Pro Secret Police?

To anyone secretly celebrating the anarchists in Portland being disappeared by police allegedly not wearing a means of easily identifying themselves:

I don’t want secret police even with the citizens whom I think have well past ‘peaceful’ in the protests (I.e.; those enacting violence and contributing to the destabilization of civil society). Furthermore, I think if we continue to allow a group being identified as “secret police” to be non-accountable — which is to say no badges nor way to ID them when watching them arrest someone — we will, unfortunately, feed the defund the police narrative.

If we want to prevent civil war, we have to hold fast to our values even while we might want to laugh while the “insurgents” get taken off. Let’s face it — we know well they aren’t going to prevent the civil war at this rate. Look at the evidence. They’ve already shown through their actions they don’t believe in civility. They block highways, pull people from cars, trespass, bypass laws, threaten and coerce, deface public and private property, commit battery against people, and now, they break into court houses and hurt. people inside. Civility is the line for me. They have clearly crossed it, for whatever reason — right or wrong, justified or not.

Thus, since we know they don’t value civility, we have to be the adults here. That means calling for lawful arrests with officers having some form of ID.

I don’t care about unmarked cars so much but ask yourself: do you really want to set a precedent for unmarked “police” of some sort disappearing citizens?

Even if some part of you said, “that can’t happen” or “that would never happen here” or “it’s just temporary” or “well, it’s just those people and we want them gone so it’s okay”  I implore you to answer the actual question: do you want a government that disappears people with officers whom you can’t ID? This is some serious gestapo style mentality and I’d wager most US Citizens aren’t looking for that reality. At least I hope not.

If you think this is temporary, look at the Patriot Act. If you think “it’s just those people” please stop othering them long enough to consider how you might one day be someone described as “just those people” — a reality history has proven again and again. Consider seriously what rules you want applied to your loved ones as you imagine them being pulled off the street. Imagine you were pulled off the street. It could happen that you’re that person one day soon. How do you want your government to behave in that moment?

There is no reasonable excuse I can conceive of that makes it a difficult request to require the officers engaging in these roundups be marked with some ID that allows us to hold them to account. If you can offer a reasonable explanation of why they should be allowed to remain unmarked, please comment below.

It’s not about whether these “protestors” or “anarchists” or “insurgents” or whatever you want to label them are getting their just desserts.

It’s about the future we are making a stand for when we throw our values out the window.

Pro Uncivilized Protests?

To anyone gleefully supporting the “insurgents” in Portland, I implore you to ask yourself if you truly support throwing civility out the window in service of violating other people’s person or property. Are you okay with defacing public and private property? Violence against fellow citizens? Trespassing? Violating other people’s property? Breaking into courts of justice and hurting people inside?

This isn’t about if change is going to happen — change is the only constant we have.

This is about how we co-create that as a society. When you support people who violate other people and property while breaking the law, you’re saying you don’t value fellow citizens valuing other people, property, or the law. How then can fellow citizens trust you when you’ve said you don’t care about their well being enough to speak against people violating other people and their property? Is that what you truly stand for in the world?

Against Civil War?

Seems to me, we need to find a better way or we will polarize ourselves into fractionation with very little middle ground upon which to stand and heal/rebuild our country from this Covid-19 situation.

I believe the best thing each individual can do for ourselves and our country is get crystal clear about what we value, what we don’t tolerate, how our actions align with those values, and how our boundaries hold clearly against those intolerances.

Are you clear on your values? Can you articulate them? Can you discuss them and explain what about them is important to you? Can you exchange ideas about your values with your neighbors and find common ground?

Maybe if we all started talking about our values rather than other people’s actions we’d have more mutual understanding and opportunity to bridge divides rather than perpetuate schisms.

I’m pretty sure the common ground here is that none of us truly want secret police. If you do, please explain what benefits you see them bringing to the world around us.