TheAgitator.com
SWATtoons
Monday, August 11th, 2008Sent by the author, Rob Tornoe.
20 Responses to “SWATtoons”
Leave a Reply
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Site Features
- Home
- About Radley Balko
- Publications
- Speaking Info
- Multimedia
- Resume
- Picasa Photos
- Recommendations
- RSS Feed
- Buy Agitator Gear
-
-
$12/month Recurring Donation
$6/month Recurring Donation
- My Amazon wishlist
-
Site Credits
I feel bad that my initial reaction to this cartoon was, “Maybe now Reason can get rid of Chip Bok and hire a real cartoonist”.
would be funnier if it probably wasn’t close to true.
I love it that the dog’s facing away…
LOL.
Yeah, that’s the first time I’ve laughed a political cartoon in a long time.
Sadly Bok is washed up.
That dog was dangerous! It was growlin’ an’ stuff! I was afeared for my life, which is why I had to shoot it multiple times.
Boy, I feel SO much safer now.
no, that’s *exactly* the wrong tack to take, and *exactly* the attitude the cops/feds/statists want you to have.
if we can let ourselves have a chuckle at asswipe cops shooting harmless dogs, then they’ve won. laughter at their atrocities is just exactly the same response as ruffling their hair and telling them to get outta here, you crazy knuckleheads.
think i’m overreacting? ok. how many funny cartoons do you see about nazi concentration camps? or rwandan machete rampages? ever seen a comic showing the lighter, funnier side of the assassinations of the kennedys or mlk? how ’bout finding the humor in the cory maye or ryan frederick snafus?
do we get funny cartoons when a black guy gets dragged behind the street by a truck? or when skinny little gay guys get killed by mean ol’ straighties? of course we don’t. “that’s not funny, man!”; and one laughs at his peril.
this is no different. the fact they only killed dogs, instead of an unarmed woman or an old grandmaw lady was just pure chance. next time, there’ll be dead people, too.
laughter implies tolerance. tolerance implies acceptance. acceptance implies consent. consent guarantees more swat murders.
‘laughter implies tolerance. tolerance implies acceptance. acceptance implies consent. consent guarantees more swat murders.’
we’re not laughing with them, we’re laughing at them. ridicule. it’s one of the most powerful tools we have when we’re dealing with bullies…
yeah, “laughter”! that’s the ticket!
maybe, but i doubt it. for every corrupt regime that’s ever been toppled from within, i’d guess “laughing at them” accounted for maybe 2% of the various topplings. something else toppled the rest.
there’ve been “cops are getting out of control” jokes for at least 40 years or so, now. the cops starring role in the 1968 dem convention was on all the channels.
since then, “laughter” has gotten us swat teams; little old men having their cars impounded for asking directions from a hooker; small businessmen having their life savings stolen from them by uncle sam because it was in cash; housewives and grannies and cripples tasered to death; strange but legal mormon sects being kidnapped; and all the rest. kindly note that those outrages were done to upstanding, law-abiding, never in trouble citizens. that’s why they were publicized. i’ll bet you that for every case that makes the ‘agitator’, there’s 1000 more that no one knows about.
from here, it seems like laughing at them and scouring them with our ridicule doesn’t seem to be hampering the cops too too much. it doesn’t even seem to be slowing them down, now does it. maybe it’s time to ditch laughter, and try something else.
xyz123, ridiculing incompetence and despicable results of bad policies and institutions is not being proposed by anyone as a principle or even secondary strategy for ridding ourselves of them. It is just a reaction, and not an unreasonable or harmful one. In fact, undermining the credibility of these twits in this way is useful in weakening the public perception that they are worthy guardians of our lives and liberty.
Meanwhile, there is no evidence that
and the host of other ills you describe. If you think that a case can be made that humor brought those things about, then make it. But, don’t mistake this mockery for someone’s prescribed cure. No one is claiming, “Laugh and all will be well.”
#7
No, the best way to deal with a bully is to beat the snot out of him. Of course, police now have laws to protect them from such things, what a surprise.
At this point, I believe the various overreaching SWAT teams should be treated just like the Gestapo and SS should have been treated when they rounded up jews for the death camps — ten go out, five come back in a box.
When the “Hero’s Funeral” gets pelted with rotten vegetables, then they’ll get the message.
I had an argument along these lines last night: My theory was the the Hell’s Angels were some of the most free people in the USA. They sell drugs to make a living. A good living. OMG THAT’S BAD.
Well, no, it’s not. They are doing what every good capitolist should do: exploit a market. You can bet that if drugs were no longer profitable, they’d find some other means to make money.
OMG THEY KILL PEOPLE! Yep, but then if you don’t mess with them, they won’t kill you for the most part. Want to send a mole in, they’ll kill him because you’re threatening their way of life that they happen to like.
Want to bust one of their safe houses? Be prepared for more firepower than you’ve ever seen protecting themselves and what’s theirs from the government. “Shock and Awe” I think is what the government likes to call it.
Granted, organizations like this tend to attract socio- and psychopaths, but you win some, you lose some. They’re still more free than the vast majority of the readers here.
[/threadjack]
@ xyz:
The history of the political cartoon is that they are often not really intended to be “funny” per se. I certainly don’t think this one is.
xyz123- instead of showing us you’re a close-minded hammerhead, do your research. Political satire is a very powerful tool. George Carlin made a career of it. Type ‘political cartoon’ into amazon’s search engine and see how many enduring political symbols you can find. When I was at Dauchau concentration camp, there were displays of amazing political cartoons (not funny) that had an enduring impact.
Humor is an amazing tool. Satire is an amazing tool. Ridiculing your oponent is powerful. How many times would people mention Charles Barkleys’ insults that were thrown at his unfortunate oponents? Dan Quayle lost lost a debate when Benson ridiculed him about ‘you’re no John Kennedy…’ Look up the songs about Jefferson and Sally Hemmings when he was running for president.
Or, try to get people to listen to your bullshit ‘“laughing at them” accounted for maybe 2% of the various topplings. something else toppled the rest’ statistics.
xyz
I get where you are coming from. I think there is a danger in ‘normalizing’ a behavior. I have said the same thing about politicians. Jokes, stand-up, sitcoms and movies have made the ‘politicians are dishonest’ theme a staple.
Now, we totally accept it. Politicians are lying, self-serving, bribe taking, contract awarding, pork spending dirtbags…and we don’t even expect any better. We laugh it off. ‘What do you expect, he’s a politician!’ Yuk, yuk, yuk.
We have lost all hope for decent or honest human beings in the political landscape.
Having said that, I think this is a political cartoon, critical of police, and does not serve to normalize or accept the behavior. It is when TV commercials (for example) nonchalantly throw in the ‘dogs are afraid of SWAT’ theme the way they do the ‘Dog bites mailman’ or ‘dogs pee on fire hydrants’ theme that we have just accepted police murdering dogs as a way of life.
Now I generally think the PETA people are nuts but politics makes strange bedfellows. Perhaps I’ll send them a link.
You know a story “has legs”,when it sprouts cartoons.One of the pictured targets should have be a human holding a baby tho.We laugh to keep from crying.Swat SWAT before it swats you.
I would not want PETA involved. Cops kicking in citizen’s doors, killing their pets, and taking other liberties with those are are charged with serving is a very serious problem. Involving PETA will just distract from the huge problem to focus on the crazies crying about dog-rights.
Good point. Also:
-Grandma in a rocking chair
-Father surrounded by children
-Doctor
-etc
Maybe more realistic depictions of the targets these brave brave men choose will improve their dismal accuracy. On second thought, I like their dismal accuracy…..
If you really want to ridicule them. Have a cartoon of a SWAT team shooting skeet with live puppies.
I guess the MPD version would have a bunch of Hmong as the targets, but label it “Rolling 60s Crips.”