Tag: Law and Disorder

The Difference Between The State and The Mob

What’s the difference between the state and the mob? The mob is honest about their intent while the state tries to hide behind the term “justice.” Although I’ll save you the specifics I will mention that I received a parking ticket on Sunday. First of all St. Paul needs to get their shit together because nowhere on the ticket does it state how much money they are trying to extort from me. How am I to pay them without knowing how much money they are demanding?

But this isn’t about the fine, it’s about the system. You ultimately have two options; pay the fine or fight it. If you pay the fine you are admitting guilt as stated on the ticket. If you try to fight the ticket you must use the same system that issued you the ticket to fight it. Basically you either are admitting that you’re a criminal or you have to deal with a massive conflict of interest.

In this situation I am against admitting guilt as there is no victim and thus I see no crime to admit guilt to. On the other hand if I try to fight the ticket I will have to take time off of work and possible pay a court fee (thus I will likely pay them either way which is why I use the term extortion). Either way I’m going to be out money and this is exactly how the police department wants it. The only reason all of these parking ordinances exist is to fill the coffers of the local police departments. There is no legitimate reason why my parking on a publicly owned and tax payer funded street should garner a fine of unknown amount.

Likewise there is a giant conflict of interest in having to ask an officer of the same precinct to determine a ticket as invalid. If I write you a ticket you should not have to beg me to rule it illegitimate. This is a problem right up to the Supreme Court where the legitimacy of federal laws are determined by the federal government.

Either way the system is stacked against the accused. Even if the ticket is ruled to be illegitimate I am still punished. My guilt matters not as I will receive the same punishment regardless of the outcome (an unknown monetary loss). The police have found a means of practically guaranteeing income by writing fines that are expensive to fight. I’m sure they are aware that a majority of people will pay the fine and accept the accusation made against them not because they feel themselves guilty but because it will cost them more to fight it.

Of course I have to wait at least three business days in order to fight it. I was under the belief that all these computerized systems would allow a ticket to be instantly filed with the court but alas I was incorrect. Apparently it can take up to 10 days to file a ticket with the court and you can’t fight it until it’s been filed. It’s nice to see they are held to no real schedule yet I am as if I don’t pay the fine within 21 days they assess a late fee.

Becoming the Enemy

Through social circles that I am a member of I’ve learned that a fascist is coming to Minneapolis. In of itself this is completely unimportant but what is important are the actions of those who are opposing him. Apparently there are groups of “anti-fascists” who try to organize against this openly fascist person. The problem is these “anti-fascists” have destroyed any legitimacy they could have generated by using fascist tactics themselves:

They were so effective in disrupting the event that police had to escort attendees out. The same happened a day later in NYC, where the event was not only disrupted, but both Irving’s tour manager Jaenelle Antas and neo-Nazi friend Alex Carmichael were pepper-sprayed. Faced with humiliation and defeat, Irving was forced to cancel his next few scheduled appearances, but the chaos did not end there. Days later his Chicago event was shut down when dozens of masked anti-fascists stormed into the Edelweiss restaurant turning over tables, destroying his merchandise, and assaulting attendees, while Irving and Antas locked themselves in a supply closet in a magnificent display of cowardice.

Emphasis mine. I despise fascism, socialism, and communism for the very fact that none of them can work unless violence is used to coerce the members of those societies. Fascist, socialist, and communist states generally make laws against criticism of the state in order to silence those who oppose them. They use the threat of violence to silence all opposition.

These “anti-fascist” demonstrators are using violence to silence those who disagree with them. They have become that which they claim to fight against. As much as I hate fascists they do have a right to say what they are saying. Having laws that protect freedom of speech are usually enacted to protect a minority whom speak against what is socially accepted. Although I despise the KKK, neo-Nazis, and authoritarians I would never consider using violence to silence them.

I’ve explained my hatred of hypocrisy before and these “anti-fascist” demonstrators are a great example of why. When you act hypocritically you destroy any legitimacy your movement has. There is no way to claim you are opposed to something while you are doing it. It’s the same as when your parents would tell you to “do as I say not as I do.” I’m not sure about yourself but whenever my parents said that I scoffed and felt their “reasoning” to be flawed.

The problem lies in the fact that there is such a thing as fighting an enemy so long that you become the enemy. When you focus on a specific goal you will eventually justify any action you take to yourself as correct so long as it opposes those you are fighting. Guantanamo Bay is a classic example where the United States has been fighting an enemy so long that the forfeiture of rights has been justified. There comes a point in any conflict where you have to take a step back and reassess the situation. You must examine your actions and prevent yourself from becoming what you are fighting.

These “anti-fascist” demonstrators have become fascist themselves by attacking those who they disagree with. The use of violence to silence your opposition is the tactic of an authoritarian. If your opponent brings violence against you then by all means defend yourself but if they are simply saying things you disagree with then you have no grounds for cause damage to their person or property.

I like the motto of the Ludwig von Mises Institute which is “Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.” It’s Latin for “Do not give in to evil but proceed ever more boldly against it.” By using violence to silence those you disagree with you have given into evil.

More On the ATF Smuggling Guns Into Mexico

CBS has a report on the recent “gun walker” scam performed by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms Explosives Joy and Happiness (Ministry of Boring).

It must be nice heading a government agency that create false flag situations in an attempt to get more taxpayer money. Need more money? Simple create a situation where guns are going across the border between the United States and Mexico to be used by Mexican drug cartels. All you have to do is have your agents get those guns across and then whine about how said guns are being used against people of the United States. It’s brilliant.

Supreme Court Rules in Westboro Case

The Supreme Court has rules that the gatherings by members of the Westboro Baptist “Church” are protected by the first amendment. The decision was 8-1 which is about as much of a landslide as you can get in that court.

As much as I despise what the members of Westboro Baptist “Church” do I openly admit that it’s speech and they’re free to do it. Like all rights the freedom of speech is a double-edged sword to some. You can use any individual right for both good and bad. Just because some people use it for bad purposes doesn’t mean we should enact restrictions against it.

The thing most people fail to realize is the members of Westboro are attention whores. All these gatherings, all the shouting, all the signs, everything they do is a vain attempt to garner attention. The only way to deal with these types of people is by completely ignoring them. If we manage to ignore them they will eventually go away and find something else to occupy their time, maybe by starting a shitty band in their garages where they can sing about all the emo feelings they experience. Oh, if these yahoos come to your town remember not to touch them as they fund their operation through lawsuit money.

Bath Salts are Now Illegal in Alabama

I’m not sure what bath salts are but apparently they can be used to make illegal narcotics and thus the state of Alabama has banned them [PDF]. You know, because banning anything that can be used to manufacture illegal drugs makes total sense.

That was sarcasm in case you didn’t catch it.

Karma, It’ll Get You

Wizardpc over at Walls of the City posted one of the greatest demonstrations of karma being a bitch I have ever read. It’s so delicious in it’s irony I can’t even begin to exclaim my amusement. Anyways a kid hired a hit man to kill his parents only to be shot by the hit man:

Police said a group of boys and men went to the boy’s house in La Vergne on Wednesday night and knocked on the door. The 16-year-old answered the door and was shot twice. He was treated at Vanderbilt University Hospital and released with non-life-threatening injuries.

“He opened the door. He tried shutting the door and what we believe (is) that one of the persons outside the door got a foot in the door. He couldn’t shut it completely. He was able to shut the door after the shots were fired,” said police Chief Ted Boyd.

Wait for it… and now the pay off:

During an investigation, officers found the boy’s phone hidden in a couch in the house and reviewed text messages. Police said it appears the teen had hired someone to kill his parents. He texted that he had “three stacks,” or $3,000, and that he was thinking about doing it himself but couldn’t bring himself to.

My question is what this will do to the parents’ emotional state. First their child is shot and then they learned the kid was shot by a man who was originally paid by their son to kill them. The moral of the story? Don’t fuck with karma because it’ll fuck you back.

Your Tax Dollars at Work Arming Mexican Drug Cartels

Governments are interesting entities. They claim to need power over the citizenry in order to protect the citizenry. This power often includes the ability to prohibit certain activities and establishes punishments for those citizens who disregard the prohibitions. What makes this whole situation interesting is the fact once these very prohibitions are in place the government turns right around and disregards them.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has been one of many organizations covering what we gun rights activists have labeled the Mexican Gun Canard. The Mexican government has been claiming the source of drug cartel guns has been the United States. Due to this the Mexican government has urged our government to enact stricter gun control laws and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have jumped right onto this bandwagon in order to obtain more funding. The ATF have also been asking for emergency powers to record people buying “assault weapons” near the Mexican border.

Recently stories have broken that show the ATF is likely responsible for guns flowing from the United States to Mexico. Well the NSSF has a good post that brings up a story about a WikiLeaks document showing our government as a source of guns for the Mexican Drug Cartels.

To sum up the cables the drug cartels have obtained many of their weapons from other Central American countries which were supplied with weapons by the United States. Shocked? Didn’t think so as anybody who knows anything about the National Firearms Act knows machine guns and grenade launchers aren’t exactly things you can go down to your corner drug store and buy. Likewise the export of arms to other countries is strictly regulated meaning selling arms to other countries is one of those things that we can’t do (without proper licensing) but our government most certainly can.

There is a bit of irony in the fact we have to fight against the same weapons that our government gave out so many years ago. What isn’t ironic through is the fact our government officials are claiming we need to regulate private citizens further to prevent the flow of weapons into Mexico. I guess passing the blame onto somebody else is a common tactic used by 8 year-olds which is roughly the mental maturity level of our government.

Credit Card Fraud, So Simple an Inmate Can Do it

I’ve always known credit card fraud was easy to do but I couldn’t appreciate how easy until I read this story which I found via Bruce Schneier’s blog:

A Rikers Island inmate ran a nationwide cyber-crime ring from behind bars that forged fake credit cards to buy $1 million in iPads and Apple computers, officials said Wednesday.

Shaheed “Sha” Bilal, 28, directed the massive syndicate, instructing his girlfriend and three younger brothers on how to encode the magnetic strips on credit cards with stolen financial information, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

Obviously the prison system works well if those incarcerated for performing criminal acts can continue to perform criminal acts while imprisoned.

Wisconsin Judge Rules Concealed Carry Ban Unconstitutional

Wisconsin still remains one of only two states in the Union that bars its citizens from some method of legally carrying a concealed handgun. I learned through Says Uncle that a Milwaukee Country judge ruled the ban unconstitutional yesterday:

In the ongoing evolution of Wisconsin gun law, a Milwaukee County judge has ruled the state’s ban on concealed weapons unconstitutional as applied to a man who had an unloaded, encased gun under his car seat three days after he had been robbed at gunpoint in the same area of the city.

In an eight-page decision and order, Circuit Judge J.D. Watts agreed that for Jeremy Pinnow to exercise his right to bear arms for security and self-defense, he had few other choices.

What’s interesting is the fact a cased and unloaded gun was considered a form of concealed carrying. In my book that qualifies as transportation of a firearm in a legal manner (had he been driving a pickup this would have been kosher under federal laws as there is no place to store the firearm separate from the driver).

Either way I’m hoping this ruling sticks through the appeal process that is likely to happen (this is in Milwaukee Country after all). If this ruling sticks it could offer the ammunition pro-gun organizations need to get carry legislation moving through the Wisconsin political black hole.