Ah, the state of American education.
A complete, total, and utter failed state.
Boy, nothing will give you an absolute case of the morbs regarding average American educational standards quite like posting a couple of mildly controversial essays, and then catching emails, comments, and drive-by social media’ing.
Good lord.
“Ian! Why should American give a toss about what happens in a foreign country!”
Seriously?1
The mullahs in Tehran have directly — albeit through proxies — been killing Americans since 1980. Lest anyone think that their slogan, “Death to America!” is hyperbole, they have influenced — if not outright funded — terror attacks on U.S. soil.
They intentionally and knowingly attempt to goad the world into a state of war, because their religion tells them that if they can get the whole world in flames, their god will appear and take them all to Paradise.
An unstable world, with governments at each other’s throats is precisely their plan and goal. It’s also lousy for trade, and — like it or not — America needs international trade.
“But, Ian! If the mullahs fall, whatever replaces them could be just as bad!”
“Could be” is not “certain”. You know what is certain? As long as the mullahs remain in power they’re going to keep killing Americans, influencing others to kill Americans, and literally trying to set the world on fire.
Good, bad, or indifferent — at least a new regime has a chance of not being as much of an intentional and knowing pain in the arse as the mullahs.
“Ian! Referring to that woman in Minneapolis as ‘LARPing’ and being ‘Shot While Stupid’ is insensitive!”
Oh, dear. New here?
Like it or not, the ICE agents were — and are — enforcing laws passed by previous Congresses and enacted by previous Presidents. The Heckler’s Veto does not remove laws from the books, and are a sodding waste of time. If you have a grievance regarding laws that have been properly passed and enacted, then the proper method is to — and this is written down somewhere2 — peaceably3 assemble and petition the Government for redress.
Like it or not, ICE agents are allowed to have operations to further the enforcement of those properly-passed laws; and impeding, obstructing, interfering with those operations — especially over a period of hours — is stupid.
“Ian — she wasn’t LARPing!”
State’s Exhibit ‘A’, Your Honor.
“Ian! Being stupid shouldn’t be a death sentence!”
I didn’t say it was, nor that she deserved to get killed.
I would, however, be remiss if I didn’t point out that “stupid” is not a positive survival trait in nature, generally-speaking; and “stupid” in humans oft makes it really difficult to foil Darwin’s nefarious plans.4
“Ian! Here’s the policy manual where it says he broke the law!”
Sweet Freyja on a twister mat. Where do I start?
Speaking as someone who has actually been fairly heavily involved in writing policy for a law enforcement agency, please understand: Policy is policy. Criminal law is criminal law. The two do not conflate. Policy is a set of administrative guidelines. No more, no less. They may reference a criminal code — or codes — but policy is not criminal law5.
The sanctions for violating policy are administrative in nature — verbal warnings, written warnings, counselling, reprimands, suspension, termination of employment, that sort of thing. Not arrest. Not trial.
“But, Ian! My brother’s cousin’s baby-daddy’s second-to-last bar hook-up knew someone who went to jail for violating a policy!”
No, they don’t. They may know of someone who violated policy during the commission of a crime, and that person may have been fired for the policy violation, but they went to jail for violating the Penal Code.
Waving a DHS policy manual means jack divided by squat to a death investigation6.
“Buh, buh, buh!”
Speaking as someone who has written policy — see above — I also have a pretty good understanding of the lawyers who review policy. They have a screaming loathing of absolutes — absolutes get the agency jammed up. So anytime you see a section in policy that absolutely, positively forbids something, look for the exemption gator7 somewhere else in policy.
“Ian! When the court gets ahold of him, the outraged people …”
Gawd. Access to the sum total of human knowledge held in the palm of your hand, yet here we are.
All right, Zippy.
Start by using your Google-fu for ‘Lon Horiuchi’. He was an FBI agent who shot an unarmed woman — who was holding her baby — in the face.
Follow up by searching for ‘Arthur Roderick’. He was a US Marshal who shot a dog, and when the 14-year-old owner of the dog was running away, he shot the 14-year-old boy in the back.
Now, go to ‘Aaron McFarlane’. He was an FBI agent who spent eight (8) hours interrogating a suspect — in the suspect’s own damn apartment, mind you — before the suspect grabbed a samurai sword, or maybe a pipe, possibly a broomstick, wait, it was “a knife or a pipe or something”, umm, could have been “some kind of stick” … anyway, the suspect got shot. A lot.
I would tell you to google “Waco”, but I shouldn’t have to. 76 people burnt to death, including 26 children, in a Cultist Flambe organized by the ATF and the FBI.
Do you know what all of these have in common? Besides citizens getting killed in less-than-transparent circumstances?
Every one of those agents was cleared by internal investigation. The one that did get to a State grand jury — Horiuchi — the Federal Government immediately yanked it out of State hands, and transferred it to a Federal Court … where it was promptly dismissed.8
I’m going to be as gentle as I can here: We can’t get Feds in front of a court for suspicious shoots — what makes you think this one is going to be any different? Other than it’s a lot more justified than shooting an unarmed woman holding a baby in the face.
Ian
Usually attached to some … interesting screen names, by the by.
Probably in some document that you should have bloody well read every year you were in Pooblik Skool.
The important word.
Remember: You have to out-smart Darwin every time. He only has to get lucky once.
Policies may have some effect on a civil trial — but I’m here to tell you that it’s less than people might want you to believe.
Yes, I’ve done those, too.
I believe these days the lawyer phrase you’re looking for is “exigent circumstances”, but “peril of life or limb” was popular back when I started.
My shocked face is at the cleaners.
Abolish it all. Go back to one-room schoolhouses for those who can't and homeschooling for those who can.
“Ian! Being stupid shouldn’t be a death sentence!”
Written by someone who has never seen the Darwin Awards.