There’s certainly a lot of overlap between the war on drugs and police militarization. But if we go back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were two trends developing simultaneously. The first was the development and spread of SWAT teams. Darryl Gates started the first SWAT team in L.A. in 1969. By 1975, there were 500 of them across the country. They were largely a reaction to riots, violent protest groups like the Black Panthers and Symbionese Liberation Army, and a couple mass shooting incidents, like the Texas clock tower massacre in 1966.
At the same time, Nixon was declaring an “all-out war on drugs.” He was pushing policies like the no-knock raid, dehumanizing drug users and dealers, and sending federal agents to storm private homes on raids that were really more about headlines and photo-ops than diminishing the supply of illicit drugs.
Overarmed federal officials increasingly employ military tactics as a first resort in routine law enforcement. From food-safety cases to mundane financial matters, battle-ready public employees are turning America into the United States of SWAT.
FBI agents and U.S. marshals understandably are well fortified, given their frequent run-ins with ruthless bad guys. However — as my old friend and fellow columnist Quin Hillyer notes — armed officers, if not Special Weapons and Tactics crews, populate these federal agencies: the National Park Service; the Postal Inspection Service; the Departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; the Bureaus of Land Management and Indian Affairs; the Environmental Protection Agency; and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Even Small Business Administration and Railroad Retirement Board staffers pack heat! Continue reading ‘Police State’ »
THIS is what police departments need: the DecoLiner!
Tiny Crimes by the Thousands – “While the big crimes tend to cause the greatest outrage, and hence get the most attention, it’s the little ones, the ones we consider inconsequential, that have the big numbers. Thousand, tens of thousands, of petty offenses are prosecuted yearly, although it’s not quite fair to call them prosecuted as they usually result in a quick guilty and check changing hands. Big numbers and lots of money, but mostly in the aggregate. For the individual, it’s hardly inexpensive, but still far less expensive than fighting and winning. And provided it’s not something that will send a guy to jail or ruin his life, most people are happy to get it over with and be gone. Tiny crime. Thousands of them. Like loitering.“
Is there a shortcut to bonding with a romantic partner on a deeper level? – Arthur Aron has “an ingenious way of taking men and women who have never met before and making them feel close to one another. Given that he has just an hour or so to create the intimacy levels that typically take week, months, or years to form, he accelerated the getting-to-know-you process through a set of thirty-six questions”
Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker – “Though personal experience and culture play into individual reactions, researchers have found that certain features of music are consistently associated with producing strong emotions in listeners. Combined with heartfelt lyrics and a powerhouse voice, these structures can send reward signals to our brains that rival any other pleasure. Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an ‘appoggiatura.’ … Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern.” “Someone Like You,” YouTube video with Adele
Obama Has Stranded the Catholic Left – “Possibly [Obama] hadn’t anticipated a block to guard the possession of rights, which are not his to dole out as he sees fit. He seems not to realize, even now–as his administration muddies up the story with talk of costs and savings–that his Catholic allies’ rejection of his HHS Mandate wasn’t about contraception or sterilization, nor could their approval be regained with a skillful uppercut to the men in the miters. What the HHS Mandate has revealed is that the preservation of the freedom of religion–of the churches rights to be who and what they are and to exercise their missions–is worth going to the mat for, no matter which corner you’re coming from.“
Clever moves all around in the B&N and Amazon chess game – “[A]uthors and agents who might have considered an Amazon publishing deal will have to think twice if they know very few bookstores will carry it. Amazon can do some remarkable things to sell books to their mammoth online customer base and that won’t change. But there is both a practical and a vanity aspect to getting store display that will still be seen as indispensable by many authors and agents who otherwise might have taken the leap to sign with the newest big checkbook in town.”
Cronyism 101 – “One fundamental point that I only had time to hint at in this presentation is that cronyism is the inevitable result of big government. If we give the federal government power over virtually every single thing that every private business does, what can we expect? Obviously, politicians will use that power to reward their allies and punish their enemies so as to enhance their own power. Corruption, in other words, is not a byproduct of big government; it is its essence.“
Innovation Nation v. Warfare-Welfare State (more) – “Over the next 25 years, as the population ages and medical costs climb, the budget office projects that benefits programs will grow faster than any other part of government, driving the federal debt to dangerous heights.“
Europe in the Rearview Mirror – “Who was more culpable, the efficient German companies and banks who tried to draw on the guarantees of an entire continent to legitimize loans that empowered a German mercantilism, or duplicitous Mediterraneans who wished to live like Germans but not to produce like them? After all, two daily commutes, siestas, tax cheating as a national religion, and 9 PM dinners do not otherwise add up to a life of sophisticated brain surgery, Mercedes buses, and Bosch dishwashers.”
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A Tech-Happy Professor Reboots After Hearing His Teaching Advice Isn’t Working – “[Prof. Michael] Wesch is not swearing off technology–he still believes you can teach well with YouTube and Twitter. But at a time when using more interactive tools to replace the lecture appears to be gaining widespread acceptance, he has a new message. It doesn’t matter what method you use if you do not first focus on one intangible factor: the bond between professor and student.“
The Restaurant Welfare Act of 1958 – “[T]he Restaurant Welfare Act sought to make free to all Americans foodstuffs subsidized by taxpayer funds.”
