[lbo-talk] Police state?

[Wojtek S]

RE: "There is a long, stupid, loud minority tradition in the US wherein
state resource management and enforcement personnel are treated as the
vanguard of state oppression against faux-yeomanlike "free" hunters
and fishermen, who should be allowed to do whatever they want,
goddammit. Is that the view you are supporting? I am otherwise finding
it hard to find your justification of the use of the very strong term
"police state" here. Was this some kind of obscure joke?"

[WS:]  Actually, it was a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the comments to this
non-story posted on the WP site by some law-and-order types (I posted
something similar to their listserv as well.)

I am by no means sympathetic to the tradition that you mention.  However, I
do feel very strongly about animal suffering - mostly as a result of human
activity - and do I sympathize with people who try to ease that suffering.

 I was myself in a similar situation many years ago when I saw a pigeon
stuck on railroad tracks at Baltimore Penn station.  I did jump on the
tracks to rescue the pigeon (even though many consider them as pests)  -
which the Amtrak people did not like but their only reaction was "Sir, you
cannot take that bird on the train."  They could have fined me but they
chose not to.

My reading of the WP non-story is that the cops who responded to the
situation felt that their "authority" was at stake and wanted to show they
guys who rescue the deer who is the boss.  Many people - not just cops - act
like that in similar situations.

Wojtek

O