8.24.2011

Law and Order

Ironically, I have been watching the show a lot this week. The first season. Made back in 1990 when at least someone within the government (on the show) would protest when either the police or prosecutors wanted to or did break the law.

As always, most people will get caught up in who is getting targeted ("Hey I am white and live in the suburbs this has nothing to do with me") and miss the larger picture. As someone else has said, it is a mistake to conflate being ignored and being spared.

USA

UK

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like to think of the title as restated:

Lore and Ordure

:-p said...

In reference to the TV show? Or those "necessary" expansions of police power in the face of resistance?

Anonymous said...

Well... for the TV show it fits if I expect TV drama to be more like a documentary. But I don't expect that, and recognize that TV splashes up and polishes dull reality to make it watchable.

It definitely fits those police power expansions, Homeland Security, and fighting "domestic terrorists" while not defining "terrorist" specifically enough to exclude anyone from its scope.

:-p said...

It's funny how the whole dialogue reinforces itself in regards to domestic surveillance. Meaning that the need to demonize people prevents any real, levelheaded interaction between the government and some of its citizens, both on the part of the government, who can't be seen to be "colluding" with "those people" and the Muslim community, which has little incentive to try and seek an interaction where they are already at a disadvantage. So undercover police have to go trolling through public places spying on people to get information, which only furthers the distrust that prevents them from being able to, you know, just ask people for the information that they now have to go undercover to obtain.

I know, I know, at a macro level there are all sorts of reasons to not assume good intentions on the part of the government, but on the street, amongst working people, whether cops or a halal butcher, it's still sad that things are so fucked up.