ELECT YOUR PEOPLE'S POLICE

                           by Norman Spinrad

If something isn't done, and done fast, a civil war in the United States is just a shot or a Molotov Cocktail away. But how and by who? 

 If there is one American who could stand up before the protesters and be listened to it is surely the one and only former President of the United States, Barack Obama. Live before the largest crowd possible and of course well televised.  What should he say?

He should speak the hard truth to the leaderless protesters that what they are doing is counterproductive to their own confusion of diverse and general causes which if even possible would take decades of legislation to accomplish. What is needed  immediately is a strong significant and reachable demand.

Demand that the head of all police departments in the United States--cities, towns, states everywhere--be elected by the  people their police are mandated to protect and serve. Open elections with terms of no more than 4 years. Don't call them bureaucratic "commissioners" call them the Sheriffs.  

The Sheriffs voted for the people, of the people, for the people, chosen to be the commanders in chief of the People's Police. Thus creating true People's Polices.

This is a just and democratic demand that is simple, concrete, localized and would bring the protesters solidarity and even the support of traditionalist Americans almost all of whom have seem films and televisions of the good old small time Wildwest sheriffs. 

How to cause towns, cities, and states to pass the necessary legislations with the needed warp speed? 

Think Ghandi. Think general strikes. Think not as amorphous national protesters but as citizens of the cities, towns, and states of which you are citizens.  Think sitdown strikes.  Think nonviolent warfare. Shut them down locally one by one. Block the roads. Block the streets. Close the police stations. Close mail delivery. Close everything you can. But only do it once a week until this concrete demand is legally met.

ELECT YOUR OWN PEOPLE'S POLICE.  AND THEY WILL SUPPORT YOU.

And if they don't, don't vote for the  incumbent Sheriff  in the next election.

(Disclosures: I and Gene Roddenbery, who had once been a cop, tried to create a tv show along such lines, but never got anywhere with it.  I more recently wrote a novel called THE PEOPLE'S POLICE in much the same spirit and then some. Published but shitcanned by Tor, but still available in my own self-published versions on Amazon.)

A long article  by Mary Mary Reinholz

FROM THE VILLAGE SUN

Comments

  1. L. G. MerrickOctober 30, 2020 at 7:23 AM

    Thanks for writing, Mr. Spinrad. I discovered your books only recently, but I'm thrilled I've got them ahead of me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BJGJanuary 26, 2022 at 9:55 PM

    Fifty plus years ago a friend of mine and I were backpacking in the middle of the Beartooth Wilderness Area of Montana when we got caught in a blizzard. We found some boulders to crawl under for shelter. On a ledge there was a plastic sack with a copy of The Last Hurrah Of The Golden Horde inside. That night we took turns reading the book out loud to each other to keep from freezing to death. I think we read that book four times by the time the sun came up and the storm broke. I've kept that book ever since and refer to it as the book that saved my life. Over the years I've tried to buy and read every Norman Spinrad book in honor. I'm 73 now and have read that book to both my son and grandson.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John ShirleyJanuary 20, 2023 at 12:07 AM

    Yeah I think a people's police as you describe it is a good idea. It'd have to be done in some graduated way. But yeah. I see you're in the next Asimov's Norman. That's reason enough for me to pick it up! Wanted to say hello. Sorry to have lost touch.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousMay 16, 2023 at 5:18 PM

    Hi,

    My first one and of course prefered, "Jack Baron et l'éternité".

    Best regards.

    ReplyDelete
  5. FuzuliSeptember 18, 2023 at 9:57 AM

    kırşehir
    kütahya
    maraş
    nevşehir
    ordu
    sinop
    sivas
    7GCZK

    ReplyDelete
  6. Pelin44September 27, 2023 at 6:21 AM

    Antalya
    Trabzon
    Niğde
    Maraş
    Antep
    REF

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oya9September 27, 2023 at 6:40 AM

    Muğla
    Bitlis
    Karaman
    İL02C

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rasim4September 27, 2023 at 6:53 AM

    Isparta
    Tunceli
    Yozgat
    Çorum
    Konya
    JHNT1

    ReplyDelete
  9. Esma6September 27, 2023 at 7:31 AM

    Ağrı
    Diyarbakır
    Bolu
    Elazığ
    Siirt
    B0VR5

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hami17September 27, 2023 at 7:42 AM

    Burdur
    Giresun
    Sakarya
    Artvin
    Mardin
    SPH48D

    ReplyDelete
  11. Behzat10September 27, 2023 at 8:33 AM

    Aksaray
    Aydın
    Kütahya
    Rize
    Bingöl
    UVZR

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ünsal20September 27, 2023 at 8:34 AM

    İstanbul
    Sivas
    Kırıkkale
    Zonguldak
    Iğdır
    AJJ50U

    ReplyDelete
  13. Naci13September 27, 2023 at 8:37 AM

    Uşak
    Ankara
    Adıyaman
    Hatay
    Şırnak
    BL7ST5

    ReplyDelete
  14. MatrixRogue777October 7, 2023 at 11:18 PM

    görüntülüshow
    ücretli show
    NVSUF0

    ReplyDelete
  15. 3E616MaritzaC5590November 10, 2023 at 1:36 AM

    0E557
    Artvin Parça Eşya Taşıma
    Btcturk Güvenilir mi
    Siirt Lojistik
    Çankaya Boya Ustası
    Ordu Lojistik
    Bolu Evden Eve Nakliyat
    Coin Nedir
    Eskişehir Parça Eşya Taşıma
    Sincan Fayans Ustası

    ReplyDelete
  16. 6924BEdgar5E67DNovember 13, 2023 at 2:18 PM

    45376
    Balıkesir Evden Eve Nakliyat
    Amasya Şehir İçi Nakliyat
    Nevşehir Lojistik
    Antep Lojistik
    Bitranium Coin Hangi Borsada
    Kırşehir Evden Eve Nakliyat
    Kırşehir Şehir İçi Nakliyat
    Baby Doge Coin Hangi Borsada
    Çerkezköy Oto Boya

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

10 most recent posts

DONALD TRUMP AGENT OF SATAN

                                           DONALD TRUMP AGENT OF SATAN                                               The Bluegrass Song                                    Just in time for the impeachment!  Whoever turns out to be the Democratic candidate for President is welcome to use it as their theme  song. Free of charge! Pro bono! DONALD TRUMP AGENT OF SATAN    click here
Read more

THE 21ST CENTURY SHAMAN

        THE 21ST CENTURY SHAMAN                          Alternate Medicines and the Scientific Method                     by  Norman Spinrad           Written   over a decade ago as a proposal for a book that never got written  but all too pertinent  to the era of the coronavirus                     There are many medical systems on this planet, some of them ancient, some of them new, more of them that not based on metaphorical systems. Only “Western” or “alliopathic” medicine is based on rigorous science.  But many of the traditional non-western systems cure some conditions cure some conditions but not others. Many of these cures work in practice, but not in theory. That is they do work, but not for the reasons the theory behind them contends, metaphoric shamanic systems that over centuries evolved them over trial and error, and some of these belief-based cures can do real harm.  With the ones that do work, the shamans know they work, but are mistaken as to how. So what i
Read more
VITAMIN C VERSES CORONAVIRUS Why I've not yet read this anywhere I don't know but that is why I'm duty-bound to do it myself: Vitamin C will be effective against the Coronavirus, personally, and collectively. Vitamin C promotes the body's creation of Interferon which is key to the strength of the immune system. Everyone should take at least 2000mg of Vitamin C, 1000 in the morning, 1000 in the evening, some say another 1000 mid-day. This is not curative, this is cautionary, keeping your immune system running at maximum. If you start to suspect that you may be feeling early symptoms take 1000 mg of Vitamin C an hour until your urine turns bright yellow, which means that your Vitamin C is at maximum and you are pissing away the rest. This will not always stop the infection but it frequently will. I am not making this up, it was discovered and elucidated by Linus Pauling, a Nobel class biochemist. Decades ago, I suffered chronic urinary infection like many men. When I
Read more
DONALD TRUMP AGENT OF SATAN THE SONG AND VIDEO UPDATED BY JOE CADY Music   by Joe Cady and Norman Spinrad Lyrics and vocal by Norman Spinrad SEE AND HEAR IT ON YOUTUBE
Read more

A CONTACT INTERVIEW WITH ME FROM 1978

This, at least to me, is an amazing interview done with me from way back in 1978 by Joseph S. Zitt, courtesy of  Steve Davidson.  A scanned pdf from what may have actually been a mimeographed fanzine.  The only form in which I could put it here. Contact Interview with Norman Spinrad from 1978 in pdf formant!   Fascinating to see how dead right I was about many things, how optimistically dead wrong about others! Strangely enough, maybe the best interview with me ever, certainly the best through 1978. And still, I think the longest.  This, including the illo, is posted on the Amazing Stories website.
Read more

GAY OR STRAIGHT, MARRIED OR NOT, ALL COUPLES ARE MATES!

 GAY OR STRAIGHT, MARRIED OR NOT, ALL COUPLES ARE MATES!                                                        by Norman Spinrad  A while back,  Dona Sadock--my clumsily so-called “significant other”--and I  attended a traditional wedding where the “bride and groom,” a man and a woman costumed more or less like the traditional little statues on the traditional wedding cake, became “husband” and “wife.” Dona and I had been “significant others” decades ago, parted for decades and married other people, which is to say officially became “wives and husbands,” were both divorced from our respective spouses, and have now once more been eachother’s “significant others,” for over a decade. Awkwardly written paragraph, now isn’t it? What do you call a man and a woman who are and have long been living together as “husband” and “wife” in every way save with either benefit of clergy or in the eyes of the state as “married?” How do the people in question introduce eachother to third part
Read more

A TALE OF THE THREE NORMAN SPINRADS

                             A TALE OF THE THREE NORMAN SPINRADS                            “Now is the time for a futile gesture” --attributed to the IRA                         “Believe the foma that make you strong and brave and happy”--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.                One of us is in  Paris France after four days at the Quais Du Polar festival in Lyon and surfing buoyantly at the crest of the wave. Another one of  us is shortly to return to New York City and dreading the inevitable letdown.  The third Norman Spinrad is writing this and attempting to cool his ire enough to try to make analytic sense of our maddeningly disjunctive existential situation.     The Norman Spinrad who lived in Paris for over a decade, who has written  something over 20 novels, more of which than not are currently in print in French, who was handed a lifetime achievement award by the current French prime minister when he was mayor of Nantes, who was tracked down to appear on the major talk show
Read more
                                   QUARANTINE                               by Norman Spinrad  If it wasn’t the best of times, at least it wasn’t the worst of times, or something like that, which is the opening line of a novel called A TALE OF TWO CITIES, and it seemed like this would be only a tale of one. Back in the day before the Quarantine, Manhattan island was the heart and soul and pocketbook of New York City, to the extent that New York could have been said to have all three, Wall Street, Greenwich Village, Broadway and 42nd Street, and all that jazz. When you saw a movie or a TV show or an ad featuring New York, the Big Apple was Manhattan, not anything in what some visiting Californian must have dubbed the “Outer Boroughs,” the moral equivalent of Anaheim or Eagle Rock as far as a Hollywood wise guy was concerned. Not that I was a Hollywood wise guy just because my sales office happened to be located on the seventh floor of one of those unglamorous glass towers at the
Read more

THE POWER OF DIRTY WORDS

                                     The New York Post September 25, 2012                              THE POWER OF DIRTY WORDS--Illustrated!!!                                    by Norman Spinrad                         In memorium: Lenny Bruce        Fuck, shit, piss, cunt.       Have I gotten your attention?       Of course I have!       These words have that magic power. As we all know, fuck, shit, piss, and cunt are the rock bottom basic “dirty words.” Neither the New York Times nor any other establishment publication will print them.  They may not be uttered on broadcast television.     Copulate, defecate, urinate, vagina.    These four words mean precisely the same things, but are perfectly kosher for polite discourse, publication, and prime time.    We all know that too, but do we all know why copulate, defecate, urinate, and vagina are “clean,” whereas their exact synonyms, fuck, shit, piss, and cunt are “dirty?” Why these words even have the power to re
Read more