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May 3rd, 2016 
Awake Goy
4-27-16
This week on Copblock Radio our hosts were myself (Severin Freeman) from Lehigh Valley Copblock, Rick Gonzalez of Allentown Copblock, Matt Taylor of Carbon County Copblock and Brian Sumner of Cop Block Fresno.
We open with discussion about our recent contact with police. Brian shared a story about a homeless man being harassed by police. Then we discussed Rick and myself ‘s recent encounter with a dirty cop’s family. After running a story and video we were met with threats on social media by the cops children and other family members. I made the observation that the people that scream support for the law and cops are always the ones willing to break it to satisfy their own desires.
Next we discussed our top stories. The fist was about the Story of Eric Harris. The officer that shot Harris in the back claimed to have thought he was holding his tazer. This excuse was backed up by the admission that the department knew he was unable to pass his basic tests due to his age. He was charged with manslaughter and given 4 years. Our next top story was a settlement in the infamous Tamir Rice case. The family was given 6 million dollars for the wrongful death. The police union had to rub some salt in the wound by making a public statement about how the family should use the money to educate the kids about the dangers of toy guns.
Next was a story about the Pennsylvania State Police. One of these upstanding officers was charged with domestic violence after holding his duty weapon to his wife’s head. The officer was not any regular patrol officer either, he was a member of the Governors personal security. The issue of domestic violence in police is so bad they have their own term for it when its reported. We discussed a number of stories recently reported on the topic.
Finally we wrap up the half by discussing drones. Not the toys but the ones that police forces plan on using in southern California to spy on its residents. The police have made a regular habit of exploiting new tech that has not been regulated to work around the need for a warrant. They plan on flying drones over “crime areas” to watch the residents. Personally I wonder if any real crimes will be prevented by a toy on scene. more likely these will be used to catch would be drug users committing victim-less crimes.
We open the second half with a debate/discussion on the topic of life after police. There are a number of schools of thought around the possibility of life after the cops are gone. What will security look like? Who will hold us accountable? What are the options for towns that want to pay for their security? The discussion primarily between Brian and myself was very good. We had totally different perspectives and points. I was mainly focused on the idea of people paid for our security is a good thing. I feel as though we should have a choice outside the current system. Companies should be able to compete for the contract on a city’s protection. The winner being decided by the people based on their track record. Brian was from the position that all services like this are wrong. He believes we should all be left to operate as ourselves accountable to ourselves. In my opinion its nice in theory buy not so much in practice but my co-hosts disagreed with me. You can see the full debate for yourself and make your own judgement. Also read the opposing views that ASA and Josh had on the subject.
The debate took up most of the second half of the show. Those that listened live on Lrn.fm missed the parts where we just kept talking through the commercial break. We will definitely come back to the topic again because its a great one. Most of us advocate for the end of police in one form or another so its important for us to have a plan for that argument to be successful . Most people will never sit by with the “just let everyone do what they want” philosophy. In my opinion (this is only my opinion) if we do not have a clear proposal for an alternative to the current system we will never get the change we want so much. One thing we all agree on is the the current system has failed.
We were able to squeeze in one final story for the night. It’s from a police officers point of view about his career choice. Its always interesting to me to see a person break their programming. The moral dilemma in his daily encounters with people caused him to break his “we are heros” “thin blue line” brainwashing and realize he was causing more harm than good. you can read that full story HERE.
Tune in 5/4/16 for a new episode of Copblock Radio where we will be celebrating the much awaited return of Derrick J! We air 10pm EST on LRN.fm or at copblock.org/show. Subscribe to the Youtube channel for alerts when we go live. Download the LRN.fm app to hear our radio feed. As always remember to film the police!
Source Article from http://www.copblock.org/158654/cbr-ep-116-life-after-police/
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