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roachboy · 07-25-2005, 06:08 AM

hysteria is a dangerous phenomenon.
the cops are not immune.
someone wearing the wrong style of jacket in the tube at the wrong time would not have been immune either.

i think that the american "war on terror" is systematized hysteria--so judgements fashioned from here would be colored very deeply by that political choice/climate---what i get from the many of the previous posts is that in the united states, right now, a significant segment of the population would be able to rationalise such an act on the part of the police.
maybe this is partly a function of living in bushworld.
maybe it is partly a function of a decade of shows like "cops" the primary function of which is to provide an ongoing justification for any and all police actions.

so what i learned by reading through this thread is that in the states, with its context of rationalized hysteria, apparently many would see something parallel as understandable: that the cops would shoot five times at close range someone who happened to be brown, wearing the wrong type of jacket and who reacted in the wrong way--based on a fleeting logic, a circumstantially driven decision, it seems some folk would be inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the cops....
the rationale itself seems to rely on the conservative-particular assumption that the law is drawn to the guilty.

07-25-2005, 06:08 AM	#43 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	hysteria is a dangerous phenomenon. the cops are not immune. someone wearing the wrong style of jacket in the tube at the wrong time would not have been immune either. i think that the american "war on terror" is systematized hysteria--so judgements fashioned from here would be colored very deeply by that political choice/climate---what i get from the many of the previous posts is that in the united states, right now, a significant segment of the population would be able to rationalise such an act on the part of the police. maybe this is partly a function of living in bushworld. maybe it is partly a function of a decade of shows like "cops" the primary function of which is to provide an ongoing justification for any and all police actions. so what i learned by reading through this thread is that in the states, with its context of rationalized hysteria, apparently many would see something parallel as understandable: that the cops would shoot five times at close range someone who happened to be brown, wearing the wrong type of jacket and who reacted in the wrong way--based on a fleeting logic, a circumstantially driven decision, it seems some folk would be inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the cops.... the rationale itself seems to rely on the conservative-particular assumption that the law is drawn to the guilty. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 07-25-2005 at 06:10 AM..