It’s hard to imagine someone less conservative than Michael Ledeen:

“Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law.”

Many stories are out there of those who attempt to intimidate/subdue the occupants of a residence by bursting in and screaming POLICE and SEARCH WARRANT.

While Law Enforcement is not even on the Top 10 list of Most Dangerous Jobs, I hope they understand that most folks believe anyone who bursts into their homes in a fury should expect the occupants to defend themselves against the attackers.

Whatever happened to the old phone call/visit by Sheriff Friendly?

The POLICE in yellow is also somewhat small to easily read. Kept small and indistinct for a reason, I suppose?

And, there is no POLICE marking at all on the Kevlar helmets.

Please leave the face masks and balaclavas at home.

Bring back the blue uniforms with the billed caps that look like police. And, not like soldiers.

I also notice that the buxom Hispanic lady being questioned is not apparently also under arrest. No handcuffs……

But masks also have a direct effect on behaviour even ignoring their effect on the chances an officer will be held accountable for misconduct: masks cause what psychologists call “deindividuation,” a sense that’s one’s conduct is divorced from usual social norms. I was struck by this passage in the relevant Wikipedia article:

“The Ku Klux Klan demonstrates characterizes [sic] the perfect situation for deindividuation. Members wear white robes and hoods that completely unify their appearance and mask their identity. They form as a clear in-group with a clear out-group, and extol the superiority of their group against all others. Fearing violence from other members, any potential dissenters would probably squash their views out of self-preservation. It is therefore unsurprising that the Klan committed many lynchings and other violent attacks. ”

If we replace “white robes and hoods” with “camo body armor and masks” and “lynchings” with “pointless no-knock raids”….

It should be policy that officers cannot wear masks or otherwise hide their identity unless for some reason masks greatly increase safety (e.g., gas masks when tear gas is deployed), and in any case all police at all times should display some sort of identification which is easily recognizable even at distance, such as large high-contrast numerals. Such a policy would be a dirt cheap and minimally intrusive way of reducing misconduct.

Excellent allocation of your finite resources, it isn’t like goverment can just go out and shake the well-informed folks in this land of the free down for more money in order to continue these types of paramilitary operations.

Never mind mentioning placing the lives of all involved in lethal jeopardy for a dime bag of pot.

And then I remembered that in Afghanistan people fight back and it all made sense.

“I had a pipe that would hold more than that” or something to that effect.

So, we have about 10 SWAT guys, a K-9 unit, an APC, who knows how many guns and grenades and other stuff – how much did all that cost and what was gained by deploying all of it?

Less than the amount which would fill one guy’s pipe.

Every day, every where, the real threat to your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is an encounter with the police. They are the real terrorists.

Protect & Serve (Themselves!)

Yes, the mask laws usually don’t criminalize mask-wearing if the wearer doesn’t commit any crimes while masked, but wearing a mask while committing a misdemeanor can elevate it to a felony in some places, even if there is no mens rea in the misdemeanor.

So if a police officer unintentionally or accidentally commits a minor crime while all tacticool, especially if the combination of minor crime + mask = felony, how can the police justify wearing masks?

BTW, of those 8 total links, 3 were even links to posts on theagitator.com, and all of those are broken as well. I hope more links don’t break with the move to HuffPo hosting, but the lesson is clear: If you see something you will want to refer to for an extended period of time, keep a copy of it yourself.

OTOH, one of my early favorite finds on the web is a 1995 U.S. News & World Report article called “Consulting the Oracle” on how easily manipulated and generally worthless polls can be. It’s still there after all these years and still relevant. But, I have a local copy saved anyway, just in case. ;-)