Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
In search of simpler times, or at least insanity I could understand, I watched a six-part documentary on EPIX, Helter Skelter. Fifty-odd years ago there was a delusional criminal whose followers thought he was a messiah. He decided he was getting messages to initiate a race war which would culminate with him and his "family" ruling the United States, if not the world. Some people were hideously murdered and many more were terrified before the madness came to an end. It was, as George W. Bush might say, some weird shit.
It's now clear that Charles Manson's big mistake was to kill rich white people, including an actual movie star. Had he targeted Black or Hispanic people, he and his family might still be living in the desert. The affiliation of many police forces with white supremacists and far-right militias goes back to the post-bellum South, if not farther, and was certainly a fact when William Parker was running the force in Los Angeles. Why would they stir themselves because someone was "clearing the streets"? The Atlanta police didn't expend much effort on the "child murders" of young Black males between 1979 and 1981 before deciding Wayne Williams killed them all, based on a single conviction. (Read James Baldwin's Evidence of Things Not Seen.) Who's to say they didn't settle on Richard Jewell for the Olympic Park bombing to protect Eric Rudolph? No, I'm not paranoid -- I'm paying attention. I'm also thinking of five Black and Latino men railroaded for the assault on the Central Park jogger and later exonerated -- and of the delusional criminal who still wants them executed.
There isn't a lot of moral or legal distinction between letting the lynch mob into your jail and tying the noose yourself. Nor among police like Derek Chauvin, police-wannabes like Kyle Rittenhouse and cheerleaders like Trump, who only want metaphoric blood on their manicured hands. Once again, people are doing their best to start the race war Manson dreamed of, with ultimate power as the prize. Trump's followers are as delusional as the "girls" of the Family, without drugs as even a feeble excuse. I wonder if they will accept the November verdict. Q is only part of it.
What would Charlie have done in the White House? We may be about to find out.
It's now clear that Charles Manson's big mistake was to kill rich white people, including an actual movie star. Had he targeted Black or Hispanic people, he and his family might still be living in the desert. The affiliation of many police forces with white supremacists and far-right militias goes back to the post-bellum South, if not farther, and was certainly a fact when William Parker was running the force in Los Angeles. Why would they stir themselves because someone was "clearing the streets"? The Atlanta police didn't expend much effort on the "child murders" of young Black males between 1979 and 1981 before deciding Wayne Williams killed them all, based on a single conviction. (Read James Baldwin's Evidence of Things Not Seen.) Who's to say they didn't settle on Richard Jewell for the Olympic Park bombing to protect Eric Rudolph? No, I'm not paranoid -- I'm paying attention. I'm also thinking of five Black and Latino men railroaded for the assault on the Central Park jogger and later exonerated -- and of the delusional criminal who still wants them executed.
There isn't a lot of moral or legal distinction between letting the lynch mob into your jail and tying the noose yourself. Nor among police like Derek Chauvin, police-wannabes like Kyle Rittenhouse and cheerleaders like Trump, who only want metaphoric blood on their manicured hands. Once again, people are doing their best to start the race war Manson dreamed of, with ultimate power as the prize. Trump's followers are as delusional as the "girls" of the Family, without drugs as even a feeble excuse. I wonder if they will accept the November verdict. Q is only part of it.
What would Charlie have done in the White House? We may be about to find out.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 2:25 PM
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