"Be A Little More Careful About What You Say"

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LANGUAGE!
(But precisely my feelings.)

"...you've got to be a little more careful about what you say. But I'll cut him some slack."
Sigh.....

I'm no Rick Perry fan and I shouldn't work blue, but here goes.

Dear Barack Hussein Sotero Obama,

In every tongue I can think of, with every ounce of my being, I can only say,
THIS

Another Big Lincoln Lie Exposed

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I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.


~ Abraham Lincoln, Debate with Stephen Douglas, Sept. 18, 1858, in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832-1858 (New York: Library of America, 1989), pp. 636-637.

These are the words of the real Lincoln, who was as much a white supremacist as any man of his time. In fact, he was a much more extreme white supremacist than most, for he advocated "colonization" or the deportation of black people from America for his entire adult life. As soon as he entered politics in the early 1830s he became a "manager" of the Illinois Colonization Society which sought to use state tax funds to deport the small number of free blacks living in Illinois out of the state (the state amended its constitution in 1848 to prohibit the immigration of black people into the state, an amendment that Lincoln supported).

Lincoln followed in the footsteps of his idol, Henry Clay, who was the president of the American Colonization Society, and quoted Clay often on the subject. During his presidency he established a colonization office in the Department of Interior and funded it with $600,000, while working diligently to plan on deporting black people to Liberia, Haiti, Jamaica, Central America, the West Indies – anywhere but the U.S.

These historical facts have long presented a problem for the purveyors of the comic book/fairy tale history of Lincoln that has been taught to Americans for generations. For they suggest that, rather than being a racial saint, as the comic book/fairy tale version of history contends, the exact opposite is true. The Lincoln cult has mostly covered up these truths by seeing to it that they rarely, if ever, make it into the public school textbooks. But just in case the truth does seep out, the Cult has concocted several excuses, "justifications," and rationales for Lincoln’s extreme racist language and actions.

One excuse that is associated with Princeton University historian James McPherson is that "Honest Abe" was lying when he spoke of colonization in connection with emancipation (as he always did) so as to soften Northern opposition to emancipation. This is called the "lullaby theory" among Lincoln cultists. Lincoln himself never said any such thing; McPherson simply fabricated the story out of thin air.

A second excuse is an equally unfounded theory that is not based on anything Lincoln himself ever said. It is a speculation that, sometime in 1863, Lincoln experienced some kind of divine transformation and was no longer the extreme racist and white supremacist that his speeches had established him as being for his entire adult life. Lincoln cultists naively contend that because Lincoln quit making speeches about colonization, he must have abandoned the idea.

Of course, politicians always do their best to keep the public in the dark with regard to their political machinations; they do not make public speeches announcing every bit of their strategies and conniving. It is not unusual for a politician to keep his plans to himself, and this is true of Lincoln as much as any politician. The divine transformation theory is based on an extraordinarily naïve view of the political world.

Both of these theories have been demolishd in a monumental new book entitled Colonization after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement, by Phillip W. Magness of American University and Sebastian N. Page of Oxford University. Based on newly-rediscovered documents in the American and British National Archives, including letters signed by Lincoln himself, these researchers have established that Lincoln continued to pursue colonization right up to the days before his assassination, when he discussed plans with General Benjamin Butler to deport the freed slaves. There was no divine transformation; and McPherson’s "lullaby" is in reality a fake alibi.



The first greenbacks, thanks to Lincoln

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Lincoln’s treasury secretary, Salmon P. Chase, had no financial expertise and was selected only for his radical ideological and political beliefs. A leader in the prewar white supremacy “Free-Soil” party, Chase eventually migrated to the Republicans along with many of his party colleagues. Lincoln’s assignment had him concoct new and unconstitutional schemes of currency and banking, and administer the seizure of property seized from Americans in the South.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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Vague Promises to Pay Hard Money:

“With the treasury nearly empty, financial markets shaken, foreign bankers unsympathetic, taxation inadequate, and loans unmarketable except at a discount, the door of escape by way of paper money seemed most tempting. Without consulting the treasury department, Representative E.G. Spaulding of New York introduced a bill for the issue of treasury notes to be made legal tender in payment of all debts.

What it amounted to was that the United States government was “making money” by means of the printing press. Though not “fiat money” in the bald sense, this paper currency had features which resembled fiat money. Some of its advocates, indeed, regarded such money as sound and proper.

Many questions were raised in debate concerning this measure of financial extremity. Would the people fail the government in the matter of taxes and loans? Was not the issuing of irredeemable paper money as legal tender a breach of contract? Since gold was virtually the prewar money of the country, would it not be bad faith to introduce paper for the payment not only of government obligations but of private debts as well?

What about the rights of creditors who had paid out gold and were to be repaid in paper? Was it not bad ethics to permit a man to pay off his debts at a discount, and in doing so have all the force of the government and its courts at his disposal? Would not such action injure public credit; would it not seriously embarrass sounder schemes…And would not this display of “government bankruptcy” embolden and encourage the enemy? Besides, where was the constitutional power in Congress to make paper money legal tender?

In support of the measure it was argued that there was no choice. The bill was a necessity, said its advocates. The treasury was facing staggering expenditures. The government would be severely hampered in the war if this important power were withheld. The bill was defended as a war measure – a drastic remedy that would not be thought of as part of a sound, permanent policy – yet it was pointed out that the danger of using this medicine as food in normal times was a real menace and should be stoutly resisted.

As passed into law on February 25, 1862, the legal tender act authorized the issue of $150,000,000 of non-interest-bearing “United States notes,” soon dubbed “greenbacks.” Such notes were vague promises to pay hard money; but no provision was made for their actual specific redemption on demand, nor at any indicated time. In a few months [Treasury Secretary Chase] asked Congress for more paper money, and Congress responded with the act of July 11, 1862, authorizing an additional $150,000,000 of greenbacks…A further increase was approved in 1863, so that by the close of the war a total of $450,000,000 of legal tender had been authorized. Actual issues reached $432,000,000.”

(The Civil War and Reconstruction, J.G. Randall, D.C. Heath and Company, 1937, pp. 450-452)

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The first greenbacks, thanks to Lincoln

Churchill Imagines How the South Won the Civil War (sic)

Via John

The Confederates capture Washington? That's just one of the clever bits of fiction that Churchill conjured up in his 1931 essay (Photo Illustration by Vertis Communications; White House: Library of Congress; Confederate Flag: Thinkstock).
The Confederates capture Washington? That's just one of the clever bits of fiction that Churchill conjured up in his 1931 essay (Photo Illustration by Vertis Communications; White House: Library of Congress; Confederate Flag: Thinkstock).

Many who have read and relied on Winston Churchill's magnificent historical works may be surprised to learn that he once devised an elaborate explanation of how Jeb Stuart prevented World War I. This seemingly far-fetched analysis was the great man's contribution to If, or History Rewritten, a 1931 collection of essays by historians of the day. Each explored a world where events had unfolded contrary to recorded history, with titles such as "If Napoleon Had Escaped to America" and "If the Moors in Spain Had Won." Churchill penned his contribution during his wilderness years, when he was out of office and working the lecture circuit across America. The essay is a playful study of a Civil War counterfactual: what might have happened had Robert E. Lee, with help from Stuart, won at Gettysburg and carried the South to victory in the war. It offers a look at Churchill's lively imagination at work, as well as a few glimpses of his views on race, war, and international politics as the storm clouds of World War II began to gather.

In Winston Churchill's fanciful alternative history, Lee wins at Gettysburg, and Jeb Stuart prevents World War I

The seeds of Churchill's excursion into alternative history were planted during his trip to North America in 1929. He and his entourage—including his son, Randolph, an undergraduate at Oxford, and his brother, Jack—arrived by boat in Quebec, then took a train across Canada to the Rockies. Entering the United States, he was indignant when customs officers searched his party's bags, which held Prohibition-defying flasks of whiskey and brandy, plus reserves secreted in medicine bottles.

Churchill, who was in his mid-50s, was endlessly interested in America, the land of his mother's birth. In California he admired the redwoods, visited William Randolph Hearst at the newspaper magnate's seafront castle, and toured MGM's studios. In Chicago, he inspected the meatpacking plants that Upton Sinclair had condemned in The Jungle, which Churchill had favorably reviewed on its publication in 1906.

From New York, Churchill headed south and spent 10 days as a guest of Virginia governor Harry F. Byrd at the governor's mansion on Richmond's Capitol Square. On Churchill's arrival, according to his granddaughter Celia Sandys, he mistook 14-year-old Harry Byrd Jr. for a servant, sent him out for a newspaper, and tipped him a quarter. When Mrs. Byrd served Virginia ham, he complained that there was no mustard. With his casual, cigar-waving air of entitlement, Churchill seemed unaware that he had offended his hosts. Young Harry, later his father's successor in the U.S. Senate, recalled that when Churchill left, Mrs. Byrd ordered her husband never to invite that man to her house again.

On most days during Churchill's stay with the Byrds, Douglas Southall Freeman, editor of the Richmond News Leader, whisked him away for tours of battlefields of the Civil War, which had fascinated the British leader even as a schoolboy. Freeman at the time was working on his Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Robert E. Lee. The son of a Confederate soldier, he was famously said to have saluted the statue of Lee on the city's Monument Avenue each morning on his way to work.

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Churchill Imagines How the South Won the Civil War (sic)

Hawaiian clerk Tim Adams' Masters' theses: Obama's non-existent birth record


Thoughts Aloud

VERBATIM POST

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Well, well, well… welcome to my world. How many remember the name Tim Adams? The election clerk from Hawaii, who revealed that it is an open secret among Hawaii election officials that there is no record of Obama being born in a hospital there? It turns out he is bent libertarian, is as cynical of the system as I am, is an English major working on his Masters, and his initial revelation was made during an undercover experiment in ‘gonzo journalism,’ to investigate what he considered to be a racist organization. LMAO :)

Here is his Master’s theses, which I reckon is a must read for anyone seriously interested in this controversy:

Adams, Timothy Lee, “Discourse and Conflict: The President Barak H. Obama Birth Certificate Controversy and the New Media” (2011). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 1071.
http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1071

Follow the link, and one will find a PDF of his thesis, which I awarded a grade of A+, for both style and content. What follows here, is the beginning and conclusion. The 88 (double spaced) pages in between, is a delightful read that is bound to give (deserved) heartburn to diehard partisans on both sides of this controversy.

*Special note to Obots: I don’t expect you to admit it here; but if you can read this without asking yourself what the hell you are doing, or at least if your karma should be absorbing what you do to innocent people for your cause, you need professional help. Seriously.

ABSTRACT OF THESIS

A creative exploration of the consequences of public speech in the era of freely accessible, social media, as the author, a former elections official, records and explores the consequences of public dissent in the case of President Barack Obama’s eligibility controversy. This non-fiction narrative culminates with the author’s analysis and observations on both his personal experiences and the state of public speech and political power in contemporary America.

INTRODUCTION

This thesis is definitely the product of serendipity. I originally didn’t wish to write about this subject now, it is too close to the actual events, and that has made the analysisinnocent and synthesis difficult. Encouraged by Dr. Dale Rigby, the creative nonfiction professor at WKU, I determined to tackle this timely and controversial subject.

This work is both a personal narrative and a study of the events and forces surrounding the people, prejudices, and acts described within. What initially began as an investigation into a political group on the extremist right, became a first-person account of the conflicts surrounding speech and public discourse, and the barriers to and consequences for unpopular speech. When a question is particularly unpopular, attacking the questioner’s motives in an attempt to discredit him becomes a means to prevent having to answer the question in the first place. I was someone who happened to be at the convergence of a heavily charged political question. My answer to that question led to all sorts of attacks on both my motives and my character, but as I will show, my answer was not really attacked for its content, but for the implications others attempted to attach to it.


When I started this story, I told you the controversy surrounding President Barack
Obama’s birth certificate had nothing to do with Mr. Obama. It has everything to with the
real divisions in the American body politic, the F.B.A.L., the Media Shell Game,
Corporate Citizenship, and the One-Sided Win. Please consider my closing words;
President Obama is not the problem, after all, he doesn’t even run the country.

And neither my friends do we.

Feeling suckered yet?

I have been there for years, Tim. Welcome to my world. ◄Dave►

A Great Blog Comment

Via California Tree of Liberty



Lew Rockwell's Political Theatre
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To a good Brent Budowsky column, on the media blackout of Ron Paul:

@Brian Barton - I am a Sergeant in the U.S. Army. I support Ron Paul and I support his foreign policy. I am sure you would not dare call me a Paultard to my face.

No, you would give me the same parroted line I hear 100 times a day, "Thank you for your service". When I hear some flabby couch potato like you say that to me it makes me sick. Yes, I serve our country, but our wars do not.

I do my best to keep my men alive while we carry out this sick policy of sticking our noses in other peoples business. When was the last time you had a friend die in your arms or look for the leg that was just blown off of the man next to you? When was the last time you walked past dead children that were killed by U.S. weapons? I'm glad you can sleep at night, because many times I cannot. I have children myself you self righteous SOB. If someone killed my children you can bet I would do everything in my power to seek revenge.

You dare call me rabid and blind? I know what I am talking about. Why don't you grab a gun and head to Iran if you want to fight them so much. Ron Paul is right. They are no threat to us. We need to mind our own business. They hate us not because we are rich and free, they hate us because we are in their countries.

It is people like you that are the biggest threat to this country, not Iran.

(Thanks to Paul Mulshine and Brian Cananban)

When Should You Shoot A Patriot?


They say that turn-about is fair play and so we shall now consider the flip side of the firestorm sparked by a patriot “Liking” a Facebook post which linked to an article entitled: When Should You Shoot A Cop?

But first a word from our sponsors:

“Frankly, I think the Sheriff of Kershaw County is a coward and a hypocrite. What he and his underlings do, day after day, is go around with guns, using violence and the threat of violence, to control, rob, kidnap or kill people. That’s what ‘law enforcement’ is all about: forcibly imposing the will of the politicians upon everyone else. To spend day after day acting as a mercenary and hired thug of politicians, and then to have a tantrum because some people were having an abstract philosophical conversation about the possibility of resisting unjust aggression committed by cops, is cowardly in the extreme. On top of that, to ignore repeated invitations to have a polite, open discussion about things (as the Sheriff has done in this case), in favor of preparing for mortal combat, is the sign of a bully and a coward.” — Larken Rose, CopBlock.org contributor and author of When Should You Shoot A Cop?

“Thanks to a recent article by Joseph Farah… the surge in the number of armed Federal bureaucrats has been brought to our attention. Farah points out that in 1996 alone, at least 2,439 new Federal cops were authorized to carry firearms. That takes the total up to nearly 60,000…. Force and intimidation are the tools of tyrants. Intimidation with government guns, the threat of imprisonment, and the fear of harassment by government agents puts fear into the hearts of millions of Americans…. Even though the average IRS agent does not carry a gun, the threat of incarceration and seizure of property is backed up by many guns. All government power is ultimately gun power and serves the interests of those who despise or do not comprehend the principles of liberty. The gun in the hands of law-abiding citizens serves to hold in check arrogant and aggressive government. Guns in the hands of the bureaucrats do the opposite. The founders of this country fully understood this fact.” — Congressman and 2012 Presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX), who was recently conflated with domestic terrorists in a Missouri fusion center report (a fusion center which operates under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] and the Department of Justice)

And now back to our irregularly-scheduled program.

Our (real-life) cast of characters include:

Larken Rose, author of the now infamous article: When Should You Shoot A Cop?

Marlene Motley, Kershaw County Patriot who posted the article to Facebook

Jeff Mattox, Kershaw County Patriot and (former) Kershaw County Republican Party Co-Chairman who “Liked” the article

Jim Matthews, Kershaw County Sheriff who publicly objected to the “Liking” of the article

South Carolina Fusion Center, domestic intelligence agency which ever lurks in the shadows

In our last episode of: “The Little Patriot That Liked,” you will recall that:

* Sheriff Matthews alerted the media to his displeasure with the shocking act of “Liking” and placed his deputies on high alert;
* Patriot Mattox was asked to resign from his GOP Co-Chair position due to the “Liking” incident and he, in turn, called for various resignations of which Sheriff Matthews was one;
* Author Rose issued a challenge to Sheriff Matthews to publicly debate the philosophical underpinnings of the article that he wrote.

And the Fusion Center ever lurks.

In the interim, we’ve had the following developments:

* Patriot Mattox was voted out of his GOP Co-Chairmanship;
* Angry callers shut down the phone lines of the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department for 45 minutes prompting an investigation and threats of prosecution;
* Patriot Mattox and his compatriots received death threats and threats of harm from various sources;
* Author Rose’s friendly invitation to debate has gone completely ignored by Sheriff Matthews.

And the Fusion Center ever lurks.

So let us now recall that the article which prompted this whole firestorm — When Should You Shoot A Cop? — was an examination of the question of whether, or not, populations should defend themselves against tyrannical regimes when left with no other option.

Which begs the equal and opposite question: When Should You Shoot A Patriot?

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 08-15-11



VERBATIM POST
Injustice Everywhere

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  • Cook Co IL deputy may still be fired after judge’s surprising acquital for videotaped incident where a detainee suffered significant facial injuries when the deputy yanked on his shackle chains sending him face-first to the floor. Even the sheriff expressed surprise at the verdict but says it hasn’t changed his opinion that the deputy should be fired. [0] http://t.co/izwH2Up
  • Covington LA forced by a judge to rehire a cop fired for his role in an excessive force case where he was accused of lying to cover for his fellow officer. The judge’s decision came on a second appeal after a review board upheld the decision to fire him [0] bit.ly/pU0GDx
  • Elk Grove CA police are being sued by a man who was cuffed in the backseat of a cruiser after he was already searched when he was shot in face by a cop armed with a rifle. The police claim they thought he was reaching for a gun. [2] bit.ly/opHsrR
  • Harrison Co MS deputy who worked as a school resource officer pleads guilty to sexual exploitation of child where he was charged with sexually battering a baby sitter [0] bit.ly/qMoTEp
  • Atlanta GA police training oversights may have resulted in up to 200 cops being uncertified for decades, which would result in thousands of case, some up to 20 years old, being overturned as the result of an unlawful arrest by an uncertified officer. [0] bit.ly/o0J3lg
  • Lumpkin Co GA sheriff & deputy found liable for $58k damages in suit by man arrested after warrantless search [1] is.gd/Kgq0cc
  • Corinth MS cop sentenced to 46mo prison for robbing motorists during fake traffic stops [0] bit.ly/q2Sr9X
  • Bainbridge GA cop sentenced to probation in plea deal to violation of oath & obstruction for string of 3 burglaries [0] bit.ly/oIcxVH
  • Oregon State trooper jailed after SWAT standoff triggered when he fired a shot as cops responded to a 911 call by a friend expressing concern about his depression. [0] bit.ly/plv0bu
  • 3 West Virginia troopers sued by woman claiming they violwrongfully arrested her for flipping them off in court [2] bit.ly/roQy6k
  • Dallas TX off-duty cop investigated for allegedly hitting security guard in face w/pistol while chasing suspect [3] dallasne.ws/qMe6yR
  • Prince George’s Co MD cop charged w/felony assault for allegedly pulling gun on other woman in argument over keys [0] bit.ly/qNT6Ca
  • Renton WA police demote 2 cops for the first of 9 cartoons that made fun of the department after dropping a highly controversial cyberstalking warrant in an attempt to find the author. They don’t know who made the others yet. [2] bit.ly/oeagk3
  • Tallahassee FL cop sentenced to 15days jail after convicted on misd battery charge in unspecified case, he was fired a few months ago [1] bit.ly/oAy1pk
  • Charlotte-Mecklenburg NC cop suspended while investigated for domestic violence for the 2nd time in her career [0] bit.ly/n6nPXi
  • Louisville KY cop pleads guilty to bankruptcy fraud charge after altering judge’s order to let him get more credit [0] bit.ly/nJ1M0n
  • Blountstown FL cop fired after admitting to being addicted to meth when confronted with allegations of drug use [0] bit.ly/nEhd0z
  • Manchester OH cop investigated after deputies bust underage drinking party at his home, other cops allegedly there [1] bit.ly/pvutGW

While it doesn’t sound like there was any specific misconduct allegations stemming from today’s high-profile OpBART protest sponsored by Anonymous I did find it interesting that, throughout the coverage, it seemed like BART’s response to the protests, by shutting down stations in attempts to disorganize it, caused riders more disruptions than what the protest itself did. But, at least, that’s what it looked like from the outside looking in. The protests appear to have ended without arrests or injuries, which is good news, so that was nice at least.

NC: Slaying suspect was deported in 2009

Via Randy's Right

The boyfriend of a 15-year-old Fuquay-Varina girl found fatally stabbed had been deported to his native Mexico in 2009, authorities said.

Gabriel Alejandro Maricio Lopez, 20, of Apex is accused of stabbing Maria Patricia Perez-Godinez 30 times at Jordan Lake, according to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.

Federal immigration officials confirmed that Lopez, who came from Puebla, Mexico, entered the United States illegally before June 30, 2009. He was caught and allowed to depart voluntarily Sept. 29, 2009.

Perry's Problematic Pals

Via Mike


Perry has been sucked into the propaganda vortex, and is now wielding his enormous power to influence changes in the schoolrooms and in the curricula to reflect a sharia compliant version of Islam. He is a friend of the Aga Khan, the multimillionaire head of the Ismailis, a Shi'ite sect of Islam that today proclaims its nonviolence but in ages past was the sect that gave rise to the Assassins. Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace. Another agreement stipulates that Texas officials will work with the Ismailis in the "fields of education, health sciences, natural disaster preparedness and recovery, culture and the environment." Perry let on that this was all about whitewashing Islam's bloody historical and modern-day record: "traditional Western education speaks little of the influence of Muslim scientists, scholars, throughout history, and for that matter the cultural treasures that stand today in testament to their wisdom."

It gets worse. Last March, Perry gave a speech in Dallas in the company of Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist was close to George W. Bush, and Perry's anti-tax, anti-Big Government rhetoric sounds like it's right out of Norquist's playbook. But there is a dark side to Norquist as well: Norquist's ties to Islamic supremacists and jihadists have been known for years. He and his Palestinian wife, Samah Alrayyes -- who was director of communications for his Islamic Free Market Institute until they married in 2005 -- are very active in "Muslim outreach." Six weeks after 9/11, The New Republic ran an exposé explaining how Norquist arranged for George W. Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic supremacists at the White House on September 26, 2001 -- to show how Muslims rejected terrorism.

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Bunkers

Via Global Guerrillas

Dezeen archive: bunkers

Dezeen archive: following the riots in the UK this week and our popular recent story about a steel-plated house (bottom left), which one reader though might come in handy in a zombie apocalypse, we’ve compiled a selection of stories about bunkers and other fortified buildings.


On the front line of the riots with the police

Via Survival

Holding the line in Hackney, London - On the front line of the riots with the police

I have worked every night and every day this week. Since last Saturday, when I was on the streets of Tottenham in north London in the early hours as rioting and looting broke out, through to the early hours of yesterday morning. I have clocked up around 125 hours, too many of them being pelted by stones, petrol bombs and, in one case, in the chaos of it all, by a 4ft ornamental palm tree.

All that has sustained me has been a few hours of snatched sleep between shifts, plenty of tea, the occasional packet of Haribo sweets to provide a much-needed energy burst – and an unshakeable belief, shared with my fellow officers, that I have a responsibility for the safety of my colleagues, and for the decent, law-abiding majority of the community here in London where I live.

I am in my mid-30s and have been a police officer for 15 years, most recently in plain clothes, doing surveillance. I am also in the Territorial Army and have seen service in Iraq. So I thought I’d witnessed most things in the course of my career. I was on duty at the G20 demonstrations in London in 2009, for example. But nothing prepared me for what I experienced on the front line this week.

I last saw looting in Iraq, in the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein – but now, unimaginably, it was happening on the streets of London and other cities in the UK. On Monday night I was sent to Ealing, in the west of the capital, where I used to live. When I saw the wanton destruction of restaurants where I had eaten, or the barber’s shop where I would have my hair cut, the full horrific scale of what was happening hit home.

There have been so many things this week I thought I’d never see in London. Perhaps the most shocking sight was of children as young as 10 and 11 – small boys about 5ft tall – attacking police officers. I grew up in the countryside and was taught to respect the police. When, as a teenager, I was involved in a minor misdemeanour, the local bobby told me to apologise to the person I’d wronged, took me home and told my parents what I’d done. I never stepped out of line again. Sadly, there was no possibility of copying his tactics with the lawless children throwing stones at us this week.

It was a small child who shouted perhaps the strangest bit of abuse at me. As well as all the usual unprintable insults, this 12-year-old taunted us with “Kill the Feds!” Obviously he’d been watching too many American cop shows.

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