Comments on: “From Warfighter to Crimefighter”

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:22:18 +0000

“rainbow-farting unicorns to coalesce out of pure love and goodness.”

DAMN, that was funny!!! Thanks for the laugh!!

By: NAME REDACTED

NAME REDACTED — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:38:58 +0000

Another data point in favor of the “police are the standing army our founders warned us about” argument.

By: CyniCAl

CyniCAl — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:51:19 +0000

#6 | Joshua — “Could the federal government re-brand the Air Force as the “Air Police” and start executing bombing raids on suspected criminals?”

Of course they could! Who’s gonna stop them?

By: JOR

JOR — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:30:52 +0000

To some extent I tend to think this is poetic justice. Americans are getting what they’ve been dishing out through their employees for decades, and they’re getting it not from funny talking Islamofascist Mexican Communists but from a caste of enforcers they practically worship (many of whom are the same people who were doing the dishing out to said foreigners). Beautiful. As Herbert Spencer and others noticed, when you try to control others, you end up sacrificing your own freedom as well. I’d add that you damned well deserve any losses you suffer for it.

But then I remember that there is no justice in the world. The people most likely to suffer at the hands of these things are the politically irrelevant. Would that the voters and taxpayers, let alone the corporate-union leadership, were the primary targets, rather than occasional collateral damage, of the brunt of pig violence… but we’d just as soon get rainbow-farting unicorns to coalesce out of pure love and goodness.

By: Aresen

Aresen — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:56:30 +0000

Boyd Durkin | December 6th, 2011 at 5:57 pm The armed thugs of the state seldom (if ever) face consequences. Post any revolution it is the police who are handed control after the “leader” is ousted. Same police who were busting heads.

I remember reading that Felix Dzerzhinsky took on many of the old Okhrana officers when he formed the Cheka.

By: Boyd Durkin

Boyd Durkin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:57:21 +0000

but hiding behind “I’m just following orders” isn’t a valid and moral position.

I wish. The armed thugs of the state seldom (if ever) face consequences. Post any revolution it is the police who are handed control after the “leader” is ousted. Same police who were busting heads.

In the US add the fact that the-strongest-union-in-the-world controls the police. These guys (as a group) are untouchable. A very privileged club…to our detriment. And, there is a tremendous number of truly evil people who are cops.

By: Boyd Durkin

Boyd Durkin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:51:23 +0000

Could the federal government re-brand the Air Force as the “Air Police” and start executing bombing raids on suspected criminals?

Nah… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE

By: BamBam

BamBam — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:45:53 +0000

@8 but hiding behind “I’m just following orders” isn’t a valid and moral position. If any cop truly does think, and STILL comes to the conclusion that “might is right, and I shall smite any serf who isn’t aight” then that person is truly evil.

Either way you cut it, one must accept responsibility for their actions, ESPECIALLY when it comes to infringing on a person’s liberty using the vehicle of government (and thus violence).

By: Single Acts of Tyranny

Single Acts of Tyranny — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:58:20 +0000

It does rather suggest they fear what is coming.

By: SJE

SJE — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:41:54 +0000

Its ironic, that just as the police are living out some teenage boys wet dream of high powered weapons laying waste bad guys, the US military has realized the limits of “kinetic action” to defeat the enemy, and the benefits of establishing relationships of trust.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:38:12 +0000

SJE raises an important point. If we have police officers wearing military camouflage, carrying military weapons, driving military vehicles, and using military assault tactics… then isn’t it just playing semantic games to call them “police” instead of “soldiers”? Could the federal government re-brand the Air Force as the “Air Police” and start executing bombing raids on suspected criminals?

By: Aresen

Aresen — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:36:05 +0000

Wait till Sherriff Joe gets his hands on an Apache…

By: SJE

SJE — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:13:17 +0000

It seems that the Syrian government has the same idea. Check out Andrew Sullivan’s blog, with a picture of a tank painted blue, which is important because, “The Arab League asks Assad to pull back his military to their barracks in order to stop massacring the Syrian people. So instead, Assad orders the tanks to be painted and tells them ‘The army has withdrawn, we only have police deployed for safety and security.’”

It would be better for everyone if the US military just donated these weapons to our friends and allies.

By: Yizmo Gizmo

Yizmo Gizmo — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:10:12 +0000

How did the country with the most thoughtful and articulate
Constitution ever created– with clear, specific limitations on the powers of Government–give way to full-blown military-style assault tactics on the citizenry? That’s the part I’m not getting. I gotta say, I warned em
Posse Comitatus sounded too much like “Pussy” and “Commie”
to be of any use.

By: BamBam

BamBam — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:03:18 +0000

All just a coincidence. Nothing to see here. No connection and causation between multiple data points (Radley’s research, escalation of violence by police especially for non-crimes, political moves to infringe on all rights).

By: Boyd Durkin

Boyd Durkin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:17:54 +0000

The U.S. government is boasting about how it has enabled equipment specifically designed to help U.S. troops kill foreign soldiers during war . . . to be used…against American citizens.

When you put it that way, it sounds really bad. So let’s not put it that way.