Death by Extraordinary Rendition

This strangler only took five minutes to strangle a citizen-victim to death under custody in Alameda, California, a new favorite lynching technique that suddenly and decidedly has become de rigueur. It’s a staid normal for cops who wish to engage in the same loyal way that Derek Chauvin made popular in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Death under custody” turns into a race to carve a notch into your pistol. Tune into the channels on the internet where such techniques are sharpened, where action plans are drawn, and where white supremacism turns its weight against undesirable elements, from the dregs of society that threaten to destroy the American Dream. Details are not needed because they might later raise questions that are better left unanswered. Get the job done, get the hell out, and await further extrajudicial orders online and on the street. Beware of teenagers bearing video-capable phones.

Death by custody

Police departments rush to train officers who end up killing people under custody in new startling ways. There are countries where such training is provided, where it is routinely conducted in military-sized groupings, places where the extraordinarily ugly term “extraordinary rendition” keeps extra judiciary torture and ensuing death under confidential gentlemen’s’ agreements. A gentlemen’s agreement to hide evidence under a pile of platitudes is maintained to make society safe for rogue players. These agreements keep the jail cells free for the lesser-desirable incarcerated, for victimless crimes where a crime is defined in the eyes of a lone policeman who receives nods of approval from those who look like him, who were created in the image of Him. Ask no questions and I will tell you no lies. Injustice happens and it happens in the blink of an eye. Suspect dead on suspicion of suspicious activity. Log it and forget it.

This is a thousand lightyears from Mayberry, but it is explained in terms that fit an American myth, a myth that bears no resemblance to a courtroom where decisions have already been made to justify death by custody. The amount of time taken to conduct a custody may range from a number of hours to a number of seconds. The presence of arms in the hands of the presumed criminal requires no details, anything from a cell phone to a pack of cigarettes is enough to bring a cop to enter the following magical incantation that closes the case:

“I feared for my life.”

QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM.

Justice is molded in the plot of a television program that churns out platitudes sixty words per minute. The cop shows that justify every police action runs from squad car policemen on a beat to the careful doling out of law and order in a justice system set in stone. From TV show to predictable dialog at the cinema that defines reality in white America. Dirty Harry cuts corners, but each corner cut is served to an audience that looks forward to seeing a perfect policeman in action for a justice delivered in chunks that are easy to understand, where it is easy to color within the lines. Just dole out instant justice, Mr. Policeman. Just do it, and do it fast. Make it fit the American Way. Make us feel safe, protected, and served.

Thanks for reading.