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

  •  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.