Pigs

I went to the Clark County Fair last week with my kids and grandkids.  It's held right outside where I live in Vancouver, Washington, which is right across the mighty Columbia River from Portland, Oregon.  It's a pretty good county fair as they go with a long tradition.  Me and my family have been going most years for about 25 years now.

Every year there are a few booths publicizing the Clark County Sheriff's office.  When I was walking through the exhibit hall, they had a booth there with this real fancy all terrain vehicle all decked out with bullet proof vests and other police state paraphernalia.  It was pretty impressive, I'd imagine with the electronics and whatever else the police state industrial complex has produced, it cost way over 100K.  It looked brand new, absolutely spotless as did all the accoutrements. I didn't see anyone attending so I walked on by shaking my head, while wearing my "Stop the Wars!" t-shirt.

A while later we were walking up a vendor corridor and there was another exhibit for the pigs and lo and behold, another of those all terrain vehicles decked out with police state gear was sitting under a big tent.  In front were three bona fide sheriff deputies, also all decked out in their green uniforms (hey, this is Washington State), bullet proof vests, guns, handcuffs, pepper spray, kitchen sink. They were all pretty big with crew cut haircuts and steroid looking arms. They were ready for war at the Clark County Fair.  Just in case, you know how they are.

On the spur of the moment I decided to approach them and asked, so what's this vehicle you got here?  The context of it was that all three were standing there and I walked right up to them, a few feet away.  I'm a pretty big guy myself, 6'5", good shape, and I have long hair down my back and a long goatee on my face.  I've dealt with these type of guys and am not intimidated and at my size, I was looking down at them.  Like I said earlier, I was also wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with "Stop the Wars" on the front, so while they were doing their profiling, which the pigs do everyone knows that, you can imagine what they were thinking.  They sure weren't thinking of a Vietnam Era Vet, College Grad, Professional Compensation Analyst with the federal government for 30 years, father, grandfather, and descendent of Oregon Trail pioneers.

Their reaction was typical of the profilers, particularly the bigger one (still not bigger than me which I think affected them abit), who clearly smirked while explaining that they have a lot of fun in the vehicles. I felt like I was talking to pigs when I get stopped in traffic, the same type of condescending tones and aversion to humanity.  I did my own profiling while listening and they seemed like arrogant redneck fanatics who would do anything for their masters.  They looked up at me while looking down. All three of them chimed in because after all, this was a publicity booth the Clark County Sheriff's Office had set up for I would guess, publicity purposes, for whatever fucking reason I don't know.  They combined some serious reasons with the playful, like having some fun, without understanding what I was getting at.  The third one said again something about having fun, and I turned to leave while saying, "Ya, I bet you do".  Didn't look back for about 30 meters and saw the smaller one still staring at me.

Fuck the pigs.  And before you protest, remember history.  There have ALWAYS been those who have enforced the King's laws.  That will never change.