Thursday, September 30, 2010

How the Police's view of the citizens has changed

Isegoria looks at this week's Texas University shooting, and thinks about the original "Texas Tower" shooter.  He posts about how the Police's views of what an armed citizenry might do has changed:
What a different world. First, it was taken for granted that a bunch of people in the area would be carrying powerful rifles openly in their trucks in the middle of the state’s capitol city. What’s more, the police felt no hesitation in asking those citizens to help out in a dangerous situation and the citizens were eager to do their part. None of this was seen as out of the ordinary or unexpected at the time.
Read the whole damned thing, and then reflect on the difference between a citizen, and a subject.  After you scrape away the overlay of Intellectual Mumbo-Jumbo, the difference is this:

A citizen is armed, and is presumed by those in authority to be an instrument of Public Order.  A subject is neither.

Read it all. Srlsy.

4 comments:

Bob said...

Thanks for linking it, much appreciated.

bluesun said...

I was just thinking through this today--I live close enough to campus that I could run home and grab some guns if it came to that, but then if I brought them back to campus I would probably become a target, despite any good intentions. The "police state" we've got trying to form just causes more trouble for the police and less safety for citizens.

Anonymous said...

In all fairness, my view of the police has changed over the years too.

bruce said...

As my dad pointed out, talking about WW2, all those young men who jumped in and did, farmer kids who could put things together ...

those types of men are dwindling away, heck, farm boys are not even the same.
Thanks for bringing back a piece of the past for an afternoons contemplation. As much history as a rotary phone or a party line.