Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website
![From guardianlv.com/2014/04/police-brutality-and-abuse-of-power-the-new-norm-graphic-video/: Police Brutality and Abuse of Power the New Norm? Police Brutality and Abuse of Power the New Norm?](http://guardianlv.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/news-graphics-2006-_630104a.jpg)
When I was young, America still existed. No more. Not even the blather from the 4th of July can hide the obvious fact.
The young do not know that they have lost their country, because they are born into a time when the country is lost. To them that is normalcy.
Besides, the young are too busy texting and describing themselves, often intimately, on social media to be aware of the fate that awaits them, lost as they are in their insouciance.
When I was young, the police were the public's friends. We could count on them to help us, not abuse us. False arrest was rare. Abuse of citizens even rarer. Today both are routine.
Over the years I have written about the transformation of the police from protectors of the public into abusers of the public.
Over these years I have received many letters from former policemen who write that they gave up their profession out of disgust of the corruption and unaccountable brutality, or as a result of fear that they would be forced to participate in the corruption or become a victim of it.
Generally speaking, police departments are unaccountable, because mayors, county commissioners, and state representatives, as well as US Congressmen, can be arrested on false charges and demonized by the presstitutes as "criminals." What police reporter do you know who is not on the side of the police, the source of his stories? The presstitutes participate in the frame-ups.
America is a lost country. The total corruption of every public and private institution is complete. Nothing remains but tyranny. And lies. Endless lies.
Here is an excerpt of the latest letter from a former police officer, the kind of police officer of which we are in desperate need:
"Dear Dr. Roberts, I used to be a policeman myself. As I read the article about the TSA abuse of the handicapped young woman and her mother, the ugliness of this incident moved me to write to you. I became a police officer, in a major city, two days before my 21st birthday. I quit after 14 years as I had become disgusted with the entire profession."I remember one old Sgt., upon hearing that I was leaving, say, 'Don't they see what is happening? All of our best young men are quitting.' I guess I wasn't alone.
"These TSA officers are not just brutal and unfeeling. They are also very stupid. This is what the rulers wanted. They didn't want people who could think. They want people who would follow orders. Well, they have what they wanted."