(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Q: Where is this?

a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend ...officers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose"...such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away...Police will search cars if they suspect the presence of guns or drugs, and will arrest people who do not cooperate, under a charge of failure to obey a police officer, officials said...The enforcement will take place at random hours and last for at least five days...with the option of extending it five more days. Checkpoints could be set up in other neighborhoods if they are requested by patrol commanders...

A: Washington, D.C.

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Comments

[kadath.livejournal.com]

I had someone who I thought was relatively sane defending this. "What else would you propose the DC police do about crime?" I was like, "UM, NOT IMITATE THE STASI? BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT WAS DEFINITIONALLY BAD AND I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS."

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

Zay N. Smith of the Quick Takes column in the Chicago Sun-Times had this bit yesterday:

From a conversation in "The Hunt for Red October" between Soviet Navy Capt. Marko Ramius and Capt. 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin:

Borodin: "Then I will live in Montana, and I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me, and I will have a pickup truck . . . or a . . . possibly even a recreational vehicle . . . and drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?"

Ramius: "Yes."

Borodin: "No papers?"

Ramius: "No papers."

Does someone want to break the news to Ramius?

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'm in DC right now. It won't effect me since I'm nowhere near Trinidad, but wow. Yet another horrible idea by DC administrators. They're trying to treat symptoms and not deal with the root causes of the violence.

Not to mention that this rubs me the wrong way because there's very much a racial undertone to it. The only areas they're talking about setting up checkpoints in are predominantly black. If they're gonna go all Baghdad checkpoints on us, then I'd like to see it applied equally to the entire city just so that everyone of every social class, every ward, and every race in DC has to deal with the inconvenience.

You can bet the rich lawyers would throw a fit if they were subjected to this kind of treatment.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

It's not the rich white lawyers they worry about. Can you see them pulling this shit along Foxhall or Massachusetts Ave NW? The first time they tried to stop a diplomat the State Dept. would chew them a new asshole.

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Good call, I wasn't even thinking about the diplomats. I'd love to see Embassy Row faced with checkpoints. The resulting shitstorm would be hilarious.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

Why bother with the asschewing and just disappear the people conducting the traffic stop?

Its more efficient that way.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Because disappearing loyal, enterprising brownshirts at this point is not an efficient use of resources when there's still black people around who you can send said brownshirts after.

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

This is reminding me a lot of the walled-off neighbourhoods from the history in various RPGs.

I'm kind of saddened that things like this often bring to mind an RPG that has similar things.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

You thought of an RPG, and not the real thing, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto) first?

Or this one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall)?

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Neither of those. I thought of the Safety Ordinances in Armageddon by Eden Studios, where sections of the inner cities were walled off.

I know the historical items, but I'd just been reading the game, so that was what sprang to mind.

[ambug666.livejournal.com]

[atlasimpure.livejournal.com]

It's officially easier to drive around in Habinyyah and Ramadi.