It’s hard to understand the bizzaro-world where authoritarians live. As a skeptical person, I tend to think about what authority figures say, and question their motives and whether what they’re saying even makes any sense at all.
Any of us who don’t encounter authoritarian propaganda constantly probably don’t have any idea what kind of reality-bubble they consumer-base live in:
It’s coincidental that the “thugs” he shows pictures of, and threatens, are all people of color, and the black people in the video are not openly brandishing weapons, while all the white people are. This tough-talking, inarticulate thug is not a very good spokesgoon by any measure. He’s also not very good at the basic thinking: those people he is threatening to come and get, probably don’t want a fight with him, they probably want him to Go The Fuck Away. I am not even from Louisiana but I do not feel like I could get a healthy serving of justice from this blustering creep.
For those of you who don’t have the intestinal fortitude to watch his raving, he says @1:00:
I’ll meet you on solid ground any time, any where, light or heavy – makes no difference to me. You won’t walk away. Look at you! Men like us? We do dumbbell presses with weights bigger than you.
These is an impressively tough invitation to battle, coming as it does from a guy who’s carrying military weaponry and wearing defeat level 3a armor and trauma plates, backed up by almost 30 men comprising his goon-squad. Would I want to try a piece of him? Maybe an air-strike.
The problem with this kind of posturing is that he’s telling lawbreakers that there’s absolutely no point trying to de-escalate. Imagine if you’d seen this video and were being pulled over for a traffic stop in his little slice of police-state: would you be confident that you were about to receive fair, and safe, treatment from the police?
Since the 80s, the US has been militarizing its police force, and the establishment has been facilitating this sort of clown. Somewhere, there is a police commissioner clutching their temples, imagining all the lawsuits that are going to be created…
…except that he apparently was quietly asked to step down.[la]
I wonder where he’ll wind up next? Ferguson? Minneapolis? Baltimore? Los Angeles? There is a rotating ODESSA for cops, just like the catholic church’s rotating protection program for pedophile priests. I have added captain Higgins to my search interests so, when he eventually kills somebody, we can watch everyone clutching their pearls about what a great peace-loving cop he has been.
It’s funny that people recoil in horror at the stuff ISIS says, and we’ve got people who think the same way, working as cops.
It turns out the unarmed black people in the picture are representatives of the local parishes; he invited a few authoritarians from the community to join in his Fight Club fantasy.
Heh.
“So, although I love and respect my Sheriff… I must resign. Because as a soldier, if I cannot conscientiously carry out my assigned orders… Then I must resign my post.”
(Cops are soldiers!)
—
Given your milieu (USA), I reckon that he has any nous he will capitalise via the media, since he obviously has already dipped his toe into that swamp.
So inspirational: “I will continue to be a cop, I’ve got many options… And I will prayerfully reflect upon the choices I’ll make over these next few weeks.
In closing, I make this promise, to the citizens of St. Landry Parish… The badge I turned in today, doesn’t belong to my Sheriff… It belongs to you… The people, my fellow children of God of every creed and color… And it’s to you, the people, that I promise this day…
… If it be Gods will… I will wear your badge again…
… And it will shine.”
“Parishes” in Louisiana more often refers to an equivalent of counties, not church territories.
Well, if anyone is allowed to incite violence, it must be the copper with the biggest hat. This reminds me of the Ankh-Morpork firebrigade (from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels), which was quickly abolished for starting too many fires.
No matter the precautions humans remain fragile. In a shooting war like the one this officer of the law is apparently begging for, his little band would take casualties. This would probably make them much, much more dangerous to begin with but also wear them down. And the next group of next group of ‘thugs’ would be even quicker to pull the trigger on them. If firefights like that really were the order of the day, the police would quickly run out of people. The criminal element wouldn’t. More wisdom paraphrased from Terry Pratchett: The most important thing for coppers is to never let everyone else realise just how few of them there actually are.
Incidentally, I don’t have any drones so an air-strike would be out. But there are lots of ways past armour plating. For example, a round of beer for the brave patriots protecting the peace. Maybe with something extra in it. It doesn’t even have to be too sinister: It could simply more alcohol. Loads of armed cops drunk on duty wouldn’t do, even in the US, right? Or, if you favour irony, how about slipping some drugs in there? You just need to figure out a subtle way of getting those patriots tested.
Armour is for battlefields, everywhere else it’s just bulky clothing. Cities generally aren’t battlefields unless you’re doing something terribly wrong – or someone is doing something terribly wrong to your city.
What was that weird performance about and was the Sherriff on drugs?
Or am I just missing some traditional, old fashioned quaint American custom?
John Morales@#1:
Because as a soldier, if I cannot conscientiously carry out my assigned orders…
I guess that his bosses never told him “fairly and gently enforce the law” so he just assumed that threats and bluster were his assignment.
(I suspect he’s more like Lt Calley than John Peel)
jrkrideau@#4:
What was that weird performance about and was the Sherriff on drugs?
I’ve experimented (and been around people who were experimenting) with a pretty wide range of drugs in my day, and I haven’t encountered one that I can say is generally a cause of such assholery. I suspect he came by it naturally.