The Knock on the Door
Radley Balko is doing some genuinely important investigative work, looking into the case of a man sentenced to death for shooting armed intruders in his apartment in the middle of the night. The intruders were cops, of course, kicking in doors “looking for drugs” they never found.
This kind of thing predates the abuses of the War on (and with) Terror – it was once the crucial civil liberties issue facing the country. Jesse Walker’s formulation was that the US was busy “turning the military into police and the police into soldiers.” There’s a real convergence-theory risk here too – we’ve long since conditioned most people to the idea that cops should act like commandos. We’ve recently been fostering the belief that terrorism is a threat so dire that the government must be able to do pretty much anything in the name of fighting it. The next step is to elevate almost every conceivable annoyance to the level of the terrorist threat. If we’re lucky, Gene Healy is right, and the whole thing becomes so obviously absurd that it all comes crashing down. In the words of a fictional commando cop of yore, “Do you feel lucky, punk?”
In the meantime, please spread the word about Radley’s work on the Maye case. It’s just one guy – and the daughter he’ll leave behind if he’s executed. But it’s a start.
Pingback by Crooked Timber » » Knock Knock, Bang Bang —
December 12, 2005 @ 10:46 pm
[...] re | Main | Knock Knock, Bang Bang Posted by Kieran Healy Jim Henley points us to Radley Balko’s extensive coverage of the astoni [...]
Comment by Mr. Obscura —
December 13, 2005 @ 9:01 am
My goodness, Jim. Your last 3 posts have me looking over my shoulder, when I’m not shaking my head in disgust. Any ray of sunshine would be welcome.
Comment by Jim Henley —
December 13, 2005 @ 9:21 am
Well I can’t talk up the Rams for you . . .
Comment by wade —
December 13, 2005 @ 11:11 am
Is there any sense in saying that the militarization of the police is a natural extension of the militarization of the population and indeed the nation at large? I’m generally not for governments banning stuff, but guns seem like a special case. They make the ignorant and the violent as powerful as can be.
Comment by Anodyne —
December 13, 2005 @ 11:42 am
Would it be too much of stretch to bring up Alpizar here? I admit that I’ve been waiting to hear some libertarian thoughts on the matter for days. Not of the “Inspector Clouseau pieces together the crime scene†or the “bottom line is†variety; something more, hmmm … unexpected, with a longer shelf life than sushi. Ambivalent, cautious, bored, fatigued, other? Not that my curiousity should matter – I’m just sayin’.
Comment by Mr. Obscura —
December 13, 2005 @ 1:10 pm
Well I can’t talk up the Rams for you
oh yeah, that’ll work.
FWIW, I’m a Blues fan. There’s not much good news on the sports front here these days.
Trackback by Outside The Beltway —
December 13, 2005 @ 3:01 pm
Cory Maye, Tookie Williams and the Death Penalty
There’s quite a bit of thoughtful discussion—as opposed to knee jerk reactions—out there on the execution last night of Crips founder “Tookie” Williams.
Conservative Ed Morrissey explains why he’s opposed to capit…
Pingback by Kieran Healy’s Weblog » Blog Archive » Knock Knock, Bang Bang —
December 13, 2005 @ 3:44 pm
[...] ancy Dept
Knock Knock, Bang Bang
December 13th, 2005
Jim Henley points us to Radley Balko’s extensive coverage of the astoni [...]
Pingback by . . . muttered the ogre » save Cory Maye —
December 17, 2005 @ 3:48 am
[...] cute a no-knock warrant, they are deliberately making themselves look like felons. Later: Jim Henley weighs in. Glenn Reynolds beat me to a key point: the risk is, and should [...]
Comment by Anton —
December 17, 2005 @ 5:56 pm
wade, private citizens with guns shoot more badguys than the cops do, yet they shoot the wrong person far less often.