Tuesday, October 28, 2014 Grant Gerber: Horatius on Horseback Then out spake brave Horatius, the Captain of the gate – To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late; And how can man die better, than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods? Grant Gerber, […]

Monday, October 20, 2014 Either Praise the Police, or Shut Up “Don’t just touch your chin — bang it, man, bang it!” Following Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, members of the Persian elite were required to prostrate themselves before their new ruler. Polyperchon, one of Alexander’s generals, sternly rebuked one of the Persians whose […]

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 Cannibals with Cutlery Armed strangers on the doorstep: Fish & Game Officers raid the Watson home, October 8. (Scott Watson) Carolyn Brewer was startled by the unannounced presence of an armed man in her bedroom. Her mood didn’t improve when the intruder sternly ordered her, “You don’t get up.” That directive […]

Thursday, October 9, 2014 “Crush the Seed of Ishmael”: A “Final Solution” to the “Muslim Problem”   Decapitation by drone strike: A routine act of state terrorism by the US government. We have reached a point in our nation’s descent into psychotic tribalist fear where people of stature and apparent sobriety unabashedly use the expression […]

Friday, October 3, 2014 The Drug War’s Medical Quislings When police dragged Felix Booker, naked and shackled, into the emergency room at the Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, they knew Dr. Michael LaPaglia would set aside his Hippocratic obligation to the patient and act as an agent of the State. On at least […]

Sunday, September 28, 2014 Blackmail, Witness Tampering, Criminal Misconduct: Routine Business for the Flathead County Gestapo If Kafka and Dickens collaborated on a character, Ed Corrigan would be the result. “These sort [sic] of things are not unusual,” sniffed Ed Corrigan, District Attorney for Flathead County, Montana, in response to a complaint against him filed […]

Tuesday, September 23, 2014 Time To Take Their Toys Away (UPDATED September 24) Yes, this is how we live now: Ada County SWAT arrests a man for “disturbing the peace.” When Daniel Webster warned that there will always be men who “promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters,” he most likely […]

Monday, March 17, 2014 One Unjustified Arrest, One Permanent File, and One Corrupt Sheriff: The Ordeal of Mark Patterson Any day that begins with a visit from police will probably turn out badly. Mark Patterson’s day got off to that kind of inauspicious start, and grew worse in crescendo.  The officers let themselves into Mark’s […]

Friday, September 19, 2014 “We Have Been a Paramilitary Organization”: How the Police Talk When They Think We’re Not Listening Chief Hite at September 17 City Council meeting.  “We have historically been a paramilitary organization,” observed Indianapolis Police Chief Rick Hite during a September 17 City Council meeting. “And we serve whoever sits in that […]

Monday, September 15, 2014 Call the Anti-Police: Ending the State’s “Security” Monopoly Dale Brown (center) with Garrett Ean and Pete Eyre. |”How would things be different,” muses Dale Brown of the Detroit-based Threat Management Center, “if police officers were given financial rewards and commendations for resolving dangerous situations peacefully, rather than for using force in […]

Monday, September 8, 2014 No Protection: The Long Ordeal of Cyndi Steele Edgar Steele (center), Cyndi (front, left), and their family. Hey,Cyndi – if something were to happen to you, or Nicki, or Kelsey, or Rex – do you think it would be considered a hate crime? Probably not – the FBI would love to […]

Sunday, June 15, 2014 Road Pirates and Prohibition Profiteers: Scenes from the Drug War in Treasure Valley ISP Trooper Justin Klitch conducts a pretext stop, searching for weed. One of the risks of operating a medical marijuana dispensary is the possibility of attracting unwanted attention from violent, dishonest people willing to defraud and even kill […]

Monday, July 14, 2014 Coup du Jour: The Militarization of Daily Life Guatemala City, August 8, 1983: Troops Seize the Presidential Palace “Is today a patriotic holiday of some kind?” My inquiry had been provoked by the abundance of armed soldiers being ferried through the streets of Guatemala City. My friend, a native Guatemalteco, shook […]

Thursday, July 10, 2014 Suffering in the Service of Official Lies: The Agony of Alexis Carey Alexis Carey suffers from Dravet Syndrome, a form of epilepsy that has left the nine-year-old unable to speak or use the bathroom. She is subject to violent seizures that can last an hour or longer. No relief is provided […]

Sunday, July 6, 2014 High Priestess Ginsburg Rebukes the Heathen What happens when sloganeering replaces thought. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg professes to be offended by the idea that a commercial enterprise can claim protection under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. She is just as adamant in her insistence that an […]

Monday, June 30, 2014 The Vampire State Draws Blood   “Implied Consent” in practice: Officers conduct a forcible blood draw. Shigeru Mizuki, a historian and manga artist, has described a World War II muster call in which pilots were invited to volunteer for a kamikaze operation. Each was handed two ballots; one of them read […]

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 Behind the Blue Wall: Domestic Abuse as a Professional Entitlement The caller’s number was unknown, but the voice coming from Nancy’s* cell phone was very familiar. It belonged to Tim Gallick, an estranged boyfriend who had beaten her during a domestic dispute, leaving her with bruises and a concussion. According to […]