tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-293433952655399056.post3341331826540129943..comments2024-03-06T04:35:38.806-06:00Comments on Disaffected and it Feels So Good: I am the LawGrung_e_Genehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01894879088472559055noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-293433952655399056.post-29344410279411481242008-06-25T12:34:00.000-05:002008-06-25T12:34:00.000-05:00Just a thought: The philosophy of policing in the...Just a thought: The philosophy of policing in the US is too closely aligned with a theory of war. Granted, there are violent criminals. But there are also many first-world police forces and detention systems that face far fewer abuses of this nature than does our own, even societies with high-level organized violent crime like England and Japan.<BR/><BR/>This also begs the question of the role of the military in a police action or a peace-keeping mission. Wrong tool, IMO, but we've never faced up to the challenge of constructing the right tool. "You can't teach the hammer to love the nail," right? Nor should we be surprised when the hammer does its job with ruthless efficiency.<BR/><BR/>That goes for modern cops, as well. Train them (or allow them to socialize themselves) into a bunker mentality, and you get what I think is a predictable response.JKGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13569861165454532541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-293433952655399056.post-67534730024627141672008-06-25T10:23:00.000-05:002008-06-25T10:23:00.000-05:00Ran, that's a money issue. And current US money is...Ran, that's a money issue. And current US money is worthless (especially "sandwich" coinage and paper money) and worse designed to incur debt and control the populace. I guess the only reason the dollar didn't fail completely in 1971, ala the post World War One Mark, after the end of the pseudo-gold standard is because of the emergence of the Petrol-Dollar.<BR/><BR/>However, I don't think the gas station owner was a Ron Paul supporter demanding a return to the purity of the gold standard and an end to the Dollar Hegemony. He, most likely, was annoyed at having to count out a thousand pennies.<BR/><BR/>But, this is an example of our flawed perceptions were we focus on pennies and ignore the trillions of pilfered "dollars"...Grung_e_Genehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01894879088472559055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-293433952655399056.post-51732146116520286752008-06-24T11:43:00.000-05:002008-06-24T11:43:00.000-05:00I think Lt. Nixon is right in that the police shou...I think Lt. Nixon is right in that the police should be allowed some latitude in what they are allowed to do, but oversight is necessary. I assume most cases of officer (and soldier) discretion are fairly sensible with a few bad apples abusing their power. But when the force protects those that allegedly habitually cross the bounds of good judgment, like in the Chicago public records <A HREF="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago_police_filesjun04,0,7934912.story" REL="nofollow">case</A>, intrusion and disruption of the system needs to be taken.<BR/><BR/>On another note, I think your complaint about the man paying for gas with pennies contradicts your general philosophy of getting rid of the police state. There is <A HREF="http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/legal-tender.html#q1" REL="nofollow">no Federal law</A> stating that a private party has to accept any form of legal tender as payment. This is why gas stations don't have to accept bills larger than $20. This gives the individual retailer the right to set what they consider proper forms of payment w/o interference from the state. If some customer comes in with legal tender backed by the full force of the U.S. Government that the seller won't accept, it's inevitable that at some point some irate pair of people will call the cops. The seller is trying to exercise their freedom of choice and the buyer is trying to exercise what they believe (however wrongly) to be an exchange backed by the Federal government. If the two disagree, unless there were some community forum to judge the matter, the police could get involved. In this case the retailer is legally right, but conventional wisdom assumes the buyer is.ranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10584685394945176255noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-293433952655399056.post-18789038932062017972008-06-23T19:48:00.000-05:002008-06-23T19:48:00.000-05:00If you agree we should have Police, which is a val...<I>If you agree we should have Police, which is a valid question, what do you want the Police to do?</I><BR/><BR/>I believe it's necessary to allow law enforcement officers to be allowed to use force in the carrying out of their duties. That something I'm willing to trust them with as a citizen in order to maintain the rule of law. However, like the military, there needs to be proper oversight.<BR/><BR/>As a guy who has cops in the family, I've found that police have a cynical view of the world, which is probably due to the fact that they are dealing with the dregs of society on a 24/7 basis (think Jerry Springer), but overall I'd say police in America do a good job compared to other countries where they are corrupt and kick the shit out of random people for no good reason.Nixonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12419569519734310093noreply@blogger.com