Re: Assessing Federal agents deployed to Portland
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2020 11:02 am
From the outsider perspective, even before all these riots and federal response, USA looks very much a police state to me. It includes both government policing and "people" policing.
For example, you simply can't just randomly go somewhere in a typical american city. I mean, you can, but it is silly, and you can get into troubles. I always walked around cities in Russia and Europe without a second thought, but here I am honestly slightly scared to do so, I am trying to learn about different parts of the city before venturing there. I am not saying that in Europe you don't have to do in (especially in certain cities), but the overall feeling is that it is much safer.
Another part is that there are tons of people willing to report you. Talked to a kid? Male in a park when tons of children are around? Just somebody walking around the neighbourhood (unfamiliar face)? There are even loitering warnings, I have no idea how often they are enforced, but the mere notion that you can't be outside near some businesses is kind of weird.
On the other hand, actual police is dangerous. It is brutal, often unnecessary so; it is completely invincible, as you are not allowed to do anything against them. It is heavily armed, they can shoot you if they feel "threatened". Do they often do so? Not really, but they can, and it happens.
But I think that federal agents is an opportunity for the states to become more independent. Even before that, pandemic response was pretty bad from the federal gov, and now they probably made the worst possible move with unmarked people putting somebody into an unmarked van. I think the backlash is pretty big, and I think it might help with federalism. Doubt that it will make the country any better in terms of safety, though
For example, you simply can't just randomly go somewhere in a typical american city. I mean, you can, but it is silly, and you can get into troubles. I always walked around cities in Russia and Europe without a second thought, but here I am honestly slightly scared to do so, I am trying to learn about different parts of the city before venturing there. I am not saying that in Europe you don't have to do in (especially in certain cities), but the overall feeling is that it is much safer.
Another part is that there are tons of people willing to report you. Talked to a kid? Male in a park when tons of children are around? Just somebody walking around the neighbourhood (unfamiliar face)? There are even loitering warnings, I have no idea how often they are enforced, but the mere notion that you can't be outside near some businesses is kind of weird.
On the other hand, actual police is dangerous. It is brutal, often unnecessary so; it is completely invincible, as you are not allowed to do anything against them. It is heavily armed, they can shoot you if they feel "threatened". Do they often do so? Not really, but they can, and it happens.
But I think that federal agents is an opportunity for the states to become more independent. Even before that, pandemic response was pretty bad from the federal gov, and now they probably made the worst possible move with unmarked people putting somebody into an unmarked van. I think the backlash is pretty big, and I think it might help with federalism. Doubt that it will make the country any better in terms of safety, though