Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
"The Peace of the Gun."
There's a line from a Babylon 5 episode (I'm a big fan of the series) which has always stuck with me. Several characters are discussing the political situation on Earth following the imposition of martial law. One character says that people love it - crime is down, things are calm, peaceful.
"Yeah, the peace of the gun," replies another character.
And that, my friends, is what we have today, here in the US. Specifically, in one small city in Arkansas:
HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. - Officers armed with military rifles have been stopping and questioning passers-by in a neighborhood plagued by violence that's been under a 24-hour curfew for a week.
On Tuesday, the Helena-West Helena City Council voted 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional.
Police Chief Fred Fielder said the patrols have netted 32 arrests since they began last week in a 10-block neighborhood in this small town on the banks of the Mississippi River long troubled by poverty. The council said those living in the city want the random shootings and drug-fueled violence to stop, no matter what the cost.
"Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I'm fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here," Mayor James Valley said. "The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution."
From another source:
Controversial Curfew in Helena-West Helena
Mayor James Valley has given residents in one high-crime neighborhood two choices.... go home or go to jail.
Valley's issued a mandatory curfew for Second Street and the surrounding blocks -- a place he considers to be a "hot spot" for crime. The curfew applies to anyone of any age at any time of day.
* * *
"This turf belongs to taxpaying citizens, not to hustlers and drug dealers....We are going to pop them in the head," Mayor Valley said.
* * *
The mayor only has the power to issue a 48 hour curfew - so he says when this one expires, he'll issue another one, and another one.
Predictably, the ACLU is taking a rather dim view of this:
The ACLU has written a letter to Helena-West Helena Mayor James Valley protesting the curfew he imposed on a portion of the city. The mayor says he's received the letter, but believes it's intentions are misplaced.
* * *
Mayor James Valley says no constitutional rights have been violated -- he says they're doing what's needed to clean up the streets.
No doubt. And he's willing to be reasonable:
Helena-West Helena Curfew Changes
Leaders in Helena-West Helena have come up with a new plan after criticism by the ACLU of the mayor's recent curfew on a particular part of town.
This past weekend, Mayor James Valley issued a mandatory curfew for Second Street and the surrounding blocks -- a place he considers to be a "hot spot" for crime.
* * *
Valley's curfew will remain in place for all minors, but adults will be allowed out if they can answer questions about their need to be outside their homes.
See, like I said - he's being perfectly reasonable about this. You can leave your house. If you can explain to authorities why you need to do so.
How could anyone possibly object to this?
*sigh*
This is nothing more or less than the peace of the gun. This is the abrogation of civil liberties as a solution for incompetent governance. Of course people like it - let things get bad enough that they fear for their lives more than they value their liberties, and you can get people to do almost anything. Mayor Valley is just applying the same logic as he applied in mid July when he, well, here's the news report:
Mayor Orders Dogs Released Into Forest
You've heard it before.....Arkansas animal shelters struggling to take care of unwanted dogs and cats. One mayor has decided the best way to fix the problem in his town is to set the animals free.
KARK visited the Helena-West Helena animal shelter back in January. Conditions were dirty and animals were in poor health.
Thursday, KARK learned the town's mayor James Valley has taken the unconventional approach of releasing the animals into the wild. In a press release, the mayor says "we fed and watered them and took them to the St. Francis National Forest."
Yeah, he just turned them loose.
Like I said, incompetence. Let things get so bad, and then you can take absurd steps.
Like imposing martial law.
Is this just a trial run for other cities? Other levels of government? Because you can be damned sure that there are power-hungry people watching this situation very closely, and drawing their own conclusions. If a small-town mayor can get away with it, why not a large city mayor? Or a governor? Or a president?
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to Daily Kos and my blog.)
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10 Points for the Babylon 5 reference. :-)
I get nervous when I see things like this happen. In some parts of our city we do have a serious crime problem. Some of the folks that comment on the articles in our local paper would be big supporters of this peace of the gun.
We already live in a state
Where the uncontrolled executive branch of the government can declare you a rightless, non-citizen 'enemy combatant' at whim, have you incarcerated indefinitely without trial and tortured for good measure. This is small potatoes.
Small potatoes, perhaps.
Yeah, maybe. But do you really want to allow the downward trend to continue?
Just because the current regime has gotten away with crimes which warrant impeachment, doesn't mean that we should allow such behaviour to continue or the rot to spread.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
For your protection
It reminds me of "V for Vendetta". I would like to think that a facist state here isn't possible-but get people scared enough and they will submit to almost anything.
Martial law
I fully understand the need to "clean up crime", but imposing rolling 48-hour curfews is not the way to do it.
I will have to disagree with you Jim that it is "martial law", though. The cops may be carrying military-style assault weapons, but they are still locally-empowered civilian policemen - not soldiers. The touchstone to determine if martial law has been imposed is this:
1. Are the people enforcing it soldiers in the military, foreign or domestic?
2. Has constitutional criminal due process been suspended?
3. Has military law supplanted civilian law?
As far as I can tell, this has not happened. If it had, oddly enough, it would NOT be a "civil rights violation". It would still be bad, but the fact that civilian constitutional due process has been suspended in favor of martial law obviates the very existence of "civil rights" in cases where martial law has been declared.
It would be wrong, no doubt, and probably unconstitutional unless there was a very, very good reason for it, but that is not the same as a civil rights violation against individuals.
No, what we have here is a small-town mayor empowering his local cops above and beyond what is constitutional, and in fact violating individual's civil rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.
He's going to get his ass handed to him in court before this is over, and cost his town a shitload of money in legal expenses.
Technically correct.
You're right, of course, on the specifics in this case. Functionally, sending out the police force with military-style weapons and dispensing with the niceties of constitutional rights amounts to much the same thing.
Perhaps, given the increasing paramilitarization of many police forces in this country, we need a new term: para-martial law? Sounds kinky.
I'm reasonably sure that he is going to have his ass handed to him in court, with the fines to boot. But like the seizure of firearms in New Orleans post-Katrina, it still sets a very bad standard for other pols to emulate. It was heartening that so many state legislatures looked at what happened there (in NOLA), and took further steps to clarify the RKBA under such conditions. I am not holding my breath waiting for a similar response to this abuse of power.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
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