I'd suggest that a comparison between teachers and cops might be based on their actual duties, rather than their education, i.e. police have a very specific directive [that they often overstep]: to detain people who may have broken the law so that they can be tried by their peers and punished if deemed necessary; while teachers have an ever increasing job-description, as they are now expected to be psychiatrists, academic counselors, friends, parents, wardens, babysitters, entertainers, oh and teachers, etc. In other words, while cops and guards do the same job and get raises (thanks to the F.O.P and the super powerful prison guards unions), teachers do more and more every day for low pay, little to no support from administration, gov't, and sometimes the public, and their union is called a "terrorist organization" by the Bush Regime
[Paige calls NEA 'terrorist organization' www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/02/23/paige.terrorist.nea/].

But we can pick any comparison that may or may not be valid: the bottom line is that the priority of any repressive state will ALWAYS be police protection rather than education, whether the state happens to be an oligarchy masquerading as a fake ass democracy, a genuinely democratic state (?), or a totalitarian imperialist state all dressed up in the garb of revolutionary socialism. An uneducated, undereducated, or miseducated public is ideal, as is a strong police infrastructure.

So why all the focus on who has more freedom? "No one is free when others are oppressed," the saying goes. Why is it so important to you, n5667, that citizens of the U.S.A. see that we have more freedoms than other people in other parts of the world? What is 'more freedom' anyway? Free, Not Free. Somewhat free? Free to do this, but not this?
You wrote that your big point was "in the U.S., we enjoy a degree of freeom [sic] that has yet to be found in any Communist nation." Just how many degrees of freedom are there?

We are all citizens of the same planet, and I do not care to revel in the freedoms that you assume I "enjoy" when I witness daily the freedoms *not* extended to people here without a piece of fucking paper that gives them permission to be here. And the freedoms stripped and DENIED to people who have committed crimes against private property, capital, and yes often against innocent people.

The freedoms that we 'enjoy' come and go at the whim of the pigs, the courts, the advertisers, and the media. Sometimes we have this freedom, sometimes we only have that one, sometimes some of us really don't have any of 'em. The law is arbitrarily enforced in this country, so don't tell me that I enjoy a degree of freedom that's so cool that I should just stop complaining about funding for the police departments.

Finally, thanks for coming around and agreeing with me at the end, there, n5667. We "should be going after government." Especially "powerful governments." Exactly. I obviously agree. And that was the goal of the first post with which you took so much issue, picking at specifics like the difference between county sherrif and city police, when my contention all along was that it does not matter, because they are all part of the same repressive apparatus.

On a side note, to CITY RESIDENTS: keep your ears open for a phone call from the police dept.: They have an annual summer shakedown where they call your HOME, inform you that the call is being RECORDED, and ask for a donation to augment their budget. "Can we count on you for $35?" "Oh, at least $10, is that too much to ask?" Remember: They are recording your response. Be careful!

Back the badge? Back THIS!
www.santacruzcopwatch.org/