I just saw the video of the cops breaking up the pool party in Texas. What a fascinating video.

[byronius]

46. I fled Texas because I couldn't stand the bigot density in certain locales.

I was born there, and Houston and Austin always seemed relatively fine. Corpus is a generally liberal place, I'm told. San Antonio, Dallas, the Panhandle -- %#$%#$. I know it's probably changed a great deal, but for me it's too late.

My uncle was promoted to plainclothes early in his career -- his responsibilities included dressing as a gay man and frequenting bars trying to pick up strangers, then driving them outside the city where they would be met by a team of fellow officers. Once the pickup was beaten bloody for awhile, they would threaten to kill him if he returned, even if only to pick up his clothes or belongings. So the 'offender' would start the long lonely walk down the road, barely conscious, face rearranged, off to a glorious new future. This was departmental policy.

Truthfully, I think my uncle was bullshitting me. I think they were probably just killed and buried outside of town. Now, my uncle was a nice guy to me, always a good uncle. He did throw his daughter out of the house for suspicion of potsmoking at sixteen, and she was murdered a few months later by her 'handler', but who's judging? He was friendly, helpful, good-hearted, and moral. He always wore white socks with his uniform.

I got my fill of pleasant, smiling racists. They're everywhere, of course, even here in California; and I do look just like one of them, so they seem to be eager to share their lovely beliefs with me until they find out who I really am -- but my experiences in Texas scarred me enough to feel fear every time I enter the state.

I'm sure it's nothing compared to Alabama or Mississippi. And I do feel strange repeating these opinions on this forum. But that video has so enraged me that I'm afraid I'm boiling over a bit. I would like to beat Officer Casebolt to a pulp, and instruct him not to go home. He needs to walk a lonely road along with the man who hired him, and the man who hired the man who hired him.

For all I know my uncle was telling tales. But as soon as I saw the white socks -- none of the others appear to be wearing them -- I flashed back to my good old uncle and all his funny stories.

A lot of human pain and misery buried in the ground all over this country, I guess. I'm just really angry about it, and Texas had a lot to do with that anger.

And the friendly, smiling, pleasant, helpful, racist monsters that I came from.

On edit: '88' on the back bumper stands for 'HH' -- 'Heil Hitler'. They have soooo many little codes so they can recognize each other, because the damned liberals are making it so hard to say it out loud in public....