Comment by milesrout
10 months ago
Law review articles are largely written by students. They are not authoritative.
Do you think that Rowan Atkinson was dogwhistling about undemocratic, racist, bigoted police violence when he named his police sitcom "The Thin Blue Line" or do you think perhaps your dislike of the police has led to you associating negative attributes with anyone that happens to use any phrase related to the police?
Where I am from, the police is a respected, largely unarmed institution. Imperfect, as all institutions are. American left-political dislike of law enforcement isn't universal and most people don't have instant negative mental associations with everything police-related...
> Do you think that Rowan Atkinson was ...
No, but Ben Elton certainly was when he created and wrote it, even before hiring Atkinson to star in it . . .
When I last spoke to him Elton didn't view the entire UK Police force with disdain but he absolutely felt it was riddled with clusters of bigoted and violent police. You can see that in his other works such as the The Young Ones and various novels.
Sorry but have you actually seen the program? There isn't a hint of any of thise feelings.
> Sorry
are you? what for?
> but have you actually seen the program?
Yes.
> There isn't a hint of any of thise feelings.
It comes some 15 years after his angriest socialist days .. and it's a well crafted comedy played for laughs. You'll recall, I trust, that it mocks the police pretty heavily.
Detective Inspector Derek Grim isn't a lovable pussycat.
Have you seen it? Did you read the credits? What made you think Rowan created the show?
I'm not a left winger, and I generally respect the police, but everybody I've met with a "thin blue line" American flag decal or sticker has been a total asshole. It's not just hatred of the police. Connotations change over time, and the general connotation of "the thin blue line" in the US at the moment is unabashed support of far-right authoritarianism.
The phrase has nothing to do with any flags used much later by US policemen. That is the whole point of the thread.
>far-right authoritarianism
Get a grip. Even if it were a reference to what you say it is, that has nothing to do with the "far right". It is stock standard centre-right (and centre-left for that matter) position in the US to support the police in principle (if not, obviously, in every action theyve ever taken). The "defund the police" types are a minority of a minority.
Regardless of its history, the current popularity of the phrase is most certainly part of the neofascist movement in the US. Its rise was a direct response to the "Black Lives Matter" call for accountability - essentially doubling down on asserting that lawless behavior by the police is justified in service of some authoritarian "order", regardless of the destruction of everyone else's rights. In a free society, the police are a necessary institution [0] for upholding the law, not a special class of enforcers unbound by it.
[0] how do you think police get so biased against everyone else to begin with? they're effectively dealing with the shittiest rungs of society on repeat, so they form a pattern and end up applying it to everyone they meet
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The problem with neofascism certainly isn't a lack of hate. It's more like the lack of consistency in applying principles, or the unwillingness to generalize beyond the current target.
That’s not surprising at all.
You hate everybody, lol.
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