Wednesday, December 03, 2014

The Law


Mckinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated. Agriculture and Markets Law.
... 
§ 365. Clipping or cutting the ears of dogs

1. Whoever clips or cuts off or causes or procures another to clip or cut off the whole or any part of an ear of any dog unless an anesthetic shall have been given to the dog and the operation performed by a licensed veterinarian, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both.
-- carries a heavier penalty than a cop murdering an unarmed black man in broad daylight.

Meditate* on that for awhile.

*Thanks for the catch



12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Furthermore improperly clipping your dogs ears will land you in jail. A cop shooting your dog will also result in you going to jail!

Jack said...

Don't blame the police. Blame Americans.

This happens because Americans want it to happen. In fact, Americans get downright giddy about it. When George Zimmerman was acquitted, American conservatives were so happy they were ready to declare a national holiday. Americans -- or large majorities of them -- not only want an authoritarian police state, they demand it. Of course the police are going to act accordingly.

Look at the overwhelming happiness the murder of Mike Brown brought to American conservatives. Look at how enthusiastically conservatives defend the murder of the child in Cleveland. They defend police brutality and police murder every time it happens, no matter what the circumstances. We all know this, because we've been seeing it our entire lives.

What I want to know is why anyone is surprised.

I saw a poll the other day that showed Vladimir Putin's approval ratings in Russia are almost 90%. Putin is a criminal and a despot. It's well known that he has had countless political opponents and journalists murdered in cold blood for opposing his regime. He's a tyrant in the truest sense of the word.

And yet the Russians love him.

I saw another poll after the Soviet Union collapsed back in the early 1990s. It showed that among Russians, Stalin was a beloved figure. Stalin -- the guy who had millions killed. Millions.

But people like a strongman. They like an authoritarian despot.

Have you seen those videos of the throngs in Germany in thrall to Hitler? Of course; who hasn't?

A lot of people seem to think Americans are committed to a different kind of values. But the facts don't lie.

When 2LT Calley was being prosecuted for murdering hundreds of women and children in Viet Nam, an overwhelming majority of Americans thought he was being persecuted unfairly. In 1971, Nixon came out and supported Calley. In 1972, Nixon won reelection with one of the biggest landslides in history.
When the National Guard shot students at Kent State, a large segment of the population - and nearly all conservatives -- not only defended the murders, they were happy about them. You can go back and look at the newspapers from the time. There are countless "man on the street" interviews in which conservatives celebrate the Kent State murders and say that it should have happened a lot sooner, and it's time someone taught those damn kids a lesson.

And today: Whether on a white supremacist forum or Reddit, you find conservatives now openly saying that this should be a lesson to black people: Don't screw with whites. Because we can kill you whenever we feel like it and we can first get away with it, and then get approval for it.

The fact is that most of white America, and nearly all of conservative America, believes there are large segments of the population that should be subject to constant brutality. Whenever something like Ferguson happens, white and conservative support for the police RISES.

Do the police in your community need a boost in public approval? Why don't they find an unarmed black child to murder in cold blood on camera? That should do the trick. People will love them after that.

The problem is not the police. This kind of police behavior is not tolerated in countries that don't celebrate it and encourage it. (That's most of the civilized world.) But there are other places in the world: China. Iran. Saudi Arabia. North Korea. Russia. Police states. Dictatorships. Fascist states. And the citizens in those countries have the kind of police that they want -- police that will torment and abuse the population, and like doing it.

Like America.

tmk said...

nitpick: "Meditate", not "Mediate".

~:)P

Monster from the Id said...

The USA has too many Barney Fifes patrolling the streets without enough Andy Taylors supervising them. :p

Anonymous said...

Jack, you make some good points, but I'm gonna guess you don't know any Russians...

DeistPaladin said...

Another thing to chew on:

What if Ferguson was a Tea Bagger protest? What if we had video footage of armored vehicles and snipers rolled out to meet a Tea Bagger protest against Obama? What if we had video footage of police firing upon media camera crews as they cracked down on the Tea Baggers? What if restaurants were swept through and reporters inside beaten up and arrested for typing on a laptop? What if police fired tear gas into the homes and backyards of conservative, white Tea Baggers just because they said some things police didn't like?

We'd never hear the end of it. "Obama's fascism has come to America", they would proclaim. Eardrums all over America would split open as conservatives from Fox to Hate Radio would demand nothing less than prosecution of the police chief and impeachment of the president.

Hell, when the IRS in one city asked some questions of a Tea Bagger group before granting them non-profit status (!?!?!?), that was a SCANDAL. Help, help, we're being oppressed! Our application was delayed a bit. Oh noes! It's a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, I tells ya. Obama was behind it all, in a mastermind plot to tilt the elections.

But it wasn't a white neighborhood, so that's OK, right? The police were just doing their jobs to crack down on "looters" and "rioters". It's OK when they're not white, not conservative or neither one.

It's just more of the usual astounding hypocrisy we've come to expect.

Anonymous said...

Look at the look on this cops face http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2014/04/UT-Disturbance-300.jpg&w=1484

Grung_e_Gene said...

A dog is worth more than a runaway slave.

Robt said...

Where in the law does it cover clipping the ears of policemen?

Is anesthetic required when surgically removing the "Wyatt Earp" syndrome from a rookie cop?

Then again,
I am confused.
If a big African american cop who intimidates me so much. That I fear for my life as if Mr. T is going to beat me, pick me up, and throw my dead carcass out of the ring.
If I fear for my life so much that my fear over whelms me to imagine the officer will go to life threatening extremes to ticket me.
That same fear that entitled white people have to defend themselves.
can a non badge citizen protect his own life when facing such imaginative threats from the badge?
I know the law says surrender and you can adjudicate later.
How do you adjudicate later if you are not alive? IF the courts continue to not see citizens with value over those that are sworn to protect them, and by protecting them, I mean being threatened by the citizens so much, That they must eliminate the threat.

Robt said...

Jack said...
Don't blame the police. Blame Americans.

Very much correct in what you say about authoritarian ideologies encouraging and making it permissible for police to act as such. So much so we see how our elected official sit safely and enable the courts to enshrine this activity and behavior.

Hanging Horse thieves, to shooting a 90 cent candy bar thief in the back fleeing the crime scene.

I do not think the judicial system was truly ever set up originally for the lower income masses. This is why this doesn't surprise me.
If Mike Brown's family was of monetary prominence, the outcome is completely different.
There are plenty of cases where a child of a prominent family has committed far worse crimes and the justice system serves them and serves them well. I

CM said...

//Don't blame the police. Blame Americans.//

Reminds me of a George Carlin bit.

Kathleen said...

@DeistPaladin

See also media coverage of Bundy, Cliven to buttress your contention. And not just Fox News coverage.