"the most comprehensive police state in world history"

Dear Readers:

I have now spent good portions of my 'free' time this summer trying to understand crime/incarceration in Whatcom County and the United States. My statistical research is  here on my blog: http://www.bellinghampoliticsandeconomics.com .  A short video summary of my analysis of the Whatcom County press releases for the last 4.5 years is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl6x7b_v7EI

Drug and many other laws are pursued ruthlessly against the poor in America and in Whatcom County. We have created an apartheid society described in variants not exclusive of each other: people of color vs. white, fathers vs. families, men vs. women, impoverished vs. wealthy, prisoned vs. free. The Machiavellian value of the absurdly massive law and justice industry (also known as the 'PIC' or 'Prison Industrial Complex') that now counts as its prisoners 2.3 million of us (both in jails and prisons) is to create a level of social control that imprisons and jails more citizens per capita than either Russia or China.

We traumatize the lower classes and working classes here in the land of the free while terrorizing our middle classes in most urban and many small cities. This also helps keep unemployment and voter participation down and police/military/intelligences branches fully financed and recruited. As a side effect, a number of prison industries make a nice profit. Law and Justice throughout many small counties like Whatcom is functionally a multi-hundred million/year jobs program for white people to put many people of color and poverty in jail. Drug and DUI arrests are perhaps the biggest part of this. If you add to this the ridiculous volume of DV arrests/NCO, we now have a collection of powerful control mechanisns well designed to destroy the famies of people of color and poverty.  The vast advances in forensic, predictive, and surveillance technology now mean that our country has designed and implemented the most comprehensive police state in world history.

There is something terribly,terribly,terribly wrong with all of this. Our jail, law enforcement systems, and incarceration facilities are nothing our founding fathers would approve of.  In fact, I can think of no intellectual leader I have ever read and admired - not Jefferson, Christ, Marx, St. Francis, Einstein, Oppenheimer, Malcolm X, MLK, JFK or RFK -  that would approve of our current law and justice system. Whatever the state of our jail here in Whatcom County, there can be no question that all of us owe it to our own humanity and futures to examine how poverty, racism and incarceration function now in the United States. We owe it ourselves to ask the question: "Why are there so many people imprisoned in the United States?"

The italicized email message in quotes below the break is from Joy Gilfilen for Whatcom County Executive. Joy's campaign facebook site is here: https://www.facebook.com/votingforjoy?fref=ts . Joy's campaign website is here: http://votingforjoy.com.  COB has apparently "cut a deal" to support the new jail proposal. It may be on the agenda for tonight's (Tuesday - 9/15/2015)  county councils meeting. Details are apparently scarce.. The Restorative Community (Wednesday 9/16/2015) event is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1464033593926637 . The Restorative Community report on community alternatives to incarceration is here: http://www.whatcomrec.org/RCCReport.pdf

"Hi, investigative reporters, activists and people I trust to pay attention to what is in fact happening in Whatcom County around the jail tax, and the civic bullying of our citizens on many different levels by big money interests that do not serve local taxpayers. 

I am personally insuring that you all are personally invited to come to a public educational meeting done by the Restorative Community Coalition of which I am President - it is tomorrow at 5 PM at the Garden Street Methodist Church.  

You are invited to bring friends, for this meeting was announced on Facebook and through email, and is intended to bring diverse groups of people together in an apolitical, but very effective community grassroots way so that we can start working together for the common good, rather than allowing ourselves to be fractured and isolated by outside polarizing interests.  

The Coalition will be sharing hard copies of the "Stop Punishing Taxpayers, Start Rebuilding Community"  report to the taxpayers we published on August 25, 2015.  As president, I will be summarizing the point of it, and put in the context of what is happening right now in Whatcom County, as the jail industry has its sights on dominating our community.  

Then you will hear from other members about this report and the implications and we will have an interactive discussion as we all digest it. And we will be then looking into the future about how we might be able to use this to work together to create better results for all of us. 

Then, if you want to hear more, I will be sharing some other summaries of documents that provide some facts/details about how civic bullying is being done in Whatcom County.  This is directly relative to the jail issues and the Restorative Community Coalition.  Hoever the methods used tanslate to other arenas, so you will have some open public records data to work from as you go do your own investigative work and write about how this might apply to the various areas of interest that you typically report on.  

I look forward to having some of you show up tomorrow.  It should be an illuminative evening. This is our normal RCCoaltiion meeting night...but the agenda is all about this issue, and figuring out how we can tackle it as a community...not divided by emotional fracking.  We need a collaborative approach. 

Attached is a copy of the document, and I ask you to come with an open mind to hear stuff that you may not have heard before."