If you aren’t familiar with countries where powerful people have their own militias… would you like to be?

  • So what I was trying to do in focusing on the pre-Nazi German police was saying, it is possible for the US police to be unjust in all the ways you are claiming they are (which I actually don’t agree with, but that’s beside the point) – and yet still for privately operated armed forces operated by MAGA Republicans to be a terrifyingly significant development. And I was bringing up the example of the SA by way of concrete example to illustrate the point.

    Seems reasonable? Or no? I’m happy to talk about justice or injustice in the system as it currently exists without the new SA being added in also; I just didn’t want to shift the topic completely to that instead of talking about the original topic. Can we maybe wrap up the original thing first and then switch to that?

    •  t3rmit3   ( @t3rmit3@beehaw.org ) 
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      3 months ago

      and yet still for privately operated armed forces operated by MAGA Republicans to be a terrifyingly significant development

      MAGA people having the ability to enact violence is terrifying, period.

      But they already have that- as police, as governors, as other agents of the State. That is much more terrifying than a bunch of assholes in lifted pickups, because I can legally shoot those assholes if they come for my trans nephew, but I can’t if they do it as the police when Red states criminalize being LGBT+, or when they start arresting people for having or seeking abortions.

      And to be clear, this Republican is not talking about operating a private militia in the way you seem to be implying, his entire plan is to deputize them under the (already MAGA) Nassau County Sheriff Anthony LaRocco. Literally making them cops. The article is likening it to a private militia, because that’s what MAGA cops are.

      I think the fundamental difference is that you seem to think the US government isn’t still the slave-holding, genocidal government that it was when it was founded. I do.

      •  mozz   ( @mozz@mbin.grits.dev ) OP
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        3 months ago

        MAGA people having the ability to enact violence is terrifying, period.

        But they already have that- as police, as governors, as other agents of the State. That is much more terrifying than a bunch of assholes in lifted pickups, because I can legally shoot those assholes if they come for my trans nephew

        The point that I am making, is that they haven’t come for your trans nephew yet, in an organized and trained grouping, to remove him from his parents’ care and take him to somewhere where he can be reeducated or charged with a crime or both. Even in deep red states, that’s still difficult to do, although in some places it’s becoming not impossible.

        Creating a force like this is the final step for them to be able to do it easily, outside the bounds of the normal legal system, and shoot you and suffer no consequences if you resist them. If you don’t want that reality, you should be significantly more worried about this development than about the already worrying status quo.

        •  t3rmit3   ( @t3rmit3@beehaw.org ) 
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          3 months ago

          outside the bounds of the normal legal system

          These are deputies, they are just cops. So yes, they are outside the bounds of the legal system just like all cops are. And they’re not any more or less dangerous than any other MAGA cop already out there right now. That’s my point.