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According to the British "Guardian" report, from May 26 to June 2, 148 media reporters in the United States were arrested or attacked by the US police, and even one journalist was hit in the eye by a riot bomb, resulting in permanent blindness. In addition to American journalists, journalists from the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France, Canada and other countries have also been violently attacked by the Us police, causing an international uproar.
U.S. police shoot riot guns directly at reporters (Source: WAVE3)
Why has the American police never shown a trace of pity in the face of ordinary people who peacefully protested, even ordinary passers-by, and even "killed the killer"? After reading today's article, perhaps you will naturally have your own answer in your heart.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is rockstar Games' latest release in 2018. The story is set in the late 19th century in the American West, where the protagonist Arthur is a key member of the bandicoot Van Der Lind Gang. Faced with Detective Pinkerton's pursuit and rival gangs, players need to find their own and the gang's future path.
Detective Pinkerton in Red Dead Redemption 2
Here's the first piece of knowledge: Detective Pinkerton. Shouldn't the pursuit of bandits be the task of the police? In fact, at the time of "Red Dead Redemption 2", the US federal government did not have a perfect, national law enforcement agency. All "police" or "sheriffs" in the United States are only regional, have only law enforcement powers in their own regions, and enforce local laws. Such a loose law enforcement agency clearly gives criminals an opportunity to take advantage of it.
Alan Pinkerton (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
In 1850, Detective Alan Pinkerton, who had cracked lincoln's assassination, founded the "Pinkerton Detective Agency", which is the origin of The Pinkerton Detective. Unlike the detectives we think of, Detective Pinkerton is not responsible for finding lost cats in general, but as a secret agent, spy or gunman, sabotaging the workers' movement, or hunting down outlaws.
Detective Pinkerton in the Civil War (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
During the Civil War, Alan Pinkerton led the Pinkerton detectives to become agents of the Northern Army, active in the Southern rebels' sphere of influence, and assisted the slave liberation organization Underground Railroad to transport liberated slaves to the Northern Free States. In addition, Detective Pinkerton was responsible for security for Lincoln himself, and on the basis of his work, the U.S. Secret Service was born—a task that had just been taken over by the U.S. Army, and Lincoln was assassinated.
Assassination of Lincoln (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
After the Civil War, Detective Pinkerton once again resumed his "old ways.". In 1870, the U.S. Department of Justice was established, and the federal government asked the Department of Justice to establish a law enforcement agency specifically to investigate violations of federal law in the United States. But due to insufficient funding, the Justice Department did not establish such a government department, but "outsourced" the task to Detective Pinkerton.
U.S. Department of Justice Headquarters (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Since then, Detective Pinkerton has become a private law enforcement organization recognized by the U.S. federal government and has grown rapidly. In its heyday, Detective Pinkerton had even more employees than the U.S. Army. Although Detective Pinkerton also fights crime, their actions are by no means to protect the American people, but to defend the interests of the government and capitalists from infringement.
Detective Pinkerton who broke the strike (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Because of this, The Pinkerton detectives' employers were often big capitalists or consortia, and the targets of their investigation or hunt were either extralegals who had hijacked cash trucks or union leaders who led the workers' movement. Detective Pinkerton would even sneak into the union and break it up from within, thus undermining strike action.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
In the process, Detective Pinkerton paid no attention to the legality or legitimacy of the means. They kidnap the families of gang members, force them to become spies, and even kill innocent civilians. In 1875, in revenge for the famous thief Jesse James, Detective Pinkerton surrounded his home, set fire to the house, and threw explosives into the room. Jesse James himself was not at home at the time, but his mother had an arm blown off and his half-brother killed on the spot. This move provoked an outcry from the local population.
Detective Pinkerton during homestead's strike (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
After Pinkerton's death, Detective Pinkerton did not die with it, but continued to grow. In 1892, the Carnegie Steel Company failed to reach consensus with workers at the Homestead Steelworks near Pittsburgh, triggering a workers' strike. The workers occupied the factory and the town, rebelling against the oppression and exploitation of the factory, while the head of the factory called in Detective Pinkerton. 300 Pinkerton detectives armed with rifles tried to enter the factory in the dark of night, but were found and defeated by workers.
Eventually, the Pennsylvania government sent state militias to suppress the strike. But in any case, Detective Pinkerton has gradually become synonymous with "strike breakers.". Working-class and left-wing politicians have criticized Detective Pinkerton for abusing violence and undermining democracy. Soon, in 1893, the U.S. Congress enacted the Anti-Kkton Act, which prohibited the U.S. government from continuing to hire Pinkerton detectives or similar private organizations.
Detective Pinkerton's badge (replica) (Credit: Amazon)
Although the capitalists still employed these "strikebreakers" to suppress the labor movement, without the biggest "customer" of the US federal government, The Pinkerton detectives were much less powerful than before. But until the 1930s, Detective Pinkerton was active in the major guilds of the United States as a secret agent and saboteur. To this day, Detective Pinkerton remains one of the world's leading private security groups.
Without Detective Pinkerton's "crutch," the U.S. Department of Justice also needs a new law enforcement agency to perform the tasks that were originally assigned to Detective Pinkerton. In 1908, the U.S. federal government established the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the predecessor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as we know it.
FBI Headquarters (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
As a government agency, the FBI may not be able to use all kinds of unscrupulous means to fight crime or sabotage the labor movement like the Pinkerton detectives of the past, but it has been common in the FBI's history to use illegal means to "fight crime". This also makes the FBI the most controversial law enforcement agency in the United States.
Edgar Hoover served as director of the FBI from 1935 to 1972
In order to dismantle the civil rights, anti-war and communist movements in the United States, the FBI launched a series of covert operations known as "COINTELPRO" to persecute and discredit the leaders of the organization and co-opt and divide related political groups. The most typical case is the persecution of black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by the FBI, and some even suspect that King's assassination was the work of the FBI. It wasn't until 1971, when the plan came to light, that FBI leader Hoover announced the termination of the COINTELPRO operation.
In fact, whether it is the federal police or the local police, the law enforcement departments in the United States have always served the government agencies and the capital behind them, not the institutions that serve the American people, which are completely reactionary and violent departments. As a result, U.S. police officers can beat, abuse, and shoot civilians with little to no legal sanctions. Such a law enforcement agency is undoubtedly very deformed and terrifying.
In the story of "Red Dead Redemption", the "Van der Lin Gang" was finally trapped in internal and external affairs and was eliminated by Detective Pinkerton, and the protagonist Arthur also ushered in the final chapter of his story. But the story of "Red Dead Redemption" can't help but make people wonder: Is the bottomless enforcer really better than the criminal with the bottom line?
The unlabeled image comes from the red dead redemption game screen and promotional image