One "Trickle Down" Theory That It Is True

Trey Smith

The rule of law is everywhere in retreat. Racist vigilante justice trumps Blacks’ right to life in Florida and a growing number of “shoot first” states, while the U.S. president claims the right to kill at will, internationally. “The Florida laws are the local articulation of a US foreign policy that deploys murder and mayhem at any sign of a threat.” Eric Holder, the nation’s top lawman, condones assassination without trial, yet “is now tasked to investigate Trayvon Martin’s murder.”
~ from Assassinations at Home and Abroad by Jemima Pierre ~

The "trickle down" theory we always hear about concerns economic policy. The way it supposedly works is that the government goes easy on the rich (big tax breaks and the like) and, as their wealth soars, a little bit of the leftover trickles down to the rest of us. It sounds like a plausible theory except that it never seems to work that way! The rich keep getting richer, while the poor stay poor and increase in number!!

Ironically, there is a "trickle down" theory that does work -- we just don't hear about it. As our federal government becomes more ruthless and violent, this mentality trickles down to our local communities. Local police departments now more closely resemble marines than peace officers and many of these officers have adopted a harass/arrest/TASE/shoot first and, maybe, ask questions later strategy.

And, as Pierre points out, these various "shoot first" laws mimic the Obama administration's basic foreign policy. It was only a few weeks ago that the President said that the US would do everything possible to prevent Iran from moving forward with any plans to develop nuclear weapons, even if we only thought they might consider it. That's a very, very low threshold.

The Trayvon Martin murder involves this same kind of murky logic. Though George Zimmerman had no reason to suspect Martin was up to no good and Zimmerman appears to be the aggressor and instigator of the situation, all he had to say to the police was that he somehow felt threatened and the police replied, okey-dokey.

For me, this sad turn of events goes back to modeling. The model established by the last two presidential administrations is that nonexistent, low-level or misconstrued threats provide all the justification needed to bomb other countries back to the Stone Age and to assassinate our own citizens by presidential decree. Even "threats" based on lies count.

So, it is not surprising to me in the least that this lawless disregard for human life is now trickling down to the citizenry.