I've read some of the taser posts here, and cannot find instances of someone "hating" a law enforcement official. I have known people who reflexively freak out when an authority figure pulls them over (be it on their yacht in the harbor or in their sedan on the highway). Cops are people, though to some they become archetypes. Conversely, I do know some who assume that questioning authority equals hating the authority figure, a mistake in my book. I cannot speak for the rest of the world, but when it gets to a point where "bad feelings about not being loved" and tasering people so they'll stay in some kind of potentially random/capricious line bump into each other, I'll ask that we don't shock the monkey.

Quick story: I was driving home from work one afternoon a few years back. Traffic was fairly thick but moving at or around the limit. A puff of dust went up a ways ahead of me: a car had managed to slide down a slope on the eastbound 134 near Interstate 5 (for those who know the area near Burbank/Glendale). I pulled over and walked back. A woman had pulled over (who saw the car go off the road) and was panicking while trying to dial 911. Short version: another woman (who crashed the car), clad in a business-style dress, roughly late 20's in age, was standing next to the crashed vehicle, which had come to a sideways rest next to a tree. She had a couple of tears in her light colored stockings, and a small amount of blood on her face. She appeared to be an Armenian (many, many Armenians live nearby). It was a strange, David Lynch-esque kind of scene: the good samaritan fumbling with her phone and talking breathlessly, the semi-injured woman eventually navigating the slope but lurching oddly while saying (with a thick accent) "Help me push the car...push the car..." which was crazy as it was sideways some 10 feet down and 20 feet away on the dirt embankment.

In a very short amount of time a CHP officer arrives, a development I was grateful for. He approached us and began asking questions, i.e. what happened, what did you see, anybody hurt? The panicked good samaritan gushed forth her account, and the Armenian woman began to approach up the hill. The officer ordered the Armenian woman to just stay where she was--he had just arrived on scene and needed to get a grip on what was going on. As he turned back to us, he looked down at the sandy ground beneath him, just off the freeway. Ants were busily doing their thing, large, black (or were they red? I'm not sure) and he began to dig his boot into the ants and the small hole they were crawling out of. Really digging his very shiny boots into them, and killing a number before I spoke up.

Note: I was not mad at the officer. I had nothing to hide or gain, though maybe one reason I spoke up was because I'm 6'3" and he looked to be about 5'8" so I wasn't afraid of him (at least not physically). I asked him "What are you doing?" He looked down again, and smashed some more. I said, "Let's move over here a little. The ants live in that spot." And so the three of us moved maybe 10 feet away and continued our discussion of the events. I wasn't shitty about it, he wasn't defensive about it, and all was right with the world. Civility starts with respect. I didn't choose to dislike him because of his uniform and he didn't choose to dislike me for whatever reason.

To my knowledge, the descendants of those ants are busy at work in that same area to this very day.

++++

among the more civil participants here.

Is it more significant, in your eyes, that ants were squashed, or more significant that they were squashed by a CHP officer?

Can you even see why that is a question, in my mind?

Would you have moved a firefighter/EMT off the anthill?
Would you have noticed a firefighter/EMT squashing ants?
A wrecker driver?
A friend of the original Armenian's? The panicky samaritan?

(Note: I have nothing against ants, unless they're fire ants, which are an invasive and detrimental species on a par with feral hogs, which are a universal pest.)

At least two.

Read a story the other day on how the Forest Service (for crying out loud) is being issued tasers, which seems to some of them -- the whole agency has been hideously trashed by Bush, of course -- as not being compatible with their core mission. Simplifying, and working from memory, a lot of Forest Service work now has to do with protecting privatized forest, again part of the Bush administration's--it's so hard to come up with new words after awhile--shit. So now, we have private property, so of course, protecting it is now a mission, hence the tasers. Except the property isn't really private, but stolen by Republicans, like so much else.

So, with the forest service, you have just people protecting injustice. Now transfer that to the police. On the one hand, you do have "serve and protect" (the police putting the hose back in the washing machine after my 75-year-old mother called them for help). On the other hand, one of my earliest political memories is of the Chicago Police beating up a priest, on national TV, during the Chicago Convention in 1968. And on the third hand, you have policework being truly.... Something I would not want or be able to do. (There are times when I feel like a furnace filter for human animosity on this blog, and that's only digital; policemen have to do work in the flesh.) For example, the Hillary Hostage situation -- Surely none of us would argue that the police were not necessary, or that we would want to do their jobs? And on the fourth hand, you really do have people who strap on the nightstick because they anticipate, with pleasure, using it. All humans with power over others abuse it; yet for civilization to function, some must have power over others. So, how do we mitigate? I would expect both "progressives" and "the police" to think that this is the key question, yet apparently not.

That said, it seems clear to me, as to many others, that the great question before us is whether the United States will be able to clamber back from a final slide into authoritarianism (greatly accelerated by Bush, entirely supported by the Conservative movement and the Republican Party, and supported by many Democrats and most of the Village). If the final slide does take place, a motto like "Protect and Serve" turns only into an implicit question: Protect and Serve Who*?

So, on the one hand, we've got many, many policeman --I'm just not going to write policeperson--who "go to work every day" (in the words of Jesse Jackson). And on the other, we've got a totally out-of-control ruling class, that, with intelligence gained from its massive surveillance program, is entirely capable of ordering those same policeman to go out and tase lots of us, having been trained to do so and given the "tools," and the whole thing being a non-story because tasing has been totally normalized by those in whose interests it is to do that, starting with the manufacturers of the device and their various shills.

And I can imagine plenty of not entirely implausible situations where small protests or mass gatherings might "need" or "ask for" the tasing treatment, and it won't only be the "jerks": Continuity of government issues in 2008; bank failures; another terrorist strike; housing issues; gas protests. I mean, name it! Whenever you imagine chickens coming home to roost.

I would also venture to say that our crazed and greedy ruling class has done their due diligence on all this, and has prepared for it. That's what little things like legislation to allow Bush to federalize the National Guard more easily have to do with, eh? My guess, whoever, is that when it comes to the actual planning, the old white men behind the curtain are fighting the last war--that is, they're imagining the 60s all over again, with riots, bombings, et cetera, modulo the "free love" part, except that this time they're going to do it right. (And I imagine many of the older lefties might share the same fantasy, except with a different outcome.)

[I need to go out, and so this gets even more sketchy here.]

So, appear where you are not expected. That's why non-violence is important, and wear suits! And learn to talk. You don't make peace with your friends, but with your enemies. As if the police were ever the real enemies

NOTE * There are those who would argue that's always the question, to which I would respond that there really are societies where the rule of law prevails, however imperfectly, and societies where it doesn't at all; and the "no difference" and "worse is better" "progressive" theorists should consider whether Chile under Pinochet or Guatemala under the paramilitaries and the United States today are equivalent. Meanwhile, the honest police (to use Kelley's term) should consider what they will do should some future administration chose to use them as Pinochet and the paramilitaries used their law enforcement agencies. And please refer any questions containing the word "hypothetical" to The Department of No! It Can't Happen Here!

NOTE One of the problems I began this comment before MJS's question, "Which progressives are you talking about?" with this policing/tasering permathread is that direct human experience enters so little. We're always quoting or finding ammunition. I suggest that all parties tell their stories. Over and over again. Like, actual things that happened. This probably will not convince your "enemy" but it will certainly help you. Are Kelley's views on the police formed solely on an abstract basis? Or are their experiences there? That is what I would like to hear. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle....

UPDATE Civility is code for deference to authority, at least in the Beltway. So I don't use the word. I prefer "polite."

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

why do “progressives” hate police so much?
I don't think it is necessarily a progressive vs. regressive (conservative) thing.

Maybe those who are members of the intelligencia that will be march off first realize they have more to lose in the impending fascist tidalwave. Maybe it is people who have been at rallies protesting for our liberties and freedoms have encountered police tactics firsthand. Maybe it only takes one peace gathering being fired upon to make you question their warm fuzzy goodness.

Maybe you rarely ever see officers serving OR protecting and primarily intimidating and exercising power to their fullest extents.

Intranets, were you?

I'm not asking the question as a gotcha, but if one's own experiences are described, it's simply more interesting than second hand stuff, and better writing, too.

I have almost no experience with the police, probably because I don't drive, am white, and so on. So I'm handicapped in the direct experience department.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

So Lambert's comment wasn't up when I responded, but yeah I shouldn't even comment when others are so much better.

our outfit didn't have tasers.

But I speak from experience here. Personal experience.
If you have a problem with a police officer, you need to report that to the officer's department. You can do this in writing; witnesses or evidence are always helpful; you can do this over the phone. You can call the local TV station and pour your heart out to them.

YES, we understand that people get hurt.
NO, we don't want more people hurt, or people hurt worse.
It's our JOB to keep people SAFE -- including the bad guys.

Have you ever tried to break up a tussle between children, or pets? From time to time your intervention must involve force. If you're judicious (and well-trained, and you manage not to get bitten, scratched, or busted one by the tusslers you're breaking up -- Congratulations!) you can separate the combatants safely. Sometimes you have to shove them apart. Sometimes you have to cart one or more of them to another room to ensure the fight doesn't break right back out.

Recently we had a (huge upset, major unexpected victory) football game here in Lubbock at Texas Tech's Jones Stadium. The crowd is in excess of 50,000 persons, and they're "storming the field" after the clock runs out because Tech beat OU.

Tech's police department is something like 20 personnel all told -- yes, that would be including the dispatcher, the patrol officers not inside the stadium during the game because somebody has to watch the parking lots and unwrap the drunks' cars from around the trees and light stands and each other -- so Tech has a contract with the city of Lubbock for additional personnel during games, as part of campus and stadium security. Because LPD had a situation elsewhere that day, in one of the mutual aid agreements between LPD and the Lubbock County Sheriff's Office (and the DPS), there were LCSO and Texas DPS officers helping LPD help Tech PD with security that day.

It was their duty to create a safe exitway for both teams, and university officials and dignitaries from both schools, to get off the field. Students pouring onto and across the field felt that when officers pushed them, with open hands, out of the path of these groups being escorted off the field, the students were being manhandled, the police were being brutal, and excessive force was employed.

Two of the four students filmed being pushed aside ended up arrested on charges of public intoxication (and at least two more had charges of disorderly conduct dropped later).
One DPS officer, a fortyish woman about 5-8 and about 150 pounds, was filmed pushing a student back: the student appeared to be preparing to throw a football block on the officer in order to "get to" the departing OU contingent (or maybe the referee).

That student ended up on his butt in on the artificial turf; it's my understanding that he plans to sue the university and has filed a complaint for excessive force with DPS.

Another fan rushing onto the field was also pushed back by an officer, who was holding a baton (one end in each hand, baton across officer's chest about shoulder high) and using that to help hold the cordon open for the exiting players.

On the other side of the field the fans succeeded in knocking down and trampling an LPD and a Tech PD officer, both of whom were treated and released at a local hospital.

The university is looking into better physical barriers to prevent fans from storming the field in the future.

(These "fans" crawled under steel rails and dropped 12-15 feet to the sidelines to create this melee, by the way.)

There were no tasers employed. People on both sides of the scrum ended up injured. So far as I know, no one died. I do believe a couple of people went to jail, but they were bailed out in a matter of hours.

The videos of the officers pushing the students / fans made the local news, as did complaints against the DPS for excessive force. There is an investigation going on, but results have not been announced that I can find.

This is not an event I worked. It's one I saw, and deliberately avoided participating in. I can't watch or post video from this machine, but these links may contain relevant images:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseac...

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/oklaho...

I lived for quite awhile in a gentrified pocket of a really bad neighborhood. ie. gang tags on my parked cars, crackhead (and/or drunk) smashed my car window at 10am to reach in and grab the three quarters and two dimes I had in the stupid console coin holder area (learned that lesson), nightly gunfire, drug dealers occasionally hanging around across the street. So.. yeah lots of exposure to cops.. In the above neighborhood it was mostly cops driving past and never stopping. It's amazing what a suburb cop will spend time on versus the inner city cops which could care less about most things. It was about things that were associated with revenue and just bare minimum to get by. Versus suburb cops that spend 30 minutes questioning you because you happen to be walking somewhere are 2am.

I've also been to rallies and my favorite run in was when there was a major chase / bust of some car chase that took place in front of me as I was walking up the street. I had this female cop (not that female makes it any different) got in my face telling me I couldn't even watch them beating a guy from the sidewalk about 50 ft away. They had plenty of extra cops so this one took it upon themself to try and order me around. (Now I get the police investigation / safety / crowd stuff and this wasn't the case. I was by myself way far away and the cop had to come a long way just to order me around. So I had to keep asking where I could stand? I had to keep backing up 5 feet and asking if this was ok to stand on the sidewalk here? Then five more feet. etc. until the cop gave up and walked away muttering "you have to be kidding". I probably could have been arrested if the cop felt like it (for really no reason since I followed orders, just liberally interpreted and with lots of clarifications). I kind of understand where the cop was coming from dealing with drunks on campus, but after two minutes of this conversation and power games with this cop, they should have realized I wasn't drunk and was in my rights (I also was on a public sidewalk trying to get to my house about ten houses away).

Anyways, I'm rambling.

Truth is my cousin is a cop, I grew up around small town one cop on duty type places where I was related to one of the three cops. My neighbor growing up was a cop.

My girlfriend's brother is a cop. I do recall the time he told a story of driving homeless / drunk panhandlers as a sort of cop inside joke because it probably happened a lot... they got driven somewhere far away and let go. It was one of those self-amusing cop inside hilarity kind of things, and I would say that I would go so far as generalize to say cops have formed an "Us vs. Them" mentality that lets them justify an awful lot of inhumanity. Also, they have to deal with a lot of scumbags which doesn't improve their disposition. Plus the pay is commensurate with level of professionalism we can expect.

Is it more significant, in your eyes, that ants were squashed, or more significant that they were squashed by a CHP officer? What was significant was that it was not necessary, by any stretch of any imagination, to kill those ants, and yet there they were being killed.

Can you even see why that is a question, in my mind? Just like with the Michael Vick issue, my thinking is about the needless act of violence, not the particulars (racial or otherwise) of the perpetrator. Why the question comes up for you is something only you can properly answer, yes?

Would you have moved a firefighter/EMT off the anthill?
Would you have noticed a firefighter/EMT squashing ants?
A wrecker driver?
A friend of the original Armenian’s? The panicky samaritan? I noticed for a couple of reasons: the officer looked down and made a point of digging his boots into the ant hill and the ants thereon. That is, my attention followed the one who was speaking to our ad hoc group at the time. It could have been anyone and I believe I would have asked any of those you mention that we simply move rather than destroy life needlessly. btw I didn't "move" anyone anywhere: I suggested we move away from the hill. No tasering required.

(Note: I have nothing against ants, unless they’re fire ants, which are an invasive and detrimental species on a par with feral hogs, which are a universal pest.) Is there an ant colony in this world that has even approached the amount of damage that humans have wrought? As to Feral hogs: why must you insist on bringing up Limbaugh?

++++

except, maybe, that some people view all insects as pests.

Moving off the anthill's probably the best strategy, because if it does nothing else it stops the little buggers running up inside your pants and stinging you, which is why I've tried for 30 years now, (since I was treated to fire ants inside a cast when I was 18) not to stand on/ kick over anthills.

The feral hogs I'm talking about are, alas, more dangerous and less publicized than the one you named.

generally our policy was to see if they had any ID with an address we could take them (home?) to....I'll never forget one night in Big Spring, I offered a scruffy-looking chick in Wal-Mart a ride home one night two or three weeks before Christmas.

Ended up dropping her off at the state mental hospital....
the next Reagan budget cuts, in January, meant she ended up living underneath a railroad overpass about a mile from that Wal-Mart.

My solution, if I had one?

Involves spending money, thus likely not to happen. :p

I can't recall what the criteria was, people that were annoying and begged for money... or just a certain area of underpass people being cleared out..
At any rate, they were driving people long distances and leaving them in the middle of nowhere on purpose. (or a sadistic purpose) (or a keep them out of our hair purpose)

("Truth is my cousin is a cop....")

Now I understand....

[Delete stupid reading of MJS's mind on ants. Not only did I get it wrong, MJS's idea was so much better.]

Anyhow, not to sing kumbaya. "Conflict free is content free" (Talkin' to you, Obama).

More real writing, please!

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

The feral hogs I’m talking about are, alas, more dangerous and less publicized than the one you named.

I'm not sure that visiting the subject of dangerous wild rogue pigs is the best way to get your point across in a post titled "To Serve and Protect". If ya know what i mean.

*

come in and terrorize the babysitter and the kids, destroy the garden and front yard, and eat about half the ducklings.

The way you deal with them is to shoot them, by the way.
Not with a taser. You use a shotgun with slugs.

come in and terrorize the babysitter and the kids, destroy the garden and front yard, and eat about half the ducklings.

i usually do all that myself.

*

The picture of a feral hog eating ducklings will, I think, stay with me. Thanks for that.

However, the correlation between Republicans and feral hogs is well known. See here.

Next time, keep the ducklings in the duck pit!

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

seriously. the uniform?

its called abuse of power, how about that one? how about lies? how about that cops took advantage of me when i was a young unknowing teenager living on the street and if they hadn't, i wouldn't have been sitting in jail at 17? how about i never forgot it? or how about it wasn't the last time they lied to me and tried to fuck me over in the name of what they IMAGINED was true or Right at the time. how about its very harmful when someone with so much power is wrong? how about i've seen them bully and beat my friends? how about i hate any fucker who can take out his personal issues on me, but when they have the backing of the State they get my unmitigated loathing? and disgust? does this gel at all? because when this junk was happening, i wasn't noticing what was written on their academy rings.

yes, some are cool. yes, some have been cool to me. and their hard, hard jobs, oh, and their low pay, yes. all the imagined empathy in the world doesn't matter once you've seen shit with your own eyes. because hey, if six out of ten men that met you in a lonely passageway did you wrong....how would you feel about the seventh to come along? that's all i'm posing to you. if you had run ins with ten Red-Hatted Loopa-Luchos (a type of government official you haven't yet come across) and seven of them were nasty types, mean types, bullying types, arrogant types, assholes or abusers? hmm? i bet you'd begin to develop a distaste for red hats. why? is it the uniform?

listen, we can't compare these things. because each person may have a different experience with cops depending on a million variables. so a "cop" to me wont be a "cop" to you (or her, or him, etc) necessarily. geography, age of cop, experience of cop. psychological makeup of cop, or person, or class of person, or "look" of person, or time of day, and so on and so on. hey, maybe i would have loved cops. maybe they didn't like me. maybe THEY started it.

either way, i do not go out of my way to start trouble with them. and if they were engaged in helping someone and needed my help. if they pulled me over, i'd make no funny moves and show them my papers. hell, i'd even turn down my music without being asked. but nobody is going to make me like cops in general, and nobody is going to cleanse my memory of what i've lived.

i'm a human with memory, thought, and reaction. but i'm not "progressive," so i don't think i fit your question. i'm just a cat what lived some years and wants to live some more. without some freak with a stick in his hand thinking he can command me what to do.

PS my uncle is a cop too, but i dont really feel its relevant to my feelings or experiences. i hardly know him.
___________________________
.delusions of un mundo mejor.

not "It's a family quarrel!!!" I really like my cousin, and actually find it humorous imagining him on the beat. He is truly what you would imagine a power hungry, cop-for-the-wrong-reasons kind of guy. You could tell me a story of police abuse and put his name after it and I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't even hold it against him as much as a hypocrite as that makes me.

Regardless my thoughts on cops is not shaped by having a cousin as a cop. I get into more trouble with the gf who doesn't appreciate my skepticism about police. She is of the "it's only one bad cop out of 10,000" mentality which I find laughable.

Having grown up in Chief Parker's LA and remembering his Watt's comment about having "them bottled up like monkey's in a zoo," and having lived many years in Serpico times in NY, I have a somewhat jaundiced view of the police.

I always found NY cops more human than LA cops. But I always remember my neighbor's telling me NOT to call the cops about our local drug pusher in NY because they were on his payroll. But that's a different time.

But I saw an incident a few years ago in NY that impressed on me the bad attitude I think can be engendered in cops. There was a candy/cigarette shop on the corner of 79th and Broadway that young teens would go to after school for snacks. The owner had complained that the kids were too rowdy and stole candy. So the cops stationed an officer there after school hours. So far, no biggy.

But one afternoon there was a woman cop on the corner. There were also about 4 or 5 boys about 15 years old. They were not in the shop but were being like all 15 year old kids after school. Not making trouble, just blowing off steam after school. This cop, who was alone told them to get off the street. She didn't talk to them or ask their names or tell them nicely they were being a little noisy. She just told them to get off the street. They were taken aback and didn't immediately follow here orders. So she started shoving them around, literally. Guess what. They didn't like it. And they were all bigger than she was.

They didn't do anything or assault her in any way. They just did not respond to her pushing them. But the next thing you know, there were several other cops and plain clothes guys on the scene and these 5 boys were up against a wall being frisked and treated like criminals.

They are never going to forget that. And they are probably not going to see the cops as their friends and protectors. I don't see why the cops could not have sent cops to the schools, explained that they would be stationed on this corner and encouraged the kids in these two schools to say hi and to keep things orderly etc. And would it have lessened this cop's authority to have nicely told them to keep it down rather than to start shoving them?

It's not just one incident either. I have seen other such incidents since in NY where cops stopped and ID'd kids walking on the street and acted as if we all knew they were doing something wrong and if they got lucky, the cops would find out what it was. This was Giuliani NY and he did have a get tough policy on kids in place. Not the way to make good citizens out of young people to my mind.

I could care less about the damn beasts’ political leanings.

Sarah: Did you mean you couldn't care less? Not being a word-usage cop here, but others have been tazed for less...

++++

As if we didn't know, some policemen really are the good guys*

From the Austin-American Statesman:

Several Austin police officers want to apologize to the man who was shocked by another officer's Taser on Thanksgiving in 2006.

The group includes at least two board members of the Austin Police Association, which in recent years has been criticized by some community groups that say it too quickly defends officers accused of wrongdoing.

"If one person spreads the word that this is how he was treated and got no apology, it is just an infection that would spread," said Matt Greer, who represents the detective rank on the union board.

New Police Chief Art Acevedo posted on an internal Web site Saturday evening a video in which Cpl. Thomas O'Connor used his Taser on Eugene Snelling, 32, after stopping him along MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) on Thanksgiving Day 2006 for going 5 miles per hour over the speed limit.

The video shows O'Connor using a tone that he would later call "very direct" to ask for Snelling's license and proof of insurance and Snelling shouting "whoa! whoa! whoa!" at the officer's demeanor. O'Connor is heard shouting "No! Not 'whoa, whoa, whoa!' " and is then seen drawing his Taser and ordering Snelling out of the car. He fired seconds later.

Acevedo said he will use the video to help train officers about how to better perform such stops to prevent similar incidents.

Police association Vice President Wuthipong "Tank" Tantaksinanukij said he wants to tell Snelling that "this is an unfortunate incident, and I'm sorry you went through it."

He said he also wants Snelling to know that the department includes professional, courteous officers.

The officers said they want to meet with Snelling as individual officers, not as representatives of the department or union.

"The officers who are seeing it get it," Acevedo said at a media briefing Monday. "Let's face it: The majority of the cops are good officers. People just need to be told what the expectations are and will rise to them."

In the O'Connor case, Vanderhule said, "Everybody I've talked to watches the tape and says the same thing, and that's they felt like the officer erred ... I've not heard any person yet say they thought the officer did well," he said.

Snelling said Monday that he "would not mind" meeting with the officers.

So, good for the Austin Police Department!

However, as tasers become more and more ubiquitous, and Taser's marketing department and the technology's proponents succeed in normalizing it, I would expect this good behavior to disappear, sadly enough.

* Until the Stanford Experiment gets to them, of course--as it could to any of us, whether we are "good" or not.

UPDATE Subsequent to this post, I see that the Austin American story has been posted on another thread. I leave it here for the record, and because the normalization thesis is not often elsewhere invoked.

We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan

were rapacious because of Republican sentiments, or merely feral behavior (as this is IMNVHO a distinction without any difference of appreciable moment or meaning), but I would have to expend some effort to do so, and I am not willing to do that.

The feral hog AKA the "wild hog" aka the razorback hog is a destructive, invasive, non-native species of little to no real value and of genuine detriment to the ecosystems it invades. With the possible exception of a very few remaining skilled subsistence hunters, it offers no one any benefit; and because it tears up garden, creekshore and pasture alike, it hurts everybody whose lands it traverses -- again, not unlike the GOP.

When they’ve been feeding on acorns and fallen fruit.

An acquaintance of mine hunts feral pig with a customized .50 caliber pistol by crawling into their trackways through the underbrush, tunnels just big enough to wiggle along hands-and-knees, tough to turn around and impossible to stand up and run. He moves in and waits for one to come along and charge; he figures he has less than a second to get off a kill shot before they reach him with their tusks and cut him to shreds.

He’s a good old boy, a recovering Vietnam War PTSD alcoholic addict now 20+ years sober who learned his tunnel hunting techniques flushing out VC. He doesn’t talk much about those days, or what he thinks about while hunting. We don’t ask either; just thank him for the sausage and keep a sharp eye out for any sudden moves on his part.

in a Stockyards slaughterhouse before World War Two, takes a serious rifle when he goes.

To all the hunters who do this service for the rest of us -- don't take my word for it, check out what your state extension service and your state parks service has to say about the damages these beasts do -- thank you. Hunt safe.