“Arrest their leaders!”
“They don’t have any leaders.”
“Well, shit! No fair!”
Yeah, I heard about the incidents in San Francisco early this morning, and then saw a thread about Gestapo, and my defective brain associated people out in the street busting things up and making trouble with the Nazis.
On the OP’s real point, I am very suspicious of the police action there… but then, I don’t want to take the word of someone who lives with a person who is a scofflaw. Seriously, there isn’t any better source of information than these kinds of disreputable people??
Ya know, I haven’t gotten a traffic ticket in around 14 years, but I still have the receipt from the clerk of the court with all the payment info, and a copy of the canceled check from it. It is in the file drawer in a folder labeled ‘traffic stop’ along with my copy of the ticket. It is snuggled in next to the tax paperwork we filed that same year. [and oddly enough, I have 36 little manila folders of tax returns and assorted paperwork, right back to my first set of taxes and tax forms. ]
If the cops came stormtroopering into my house, one of them could reach into that file drawer and get the pertinant info in a heartbeat. May not keep them from arresting me, but with proof that it was properly paid they probably wouldn’t treat me so badly. I am not a scofflaw.
This is about OWS. Not OCD. Very different.
This presupposes the cops were actually interested in that information at all, rather than, you know, stormtrooping into your house and asking lots of personal questions you’d better answer fast OR ELSE.
To be fair the Brown Shirts were associated closely with Hitler and the Nazis and their rise to power. They certainly did run around and bust shit up. Once Hitler had gained enough power he then turned on them and had a lot of them murdered (Night of Long Knives) thus consolidating his position. The SS replaced the Brown Shirts as Hitler’s strongmen.
An unpaid fine from six years ago is a scofflaw? It should have been paid (or he shouldn’t have had the open beverage in the first place), but can you really vouch for the misdemeanor record of every person you’ve roomed with?
What questions were these activists compelled to answer? The article doesn’t say.
I see in the article where it was alleged that the police asked questions, but not where anyone was forced to answer.
I hope the anarchists are not such weenies that the mere presence of the po-pos makes them spill their guts. Actually, I do hope they are such weenies, since that would mean the police could get some (hopefully useful) information without violating any rights.
Regards,
Shodan
Nit successfully picked. I surrender – any associations I made in error/genius between the title of this thread and my reading of that story about San Francisco is precisely as apt/stupid as you state. I apologize for my error/Thank you for illustrating my point. (Please feel free to delete whichever half of the slashed phrases you wish, as I am not sure of your point, but you have made it extremely well.)
Huh-- big talk on ethics coming from a person with two veeeeeeery suspicious words crammed together as a user name.
I’m gonna have my eye on you.
Do you hold the same opinion if the police do it to someone you agree with?
For example, if the police bust down your door for an unpaid parking ticket and started asking you questions would you agree with me if I said I hoped you were a weenie so the police could maybe get some useful information without violating any of your rights?
If the police can do it to them they can do it to you too. You’re ok with that?
I wasn’t nitpicking. I was in fact trying to support how I could see the confusion occurring as Hitler did have dudes running around busting the place up.
Was not trying to beat you up about it. Sorry if that was the impression.
Can anyone really have a problem with jail staff strip searching prisoners before placing them in a cell? Go to jail, get searched. I’m okay with that.
No, not really. That was the subject of another thread.
The problem arises when police use their powers to particularly target those they have deemed that they don’t like, and then arrest them based on very old (or incorrect in some cases) minor offenses.
The power of the police is clearly being used in some cases as a method of intimidation, rather than to protect the public. The police have arbitrarily decided, without the benefit of the court system, that some people need to be frightened. They do this using the tools at their disposal.
I knew some real victims of the real Gestapo and I’m not sure they would agree that the situation described in the links is entirely worthy of the title “Gestapo Tactics”. They are now deceased, but when alive, they were not entirely comfortable with the ease with which that term is applied today – and they had the scars to prove it. Hell, there may even be a few Gestapo guys left who feel the same. “They came in our house and asked us questions really early in the morning” is a pretty pale imitation of what earned the Gestapo its reputation.
That was not the problem I had with your claim, as I explained earlier. But we’ve been there done that, not to mention your side of the argument lost.
So on one side we have a movement where rumors of shutting down the bridges and tunnels into New York have been circulating in the media. This would be an illegal protest, potentially hazardous, even possibly deadly if it stopped ambulances, etc.
Now the cops hear this, and are told to be ready. Someone goes hunting the names of those involved in OWS and comes with thinly justifiable (to be generous) reasons to serve search warrants, question, and make an unspoken statement of “we are watching you.”
If the cops did nothing to prepare, and Manhattan was hit with the shutdown, the Chief would find himself updating his resume.
Then again, I don’t like the cops getting warrants for no proper reason. I would like to see a photo of the broken in door, and I don’t consider a 5 minute conversation to be interrogation.
As for calling it Gestapo - that is a total Godwinization and shows a complete misunderstanding of the Gestapo tactics.
I was just having a little fun at my own expense – no hard feelings at all.
They have to start somewhere.
These are Gestapo tactics. Not the entirety of Gestapo tactics.
Not every person who had their door knocked down was tortured by the Gestapo. They might kick in your door, have a talk with you and leave it at that. They might do worse.
The point is using police to intimidate those in power do not like. Gestapo-101.
We can only hope it won’t get worse but the trend the last ten years suggests it will. You have fewer rights today than you did ten years ago.
“My side”? Which side was “my side” again? Doubtless you have a bag full of cites from me on that topic which detail “my side”.
I eagerly await them.
Last night, I went to dinner with some friends and all of a sudden, they go total Gestapo on me! Right there in the restaurant! And by that, I mean they ordered beer. That’s something the Gestapo did. It’s not the entirety of their tactics.
Totally legit comparison.