[continued fromprevious post]
The descent of a typical politician into a dark miasma of psychopathy does not happen at all once; in many cases it take weeks, even months, after election before evidence of full-blown criminal dementia becomes clear. The key is to recognize the warning signs. One early symptom is angry, threatening, and abusive verbal behavior: examples include U.S. senator Charles Schumer and his expletive-laced harrassment of a female flight attendant, Senate colleague Mary Landrieu and her threat to "punch [George Bush] in the face - literally," California U.S. congressman Pete Stark, who left an angry message on the phone of an Iraq war veteran challenging him to "tell me why you think you're such a great goddamned hero," and the notorious live TV appearance of former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson where he expressed the urge to "cut [Barack Obama's] nuts off."
This behavior is frequently encouraged by other group members. Before his felony arrest and conviction for defrauding the government, NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi publicly goaded Schumer at a Democratic fundraiser to "put a bullet between [George Bush's] eyes." A similar collegial appeal to shoot George Bush came from Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, addressed to famed face shooter Dick Cheney. The former vice president has yet to respond to this reach across the aisle, but frequently Republicans and Democrats can work together in a spirit of bipartisan violent cooperation. After Suffolk County NY Republican legislator Michael D'Andre threatened to attack Latino immigrant constituents with baseball bats, his Democratic legislative colleague Elie Mystal upped the ante by vowing that "I would load my gun and start shooting, period."
"The ritualistic violent rhetoric acts as a kind of pregame lockerroom talk for the political class," explains CSPS forensic psychiatrist Dr. Ivadd Ugber. "It builds and builds, sometimes including the vilest possible racial epithets, like in the cases of U.S. representative Carolyn Maloney and her senate colleague and former Ku Klux Klan official Robert Byrd. A charismatic team captain knows how to feed it, telling his teammates to 'get in their face,' and 'punch back twice as hard' and encouraging the use of weaponry such as pitchforks. Soon, they are worked up into a catatonic trance-like state of violent euphoria, like the Thuggee cult of ancient India."
Hopped up on this rhetorical "Roid Rage," politicians will begin banging helmets and savagely shoving each other, like in the case of Maxine Waters and David Obey, or ex-con fellow U.S. representative Alcee Hastings. By "game time" they have reach the point of explosive, near-murderous frenzy against their real opponents - random American citizens like you and me. Witness Massachusettes state senator and accused nighttime park stalker James Marzilli, or Virginia congressmen Jim Moran whose physical fury has been inflicted on his own wife, female friends, and an 8-year old boy who he considered insufficiently deferential. Luckily, that young boy got off easy compared to the childhood victims of Portland Oregon's mayor and admitted statutory rapist Sam Adams, and former Illinois congressman Mel Reynolds, convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault on an underage constituent. Police stings on politicians like Thomas Bodall have been partially successful in preventing further trauma to America's children, but law enforcement officials say innovative programs like beefed-up capitol safety patrols and Special Politician Victim Units suffer from an unsurprising lack of funding -- from politicians. Left unchecked, the politician graduates to more and more dangerous criminal activity -- like Texas state representative Borris Miles, accused of waving a gun and assaulting female guests in a Houston hotel lobby.
When they first learn of the extent of this crime wave, a typical layperson will often ask me why the politician's family, friends, consultants and staff don't step in and hold an intervention before the behavior goes too far. Sadly, prolonged exposure to the politician's violent extremism and sexual perversions can have a contagious effect on their aides and campaign workers. One example is Andrew Young, the former top aide / surrogate baby daddy / biographer of disgraced presidential candidate John Edwards, who was arrested several times while in his employ. Others include Missouri political consultant Skip Ohlsen, sentenced to Federal prison for firearm violations, or Durham County (NC) Democratic Party official Joy Johnson, charged with kidnapping, rape and assault related to her membership in a satanic cult. All too often, political aides allegedly train their perverse attentions on America's vulnerable children -- like Benjamin Jakes-Johnson, Barbara Boxer U.S. senate staffer Jeff Rosato, and Carl Stanley McGee, top aide to Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. Although experts believe that most child molesters were themselves victims of an older attacker/mentor, we should note that so far there is little evidence that Governor Patrick or Senator Boxer were personally involved. But even after criminal conviction, some politicians are all too happy to welcome child predator aides back to work with a nod and a wink.
Laymen are often confused why we "just don't kick these people out of office." Unfortunately, this often results in unintended and bloody consequences. In many cases retirement does little to affect the urge for violence; consider former US Congressman Chip Pickering, arrested after a fight with a youth soccer coach; or former speaker of the Missouri statehouse Rod Jetton, accused of felony assault after allegedly hitting and choking a woman, and afterwards blaming it on her for failure to use their agree-upon safe word 'green balloons'; or former US Congressman Tommy Robinson, cited for assault after a bloody attack on a man in a Brinkley Arkansas BBQ restaurant. "I mean, I'm a nonviolent guy, but you push me far enough and that's what happens," explained Robinson, giving vent to the seething, violent rage that all too often consumes the minds of the American political class.
"There is an ongoing 'chicken-and-egg' debate about this phenomenon in the research community," notes Dr. Ugber. "Does a primal urge for violence drive the need to be in politics, or does being in politics drive the urge for violence?" Ugber cite the contradictory cases of Bobby Rush, who served as an officer in a domestic terror organization before joining the U.S. House, and Mark Siljander, a former Michigan congressmen who left the House prior to his indictment as part of an Al Qaeda money raising scheme.
What you can do to protect yourself and your family
Even after being confronted with the facts some citizens try to wish the crisis away. They naively believe it will take care of itself -- pointing to instances of politician-on-journalist violence, like congressman Pete Stark's threat to a journalist that "get the f--k out of here or I'll throw you out the window," and Senator Al Franken's repeated angry challenges to fistfight another journalist. While this in theory would potentially thin the ranks of politicians and/or journalist, the battle-hardened survivors would constitute an even more dangerous threat to public safety. In the "Armageddon scenario," journalists and politicians may even unite forces to wage an all-out bloody crime war against the public.
While it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk, there specific steps each of us can do to minimize the body count. The key to survival is knowledge. Previous awareness-raising efforts by the Media Violence Project have helped Americans reduce their exposure to criminally insane journalist, but the threat of politicians continues to explode.
"Americans are accustomed to viewing their political representatives in an idealized light," explains Divad Egrub. "We assume them to be clean, friendly, hard working, nonviolent criminals, peacefully thieving away at the public trough and diligently extorting bribes from special interest groups. The politician takes advantage of this gullible trust to draw an unsuspecting constituent within striking distance. Before you know it, the constituent is dealing with an erupting volcano of psychosexual rage."
In order to protect yourself and your family the MVP and the CSPS recommend that you recognize the warning signs and take quick corrective action. In specific:
* Hone your senses to be aware of journalists or politicians in your immediate vicinity. Be vigilant for satellite trucks, cameras, placards, bunting, and strangers with an excessive interest in hand shaking and baby kissing.
* If your 'gut' tells you something is amiss, leave before the situation escalates.
* Avoid eye contact, and walk by in a brisk, confident, determined manner.
* If contact is unavoidable, use distraction and evasive maneuvers. If confronted by a journalist, tell him his makeup is splotchy. For politicians, yell "hey, look over there! A rich campaign contributor!"
These simple steps may buy you the critical seconds you need to avoid a lifetime of physical and psychological disability. But you can also do your part to help and inform your fellow at-risk citizens. Do you know of any journalist or politician-related crimes that have somehow slipped through our monitoring dragnet? Share them in the comment section of this post, along with appropriate links. To avoid server overload, please confine these to actual or potential instances of bodily harm, rather than garden variety immorality (graft, plagiarism, infidelity etc.).
Finally, you can help by contributing to the Media Violence Project and the Center for the Study of Politician Sociopathy. Your generous donation will support the research and entertainment expenses of dedicated staffers like Divad Egrub, Dr. Ivadd Ugber, Vadid Grube, and new intern Ddavi Grbeu.
Stay safe, and remember: forewarned is forearmed! Metaphorically.
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2010/04/journopolitico-violence.htmlYes, a metaphor, but I'd sure like more scrutiny on both classes.