Kicking. Squealing.
Keoni Galt and Vox Day write on the overreach of the anarcho-tyrannical LAPD. The latter writes:
I noticed how much things had changed when I started hearing conservative white business executives in their sixties talking about the police in a manner all but indistinguishable from NWA. Something is wrong, something is deeply and structurally wrong, when the mere fact of being involved in the law enforcement system at any level is enough to engender contempt in the eyes of those who are upstanding, law-abiding citizens.
This has long been a point of tension among people who lean right. You can find your gruffest most conservative older white guy and he’ll probably not be all too kind to the police. And it should be mentioned here that Dorner himself isn’t actually even a critic of the system though those that are critical of the system are treating him like St. Orenthal. Dorner wanted to be a cop, and he went on tilt only after that was taken from him. Surely he’d heard about Rodney King, yet he signed up to work for this supposedly racist outfit? He claims to have witnessed a female officer kick a helpless suspect in the chest. Dorner didn’t quit the force in protest; he wanted to stay on. He fought in a war in which the United States caused much collateral damage both in terms of material destruction and the killing of innocent civilians. Dorner was cool with all that just as long as he was kept in the club. His supporters don’t mention this because it implicates him as a willing participant in something that you’d figure they oppose. Instead they cheer him on like he’s driving a white Bronco.
Conservatives who didn’t come to their bent via the military or good corporate stoogery have no great love for the police. What they do have is a fundamental respect for social order. Cops are the recipients of the residual respect that drips from the desire for social order. The two should not be confused. Somebody has to do that work for the sake of society. What the right seems to get that the left does not is that such a system is imperfect. There is an acceptance that the maintenance of order is not a smooth process.
The hypocrisy of leftist cheerleaders reminds me of the hypocrisy of the media who are sympathetic of Dorner but cast Thomas Jane Ball as some sort of violent lunatic. If you’ll remember, Ball was the New Hampshire man who immolated himself after a long custody dispute. Both wrote manifestos, yet Ball only killed himself whereas Dorner is still alive and has killed innocent people. Ball was only a hero to a marginalized set of bloggers and web commenters; Dorner received a mixed amount of sympathy from the New York Times and he is an internet sensation with a large contingent of supporters. Did Ball make a mistake by not killing a few people only very loosely associated with his court proceedings? Or is it just that the narrative-crafters can only criticize abused power when it occurs through ‘patriarchal’ channels such as the police or military? The criminal courts can be the focus of criticism, yet the base assumption is that they are inherently good. Of all the various types of courts, the family courts are considered to be “on the right side”. It is this automatic assumption – one that no other court benefits from – that turns that particular system into a gigantic Chinese finger trap.
We cannot ignore the possibility that these two cases have received such different responses for the usual reason: race. We can’t ignore that Chris Dorner is receiving the Trayvon Treatment. A montage of pictures which show a sweet smiling face compared to the anonymity of Thomas Jane Ball (not that he even made the news in the first place). I always hate to go here because it is impossible to prove, but it’s hard to believe that a white rogue cop would have received the sympathy that Dorner has received. The modern white man’s burden is that the middle-aged white man is considered to be constitutionally and irrationally angry. Tea Partiers are irrational and angry and have no legitimate grievances. Black men whose social complaints reach the level of the mass media are granted at least a spark of benefit of the doubt.
Regarding social order–that’s the root of the problem. Cops are now not much more than Sheriffs of Nottingham. They are granted enormous berths because they collect money for Leviathan, not because they maintain social order. Factor in that they’re above the law and the recipe is for disaster.
RE: thomas ball, i’d rather like to see how his story might have played out if it happened today instead of 2ish years ago. “this” corner of the internet barely existed back then
LA is reopening Dorner’s wrongful termination trial and appeal.
Do you understand now, nothing is more heinous than racism.
Most conservatives have been indoctrinated to believe that the police no mater how flawed, are the guarders of law and order. In reality the people are and always have been guarders of law and order, we simply off loaded the dirty work of keeping the underclasses in line. A few conservatives have begun to realize the truth that the police are there to keep them inline and not the criminals.
Since the 1960s the cops have been increasingly used to restrain the middle classes. The cops make a show of handling the lower classes, but in reality their actions are symbolic. The police’s primary job is to oppress the middle class(tickets, pointless laws) and prevent any type of group actions that would set things right. The elites were quite pissed when the cops refused to disarm the Koreans during the LA riots(They feared getting shot). If you watch media reports of the time the reporters kept urging the cops do so something about the armed Koreans.
The type of out and out oppression that is stop and frisk in NYC is what’s need to restrain the under class. Stop and frisk is still a little weak by historical standards and could easily be ramped up to eliminate the anarchy that Americans experience on an almost daily basis. But stop and frisk is only allowed in very progressive cities. Try it in a southern town and watch the entire state (Media, courts, feds) crush that town.
Do you have names of “leftist cheerleaders” for Dorner? I’m not trying to be sarcastic here, I genuinely want to know if you have examples of noteworthy leftists or liberals who could fairly be called “cheerleaders” for Dorner, because all I’ve seen are jackasses on twitter.
Cops are bad, Cops are bully toadies of the elite powers that be…. ok sure in too many cases you are correct. The thing is this, the reason there are so many cases of cops abusing the trust place in them is due to a number of factors:
1) Political correct employment policies- when you MUST have a minimum of X% of a Y kinds or “minorities” (aka everything except hetero white males), you have to take in and promote people who, if it wasn’t for PC, wouldn’t normally make the cut. This breeds resentment and an over all lack of discipline in the ranks, a playground for mean-spirited bullies.
2) Law Enforcement has become a not so secret tax collector for cash strapped localities- speeding tickets aren’t handed out to stop speeding. Speeding, helmet, seat-belt inspection stickers, and similar laws are used to generate money for politicians to hand out for votes, and pay for pet projects.
3) Law Enforcement have forced to become the hired enforcers of politicians personal, or “moral” agendas- how on gods green earth were cops supposed to enforce sodomyand bigamy laws? By what legal grounds does NY have the authority to ban the sale of soft-drinks of a certain size. where in the constitution does it give the government the right to make currently illegal drugs, illegal to use,sell, or purchase. last i checked it only has the power to tax the sale, import and export of goods.
3) Cops are given conflicting goals and told by the politicians when, and when not/who and who not to enforce the laws on, when they are supposed to apply equally to all. – just like in every war or conflict since WWII when you get stupid politically motivated “rules of engagement” , you cant “win” anything. This is demoralizing and there is no clear line in the sand just many shades of grey. This will breed a huge Us vs.Them mentality where officers wont “rat-out” other officers for their behavior, and supervisors are afraid to discipline officers for fear of a law suit.
4) There are just too many cops- The number of cops out there has skyrocketed, and just like the teachers we always hear we need more and more and MORE of, the more you have the greater chances and number of evil people who shouldn’t be doing the job will slip through the cracks and get a job where they can abuse their power.
The over all reason there is a “bad-cop” problem is because they are being over used for every problem, problems caused for the most part by the actions and policies of career politicians.
These idiots we seem to repeatedly elect handle the problems they cause like a big time rancher who when the horses keep running out of the barn, hire more cowboys to catch them, instead of just making sure the damn barn door is in good repair and shut at night.
Law enforcement officers are not meant to be used they way they are. The role of Law Enforcement is to Investigate crimes, bring criminals to trial, and ensure the citizens access to justice. It is NOT to protect the public from itself, or act as an alternate revenue stream for local governments..
This Drive By Truckers song has been in my head since I read the “Manifesto”:
http://vimeo.com/16259405
Conservatives are almost always on the side of the police until they come in contact with the modern police officer.
http://ezralevant.com/2013/01/forgotten-friends-all-was-goin.html
Contra one of your statements, even ex-military conservatives have much contempt for the local revenue collectors. Even more so in a state like NY with its impending draconian gun laws and an oversized politicized State Police force.
also, chuck, any thoughts on the new Girls episode? I think it’s instructive to compare reactions to the Bar Rafaeli Superbowl ad with this episode (granted, the former got a lot more exposure). Amanda Marcotte’s take on the ad was, I take it, typical of feminist/liberal opinion:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/04/post-super-bowl-misogyny-watch-mostly-calm-with-one-incident-of-assault/
This ad was symbolic vengenance for men who think their human rights are violated because they don’t get to fuck the woman of their choice, and a fuck you to everyone else who thinks that’s ridiculous.
Maybe she’s right. But compare that reaction to this wonderful little piece of manboobery:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/one-mans-trash,92100/#disqus_thread
..there will be the usual hoots about how Hannah’s not attractive enough to hook up with a guy like Joshua. And you know what? Maybe she isn’t. I would counter that there’s an 18-year age gap between the two, that most 42-year-old guys—even ones as good-looking as Patrick Wilson—would be happy to sleep with just about any 24-year-old woman who wandered into their lives and threw herself at them. (I mean, I’m assuming here, but it’s an assumption based on years of pop culture, and we all know pop culture wouldn’t lie to me.) In addition, the episode shows us just how phenomenally lonely Joshua is….[it goes on, unmercifully]
Portrayals of relationships with attractiveness differentials that favor the man are said cater to pathetic losers, while those that favor the woman are rarely called out for this. The first season of Girls portrayed Dunham’s character in a fuckbuddy relationship with a man much more attractive than her, not only physically, but in terms of the kind of attitude women tend to desire (aloofness etc.). This already stretched the imagination, but by the end of the season the show had gone of the deep end, with this alpha guy proclaiming expressing a desire to move in with her. I’ve also seen this with feminist-beloved shows like 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. Tina Fey and Amy Pohler are talented, and not exactly bad looking for women their age, but the kind of men their characters get into relationships with are far out of their league.
Generic sitcoms where male lead has a wife much more attractive than him are rightly derided for being unrealistic,, but even so, in real life, these kind of relationships are much more common than the reverse. In those relatively few relationships where the man is much more attractive, he usually he usually has some crippling beta defects that keep him from raising his standards.
“I started hearing conservative white business executives in their sixties talking about the police in a manner all but indistinguishable from NWA”
I doubt there are any conservative businessmen in their sixties. People that age went to high school and college during the 1960s and early 1970s, so they have been steeped in anti-establishment rhetoric their entire lives.