People aren't against the police, they want better police. They want cops who know the people they serve, who are well trained, who give everyone an even break and who use force only as an inescapable last resort. They want to be on the same side as the cops.
Which side(s) are we on? The latest meme is that the perpetrator in the killing of two Brooklyn NYC police officers was affiliated ("ran") with a gang (
BGF) with prison connections to the original Black Panther Party, and we can see where the RWNJ media will go with this. The winner will be the
PIC, The
Prison Industrial Complex.
I can laugh along with parodies of libertarian ideology. But shouldn't a reductio ad absurdum start with a belief that the target of the satire actually holds? Tom O'Donnell proceeds as if libertarians object to the state enforcing property rights—that is to say, one of the very few state actions that virtually all libertarians find legitimate! If America's sheriffs were all summarily replaced by Libertarian Party officials selected at random, I'm sure some ridiculous things would happen. Just not any of the particular things that were described.
That isn't to say that there weren't parts of the article that made me laugh. It got me thinking too. If the non-libertarian approach to policing* was the target instead, would you need hyperbole or reductio ad absurdum? Or could you just write down what actually happens under the officials elected by non-libertarians? It is, of course, hard to make it funny when all the horrific examples are true....
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(CONOR FRIEDERSDORF's parody follows)
Not that my career in law enforcement is over. I'll be double-dipping. The FBI is my first choice. They take care of their own: Every time they've shot anyone since 1993 it's been deemed justified! The DEA could be fun too. I've always hated defense attorneys, so I'd take pleasure in tricking them into thinking we caught their clients one way, when really the information came from a secret, mass-surveillance program. Suckers. Of course, I could also go into the private sector. There's a lot of money to be made tracking the movements of millions of people, and then selling the information back to my former colleagues or to the highest bidder. Not that the license-plate-scanning business is a sure thing, what with surveillance drones on the horizon. I'd operate one. Especially once they start arming them! Anything but working as a guard or staff member in a juvenile prison.
Even I have my limits.
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That's the great thing about an ideologically diverse media: All sides are objects of satire, that essential rhetorical tool for puncturing power and ridiculing ideological excesses. Thanks to The New Yorker, America is now that much safer from a future where policing is controlled by radical libertarians who refuse to step on public sidewalks. And I'll keep looking to satirize problems with the non-libertarian approach to policing. Between us, we'll cover everything important.
It should go without saying that there are many honest, courageous, talented police officers–and lots of average, mostly unobjectionable officers too. The bad apples are a minority, and while they're too often protected by colleagues, ultimate blame lies with the elected officials who neglect to pass necessary reforms, as well as an electorate that cares far too little about civil-liberties abuses.