Violence Abroad - Violence at Home:

By Rob C.

Art by John Darkow

I apologize - I didn’t have time to write something shorter.

TL;DR: America is currently addicted to a feedback loop of state-sponsored violence. We are shelling out roughly $300 billion annually to transform our neighborhoods into tactical zones while dropping trillions to turn the Middle East into a crater—all while ignoring the actual metrics of safety. While “Operation Metro Surge” treats Minneapolis like a war zone and ICE agents play “Commando” in our suburbs, we’re told this is the only thing standing between us and anarchy. The reality? We’re being fleeced to fund a “Law and Order” fever dream that protects the Epstein class while leaving the rest of us to fight over the scraps.

We’ve been conditioned to accept violence as long as it’s not in our backyard. We believe cops who claim “self-defense” and assume victims must be “bad hombres”—until cell phone video proves they’re lying. And yet we keep voting for “Law and Order” candidates. While studies prove that policing doesn’t make us safer. You know what does? Parks, street lighting, education, economic opportunity. But those don’t generate fear, and fear is how they convince you to keep funding the violence machine. There is no boogeyman. Stop waiting for someone to save you from threats that don’t exist and start demanding we invest in communities instead of a police state.

Brutality isn’t a side effect of our current system; it’s the primary feature. We are currently living through a bizarre psychological split where people are genuinely horrified to see their neighbors zip-tied and dragged into unmarked vans by masked ICE agents, yet those same people still turn around and vote for “Law and Order” candidates faster than you can say “qualified immunity.” They’re witnessing the violence that’s always been there, now impossible to ignore because everyone has a camera. But we’ve been conditioned to accept violence as a necessary currency, so long as it’s spent in someone else’s backyard or against someone Trump describes as a “bad hombre.” What we get more cops, more prisons, more crackdowns, more brutality dressed up as “safety.”

We’ve been conditioned to accept violence as long as it’s not in our backyard.

And even when it is in our backyard—even when it’s our neighbors, our communities, our streets—we’ve been trained to assume the victims deserved it.

It’s the ultimate gaslighting campaign. We are told to “Back the Blue” and “Support the Troops” without question, accepting the standard-issue lie that every officer who pulls a trigger was “fearing for their life.” If it weren’t for the ubiquity of cell phone cameras, we’d still be living in a world where the official police report is treated as holy scripture. Instead, we’re seeing the truth: violence is often the first option, not the last, because we’ve built a system that rewards aggression and punishes de-escalation.

“I Feared for My Life”: The Favorite Lie

How many times have you heard it? A cop shoots someone, and the official statement says they “feared for their lives.”

Feared a 12-year-old with a toy gun. Feared a man running away. Feared a woman sleeping in her bed. Feared someone having a mental health crisis. Feared a person asking for help. Feared someone complying with orders. Feared their own shadow, apparently.

And we believe it. Or at least, we used to.

We assumed that if police killed someone, that person must have been dangerous. Must have been a threat. Must have been one of those “bad hombres” Trump loves to talk about. We gave law enforcement the benefit of the doubt because surely trained professionals wouldn’t lie about fearing for their lives just to justify murdering someone, right?

Wrong.

If it weren’t for cell phone video, we’d still be believing their lies. We’d still be accepting that George Floyd died of a “medical incident” instead of being murdered on camera for nearly nine minutes. We’d still think Breonna Taylor was caught in crossfire instead of executed in her sleep. We’d still believe every official police report that sanitizes murder into “officer-involved shooting” and frames victims as threats.

Cell phones and body cameras (when they’re not mysteriously turned off) have revealed what communities of color have been screaming about for generations: law enforcement lies constantly about the circumstances in which they use violence as their first option.

Local cops kill over 1,000 people per year in America—more than any other developed nation. State police conduct traffic stops that escalate to violence for no reason. Federal agents deploy military tactics against protesters. SWAT teams raid the wrong houses and kill innocent people. Prison guards torture inmates with impunity.

The irony becomes physically painful when you realize the loudest cheers for this brutality often come from people claiming to follow a guy named Jesus. Apparently, “Love thy neighbor” comes with a caveat: “unless that neighbor lacks the proper paperwork or lives in a place Trump declares a “shit-hole country.”

The Jesus Problem

You know, Jesus. The peace-loving, turn-the-other-cheek, blessed-are-the-peacemakers, love-your-enemies, brown liberal from the Middle East who hung out with prostitutes and told rich people to give away their wealth.

That Jesus.

The guy who literally said “those who live by the sword die by the sword” and “love your neighbor as yourself” and “blessed are the merciful” and a whole bunch of other stuff that’s pretty incompatible with bombing children in Yemen or cheering when Police beats someone to death in the street.

But American Christianity has been so thoroughly corrupted by nationalism and capitalism that “What Would Jesus Do?” has been replaced with “How can I justify violence against people I’ve been taught to fear?”

Jesus wouldn’t be waving an American flag and cheering for war. He’d be getting arrested at the border, offering water to refugees, and getting labeled a terrorist for criticizing the government.

But sure, slap a flag pin on your lapel and call yourself a Christian while supporting policies that would make Jesus weep.

As I explored in my last piece, US Democracy - Performative Theater, we aren’t a democracy; we’re a police state with a propaganda department.

We’re not safer. We’re poorer.

We are dumping hundreds of billions into a process that is, by definition, “after the fact.” Police don’t prevent crime; they show up to document it (and occasionally make things worse). Meanwhile, dozens of studies have shown that if we took even a fraction of that “brutality budget” and invested it in things that actually work—parks, green spaces, street lighting, and vacant lot remediation—crime and gun violence would plummet. It turns out that social connection and a well-lit street are more effective than a SWAT team, but you can’t sell a “Fear the Boogieman” narrative if the boogieman disappears because the neighborhood is actually thriving.

Dozens of studies—actual research, not Fox News fear-mongering—have found that increased spending on policing doesn’t translate to safer communities.

You know what does make communities safer?

Economic opportunity. When people have jobs that pay living wages, crime goes down.

Education. When kids have good schools and hope for the future, crime goes down.

Parks and green spaces. Studies show that improved public spaces increase positive foot traffic, foster social connection, and reduce gun violence in surrounding neighborhoods.

Street lighting. Better lighting reduces crime. It’s not complicated.

Vacant lot remediation. Cleaning up abandoned properties and turning them into community spaces reduces crime.

Mental health services. Most police calls involve people in crisis who need help, not handcuffs.

Addiction treatment. Most property crime is committed by people struggling with addiction who need treatment, not prison.

These interventions work. They’re proven. They’re cost-effective. And they actually make communities safer instead of just generating arrests and violence.

But they don’t generate fear. And fear is the product politicians sell to keep you voting for more cops and more bombs.

We Fund Murder at Home and Abroad

The Trillions we spend on military “interventions” abroad and the Billions we spend on tactical gear at home aren’t making us safer. They are making us poorer, more isolated, and more fearful. The “Law and Order” crowd needs you scared because fear is the only thing that justifies a $390 million “show of strength” in the Persian Gulf or a $25 billion ICE budget.

Militarism doesn’t create peace. It creates blowback, resentment, and more enemies.

There Is No Boogeyman

The terrorists aren’t coming for you. The immigrants aren’t invading. The crime wave is largely a media invention. Most of the “threats” you’ve been taught to fear don’t exist or are wildly exaggerated.

You’re statistically more likely to die from lack of healthcare, a car accident, or falling in your own bathroom than from any of the things politicians use to scare you into voting for more violence.

But fear sells. Fear works. Fear keeps you compliant and keeps the money flowing to cops and bombs instead of schools and parks.

Stop waiting for someone to save you from threats that don’t exist. Stop believing that more violence will somehow make you safer. Stop accepting that we have to choose between a police state and anarchy.

What We Actually Need

We need to stop funding murder and start funding life.

Cut police budgets and invest in communities. Cut military budgets and invest in Americans. End qualified immunity so cops can be held accountable. Demilitarize police departments. Close overseas military bases. End the wars. Bring the troops home.

Demand transparency in police use of force. Demand accountability when cops lie and kill. Demand that your tax dollars go toward building communities instead of destroying them.

The violence abroad and the violence at home are connected. They’re both symptoms of a system that profits from brutality and fear. They’re both funded by your tax dollars. And they’re both making you less safe while making the Epstein Class richer.

Stop accepting violence as inevitable. Stop believing the lies about threats that don’t exist. Stop voting for the people who profit from your fear.

Let’s demand peace. Demand accountability. Demand that we invest in communities instead of cops and bombs.

Because brutality isn’t keeping you safe.

It’s just draining us, mentally, physically and financially.

F*CK ICE. RELEASE ALL THE FILES!

Please like, share, and subscribe—because there is no boogeyman, just a system profiting from your fear.

— Robert Cain, author of Democracy for Sale: How Corporate Greed Is Corrupting Democracy and Endangering the Planet.