On Fri, 17 Apr 2015 07:47 pm, Fetchinson . wrote: >>> In an altercation with the police, complying with their orders greatly >>> increases your chances of survival. >> >> Ah, the definition of a police state: where ordinary people, whether >> breaking the law or not, are forced by fear of death to obey the police >> at all times, whether the police are acting legally or not. > > I think you are grossly mischaracterizing that sentence of the OP. He > simply makes an observation: in an altercation with the police, > complying with their orders greatly increases your chances of > survival. Is this observation/statement true or false? Based on > empirical data from the past 50 years (in the US and elsewhere) I'd > say it's true by a huge margin.
Which is *exactly my point*. "Failure to obey arbitrary commands from random police officers, whether legally justified or not, may carry the penalty of summary execution at the discretion of the officer" is a defining characteristic of police states. I made no comment on the OP's intention for making that statement. Perhaps he was making an ironic comment on the state of US law enforcement; perhaps he thinks he is being genuinely helpful; perhaps this is his way of mocking those killed. I don't know. Whether he is a fascist who thinks police states are wonderful, or a liberal who thinks they are terrible, he described a police state. Whether he knew it at the time or not. -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list