{"id":9706,"date":"2016-08-24T11:05:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=9706"},"modified":"2016-08-24T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T15:15:12","slug":"children-of-the-american-police-state-just-another-brick-in-the-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/children-of-the-american-police-state-just-another-brick-in-the-wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Children of the American Police State: Just Another Brick in the Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CREDIT FLICKR USER MOTOWN31<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We don\u2019t need no education
\nWe don\u2019t need no thought control
\nNo dark sarcasm in the classroom
\nTeachers leave them kids alone\u2026
\nAll in all it\u2019s just another brick in the wall
\nAll in all you\u2019re just another brick in the wall.
\n\u2014Pink Floyd, \u201cAnother Brick in the Wall\u201d<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s young people have been given front-row seats for an unfolding police drama that is rated R for profanity, violence and adult content.<\/p>\n

In Arizona, a 7-year-old girl watched panic-stricken as a state trooper pointed his gun at her and her father during a traffic stop and reportedly threatened to shoot her father in the back (twice)<\/a> based on the mistaken<\/em> belief that they were driving a stolen rental car.<\/p>\n

In Oklahoma, a 5-year-old boy watched as a police officer used a high-powered rifle to shoot his dog Opie multiple times<\/a>in his family\u2019s backyard while other children were also present. The police officer was mistakenly<\/em> attempting to deliver a warrant on a 10-year-old case for someone who hadn\u2019t lived at that address in a decade.<\/p>\n

In Maryland, a 5-year-old boy was shot when police exchanged gunfire with the child\u2019s mother<\/a>\u2014eventually killing her\u2014over a dispute that began when Korryn Gaines refused to accept a traffic ticket for driving without a license plate on her car.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult enough raising a child in a world ravaged by war, disease, poverty and hate, but when you add the police state into the mix, it becomes near impossible to guard against the growing unease that some of the monsters of our age come dressed in government uniforms.<\/p>\n

The lesson being taught to our youngest\u2014and most impressionable\u2014citizens is this: in the American police state, you\u2019re either a prisoner (shackled, controlled, monitored, ordered about, limited in what you can do and say, your life not your own) or a prison bureaucrat (politician, police officer, judge, jailer, spy, profiteer, etc.).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, now that school is back in session, life is that much worse for the children of the American police state.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s public schools\u2014extensions of the world beyond the schoolhouse gates, a world that is increasingly hostile to freedom\u2014have become microcosms of the American police state, containing almost every aspect of the militarized, intolerant, senseless, overcriminalized, legalistic, surveillance-riddled, totalitarian landscape that plagues those of us on the \u201coutside.\u201d<\/p>\n

If your child is fortunate enough to survive his encounter with the public schools with his individuality and freedoms intact, you should count yourself fortunate.<\/p>\n

Most students are not so lucky.<\/p>\n

From the moment a child enters one of the nation\u2019s 98,000 public schools<\/a> to the moment he or she graduates, they will be exposed to a steady diet of<\/p>\n