Tanks But No Tanks by Bill Buppert

    The police in Egypt maimed and killed hundreds if not thousands and we will never know the true toll. Armored cars, tanks and all sorts of equipment normally reserved for warfare were used against the civilian population. This is the ultimate mission of all police forces, they are not beholden nor obligated to protect the population they are allegedly there to serve and protect. Police and law enforcement entities are creatures of the state and their first allegiance and loyalty is always to the ruling class that pays their salaries and demands their fealty and obeisance. There is no surprise or mystery here; absent the constabulary, no state can abuse and shred the individual liberties that remain few and far between today. The military in Egypt has famously never been used to defend the state from external invaders for literally decades.  The primary purpose of the treads on every tank in the Egyptian security force bought and paid for with American taxpayer funds is the lubrication of said machinery with the crushed bodies of the population. The converse and ultimately obscene notion of officer safety as enshrined in the American police state was on display during the riots in Egypt and the literal evisceration of human beings to ensure that the political machine remains in the hands of those in power. The cops pick a fight with protesters and exercise deadly force to protect themselves from any display of self-defense by their intended victims. Egypt remains a harbinger of things to come in the United States as police forces become more militarized and bolder in their everyday war on normal citizens day by day. My friend, Carla Gericke, has launched a potent campaign to embarrass the shameless authorities in New Hampshire who seek to have a tank granted to their department to Concord, NH. Here is a direct quote from the grant request: “Groups such as the Sovereign Citizens, Free Staters and Occupy New Hampshire are active and present daily challenges. Outside of officially organized groups, several homegrown clusters that are anti-government and pose problems for law enforcement agencies.”