O sweet and noble lad, be not aggrieved!
Pray, lift thyself from off the cursed ground!
Thy travels long have left thee most deceived;
there is a sanctuary to be found. – Pop Sonnets, “YMCA”
Police militarization has finally entered the sleepy consciousness of mainstream America due to the Ferguson, Missouri protests, but of course libertarians have been talking about it for decades; nobody has talked about it more, nor more eloquently, than Radley Balko. Today’s first video is from a tiny town in Georgia and was, until Radley called attention to it, posted on the front page of the official police website; it’s a short, disturbing look at the modern police mindset and the image they want to project to the public. Radley also provided the links above it. The second video is a satire of out-of-control “sex offender” laws contributed by Robert King, and the links between the videos are from Scott Greenfield (“enough”), Michael Whiteacre (“RIP” and “hobby”), Rick Horowitz (“koinkydink”), Mark Draughn (“perspective”), Saladin Ahmed (“sonnets”), Clarkhat (“Vikings”), Lenore Skenazy (“farmers”), Popehat (“never call”), and Cop Block (“seriously”).
- Take time in your busy day to do the little things that make life worthwhile, like smelling roses or murdering dogs.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
- Teen arrested for pretending he killed neighbor’s pet dinosaur.
- Had enough yet?
- R.I.P. Don Pardo.
- What a koinkydink!
- A bit of perspective.
- It’s good to have a hobby.
- Pop songs rewritten as Shakespearean sonnets.
- Viking ship discovered on the Mississippi River near Memphis.
- Welcome to our world, farmers and residents of Ferguson, Missouri.
- Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever. Seriously, not any reason.
From the Archives
- Fascism, patient abuse, six words, an unintended metaphor, spell ban, cops, guilt without fault and the Cult of Personality.
- Cops arrest strippers under vague “sex trafficking” pretenses, and random people on spurious prostitution charges.
- The police state, Hamill vs. Hamill, bad librarian, witchcraft, cops, bike lanes and the Pope.
- Apparently, some British juries recognize that a prostitute can be raped.
- Under criminalization, is reporting a ripoff hooker to cops really worth it?
- The disturbing trend of cops arresting retired madams on drug charges.
- Dr. Brooke Magnanti on thinking good sex can be defined by statistics.
- Both 2012 presidential candidates were descended from polygamists.
- What’s most “unclear” to me is how this is even physically possible.
- The role of Manichean thinking in creating “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- The problems Asian sex workers face in Victoria’s legalized system.
- Volunteering at a shelter confers “trafficking” expertise in months.
- Filipino “trafficking” hotline is confused about number of “victims”.
- Deals with devils always have more conditions than anticipated.
- Dr. Robert King on porn, with a nice endorsement of yours truly.
- It’s so nice when people who have never done sex work get it.
- A proposal for the decriminalization of sex work in South Africa.
- A once-important festival now consigned to the attic of history.
- Indian sex workers rescue a little girl from her abusive mother.
- Barcelona’s campaign to drive vulnerable women into poverty.
- The Polaris Project pimps historical American black slavery.
- Scientific illiterates attack a politician’s scientific illiteracy.
- The Indian Supreme Court waffles on decriminalization.
- Arizona wants to look even stupider than New Jersey.
- How can anyone not know how advice columns work?
- Two essays on the problem with the word “privilege”.
- The government’s latest effort to destroy Bitcoin.
- A short overview of the work of Elizabeth Loftus.
- Northern Ireland contracts the Swedish disease.
- How to obscure reality by manipulating words.
- A whore’s best friend is her artificial life form.
- Prostitution Law and the Death of Whores.
- Queensland considers legalizing outcalls.
- How cops enrich themselves via robbery.
- Narcissists causing problems for whores.
- Miranda Kane at the Edinburgh Festival.
- Swedish priest convicted of buying sex.
- $2 billion in preventable medical costs.
- A brothel cooperative in Utrecht.
- A look at sex work in Yemen.
- Sex workers vs. criminals.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- The Free Speech Mafia.
“Police militarization has finally entered the sleepy consciousness of mainstream America due to the Ferguson, Missouri protests, but of course libertarians have been talking about it for decades;”
This isn’t directed at you specifically Maggie, but this is something I’ve been thinking about the past few weeks.
It would appear that libertarians are on the verge of perhaps a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The people that often seem to be dismissed contemptuously as “sheep” are beginning to see that Libertarians have a point about a good many things. That could translate into more Libertarians being voted into office, where they could then set about dismantling what needs to be dismantled.
However, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a feeling of “bitter grapes” (I hope I’m using that term correctly). I’m probably oversimplifying a bit, but instead of saying “we’re glad you’re with us now, and this is what you can do to help,” it sometimes looks like we’re saying at best “where have you idiots been?” and “we’ve washed our hands of you. Enjoy your police state and economic collapse” at worst.
This is just my opinion, but this moment in time would appear to an ideal one for Libertarians to offer that ‘Golden Bridge’ that Ms. Vonk referred to in her guest column.
The reason the libertarian movement will never gain broad political support is the same reason the Gauls fell at the hands of the Romans.
They fight too much amongst themselves and are too concerned with petty ideological differences to really address the bigger threat that threatens them all.
And the second, probably more important obstacle is this …
Don’t confuse American support for “de-militarization” of cops as broad support for the Libertarian agenda.
And yeah … there’s a few other “Libertarian” ideas that seem to be catching on too. Policies concerning drugs … or NSA surveillance … etc.
But at the end of the day … this generation of whiney-assed Americans will ALWAYS choose safety over liberty. They will ALWAYS choose big government programs like Social Security, or Nationalized Health Care, or Student Loan programs … etc …
Which means they will ALWAYS choose big government.
“Big Government” is anathema to the whole Libertarian ideology.
This “nanny state” tendency of Americans … is pretty much the “show-stopper” for any true Libertarian revolution in America – at least for today anyway.
Actually, it is not that simple. For example, mandatory health insurance can be implemented in a “small Government” setting, as, for example, Switzerland proves. Social security or financing university studies can as well. The problem is that you have to make these things mandatory in order for them to work, and then a lot of parasites of the “big government” variety try to hijack the thing. But in itself, these things are good, as they allow people to do more long-term planning and that in turn increases the individual’s contribution to society and decreases egoism.
No, the idea is not “socialism”, it is “infrastructure”. Building roads, water supply, electricity, telecommunications from all people to mandatory pay for (via taxes), but then having these things available lifts up the level that the individual can act on and massively reduces the risks that the individual has to guard against. With good infrastructure, people are freed up to work and live.
I do understand that this idea is often difficult to grasp for US citizens. The population has not been where they are long enough. For example, public transportation is often planned with a 50 year time-frame (the typical lifetime of a tram) or sewage systems often have 80-100 years life-expectancy if done right and if done right they are a lot cheaper in the end. That kind of long-term planning requires a perspective that a relatively young people such as the US one just does not (yet)(fully) have.
Bro … there’s about 10 million people in Switzerland (as opposed to around 340 million in the US – counting “undocumented”). They have the highest nominal wealth in the world (per capita).
That’s right – health insurance is compulsory in Switzerland … everyone has to PAY a portion of their healthcare. I don’t know if they have “subsidies” for the poor or for those who don’t work … but then again, they have a 2.9 percent unemployment rate (and the US’s runs anywhere from two to three times that – and our numbers are skewed since they only count people who are looking for work – and not “no loads” who’ve either given up or don’t want to work).
There’s a lot to be admired in Switzerland … things we could transport here to the States. But …
Without changing the “parasitic” outlook of a huge portion of America … it’s not gonna work here.
I think the “parasitic” outlook in the US is exactly the problem, also because it pervades everything, including politics and business. It basically corrupts everything and dramatically reduces the (real or perceived) stakes in the community an individual has.
The Swiss have a very complicated method of payment for health care; you must buy insurance, but some of the costs are borne by the Canton anyway; and there are 26 different ways of doing things. (And disclaimer: my treatment, after an accident, was fully funded by the UK’s NHS.)
Which reminds me: I have to vote on whether a country-wide insurance scheme, backed by the government, should be introduced—it’s a popular initiative, which the government suggests should not be approved. Advice very welcome!
Hey that Viking ship discovered near Memphis … you know that is a false story right?
I know this cuz I got excited about it … and even mentioned it to the Vikings I’m working with right now – then got REALLY excited about it. One told me … in broken English … “I told you that shit! The Vikings were EVERYWHERE!”
Then I looked online for more detail on the story and ran across the Snopes article.
How do I tell these poor Vikings now? 🙁
Ferguson is local to me (a suburb very near to my own suburb), and for the first week my mind was simply boggled by all this stuff.
Eventually the following points came to my mind:
1. I think that “what happened” was chillingly similar to Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman, in Florida in Feb 2012.
Zimmerman — and Officer Wilson — harassed a young black man (Martin, Brown). Why? Probably because they figured they could get away with it. Big-ego wannabe-macho guy gets to intimidate a young black man — what a thrill!
But the young black man (Martin, Brown) refuses to be intimidated. (“Shock, horror!”) And, instead, turns to (or on) the white, armed harasser. Because, y’know, he’s a citizen not a “perp.” So the armed white guy (Zimmerman, Wilson) panics. “How could this possibly be happening?? He’s gonna kill me!!” And shoots/kills the young black man. The unarmed young black man.
Unarmed young black man terrorizes armed white man … by refusing to let them intimidate them.
2. Both the local (Ferguson city) police and the county police are behaving like amateurs. Their usual job probably consists of handing out speeding tickets and writing reports when someone reports a crime.
When one of them murdered a young man — essentially, for WWB (walking while black) — none of them thought that anyone would notice it, and none of them was prepared for the popular blow back.
In particular, once there was a little vandalism and looting (along maybe a mile of one specific road — only there, and no where else in the entire metro area) — it looks like the police’s mental image of the situation shifted from simple “crowd control” to “riot control.” As in Watts and Detroit, in the 1960s.
I have read a retrospective account from one of the LA police officers who was on duty when the rioting broke out in Watts. He and his fellow officers were quickly overwhelmed — they showed up in in their squad cars, ones and twos, and quickly found themselves isolated and surrounded by dozens of rioters who ignored them (and some of whom had guns too). He admits that he was scared. He didn’t know what was going to happen, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to protect himself or his partner.
I believe that this experience was part of the launch of the “SWAT” teams — Special Weapons And Tactics — the police who had long rifles, not just a pistol and a shotgun, as well as protective gear including helmets and military-style house-to-house-combat tactics. In the 1980s TV series “Hill Street Blues,” one of the supporting characters was the precinct’s SWAT team leader. He was gung-ho! ready to go! The precinct captain was too savvy to let him loose.
But the Ferguson police chief … is not. Nor is the county police leadership.
When this kind of thing happens with a civilian — Zimmerman — you have to say something serious about his character.
But when this happens with a police officer — Wilson — you have to say something *very* serious about this officer’s professionalism. You *also* have to say something *very* serious about his police department’s professionalism.
3. No doubt “Homeland Security’s” policy of making it easy for local police departments to obtain military vehicles and equipment has made the situation worse. When you have a toy, you want to use the toy!
The post-911 rationale for this was “what if the terrorists show up in my town, with their mortars and their RPGs and their other military-style weapons? are we supposed to handle them with handguns and shotguns??”
Yeah. Like they’re gonna show up in Ferguson. Really? Really??? C’mon.
3. The St Louis metro area has had these racial tensions for a hundred years or so. This is the first time in living memory that they have broken out into outright violence — from either side. I think that *this* too is part of the problem — nobody local has personal experience with defusing a situation like this. I think that everyone — *everyone* — has been feeling triggered, has been reacting from the gut.
(I think this is part of the reason why some people have come up with campaigns to *support* Officer Wilson … complete with some clear racial insults. Triggered, reacting from the gut — on both sides.)
4. I also think that a part of the problem is that the Ferguson city authorities (mayor etc) have also been astonished and bewildered by this. Ferguson is a small town; the jobs of mayor and city councilor are part-time jobs. They are not professional politicians. Their jobs probably focus on streets, parks, and city festivals. It seems that they had not noticed that one corner of Ferguson has been growing a larger and larger population of minority residents. (Perhaps because few of these new residents have been voting in city elections.)
5. In addition to an absence of leadership from the city, it seems that there is also an absence of leadership from the local minority population. Various people who hold overlapping leadership roles in the local region have tried to step up; but they don’t seem to be able to speak for the *Ferguson* residents.
It’s hard to negotiate when there’s nobody — on either side — who can go to the negotiating table.
This whole thing makes me sick. Ferguson? Ferguson?? Really?????
But there are a bunch o’ themes and issues that are wrapped up inside this situation. Which may be why it has been so hard to resolve the matter.
I don’t know how anyone can “judge” what the cop did here … since the facts aren’t all out (and may never be).
I mean – if we want to “judge” him based on the fact that he’s a cop – and cops are sometimes ALWAYS wrong – then okay.
But I don’t know what alternate universe that kind of theorem works in – where you absolutely can be 100 percent in your judgement of someone – just because of who they are.
For me, “Ferguson” is about the MILITARIZED RESPONSE – not the incident that lit off everything. The incident is too convoluted and full of emotion.
I think you dull your point though by grouping the Zimmerman thing in with this. Zimmerman wasn’t a cop and that issue had it’s own noise associated with it.
My experience – is that when you have a situation this convoluted – the guilt lies with all parties (or a portion of it is assigned to each).
People need to be careful with judging Darren Wilson. Are you judging him because he’s a cop? Or because he’s a WHITE cop?
I submit there is a whole lot of the latter going on because had Darren Wilson been black – this would have never been an issue for most folks – certainly not the folks in Ferguson who are upset right now.
That doesn’t mean I dismiss their concerns. My Social Media is lit up with cops condemning me for being “anti-cop” in this very situation.
But … I’m about “balance” – because truth rarely lies on the fringe of any issue.
The community doesn’t trust the cops. The cops don’t trust the community and are grotesquely armed to the point that they too often resort to overwhelming force to get their way.
The KKK goes to Ferguson to support the cop. And the “race-baiters” (Jackson / Sharpton) go to Ferguson to support Brown. Yeah – that’s gonna solve the problem. /sarcasm
The problem is on all sides … and people in the middle need to sit down and talk to each other. I put most of the onus for this on the cops and the white community – since they hold the power and the guns.
And the best way to make them sit down and talk is to take all this military shit away from the cops – so that they’re forced to work through issues without resorting to overwhelming force.
Like a bouncer …
If a huge guy gives me problems in the bar … it’s not hard for me to resist using force immediately and attempt to work with the guy to settle the problem. When it’s a guy who is no match for me whatsoever, I find myself having to struggle to keep myself from “provoking” the guy, especially if he’s an ass. Part of me wants to put him in the hospital.
If I were armed with a gun – then NO MAN would be a match for me – and I’d have to constantly struggle to maintain the resolve to “work” through an issue.
It’s the same with the cops – but, since they are always armed, then no man is a match for them. The stimulus to work with a problem is reduced – greatly reduced – especially over time when an individual gets used to having this power.
That’s the dynamic that needs to be interrupted.
Do you work as a bouncer? If so — cool!
Yes indeed, people react differently if they think that they do *not* have overwhelming force.
In “Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell says that NYC cops began to reduce the number of unarmed-civilians-being-gunned-down-for-no-good-reason when they stopped riding around with a partner.
When they had a partner, they felt like they were all-powerful, and were ready to respond with lethal force if they encountered anything that was not-what-they-expected.
But when they patrolled solo, they were aware of being vulnerable … so they were much more ready to “use their words.”
I think this is basically the same thing you were saying … right? 🙂
As for the militarized response … one of the “wild cards” in this whole thing is the molotov cocktails that continue to be thrown, and the local businesses that continue to get looted. In a BBC World Service news report, the managing editor of a local Af-Am newspaper said last week that “agitators came down from Chicago” to make the molotov cocktails happen, and that people from other nearby towns came in to loot.
1. Stuff like that does need to be contained/controlled.
2. The police need to do a better job of explaining what they think they are facing (should be more specific) and how they think they can contain/control it. (For example, “We want the streets empty at night so that we can see those outsiders who are trying to do bad things while you are trying to do good things.”)
I’m no cop; I don’t know what is the “minimum level of response” that could safeguard genuinely innocent people and their property.
But *if* a “militarized response” is what’s needed to protect those people and that property … then the police need to explain that stuff much, much better.
Which — again — speaks to the professionalism of those police authorities.
I find it upsetting/strange that something like $350k has been given to Darren Wilson by wellwishers.
Me too, korhomme, me too …
Indeed. The tool that is in your hand (or readily available) shapes your actions very much.
Military equipment is optimized to do the most damage possible against a trained and well-equipped enemy. To use it against civilians is catastrophic. And from what I have seen of the coverage, it might not take a lot to start that dynamic, with cops doing whole-sale slaughter like a military unit under assault because that is what their equipment suggests to them is happening.
For you, as somebody Out There, yeah “Ferguson” is about the militarized response … because that’s the focus of the news coverage you are seeing.
For me, as a local resident, “Ferguson” is “about” a bunch of things. Because the Ferguson I know is a sleepy small town — one of 90+ self-governing municipalities in this administratively balkanized county — with tree-lined streets and residents who simply go about living their lives. So “Ferguson” is about more than a single thing.
“Ferguson” is about an armed white cop who shot and killed an unarmed black man. (It is clear that the cop emptied most of his clip into the man. It’s clear that the cop was terrified. It’s not clear whether he had a reason to be terrified.) Because if local cops can kill an unarmed civilian because they panicked, then I could get killed too. (Not as likely, since I’m white not black. But if they mistake me for a black man, say late at night?)
“Ferguson” is about vandalism and looting. This in fact was the first “news” I heard about this, and it was the first *shocking* news I heard about it.
“Vandalism and looting? In Ferguson? In *Ferguson*???”
Because to me this was unthinkable. Un. Thinkable. Ferguson??? What. The. Hell???
“Ferguson” is about how the local police responded to that. Yeah, the militarized response … the deeply *unprofessional* response. Because it shows how little we (local people, who live among these local police) can trust these police authorities to Get It Right when the shit hits the fan.
And “Ferguson” is about how the local city authorities responded to it. Because I live in a nearby local city, with its own city authorities. Whatever went wrong there, I don’t want to go wrong in my own city.
For you, who don’t live here (locally), yeah “Ferguson” may be about one thing.
Not for me.
[…] From PopSonnet, whose author recasts well-known songs in Shakespearean iambic pentameter. Link via Maggie McNeill. […]