Posted on 12/08/2003 7:23:39 PM PST by StockAyatollah
Lew Rockwell's commentary on the Cincinnati beating of Nathaniel Jones mentions two groups that are happy about the event: the redistributionist political lobby and the law-enforcement centralizers.
But he left out one more group of people cheering the beating on – the so-called "law and order" conservatives who think it's necessary for authorities to beat people occasionally because it's either good for them or because some people just need a good beating.
These were the "conservatives" I grew up with in southern California's inland empire in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were most of the conservatives I knew as a teenager, and were the main reason I didn't like or identify with "conservatism" (and still don't). They make for interesting study: cultural conservatives with a deep dislike for government and taxes, but far too much respect for the state, largely because they work for it – in law enforcement, the military, or as teachers. The closest most of them ever get to the "private sector" is contracting for government with such fine firms as Boeing, Lockheed, General Dynamics or a handful of other now-merged giants – companies that simply cannot make a profit unless a cost-plus government contract is somehow involved.
(Sell stuff? To people? Excuse me, but we have some lobbying to do...)
If the "law and order" types believe anything, it is that people ought to get haircuts and jobs, and that the state should make them if they don't. And those who don’t are suspicious characters who probably deserve to get their asses kicked.
Because most of the "law and order" types work for the state as agents of executive power, war doesn’t bother them much. In fact, they see it as the beating that people who misbehave richly deserve. It's the ass-kicking that keeps them in line.
At best, they believe that a little discipline mixed with love is good (though often they get discipline and love confused), that the state can apply that discipline and love, and that a person – or a society, or a culture – will reform given enough "discipline and love." At best, they believe anyone can learn the value of getting a haircut and a job and become a productive member of society.
For example, the cops are helping people by clubbing them and the US is liberating Iraq by imposing martial law.
This is somewhat akin to disliking guns but loving bullets. Eventually the love of one yields to toleration of the other. It's hard to celebrate beatings, killings, hangings, and all-round bloodshed, while maintaining an appreciation of liberty in the abstract.
At worst, the most cynical "law and order" types believe some folks simply cannot be reformed. No matter how hard you beat them, they won’t learn the value of a haircut and gainful employment. Some people simply need to be beaten every now and again – clubbed by the cops, thrown in prison, bombed, gassed, rounded up and "detained" – because they will never learn to behave.
It's not a race thing. Long-haired white kids with tattoos always earned their run-ins with the police just as much as the Latino or Black kids. Trailer-dwelling "white trash" have it coming just as much as the bearded weirdo in the turban picked up for loitering in Afghanistan.
These folks may never have heard of Richard Perle, or Michael Ledeen, or Leo Strauss, or "Scoop" Jackson, or might even think that being "reformed" commies gives the neocons some special insight into the nature of evil. (It does, but not the way they think.) And they may not have given much thought as to what the United States should accomplish in the "war on terror." But they listen to Rush Limbaugh, watch FoxNews, or even read the National Review (same thing, more or less) and give themselves high-fives – "now we're gonna kick some ass – and about time too!"
Whatever love of liberty they might have takes a distant second place to the glorious moral order of the state. These folks are the GOP's largest unorganized constituency, and will probably vote for the Republican most likely to wage war as long as their hearts beat and they can tune their radios. They are the reason a couple hundred so-called neo-conservative intellectuals – enough to fill the smallest of DC ballrooms with room to spare – have as much traction as they do.
It's sad, because many of them have some very solid social values otherwise. But they don't understand that freedom is the highest political end, and a society full of people striving for freedom creates its own order. A much better order than anything beaten into people can make. They also don't understand the difference between patriotism and nationalism – that is it possible to love one's home deeply and not like one's government very much. If the GOP rank-and-file would grasp these two points, the support for the neocon program would quickly collapse.
The on-duty trooper broke into five Chester County homes looking for drugs and was successful twice, taking off with prescription medication and, in one case, $160 in cash, court records show.In his confession, Layne said he wanted the pain medication for himself but did not elaborate
Yeah, don't those prescription-takin' folks just break your heart? We need
to reach out to them, and share their pain. It's not like they're lawless drug
addicts, or anything like that, bless their hearts.
And when they incinerated a building full of people at Waco, same thing, right?
And when they shot Vicki Weaver in the head, same thing, right?
And when they blew the head off the friendly family dog in Tennessee, same thing, right?
And when they shot the innocent kids face off with an AR-15 in Maryland, same thing, right?
And when they shot the kid in the back when he was face down in his own bedroom, same thing,right?
I could go on, but I'd be here all night reciting incidents just from the last few years.
Thanks for the rant. It's rants like these that show how bad liberals will continue to lose because you just have a hard time sorting through facts and interpreting them dispassionately. Hyperbole is your staple (along with a healthy anount of losing). Kinda like a sugar high, you know, pancakes for dinner.
The state is organized force. Results may vary.
If you prefer anarchy, you've obviously never spent much time around it. It's only fun when you're the most heavily armed. Otherwise, it sucks.
You can hate the state all you like. It's not utopia, and I realize that utopia is the standard for some people. But if we hate it when it does wrong, why can't we take pleasure in it when it does well?
Some people have it coming. You can sympathize with the poor criminals all day long, but they committed the crimes of their own free will. No one forced them to break into a house and steal a VCR. No one made them get high on angel dust and attack a cop. Criminals choose to do bad things, and in the course of being subdue they are occasionally injured or killed. This is mostly due to the fact that they are violent people pursuing violent ends.
Perhaps it's a bit immature to celebrate in these unfortunate accidents. Perhaps we should view it with intellectual detachment and contemplation of the state of the criminal mind, and the societal injustice that lead them to a path of unlawful behavior.
The deal is that some people DO have it coming. Some people use their freedoms to hurt and steal from others, and when those people are stopped, I enjoy it. If that makes me a jerk, a thug, or an all around bad person, I'm sure I'll find a way to live with it.
I missed that. Do you have any links?
Something that big would have generated a lot of posts on FR.
I looked but couldn't find anything on the subject. It is highly probable that such a revelation would have generated numerous articles and comments.
Therefore, I don't believe you.
I don't thank anyone for all-too-common police abuse and violations of the constitution, nor do I need out of control thugs to "protect" me
I certainly hope you are not involved in law enforcement in any way- your bad attitude and unwarranted arrogance are a perfect example of why police abuse occurs
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