NOPD's Orange Sticker Campaign

The NOPD has announced a new idea in their desperate, futile attempt to convince people that they can solve the crime and violence problem that worries so many in our city. Of course, they can't. They are institutionally incapable of doing what needs to be done to end the cycle of violence and poverty in this city that underlies most crime.

So instead they've come up with a plan to plaster big orange stickers on the homes of anyone who's house has been searched by NOPD for drugs. This plan is so absurd it's hardly worth complaining about, except that it illustrates clearly how close our system is to a real life apartheid police state. Could they make the comparisons between what they are doing and the photo above any more painfully obvious?

Let's see, the Nazis accused the Jews of many things, but some of the foundational complaints that allowed their disregard for human lives to spiral out of control were that Jews were engaged in illegal economic activity, and that they had cultural practices which harmed no one but were met with social disapproval from the non-Jewish German community. Does that sound familiar? Drugs are a black market economy, and drug users are engaged in a cultural activity that harms no one but has been branded illegal.

Not much more needs to be said about how horrible this idea of stickering houses is. They plan to sticker houses after searches whether drugs were found there or not. Fortunately for those who oppose this apartheid-designed practice, such a ham-fisted approach is not only useful for those racist neighbors who call the cops on the black teenagers hanging out outside (because their house is a crowded place, or to get some fresh air, or to chill with their friends and talk about high school without their parents hearing them).

It can also be useful for those of us who oppose this policy and the entire racist drug war: call and report anonymous drug tips regarding the homes of elected officials,  the homes of the old-money luncheon club members who control the politicians, and at the homes of business executives and other local powerbrokers. Once people other than the poor people this was designed to "other-ize" are forced to have these stickers on the outside of their homes, this policy will end the next day.

What's next for the geniuses over at NOPD? How about a patch that everyone who has been though OPP must wear whether they were found guilty or not? Maybe a yellow star to symbolize the Sheriff's Office? Sounds reasonable....

SMASH THE APARTHEID POLICE STATE NOW!