The local leftysphere is running itself ragged trying to spin the “anarchist” raids over the weekend.
Charlie Quimby echoes the complaints of many leftybloggers in reaction to the left’s lawyers’ spin about, among other things, the buckets of urine:
But then, sometimes a bucket of urine is just a bucket of urine.
Not everyone in America lives with two-and-half baths or maintains their houses to Martha Stewart standards. That may make them a civil nuisance, but it doesn’t make them criminals.
In an atypical house, such as one being used as a crash pad for large numbers of youngsters who lean toward the permacultural persuasion, there’s a better explanation than stockpiling material for urine bombs.
The practice might appear far fetched to average suburbanites…
…as well as to this Saint Paul guy, who’s managed to find a way to dispose of urine – pretty much always in a toilet.
Quimby’s point – that many homeowners might have some of the shopping list of “weird” items in their homes. Yesterday, I took a sarcastic stab at the list. Today, let’s do a real comparative inventory:
- materials to creating “sleeping dragons” – yes, I have chain link fence and plumbing.
- large amounts of urine – this fits more in the “fungible asset” than in the “permanent acquisition” category.
- wrist rockets – there’s probably a cheap one that my stepson left here years ago, somewhere.
- machete, hatchet and several throwing knives – Yes on the machete and hatchet. Throwing knives are for wannabee ninjas who haven’t figured out that guns are better.
- a gas mask and filter – not yet.
- Glass bottles, rags, flammable liquids, pipes, axes – Yes, indeed.
- Caltrops – think “big metal jumping jacks”; if they’re not RenFest craftspeople, these are a little odd, but whatever.
- Bolt cutters, sledgehammers, etc – no, but not unreasonable.
- A years long record of planning mayhem at the RNC that’s been documented most likely by law-enforcement infiltrators and elsewhere, which likely was not included in the “bill of materials” seized at the various residences, and without which any prosecution would be very dicey, but which likely exists but is more useful for things like “arraignments” and “trials” than for “stories about raids picking up buckets of urine – Nope. I don’t have that.
Let’s establish this; I know nothing about the specifics of this case. I would never rule out “law enforcement overreach” for something like this.
But I highly doubt that the raids were carried out because of buckets of urine or caltrops. I’m going to go out on a limb, and say the cops likely have something else; some sort of paper trail linking at least some of those arrested to at least some kind of organized plan for mayhem.
Still – I’m not completely unsympathetic with the “anarchists”. More – probably much more – on that later.
Mitch, you’re thinking like a middle-aged working-class homeowner, so you’re missing the significance of some of this equipment. Try thinking like a rioter.
Caltrops can be used to puncture tires, sure. But they still can be used for their original purpose – to cripple horses.
Say you’ve got an unruly crowd blocking the entire street. You want to break it up. Wade in with a line of men carrying shields and waving billy clubs? Gonna be a lot of cracked heads. Bad television. Man on man is poor tactics which is why the military learned to avoid it whenever possible.
Drive cop cars into the crowd? You’re sure to run over somebody – even worse television. Fire hoses? Tear gas? Brings up memories of race riots. A PR disaster.
Instead, how about a wedge of cops mounted on horses walking into the crowd? Aside from looking cool on television and bringing up memories of cowboys, horses are big and can shove aside a person much easier than a cop pushing on a shield. And who’s gonna stand there and let a horse stomp on him? Back it up with a line of K-P cops, all their German Shepherds straining at the leash and barking to be released to chew some hippie ass . . . now who’s stupid enough to stand in the front ranks?
Caltrops. The sharp point always lands upright. Spread enough and horses can’t be used without risking a crippling injury to their soft center hooves. That’s a sure way to stop the Mounted Police from breaking up the riot. That’s why those alter boys had them in their apartment. It’s not a novelty toy – it’s riot gear selected for a specific purpose, just like the gas masks.
As long as we’re being medieval, discussing caltrops, let’s talk about punishment for people who intentionally plan to cripple horses as part of their political protest. I want to be on that jury.
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Good point as to the use of caltrops (and for the life of me, I can’t even find a hypothetical useful peaceful use for them).
My real point – the bill of goods seized isn’t the story.
I agree with that last, and that’s one of the problems with Fletcher’s triumphalist news conferences, which was informed by the just-barely-implicit claim that the seizure of caltrops (and, yeah, there’s no good use for those) and buckets of urine (questionable, but quite possibly evidence of bad intent) justifies what almost certainly is overreaching.
I wouldn’t buy the story from Joe Isuzu; I won’t buy it from Bob Fletcher. YMMV.
“But then, sometimes a bucket of urine is just a bucket of urine.”
And sometimes it is just art supply.
Did they also confiscate any crayons or finger paints? Maybe they were art students.
😉
I got your main point — and I agree some of those materials did NOT have very innocent explanations. But hyperbolic “buckets of urine” was what seemed to capture the publc imagination.
I also suspected you’d be sympathetic (or not unsympathetic) on the question of police entry where no apparent crime has been committed. There’s a fine line, and it sounds like you’ll be exploring it.
Charlie, you’re thinking in modern terms, but the key to this is thinking in medieval terms.
Cops use horses to break the big crowd into several smaller groups, then swarms of cops start arresting people so busting heads won’t be needed. Better for everybody.
Unless your objective is to cause as much violence and damage as possible, then an early end is bad. So you plan ahead to be able to continue the violence in the face of attempts to stop it. Watch a movie about knights in shining armor battling peasants, then think how modern man could recreate armor, bucklers, shields, archers, catapults.
Bring gas masks in case the cops use tear gas. Bring wrist rockets and ball bearings for powerful medium-distance stand-off weapons. Scatter caltrops to cripple police horses and force long, slow, man-on-man conflicts. Glue PVC pipe over your forearms to create a hard-surface shinguard to block police batons and allow you to strike back harder. Bring buckets of biological toxins to splash on cops (not only sewer workers fear Hepatitis C). With a little creativity, you can turn a peaceful city street into a battlefield and guarantee your political cause hours of free publicity.
Okay, switch gears . . . now you’re a St. Paul cop, with credible information that a group of people is planning to assemble with these ordinary household items and, given the political context, it’s plausible that violence may ensue. What’s your next move?
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I wonder if horses can be trained to feel for caltrops, and when they feel one, to kick…….or whether some enterprising engineer could invent a riot grade horse-shoe…..hmmm….
These are police horses used for patrol and crowd control, not destriers.
In medieval times the chevaliers would deafen their horses and train them to understand commands given by pressure with the knee and foot. The knights slit the horses’ nostrils so they could breather easier in battle. The destriers were trained to rear up and lash out on command with their front hooves.
I doubt that any police force in the world has horses prepared to the standards of authentic war horses.