Beck: How To Draw A Line
From Billy Beck:
Thu Jun, 17 2010
How To Draw A Line
"The entire effect — if not the purpose — of a jaywalking statute is to strip the individual of that which he is born with: the principal device with which humans are able and naturally authorized to make their ways through the world. This is a metaphysical issue that extends to politics. Beware of false equivocations with actual crimes that bring harm to others (contrast with those which are arbitrarily asserted by the state). Your question is sloppy. The matter is not whether an individual should be permitted to ignore the police so generally as you put it. If it were that simple, then all of politics is reduced to a binary solution set including only the alternatives of total rebellion on the one hand and total submission on the other, in every issue from jaywalking to murder, and anything else over which the state would claim authority. ('Whether you want to use one or two cups of flour in that recipe is not your choice: you will obey statute if we say so, or face the might of the state.')
Your question stipulates to the majesty of the law, without accounting that the law is almost always an ass.
Me? I know how to get across a street. My parents saw to that at an early age.
Fuck the police.
That is all."
(Comment@Radley's)
One more observation: Is there any doubt that the original "infraction" (jaywalking) was deemed citation-worthy based on the local Leviathan's lust for the resulting fine and court fees revenue?
Cue Lee Greenwood:
posted by Concerned American | 11:06 PM
3 Comments:
I have come to enjoy the acerbic wit of BillyBeck but on this I think he is wrong. Here is why.
I lived in Seattle/Western WA for 21 years and never in my life have I lived anywhere that people, especially young people, think it is ok to step out in front of a moving vehicle without even looking. Why they do it is because the law says "pedestrians have the right of way". and as I told my children when they were growing up; you may have the right of way but you can be dead right if you get hit by a car!
As to Becks contention, "fuck the police" as a general rule I can tend to agree with that sentiment. I am no fan of the enforces of our police state but there is a place for some level of order and when a driver runs the risk of being charged with manslaughter for hitting some stupid kid who doesn't have the sense to stay out of the fucking street, then perhaps the situation warranted a citation.
I don't know what exactly transpired prior to the video showing the cop trying to arrest the smart mouth black girl and then being interfered with by the other mouthy one who actually grabbed him. If it had been a man I submit he likely would have been tased or maced or even shot!
The locals in Seattle are all trying to make this into a race issue, of course!
A good rule of thumb is to not start to tussle with a cop doing his job. That situation could have turned ugly very quickly with the clear hostility of the crowd. II think the cop showed some level of restraint by not taking the little bitch down on her face and cuffing her. Instead he tried to play wristy-twisty and tug of war.
KPN3%
Also: I will add that I hate that damn song and especially the line about "and I am proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. and I wont forget the men who died to give that right to me"
My rights came from my Creator. My freedom is quickly vanishing due to the ignorance of my countrymen.
How free are we? Pride comes before a fall.
Enough of the Lee Greenwood aready. The words and intent of that song are as dead to me as is our Constitution. In fact, I have updated the lyrics to keep pace with the times:
Are you proud to be an American where at least the gays are free
To teach your kids in their Public Schools about a life of Sodomy.
And I'll gladly stand up, drop my pants and clentch my butt cheeks up real tight, cause the Supreme Court says if I don't do that, then I denied them their Civil Rights.
Well I am proud to be an American where at least an Illegal is Free to take a Job that once had while by boss pays him half-fee. And when I go to Court to get it back the judge will rule againt me and state Affirmitive Action is the Law of Land...I invoke it to keep us all Free. . .God Bless the USA.
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