Vidal on the Police State and Gates' Arrest

Gore Vidal reports from Truthdig:

“Let us accept the facts staring us in the face—that demonstrably we are no longer a republic. We are no longer governed by laws, only by armed men and force. This is just like the days of Billy the Kid. You have an armed man going down a dusty street and that is authority. And it has come to this for us.”

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Vidal’s piece raises a number of interesting questions that we here at Copwatch ponder from time to time.

What is the relationship between race, class, and policing, for example? And, now that we’ve got the attention of government and media alike – the murder of Oscar Grant and countless others have gone unnoticed, but they seem interested in the rather mild arrest of an eminent Harvard scholar – what should we be calling for? What does a police state look like…? Just kidding.

So let’s hear it CWers. What do you make of Gates’ arrest and Obama’s comments? How can we convince the country of what everyone plainly knows (i.e. that the police are inherently corrupt and racist)?

That is all.