<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">I think I wrote to the list earlier that I dredged up the Kerner Report last week--1968, and I suggest you all read it. <a href="http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf">http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf</a></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 3:58 PM Steve Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com" target="_blank">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p>Glen -</p>
<p>I know you weren't pulling our leg (or my finger).</p>
<p>This was the post I was composing when the tone deaf joke formed
and escaped:</p>
<p>My "intellectual" interest is in how self-organizing principles
and emergence operate in social contexts... on both sides of the
debate here, as is being alluded to here already. When Law
Enforcement gets significantly defunded, what fills the vacuum
left by that? There are lots of *other* vacuums/rifts/holes
being formed as our culture heaves and buckles a little under a
series of shifts. I'm not sure what (if any) are root causes and
what are just cascades and reactions. Globalism, NeoLiberalism,
Authoritarinism, Fascism, Manic Hypercaptialism, Rapid
Technological Change, Hyper Connectedness, Information Overload,
etc.<br>
</p>
<p>Many believe that shifting funding from law enforcement (which is
by definition more reactionary than preventative?) to mental and
social services which are intended to be more strongly pro-active
in preventing the kinds of problems that the police often have to
remediate down the road, is a net gain and possibly something that
could be effected very quickly, even if positive results may lag
in many cases. I don't know how well that works for/with hardened
criminals who've already been taken from being under-nourished,
under-respected, under-opportunitied youth through a series of
trainings as a gang member first on the streets, and then inside
prison for several stints, annealed and tempered by police,
judges, prison-guards and one's fellow travelers to a strong core
with a wicked-sharp edge. But maybe if her mother and younger
siblings aren't struggling to keep groceries in the fridge and the
fridge running then maybe she can mature into something a little
kinder-gentler. Or maybe she already has, but it is hard to
recognize when the only interface she has is a regular
stop-and-frisking? I think we do see a record of mellowing among
aging hard-cores who survive long enough to become elders in their
communities?<br>
</p>
<p>I think Jon?s suggestion that private security will fill the
vacuum is also valid. More people will gate their communities and
more gated communities will add uniformed patrols and more
uniformed patrols will add lethal weapons and training. The next
George Floyd might be your massage therapist who made the mistake
of making house-calls to your gated community while
black/brown/yellow/red/poor and the next Chauvin & Co will be
guys who couldn't even get IN to the police academy but COULD buy
mirror-shades, a loaded up batman utility belt, matching chromed
.45s with shoulder holsters, an Armalite 15 and a riot-style
shotgun (but not rubber nor armor-piercing rounds, those are for
law-enforcement-only) to carry in their ominously painted and
hopped up SUV with run flat tires, a push-bumper, blinky lights
and a siren. And that tricked out rig, security "professional"
included, will cost a fraction of what a *real* law enforcement
officer would BECAUSE of the lack of oversight/training/benefits,
etc. A new branch: UBERArmed?</p>
<p>The above is mildy (but not entirely) the maunderings of a
frustrated/unexpressed cyberpunk novelist (me)... but oddly not
that far away in "some Adjacent Possible"? <br>
</p>
<p>Personally, I'm more interested in how to use this Svaha/Liminal
moment to "Visualize World Peace"? And what is in *that*
adjacent possible (ensemble)? There is value to a
Red-Team/Blue-Team analysis in these situations, and I think
*both* are necessary. Awfulizing isn't the only thing to be doing
right now. Things are shifting, vacuums are created,
playing-fields are being re-leveled... are there opportunities to
"do the right thing", or is "the right thing" so subjective that
we will simply "move the noise around"? I identify as a
humanist... I don't even know if that means what it used to (to
others) or if I'm in anything like a "silent majority" in that
identification. Maybe the Anarchists and Libertarians and
Radical Progressives and Radical Conservatives and ??? all think
THEY are humanists. Or maybe it's a bad word to them? I
certainly remember my self-righteous Catholic M-in-Law spitting
the words "<i>Secular Humanist</i>" as if they were acid, leaving
smoking, corroding spots everywhere they landed.<br>
</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div>On 6/10/20 11:17 AM, uǝlƃ ☣ wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>We have evidence of it, here:
Olympia police unions respond to photo of officer posing with armed men
<a href="https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article243401061.html" target="_blank">https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article243401061.html</a>
FWIW, I think our mayor is wrong. The 3% sign isn't the OK sign, regardless of whether any supremacists actually use the OK sign or not. But like any tone deaf marketing message, if the symbol you adopt is *thought* to be a racist symbol, then you should go ahead and change it. Just stop flying the confederate flag even if it's been on your state flag for your whole life ... just stop using the swastika even if you're (East) Indian or Native American.
But what does lend truth to the accusations leveled against the 3% is the lack of a public statement condemning Trump for violating the constitution in clearing St John's. If they exist to use their piddly little guns to protect us from the government, where were they then? Perhaps they are only interested in protecting a particular class of people? ... or only people with whom they agree politically?
As for the cop in the photo, she should at least be suspended for her stupid mistake. Don't pose with with a bunch of dudes standing in a parking lot with guns. That's simply a stupid thing for a cop (or any professional) to do. And if you must do it, take off your uniform first.
On 6/10/20 9:51 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>I think the point is that are already not accountable. Protected by unions and colleagues who will look the other way, and a culture that accepts that certain people must consent to miserable lives.
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>On 6/10/20, 9:48 AM, "Friam on behalf of Prof David West" <a href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.comonbehalfofprofwest@fastmail.fm" target="_blank"><friam-bounces@redfish.com on behalf of profwest@fastmail.fm></a> wrote:
downside is the private militias that Jon mentioned. just like the military that replaces soldiers with private contractors - to whom are the latter accountable?
On 6/9/20 4:28 PM, Jon Zingale wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>1. Will the efforts to defund the police eventually meet with efforts
to build private militias? Will the future of policing in this country
follow a path similar to the shift from public to private postal service?
If so, what will accountability be?
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<pre></pre>
</blockquote>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.<br>President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy<br><a href="http://emergentdiplomacy.org" target="_blank">emergentdiplomacy.org</a></div><div>Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA</div><div></div><div><a href="mailto:merlelefoff@gmail.com" target="_blank">merlelefkoff@gmail.com</a><br>mobile: (303) 859-5609<br>skype: merle.lelfkoff2<br></div><div>twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff<br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>