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Apropos of the police poll
Jul. 19th, 2014 01:59 amOn "Real Time with Bill Mahar" tonight, Bill Mahar talked about the militarization of the police over the past 40 years. He brought up how crime was at historic lows, but the police looked less like the sheriff's department in the fictional town of Mayberry and more like something you'd expect in a war-zone, complete with attitude.
He ended his polemic with this little address to the political right, which keeps talking about Freedom going away: "You're always screaming about the loss of liberty and how tyranny is coming. Yeah, it's coming right through the door! With a battering ram, no warrant and a stun grenade. Or to put it in a way you can understand, I'm scared of the cops, and I'm white."
Now, Bill Mahar is well known for his cannabis advocacy and he routinely talks about smoking pot on TV in front of a national audience. However, he has many things going for him: he's a cisgendered man, straight, very visible, in his 50s, has his own TV show, I believe his own production company, has good ties to a variety of powerful people, and has a decent pot of money.
And he's scared of the police. He mentioned that he feels a lot of police are fine, but there are some bad apples. (Does he read this blog?) He spent a small chunk of his monologue trying to sweet-talk the next police officer who pulls him over: "...You're fine. And handsome! And I rarely say that to a man ... And let's just both agree that the strong smell coming from my car is a skunk I rescued on the road, brought into the vet a few days ago."
If someone as set up as Bill Mahar is scared of the police, might it be reasonable for other people who are not in groups considered high profile by the police to be scared of them?
Police who in the main maintain their power by intimidation lack legitimacy. If they want people to trust them, they have to show that they can be trusted with their expanded authority, including authority to use force. This is not an easy job, no, but it should be one that they try harder to do in those places where they don't. The fact that police abuses happen every day, in more states than not, is worrisome.
Comments screened (and can be anonymous) in case people are nervous about replying to a public post about the police.
He ended his polemic with this little address to the political right, which keeps talking about Freedom going away: "You're always screaming about the loss of liberty and how tyranny is coming. Yeah, it's coming right through the door! With a battering ram, no warrant and a stun grenade. Or to put it in a way you can understand, I'm scared of the cops, and I'm white."
Now, Bill Mahar is well known for his cannabis advocacy and he routinely talks about smoking pot on TV in front of a national audience. However, he has many things going for him: he's a cisgendered man, straight, very visible, in his 50s, has his own TV show, I believe his own production company, has good ties to a variety of powerful people, and has a decent pot of money.
And he's scared of the police. He mentioned that he feels a lot of police are fine, but there are some bad apples. (Does he read this blog?) He spent a small chunk of his monologue trying to sweet-talk the next police officer who pulls him over: "...You're fine. And handsome! And I rarely say that to a man ... And let's just both agree that the strong smell coming from my car is a skunk I rescued on the road, brought into the vet a few days ago."
If someone as set up as Bill Mahar is scared of the police, might it be reasonable for other people who are not in groups considered high profile by the police to be scared of them?
Police who in the main maintain their power by intimidation lack legitimacy. If they want people to trust them, they have to show that they can be trusted with their expanded authority, including authority to use force. This is not an easy job, no, but it should be one that they try harder to do in those places where they don't. The fact that police abuses happen every day, in more states than not, is worrisome.
Comments screened (and can be anonymous) in case people are nervous about replying to a public post about the police.
