24 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Monday again? Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Good on teh TX House of Representatives for unanimously approving a bill requiring a warrant for cavity searches.

OTOH, it’s utterly outrageous such a bill should even be necessary. Sometime drugs do make people crazy…but that’s often not the actual users.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
9 years ago

Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa!

Boy, those cops sure are good at sniffing out marijuana -- makes you wonder why we spend all that money on dogs.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Hai, Paddy and Mac!

Paddy --

Dogs are a good way to furnish all sorts of phony-baloney probable cause. Especially as there are no meaningful standards for training / certifying them.

Further, “field tests” yield far too many false positives. And the growing number of scandals involving forensic science and police labs -- including the FBI’s -- are a very serious problem

Mac --

Until decent people revolt against such unconstitutional abuses by government in an absolutely unequivocal manner, things will only get worse.

This is complicated by the fact that cops, DAs and the courts are all part of the same diseased system which tends to protect itself to the exclusion of anything reasonably resembling justice.

I believe there’s abundant evidence the system is so corrupt that it cannot be fixed peaceably, and that scares the hell out of me.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist
Reply to  Mac

Have you ever asked any of the good ones why the system has become so feculent and/or what -- if anything -- they think can be done to address it?

As I’ve previously stated, eliminating public employee unions as well as sovereign / limited immunity and forcing cops, DAs, judges, etc. to purchase professional liability insurance (like lawyers, docs, etc.) would be a big help.

But that seems quite unrealistic.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Thanks, Mac. (Also, “heh” to your 12:31 and 12:33 comments.)

Perhaps it’s years of residing in places (especially Chicago and Los Angeles) where institutional corruption is rampant in LE, but I can no longer abide cops pretending to be brave, heroic sheepdogs when they adamantly refuse to cull the rabid curs from their ranks.

I also have a problem with cops who are all too willing to violate the Constitution they pretend to take an oath to uphold. “I was only following orders” didn’t fly at Nuremburg; many bad cops ought to get precisely the same treatment as hydrophobic canines or Nazi war criminals.

If that makes me some sort of radical, so be it.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

That more than anything else causes loss of respect.

Along with fear and loathing.

I suspect the problem is not going to get appropriate attention in this country until some community (and I think it’s likely to be a small-ish, rural-ish one) decides to literally go to war against their thuggish local cops / sheriff’s department.

(And if I were a betting man, my money would be on the citizens. At least until the county and/or state government overreacts.)

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

I’ve often been accused of painting LEOs with a broad brush…but when they hunker down and present a monolithic face to the community to maintain the “thin blue line”, I don’t see any reasonable alternative.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
9 years ago

Way back in early March, I contacted my Congresscritter’s local office to express my disgust that she had voted to fully fund DHS, thus allowing Pres. Obama to continue his illegal amnesty and lack of enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws. This morning I received an email reply. Let me share with you the first sentence:

Thank you for sharing your support for fully funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Boy, do I sure feel ‘represented’!

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Mac --

BK and I had a number of vigorous conversations re cops over the years. While she was certainly aware of some bad stuff, it was the combination of

1) undeclared martial law in Boston after the bombing,
2) the shooting-up of innocents while LAPD was looking for Christopher Dorner and
3) another incident in L.A. when cops arbitrarily shut down an entire neighborhood after someone shot at a couple of detectives

that pushed her over the edge.

Paddy --

I’m impressed that after only two months you got such a responsive letter from your scumsucking Rep’s staff.

My de facto motto re government has pretty much become, “Think Globally, Burn Locally”. 😉

Just Sven
Editor
9 years ago

Boy, you guys were chatty today.

Just Sven
Editor
9 years ago

As much as I tend not to take the cat’s side, that yippy little pest dog got what deserved.

I’m ready for bed. It’s what, 8:00? Sheesh.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
9 years ago
Reply to  Mac

Mac -- you can treat the raw wood with a borate solution to drastically reduce the incidence of insect and mold attack. Insects that eat the wood, die. The solution can be applied by brush, roller, or with a garden-style pump sprayer. Once dried, you just need to seal the wood so the borates don’t leach out. You can buy commercial preparations, such as Tim-bor, or make your own (much cheaper).