difference.”

Even with the added police ticketing, the city - which will certainly incur millions in renovation and infrastructure costs as a result of what for a while seemed to be daily rioting - will see a revenue shortfall in the coming year: even with the increased ticketing, a $4.09 million budget deficit will remain for fiscal 2015. The city will bridge that gap by drawing on its $10.3 million unassigned reserve, the last of its reserve funds, Blume said. Moody’s Investors Service cited an inability to maintain reserves at satisfactory levels as a potential downgrade trigger in a report from December 2012.

In other words, very soon Ferguson may soon add Chapter 9 bankruptcy to its list of woes. But to get there it will first need to avoid being burned down all over again:

Howard Cure, head of municipal research at New York-based Evercore Wealth Management LLC, which oversees $5.2 billion, said Ferguson’s reliance on revenue from police citations may have contributed to public anger after officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

 

“It leads to animosity and distrust that might have even spawned some of the unrest that we’re seeing,” Cure said.

 

Government dependence on police fines is a larger issue in surrounding St. Louis County, especially among its “poor” and “small” communities, Tim Fischesser, executive director of the St. Louis Municipal League, said in a telephone interview. The poverty rate in Ferguson was 22 percent in 2012, the latest year for which data is available, compared with a national average of 15 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

 

“They said they weren’t going to go after poor people, so to speak, to fund their budget, but I guess that’s changed, Fischesser said.

And so the Catch 22 of modern insolvent America emerges: while the seaboard megapolises continue to thrive on the back of the financialization of the US service economy thanks to some $300 trillion in derivatives (if only for the time being), the poorer cities in America's heartland are caught in a toxic spiral whereby poor populations are unable to pay enough sales tax to keep city funding afloat, and so cities are forced to resort to forced, and armed, Police extraction of "municipal revenues", adding widespread anger to what already is a combustible mix of poverty and resentment, and worsening it at every turn, until it finally all spontaneously combusts when popular anger explodes leading to such events as the Ferguson riots. This should also help explain the unprecedented, and stealthy, militarization of police forces across the United States in the past year.

Unfortunately, since there are countless other cities just like Ferguson and just as many police forces who just happen to be the last bastion of "municipal revenue collection", the probability of future social violence across America rises exponentially.

What is more, even Wall Street has finally realized just how interconnected the problems facing America's inner slums are:

Reliance on a revenue stream like police fines was problematic from a purely credit perspective as well, said Joe Rosenblum, director of municipal credit research at New York-based AllianceBernstein LP.

 

“Any community that faces budget issuers with a whole series of financial and social challenges you have to approach with a skeptical mind,” he said. “I’d be fairly negative on the outlook from a credit perspective.”

 

Trading in Ferguson debt indicates that investors in the $3.7 trillion municipal market have started to take note of financial issues. Yields on the city’s 2013 certificates of participation maturing in 2032 exceded 4 percent last week from 3.5 percent as prices fell below 90 cents on the dollar for the first time since issuance, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

They will go far wider before the realization that yet another municipal US bankruptcy is inevitable. As for the fate that lies before a soon to be insolvent and very violent Ferguson, Bloomberg is politically correct: it "may risk worsening community relations with increased citations and weakening its credit standing by reducing a rainy-day fund."

A more accurate summary is that what has happened so far in the poor St. Louis suburb is only an appetizer of what is to come, not only in Ferguson itself but across America, where kicking of responsibility, accountability and simple math, has become next to impossible.

 

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Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:28 | 5547882 MisterX
MisterX's picture

a SEXIER interpretation of the situation:
http://www.philiacband.com/propaganda.html

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:33 | 5547893 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

Agent provocateurs burned Ferguson to the ground.

Period.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:47 | 5547917 cooperbry
cooperbry's picture

In a failed attempt to incite a race riot.  However, the MSM did their part and this episode is now filed away in the public memory.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:47 | 5547920 Keyser
Keyser's picture

Seems the "Grubers" of the world can't keep their mouths shut... Don't they know they aren't supposed to tell the truth? 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:36 | 5548006 RafterManFMJ
RafterManFMJ's picture

It's fascinating the solution is never to reduce headcount and overhead costs to get within budget; nope it's always 'raise more revenue' and threaten cuts to fire and police to scare the yokels. SEE?! WE NEED MORE or else you'll burn to death while being raped!

Must be cool to be able to go out and rob people, er, tax and ticket, when you want more money.

Anyone here not in on the scam yet? You all grokking?

I've got a feeling knowing the true nature of your gangster overseers will be handy in the near future...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:44 | 5548029 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Apparently all of the low IQ white people are traveling to Ferguson and getting city/state employment.  At least based on their decisions...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:05 | 5548073 Headbanger
Headbanger's picture

Just fucking nuke Ferguson already!

Shheeesh!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:28 | 5548256 LasVegasDave
LasVegasDave's picture

Something much worse than a nuke already hit Ferguson

 

http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2014/12/ferguson-is-reminde...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 15:43 | 5548556 max2205
max2205's picture

Why is it cutting costs never comes into question.

Dumbfucks

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 23:52 | 5549522 0b1knob
0b1knob's picture

Its not like they lost a lot of property taxes and and sales taxes because dozens of businesses caught fire and vanished in smoke overnight.

Oh wait.... 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:48 | 5548037 DeadFred
DeadFred's picture

Why don't they just get the Fed to print the money?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:03 | 5548067 DavidC
DavidC's picture

It already is, it's just not enough ....

DavidC

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:44 | 5548294 Keyser
Keyser's picture

Plenty of money, TPTB just keep giving it to their .01% buddies and not doing helicopter drops in Ferguson... 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:37 | 5548147 813kml
813kml's picture

The mayor wears the wrong cufflinks.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:17 | 5548374 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Exactly.  And why couldn't the FED just Ctrl+P money to Detroit to pay their pensioners?

Because it is more important to give free money to banks versus people.

It would be "immoral" to do otherwise!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:50 | 5548453 Colonel Walter ...
Colonel Walter E Kurtz's picture

That is one good idea but I have another.

Can't we get the financial wizards at JP Morgan to work up some kind of program for them to get them out of this mess. If I remember correctly, they worked their  magic for some Alabama county a few years back....and look everything is all okay.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:00 | 5548192 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

Only in government, is failure rewarded.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 15:59 | 5548581 RichardParker
RichardParker's picture

Why can't they just end the gold plated pensions for the municipal/county workers and force them into a cash balance plan?  Local gov. could make, er...  uh... save billions on this. 

Private sector was already doing this 15 years ago.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 16:29 | 5548645 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

Screw the workers?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:19 | 5548227 greyghost
greyghost's picture

sometimes you just want to cry. bloomberg is just now getting this story? all this was known last summer. read this on three/four other sites last summer. read that and decided to go to the ferguson city web site. let me 1st say, that the city of ferguson has changed their web site since last summer and is a lot nicer to see and use. what struck me in aug was the "mission" statement of the city manager. that is now "powers and duties"...read that as "MY DUTY" is #1 appoint [hire], supervise, and, when necessary, "REMOVE "ALL" EMPLOYEES OF THE CITY", except the city clerk, who is appointed by the council. so mr. john shaw's number one mission priority is bullying the city employees? makes one wonder how he treats the citizens of ferguson. did anyone read the way the courts work? you get a speeding ticket and are told to appear at 10.00am one morning and as a good little boy you show up ten minutes early. only to find out you appearance was moved up and a bench warrant has been issued for failure to appear! well your fine was $195.00 and now has gone to $450.00 with the failure to appear. this was by statement of the employees of the court...the names were changed to protect the innocent of course. hell, i never want to even pass thru ferguson going from point a to b.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:05 | 5548333 moneybots
moneybots's picture

" did anyone read the way the courts work? you get a speeding ticket and are told to appear at 10.00am one morning and as a good little boy you show up ten minutes early. only to find out you appearance was moved up and a bench warrant has been issued for failure to appear! well your fine was $195.00 and now has gone to $450.00 with the failure to appear"

Denninger brought this issue up a while back

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:28 | 5548897 JerseyJoe
JerseyJoe's picture

WAIT WAIT WAIT... "murder of Michael Brown"???  

WTF! UR TALKING ABOUT.    The asshole got what he deserved. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:55 | 5547931 robertsgt40
robertsgt40's picture

"Murder of mike Brown"? The grand jury, including 3 blacks, don't agree with that assessment 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:11 | 5548019 XqWretch
XqWretch's picture

You mean the 12 people that the STATE picked out, who were presented whatever evidence (or lack thereof) the STATE saw fit, didnt indict a member of the STATE? SHOCKING!!!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:16 | 5548097 XqWretch
XqWretch's picture

You guys can down vote me all you want, I am just stating what happened. This place is pretty funny sometimes... Im pretty sure no one here trusts the government to do anything right, most people here are disgusted with the destruction of civil liberties in this country, and most people are probably horrified at what a gigantic police/prison state the US has become. BUT, when some darky is killed by police: "The cop absolutely was justified!" "It went through a grand jury (run by the state) and they found him innocent!" "The evidence they (the government) released shows that Brown was reaching for his gun!" Is anyone seeing the irony here?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:35 | 5548142 chunga
chunga's picture

I see the irony.

There is always a characteristic about anybody on the wrong end of the cop beatings sufficient enough to drive a wedge. I've heard it all. In the instant matter of Brown, he was "too fat", black, a tax cheat for selling cig's, asthmatic that was going to die anyway, etc.

Anger towards the cops is always diluted by TPTB/MSM. Always.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:44 | 5548168 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

.

There is always a characteristic about anybody on the wrong end of the cop beatings sufficient enough to drive a wedge. I've heard it all. In the instant matter of Brown, he was "too fat", black, a tax cheat for selling cig's, asthmatic that was going to die anyway, etc.

 

a very popular excuse and justification used here and elsewhere.  thanks for pointing it out. 

that the most hateful here are often the "churched" is just too delicious to ignore.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 18:32 | 5548907 JerseyJoe
JerseyJoe's picture

Hmmm Michael Brown was the asshole in MO...the guy selling cigs was on SI NY (my original home town).   Differnet guy, different circumstances. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 19:14 | 5549033 chunga
chunga's picture

yeah sorry i got my dead guys mixed up

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:05 | 5548206 Hapte
Hapte's picture

The hypocrisy on ZH has always been chokingly thick and hilarious.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:35 | 5548275 LithiumWarsWAKEUP
LithiumWarsWAKEUP's picture

how's that 'head up your ass' workin' out for ya, Xq?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:49 | 5548302 XqWretch
XqWretch's picture

great argument, hows that trolling working out for you?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 16:41 | 5548667 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

Hollywood and the MSM imply that racism is only in the South, but recent events remind us that racism permeates the entire USA.  The War on Drugs wasn't invented in the South, and the War on Drugs is a way to lock up as many black people as possible, to keep them from voting and to get free work out of them.  Cheaper for TPTB than pre-1865 slavery because the taxpayers pay for it.  Right now the world is getting another reminder that USA TPTB would like to enslave every dark-skinned person in the world.  And - despite the angry screams from Bush, Cheney, and ex-CIA-Directors - it's not personal; it's just business.  Racism is slavery and slavery is profitable.  It's all about the money.  TPTB worship the golden calf.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:05 | 5547950 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture
Agent provocateurs burned Ferguson to the ground.


After being exposed, undercover cop draws gun on protesters in California


On Wednesday night, a plainclothes police officer dressed as a protester had his identity revealed before drawing his baton and pistol on a crowd of protesters and reporters in Oakland, California. The officer and his partner have been accused of trying to incite the crowd towards violence before they were exposed as provocateurs.

The two police officers had been wearing bandanas over their faces throughout the march. KTVU news reports that at one point during the march a protester who suspected the two of being officers pulled down one of the officer’s bandanas. The news station reported that, “the two policemen started to walk away, but the protesters persisted, screaming at the two undercover cops.”

Then one officer, “pushed the protester aside. The man responded by pushing back and then the officer tackled him to the ground, handcuffing him. The crowd, incensed, began to gather around them.”

The officer who had pushed back the protester took out his baton and began beating the demonstrator after the scuffle started. When a crowd began to surround the officers, the one using his baton drew his pistol and aimed it at the heads of those around him.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/12/12/prot-d12.html

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:37 | 5548011 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

anyone truly paying attention will re-cognise the exact same methods and tactics from the 1960's / 1970's police forcing.

Patty "Tania" Hearst anyone?  so very scripted, what a tale that was, hm?  and so so many more that decade of "shifts" in the amrkn narrative, carefully guided by those who tell you your stories, of who you are and what you do.

and you believe them?     tsk.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:11 | 5548082 doctor10
doctor10's picture

the DC/NY uberlords obviously would rather us all at one another's necks than looking for their's

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:15 | 5548366 DukeDog
DukeDog's picture

Or the undercover cops were undercover community activists. Pure speculation. Did anyone positively ID the "undercover cops"? Didn't think so.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:27 | 5547995 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

Provocateurs were fudgepacker in chief, erdick HO-ter, & alcrapton.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:50 | 5547922 Escrava Isaura
Escrava Isaura's picture

 

 

So, the article is telling us that TPTB were playing nice before?

And that now TPTB will be jacking up the pillaging?

 

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:55 | 5547929 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

Burn this bitch down!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:29 | 5547991 Element
Element's picture

Just step back and look at what you're saying. You live in a suburb, right? So some known young local criminal or thug gets arguably unjustifiably killed by police.

So your 'solution' is to this suspicion and legal due process that follows is to burn down your own suburb? What exactly did the suburb do again?

Do everyone a favour, start with your own house, with you and your family still in it.

That would be just as rational, and certainly a lot more worthwhile.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:34 | 5548001 Billy Bob101
Billy Bob101's picture

I heard that the troublemakers were outsiders.  Could have been agent provocateurs.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:37 | 5548010 Element
Element's picture

Or not.

Far more likely its other local crims and thugs who want to loot the 'free' shit, that someone else's hard work and business operation actually paid for, or rather, still has to pay for.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:54 | 5548042 LetsGetPhysical
LetsGetPhysical's picture

Of course it's never their fault. It's always somebody elses fault. Mike Brown robs a store rushes a cop and it's the cops fault. Mikes gang member stepfather yells "lets burn this motherfucker down" but yet it's outsiders. They apparently can't help themselves.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:22 | 5548237 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

The whole fucking thing is a mess.  We'll probably never know who actually did the looting.  Regarding everybody involved in this shitshow, a pox on all their houses. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:35 | 5548277 greyghost
greyghost's picture

come on element. you burn down the down the business or slum lords property because they are a part of the problem. do you think for a minute that the business owner of apt. building , black or white is treated the same way as the average person by the police? real change didn't start to occur in the 1960's until that business owners property went up in smoke. Insurance doesn't pay off for losses due to "acts of god" arson" or "RIOT". ooops  can't you just hear the conversations between the mayor and the police chief and the local business owners!!!!!! 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 16:51 | 5548679 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

STRAINING AT GNATS AND SWALLOWING CAMELS.

If a policeman murdered your child, and the Police Chief and DA backed the policeman up, what would you do?   Something violent?  MAYBE? 

If not, then what WOULD you do?  All ideas welcome.  Really.

Or would you do NOTHING.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:20 | 5548759 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

Sorry element....should have put the /sarc tag on it.

 

But just barely.  This kind of fascist tactic of raising revenue by sticking it to folks on minor offenses is part and parcel with the attitude of black folks rightfully or wrongly over the shooting of that kid.

 

What we have either way is a government im Ferguson wholly corrupt ruling over a corrupt and desperate citizenry.

 

Burning it down just might alleviate the problem.  White folks flee.  Blacks can take it over and bitch at their own kind for a change.  Might finally motivate some to actually conquer the corruption inside themselves and their own community.

 

 

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:23 | 5548116 Bokkenrijder
Bokkenrijder's picture

The beatings will continue until morale improves!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:31 | 5547885 Kolchak
Kolchak's picture

and the band played on, call me when the snack lines starts filling up.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:31 | 5547886 More_sellers_th...
More_sellers_than_buyers's picture

we fined some folks

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:33 | 5547892 29.5 hours
29.5 hours's picture

 

 

So Ferguson (and many cities and towns like it) consciously aim to become "speed-trap" equivalents--where "law enforcement" is nothing but a form of revenue enhancement.

This will do wonders for the rule of law in this country...

 

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:47 | 5547916 yellowsub
yellowsub's picture

I didn't know this was a new thing using cops as tax collectors?

They need to find a way to keep themselves and their pensions paid...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:24 | 5547986 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Surprising the Gestapo aren't assuming higher yields from civil asset forfeiture.  That seems like a great way to a quick score.  They should enlist the county tax surveyors.  'If you see some expensive looking shit that the owner can live without, alert the CAF grab-team (Civil Asset Forfeiture).  Let's use that MRAP to go 'RESCUE' some shit from private ownership.'

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:36 | 5548005 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

Next, cops will have an "IRS" rocker above their shoulder patch.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:46 | 5548023 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

The IRS already has their own SWAT teams.

Not only the police getting in on it either.I'm looking at two speeding tickets,on my desk, from

Homeowners Associations. If I didn't need to service clients in them, I would say FU.

I as I keep saying, they're going to steal it all, get your assets of the grid while you still can.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:28 | 5548189 813kml
813kml's picture

I'm assuming these are HOAs of affluent gated communities that will also ban you for daring to sully their streets in anything less than an S-Class MB.  

Add HOAs to the long list of fascist organizations in USSA.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:02 | 5548327 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

And if it's not bad enough there is the, "home owners association",  lmao. Now that's what I call a glutton for punishment.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:48 | 5548038 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

of course this is not a "new thing" - it's just "new" to those who have believed the narrative of "specialness" by virtue of their skin colour and/or relative wealth.

for some this heavy-hand has weighed on them all of their lives, generations even.  it's been quite "hand-y" in the divide 'n' conquer stakes.

still is.

but a very few are starting to pull the blinders from their eyes, and can see that this "us" vs. "them" is a story told from birth, coming to its logical plot twist at the end. . .

the shrinking club of "us" and the big-ass clubs in the hands of "them".

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:01 | 5547944 Firepower
Firepower's picture

Ferguson shows in microcosm what will happen throughout Murka as the declining nation deteriorates into a muddy demographic swamp.

White vs black vs mex vs White http://wp.me/p2kmGE-3WB

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:57 | 5548049 Ward cleaver
Ward cleaver's picture

U mean that 45 mph that appeared
right after a 70 mph sign in Va was a trick?
What next, making it a misdemeanor unless
u use one of their local "lawyers"?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:46 | 5548169 Fun Facts
Fun Facts's picture

Krugman giving more bad advice to the donkeys.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:35 | 5547895 chubbar
chubbar's picture

First off, what kind of a fucking asshole councilman/woman decides that the trick to balancing a budget is to have the Police go out and fine the shit out of their citizens? This is the end all of asshole moves and those dipshits need to be run out of town wearing tar & feathers.

Secondly, perhaps this is intentional? Obama needs a race divide so no one catches on to the real culprits responsible for our state of affairs.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:58 | 5547936 Rubbish
Rubbish's picture

Makes me just want to break something.

 

Gold Bitchez...I pick up pennies

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:03 | 5547948 Firepower
Firepower's picture

WHAT kind?!?

 

duh, THE KIND that's ruled this nation (and you) for the past 40 years...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:53 | 5548040 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

blaming this on "obama" ignores the history of these tactics, used GLOBALLY for more than the years of your lifetime.

buy yeah, keep pointing and screaming at the figurehead.

working as intended.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:35 | 5548412 Meat Hammer
Meat Hammer's picture

What chubbar said......

If it doesn't make sense it makes perfect sense.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:55 | 5547897 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

The militarized, fascist police state needs ever more revenues which must be forcibly extracted from controlled, cowed  populations.  Police have liberated over $2.5 billion in cash from more than 63,000 hapless motorists in the land of the free.  Do we really need to spend over $60 billion a year on DHS? Meanwhile, the NSA with funding of over $70 billion a year relentlessly spies on everyone including the Supreme Court, Congress and the White House.  Could the land of the free be more repressed?

Incarceration rates in the land of the free are 740 per 100,000 compared to 53 in Japan, 51 in Sweden, and 30 in India. America has 4.3% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners.  Women prisoners in the land of the free exceed those in China, India and Russia combined.

From Occupation to ‘Occupy': The Israelification of American domestic security

When a riot squad from the New York Police Department destroyed and evicted the “Occupy Wall Street” protest encampment at Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan, department leadership drew on the anti-terror tactics they had refined since the 9/11 attacks. According to the New York Times, the NYPD deployed “counterterrorism measures” to mobilize large numbers of cops for the lightning raid on Zuccotti. The use of anti-terror techniques to suppress a civilian protest complemented harsh police measures demonstrated across the country against the nationwide “Occupy” movement, from firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets into unarmed crowds to blasting demonstrators with the LRAD sound cannon.

Given the amount of training the NYPD and so many other police forces have received from Israel’s military-intelligence apparatus, and the profuse levels of gratitude American police chiefs have expressed to their Israeli mentors, it is worth asking how much Israeli instruction has influenced the way the police have attempted to suppress the Occupy movement, and how much they will inform police repression of future examples of street protest. What can be said for certain is that the Israelification of American law enforcement has intensified police fear and hostility towards the civilian population, blurring the lines between protesters, criminals, and terrorists. As Dichter said, they are all just “crimiterrorists.”

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/from-occupation-to-occupy-the-israelificat...

Land of the Free? US Has 25 Percent of the World’s Prisoners

http://billmoyers.com/2013/12/16/land-of-the-free-us-has-5-of-the-worlds...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:10 | 5547960 Kaiser Sousa
Kaiser Sousa's picture

now do u all get it?????

FUCK THE POLICE.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:18 | 5547975 chunga
chunga's picture

This one here is probably just another misunderstanding.

Baltimore cops taser woman who filmed them beating man in custody

http://rt.com/usa/214099-baltimore-police-taser-woman/

Another thing that sucks is...if cops beat the crap out of somebody and it gets filmed...the taxpayers pay the lawsuit.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:16 | 5548094 fiftybagger
fiftybagger's picture

That's an easy one, make the money for the lawsuit come out of the police pension fund :-)

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:39 | 5548156 chunga
chunga's picture

Yup, anybody espousing that idea would be quickly labeled as a supporter of crime and anti law and order. Not to mention also against the brave first responders.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:16 | 5547970 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

Yes, but the costs of keeping all those prisoners actually ADD to GDP. So it must be good.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:32 | 5547999 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

( instructional vide ends. Instructor:)

"So, any questions or observations?"

(class of local PD from small town USA)

"Man you guys stomped those Palestinians!"
"Yeah. Can you do that here?"
"Wow, you guys caved that guy's skull in and he was just selling some smokes!"
"Those teenage guys took a full magazine!"

(Instructor)

"AIPAC is working on changing some laws in your country in order to make your jobs easier, more secure, and more enjoyable. Let's go to our next film, 'Torture W/O Physical Marks."

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:14 | 5548095 Trucker Glock
Trucker Glock's picture

"Police have liberated over $2.5 billion in cash"

$2.5B since 9/11.  They've stolen a lot more than that.  Roadside forfeiture was happening long before 9/11.  War on Drugs, bitchez!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:07 | 5548185 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

Yet everyone here falls into the same trap: protests and violence. The key is civil disobedience practiced in a way which never intersects with the police power of the State. You do not have to give them the opportunity to use superior force and choose the battleground. You instigate guerilla tactics.

For example: Pulling assets from the financial system (stocks, bank accounts, bonds, etc), growing your own food(see aquaponics) and using local vendors- especially those willing to work in cash and trade. Local production of goods and services on a small scale payable in untraceable monetary substitutes. Minimize the digital tracking for your wealth and minimize taxes. Become a LLC or C Corp to take advantage of tax benefits. If in an urban area, start walking and biking, denying them ticket revenue and gas taxes. 

Systemic withdrawl from the State and into tightly knit communities is not just liberating, it gives the State no means to justify its' expense. Stop using government benefits. Stop voting. Stop joining the military. Bring back the extended family to decrease housing, childcare, elder care, etc- which also decreases taxes. Stop watching TV, going to movies, playing video games. Educate your children and spend time investing in their lives.

We are the bricks and mortar of America. We can decide to minimize government by eliminating its' necessity in our lives. When you chose to eliminate the propaganda pathways into the lives of you and your family, the world takes on a new appearance. We only have ourselves to blame.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:29 | 5548258 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

“Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.”

 

If they want your actions to intersect with LEOs, be it federal or state, they can.  We don't even know how many federal crimes there are, and that doesn't get into state and local crimes. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:49 | 5548305 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

Which would require an interaction with an authority position of some kind. We should all be aware by now of the immensity of the federal structure and limited liability law as well as admiralty law, however, it still requires participation on our part. Further, what I advised does not mean we are completely out of harm's way, it merely raises the difficulty for the State and would force them to show the severity of their tyranny in a way it would be become very clear as to their motivations and means. 

We still have a facade of liberty being presented as everyday life. Once the cover is torn away, by the State no less, the rationalizations will be empty and useless. Not only will the people have had an opportunity to insulate themselves from State power and its' effects, the State will be faced with a much greater percentage of the population to subject. 

The State is not capable of handling large populations in full rebellion- this is the case in Afganistan and Iraq. Further, you cannot maintain a nation through the martial control of a few cities- and this is about the limit of their ability. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:36 | 5547898 highly debtful
highly debtful's picture

Hanlon's Razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:33 | 5548002 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Stupidity breeds malice, which breeds stupidly...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:33 | 5547899 hedgeless_horseman
hedgeless_horseman's picture

 

 

May I see the First Amendment permit and state registration for your "Fuck the Police" t-shirt? Also, the maximum capacity allowed for a privately owned t-shirt in this city is 10 letters, so we are going to need to confiscate it, unless you can show me a valid high-capacity tax stamp.

You weren't wearing that at school? You know that is a Constitution-Free zone? Right?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:37 | 5547900 Salzburg1756
Salzburg1756's picture

"40 in a 30. So, you owe us $200." Been there done that.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:38 | 5547905 JBilyj
JBilyj's picture

I hope to see corrupt cops, politicians and judges dead on the streets in a couple of years, America will only take so much...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:55 | 5547932 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Your definition and my definition of ONLY so much......must be very DIFFERENT. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:32 | 5548261 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

People are starting to wake up.  Just wait until soccer moms are getting the brunt of this. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:39 | 5547907 Ginsengbull
Ginsengbull's picture

If they would do their fair share as members of the community, and buy tickets to the policeman's ball, they wouldn't have to generate revenue other ways.

 

Pay the Man.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:13 | 5547967 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

What if 'the man' wants 3% more every year and your income is flat to declining?  You could pay him, cheat him, or shoot him. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:04 | 5548064 Ginsengbull
Ginsengbull's picture

What if the street gangs want to raise your "protection payments"?

 

They got more cred, huh?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 22:43 | 5549404 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Street gangs?  Not close to me.  But the answer is the same. . . bullets to the brain.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:42 | 5547911 Whoa Dammit
Whoa Dammit's picture

Poor areas are the most lucrative revenue generators for the state. When poor people don't have the money to pay traffic fines, they typically don't show up for their court date. Then the revenue generating system really kicks in, with the person usually then rounded up, put on probation, the original fine is then increased astronomically, and the hapless poor person winds up forever caught up in a downward spiral. 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:05 | 5547951 Yellowhoard
Yellowhoard's picture

Incarcerating people who have no ability to pay is not "lucrative" to the state.

It is lucrative to the local lawyers who guide the accused through the labirynth.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:00 | 5548056 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

those "local lawyers" are working for the State, as are the local uni-formed, the judges etc.

the State profits, just not in the ways you're perhaps "thinking".

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:18 | 5548099 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

It's lucrative when they can enslave them to make furniture and license plates for 14 cents a day and make a profit

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:31 | 5548132 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

" DEY TOOK OUR JAWBS!!!! "

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:33 | 5548271 FredFlintstone
FredFlintstone's picture

Yeah, prison industries are a real boon to the economy! sarc

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 16:33 | 5548656 RichardParker
RichardParker's picture

Prison/Incarceration business is VERY lucrative.  Think about the federal funding available to state/county levels for this. 

Not to mention an almost unlimited source of labor in the prison population at the rate of about 25 cents an hour.  Target/Crapmart etc., eat your heart out.  LOL 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 16:40 | 5548669 FredFlintstone
FredFlintstone's picture

Corrections officers and other employees and their unions. Judges, lawyers, etc.... yes, very lucrative. Profiting from prison industries in the US? I doubt it.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 17:00 | 5548708 MrSteve
MrSteve's picture

you're so full of baloney; do you post here just to read your fantasy explanations? The goofs who agree with your tale also look like rubes. Sorry, the facts don't fit your scenario.

Read all the way to the end and see how the machine made millions, illegally, in the Chicago Loop, which they are not refunding per Mare Rahm. It is not a "poor area".

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-red-light-cameras-martin-omalley-p...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:01 | 5548062 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

I don't see that your post and link are "off topic" at all:

 

One egregious crime pinned on them was a grisly Sept. 11, 2011, triple murder in Waltham, Mass.

 

time for everyone to stop limiting their minds to "certain" notions, and let the narrative reveal itself for what it truly is. . .

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:55 | 5547930 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

One man's 'safety fines' are another man's 'tyranny taxes'.  Lock'n'load, and keep the crosshairs on the .gov fucktard.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:56 | 5547934 richiebaby
richiebaby's picture

Because of the shortfalls in tax revenue, munis nationwide are fining the shit out of the people to keep the revenues flowing. Biting the hands that feed you taken to epic proportions

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:56 | 5547935 Hopeless for Change
Hopeless for Change's picture

" as a result of public anger first at the murder of Mike Brown and subsequently, the acquital of the police officer who shot him."

Murder? Really....

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:24 | 5548120 Trucker Glock
Trucker Glock's picture

Acquittal?  Really....

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:58 | 5548321 Hopeless for Change
Hopeless for Change's picture

Right. Not even enough evidence to put him on trial so that he COULD be acquitted.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 10:58 | 5547939 logicalman
logicalman's picture

Pretty much flags who's being served and protected, don't you think?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:02 | 5547943 Yellowhoard
Yellowhoard's picture

Stop describing Michael Brown's shooting as "murder".

ZH seems to be part of the MSM narrative to start a race riot.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:13 | 5547964 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

Murder of the unarmed gentle giant honor student. All we're missing is 'aspiring rapper'.

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:23 | 5547983 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

You forgot he was on his way to choir practice.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:13 | 5547965 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Well burn that bitch down, then.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:21 | 5547979 Ginsengbull
Ginsengbull's picture

Suicide by cop.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:16 | 5547972 Element
Element's picture

Better than a Monty Python reunion.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:23 | 5547981 Racer
Racer's picture

16% of revenue is from fines? Sounds like a glorified protection racket to me

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:36 | 5548009 Emergency Ward
Emergency Ward's picture

-- "Pay up or get Tasered."

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:40 | 5548013 hedgeless_horseman
hedgeless_horseman's picture

 

 

Probably about right, considering that keeping the peace is one of the very few legitimate duties of government, and as a taxpayer, I would rather have the perpetrator fined than higher taxes.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:25 | 5547987 Temerity Trader
Temerity Trader's picture

Who wrote this trash?

Murder? Poor innocent black male, just minding his own business walking down the street. Right! Try a thug, ripped some guy off and went looking for trouble. Well, he got it. If they did the same to a few more trouble-makers, maybe they would get the message? Yes, the police have become way to militarized and they are thinking prepare for big race riots which are coming when the economy falls apart. So, they want machine guns and tanks. Which came first, chicken or egg?  It will escalate and get ugly. This is what the oligarchs fear and why they print money like hell to hold off the final collapse.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:39 | 5548012 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

WTF happened to replace fire hoses for riots w tanks, assault weapons & snipers? WTF.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:16 | 5548098 Ginsengbull
Ginsengbull's picture

"Militarized" means sticking to Geneva conventions, full metal jackets, no targeting civilians, ...

 

Cops get good hollow point black talon bullets. They aren't made to wound. They are scientifically designed to kill.

 

Why would they want to be "militarized"? Many of them have already gone through that.

 

The current leftist engineered and supported media blitz is intended to paint law enforcement as incompetent, thereby creating support for 0bama's "domestic military" gestapo, which will report only to him.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:37 | 5548007 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

Are we really talking about America here or some other God foresaken country?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:42 | 5548017 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

.... it's obamy fudgepacker land...  all this divisiveness in last 6 years on the watch or unwatch by the corrupt incompetent arrogant narcissistic illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim sociopathic pathological lying fudgepacker in chief....

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:43 | 5548020 Moe Howard
Moe Howard's picture

You would think the Democrats could run their plantations more efficeintly. Bullets cost money.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:42 | 5548022 q99x2
q99x2's picture

The police have a nice stash to go after Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. Long live the revolution

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:45 | 5548028 goose3
goose3's picture

Wow.  Hard to take seriously a post from someone who starts it with the certainty about "public anger first at the murder of Mike Brown and subsequently, the acquital of the police officer who shot him."

 

I stopped reading there.  Too bad that a post on ZeroHedge has to start with that kind of bias--or any other kind.  I suggest you go back and review the facts as the public knows them, and then reassess.  

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 11:48 | 5548034 deerhunter
deerhunter's picture

the rooster came first.  The natives always walk in the middle of the street and glare at me for driving while white in their neighborhoods.

I am just trying to make a living running sales calls but they frown on me being there amongst them.  Racism is alive and well in this country.  I am hated for being white.  I am discriminated against for it.  I lost a job to a black man to affirmative action for a game wardens job back in 1974. The man who inteviewd me told me his new black hire didn't know a quail or wild turkey from a pigeon or a duck but his hands were tied.   Life goes on.  I was force bussed into the ghetto schools in high school and the natives came out to the white burbs.  How did that all work out? 

Anyone here want to go patrol those shitholes?  Anyone here want to strap on a handgun and a vest and drive South Chicago?  I do it in a toyota coralla with a very thin metal skin.  I get harrassed,,,, called names,,, dirty glares,,, and stares any day I am running an appointment.  I can't imagine putting on blue and a target on my back,, pension or not.  There is no respect for self, for law, for others or for jack shit in the hood.  The ones I care about are the ones trying to do the right thing.  Slavery died 140 plus years ago,  get over it.

I lived in Cincinnati for nine years.  There when the popo tells the natives to stop or i shoot they usually do.  Do you know why that is?  Because the cops will shoot if they don't stop.  I don't recognize my country any longer.  I remember 1968 riots.  They weren't pretty.  If you have to live your life in the hoods of America i guess it boils down to wanting to get out more than you want to stay there.

Maybe quit feeding them for breeding babies.  Maybe hold the dark men accountable for rasing what they breed?  When you are in the grocery store next look around.  One in five of those kids you are feeding and that of all colors.  Accountability and right intstruction are gone in this country.  Thank LBJ initially,,, ah hell,,, I gotta stop.  This is hard on the blood pressure.  Good weekend to all,,,,

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:27 | 5548127 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

You need some 'Liberation Theology' my good man.

Those archaic ideas will do you no good in The New America.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:07 | 5548075 Sub MOA
Sub MOA's picture

http://rt.com/news/214187-zurich-violence-clashes-police/

 

and now Zurich burns 7 cops hospitalized/injured  and they attacked a bank

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:38 | 5548150 Cathartes Aura
Cathartes Aura's picture

a selection from your link:

The rioters, wearing masks and protective clothing, and armed with iron bars

 

Some 200 masked left-wing radicals clashed with police and set streets in the city center ablaze. Seven policemen were injured in the incident.

 

Anarchists rampage through Zurich, put cars on fire as unrest hits Capitalism's last "holy site".

 

 

mmm Hmmmm.  yeah.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:55 | 5548183 chubbar
chubbar's picture

Well, if shit is going down in Zurich then we really aren't in Kansas any longer. The article you posted also makes clear they are targeting banks, more good news in that at least these folks are thinking through who is the source of their problems. If we start seeing the masses rising up against the corporations and bankers in a violent manner then we are really seeing something new developing, IMO.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:07 | 5548076 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

Perhaps if many people in the USA had jobs and better paying ones at that we might not have been seeing cases like Ferguson and the rise of the police state.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:14 | 5548090 Sub MOA
Sub MOA's picture

deleted for sake of sanity  jobs LMAO

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:39 | 5548286 DukeDog
DukeDog's picture

Perhaps some of these folks would have jobs or better jobs if Uncle Sugar didn't pay them not to work, give them free shit, and tell them they were victims of whitey's systemic racism.

http://therightstuff.biz/2014/11/26/a-thanksgiving-day-letter-to-the-ame...

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:49 | 5548176 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

ROFL...

This year Santa gets shot down by a BUK II over Ukraine and they blame it on Putin.

NORAD notifies NATO and they scramble...

Merry Christmas.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:28 | 5548128 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

Rather have them fine and badger the people that torched their own city than get bailed out by the rest of us.

Oh, and about that cycle of poverty in the Ferguson area, yeah, businesses will be flocking to go to an area where the residents loot the fuck out of everything at the drop of Al Sharpton's feathery pimp hat.  Fuck Ferguson.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:36 | 5548283 DukeDog
DukeDog's picture

There were no looters. The correct term is "undocumented shoppers."

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:13 | 5548361 ReligiousAtheist1
ReligiousAtheist1's picture

LMFAO that gave me a good laugh "undocumented shoppers" 

Sun, 12/14/2014 - 10:52 | 5550093 hedgeless_horseman
hedgeless_horseman's picture

 

 

underfunded consumers

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:40 | 5548155 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Meh.

So what else is new.

Either it was freelance highwaymen who robbed you on the roads or it was the Baron's knights who extracted a 'toll' for their protection.

Going about your business has always been a risky business itself when there is no effective rule of law or avenue of redress.

The New America is just like the good old days...only they're the much older days.

SSDD.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:50 | 5548175 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Officer Trigger Happy was not acquitted in any way, shape, or form.

Non-indictment is not the legal or moral equivalent of an acquittal.

Who writes this shit?

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:07 | 5548209 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

That's right.

The first indicates that the evidence presented shows that theres no need for the second.

No case. End of story.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:15 | 5548224 22winmag
22winmag's picture

True... however the evidence a grand jury sees is chosen, prepared, and presented by oft-crooked, politican-wannabe prosecutors.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:30 | 5548400 Yellowhoard
Yellowhoard's picture

So, the Democrat County Prosecutor white washed the case because???

His political career is over. He can't be elected dog catcher now in Missouri without the support of the black voter base.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 14:50 | 5548444 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Prosecutors like him are rewarded with cushy jobs at the Federal Dept. of Just-Us.

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:33 | 5548269 DukeDog
DukeDog's picture

"...a town which was looted, burned and generally eviscerated on several occasions in the past few months as a result of public anger first at the murder of Mike Brown..."

Brown was not murdered anymore than he put his hands up and said "Don't shoot." He'd be alive but for his own free choice to violently confront a police office. What sort of person reaches inside a police vehicle and tries to wrestle a gun away, then charges at an armed officer who's already fired wounding shots and told him to stop and drop and keeps coming? Someone with a violent criminal mentality, learned behavior thanks to the examples of his dear mom and "Burn this bitch down" step-dad. Murder my ass! If the cop had not legally defended himself Brown might still be alive, the cop dead, and Brown on trial for murder.

Who writes this shit indeed!

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 12:57 | 5548187 Inthemix96
Inthemix96's picture

Fuck me.

Legalised, unwarranted, but encouraged by the bosses theft??

And we have the nerve to call banana republics?

Cunts

;-)

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:13 | 5548222 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

For generations of blacks, education was frowned upon and seen as caving to the white man and "acting white"...and it's still too common

Subsequently, that lack of education leads to poverty and despair

Hence, the riots and vicious circle of frustration and hostility

When he wasn't raping taboo whitey, Bill Cosby actually had one good cause going in his life.

 

Sat, 12/13/2014 - 13:23 | 5548244 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Selling Jell-o?

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!