QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES
Means "Who Polices the Police?"

First, a little background. From Wikipedia:

Greensboro massacre

The Greensboro Nazi-Klan Shooting occurred on November 3, 1979 in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. In the event, five Maoist Communist Workers Party marchers were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party while in a protest. It was the culmination of attempts by the Maoist Communist Workers Party to organize industrial workers, predominantly black, in the area.

And

One of the most dubious aspects of the incident is the role of the police. Normally, the police would have been present at such an event, yet no police were present at the shooting, thus permitting most of the perpetrators to escape. One police detective and a police photographer followed the Klan and Nazi caravan to the site, yet did not intervene. Edward Dawson, a Klan member since 1964 who had turned police informant, was in the lead car of the caravan. Two days prior to the march one of the Klan members went to the police station to obtain the map of the march and the rally. Bernard Butkovich, an undercover agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms later testified that he was aware that Ku Klux Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party unit he had infiltrated would confront the demonstrators. In previous testimony, the Nazis claimed that the agent encouraged them to take guns to the anti-Klan demonstration. This has led to accusations of police collusion in the event.

More here.

And no one was ever convicted. But that was nearly thirty years ago. Why is it worth mentioning today? Because it's still going on.

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Ministers: Police destroyed Klan records

Three ministers accused a Greensboro police officer Tuesday of ordering officers to destroy about 50 boxes of police files related to the fatal shooting of five people at an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in 1979.

The Revs. Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen and Nelson Johnson said an active-duty officer told them he and at least three other officers were told to destroy the records in 2004 or 2005, shortly after a seven-member panel convened to research the shootings requested police files related to them.

Click here for the rest.

I once read in an anarchist journal a description of police as "the armed security agents of the state." This is a rather brilliant observation. Police ostensibly exist "to protect and to serve" or however you want to describe what most believe to be their pro-social function. When push comes to shove, however, this pro-social function is only ancillary: by and large, cops exist to support the power structure that employs and pays them. If you're part of that power structure, they really are working for you; if not, look out. That's why we've seen repeated instances going back to the 1960s until today of cops harassing, spying on, and arresting lawful anti-government demonstrators. That's why we've seen a highly disproportionate number of African-Americans held captive by the US criminal justice system. That's why street criminals are arrested and convicted in much higher numbers than the white collar criminals who have stolen far more money and killed many more people.

This 1979 massacre in Greensboro is a prime example. Why would local police not only allow but facilitate such murderous violence? The local white power structure there was only ten years removed from the racist violence of the civil rights era, violence which was itself only a manifestation of decades of Jim Crow, American Apartheid. That is, Greensboro's powers-that-be, at that point, were still thinking like the lynching Southern idiots of yesteryear. And so were their armed security agents, a.k.a. the cops. The Greensboro police knew what they needed to do, whether their masters ordered it or not. Get them black-loving commie bastards.

I think it's safe to say that Southern white power structures, overall, have mellowed somewhat since then, although not entirely, as the Jena, La., white power structure has recently revealed to the entire world. Same thing in Greensboro. No more massacres these days, but they're still trying to cover it up, still trying to hide their guilt, probably because they still believe they did the right thing.

And remember, to the police "the right thing" is supporting the powerful figures who sign their paychecks. Not you and me.

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