Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Respect my authoritah!

One day, a British history professor was crossing the street in Atlanta to get from one conference venue to the next. As he did so, a scruffy-looking young man hollered at him, "Hey! You can't cross there! Cross at the street corner!". The professor thanked the young man for his input, and crossed anyhow.

When he reached the other side, the scruffy-looking young man approached him and told him, "Your papers, please." The professor said "Excuse me?". "I'm a police officer, and I'm giving you a ticket for jaywalking." "You're a police officer? You'll have to show me some ID, young man, because you certainly don't look like one."

So of course the scruffy young man took down the professor, and called over four of his gang members to help beat the professor up. Because said professor did not respect his authoritah and thus was a menace to society as bad as 16 year old girls and probably a terrorist besides, so what is any self-respecting police officer supposed to do? I mean, c'mon. If people fail to respect the authoritah of scruffy young men wearing brown jackets who SAY they are police officers but look like common thugs and fail to show any identification that they really ARE police officers, next thing you know they'll fail to respect the authoritah of well-uniformed young men wearing black jackboots, and THEN where would we all be? Why, the terrorists might KILL US ALL!

-- Badtux the Helpful Penguin

Atlanta's finest respond to the threat of a terrorist professor with maximum force and a major crime scene tape deployment.

Posted by: BadTux / 1/11/2007 02:10:00 PM

Comments:

If he didn't want to be beaten senseless by a bunch of plainclothes thugs for no reason at all, then he shouldn't have been walking down a city street in America!

Anyone who believes otherwise clearly wants the Islamocommunofascists to win. If such people would be so kind as to leave their names and addresses, I will forward them to the nearest Homeland Securitah office.

A bit of advice: when the jackboots kick your door off its hinges at 4am, just lie back and enjoy it. Fighting back only makes them madder.
# posted by Aaron : 11/1/07 3:43 PM

Good LORD. How awful.

I don't suppose there's any chance that thug cop will be disciplined.
# posted by kc : 11/1/07 6:50 PM

After I saw this article in "The NY Times" the other day, my distrust of all things authoritarian reared its suspicious head and sniffed around.

I am beginning to believe this sort of thing doesn't happen by accident any more, not that this incident was planned or orchestrated. It just seems as if some order or directive has been issued to all law enforcement agencies to demonstrate just how brutal they have the power to be even over the most trivial matters. Each week the media reports on the latest iron fist episode to occur in the nation.

Is this a ripple effect of the Republicans being in power? Is this fallout from the attacks of 9/11? Are we more insecure and frightened than ever before? Or is the State feel the need to remind us of its power on a weekly basis?
# posted by TheCultureGhost : 11/1/07 10:42 PM

KC, both the cop and the police department say they simply followed procedure after the officer approached an unknown man, identified himself as a police officer by stating that he was a police officer, and then the man refused to comply with a proper legal request for ID. Police officers are apparently not required to identify themselves using a departmental photo ID prior to making requests of civilians. Now, given that I can rent a police officer uniform from my local costume shop that seems rather silly, but hey, common sense and law are two different things. I believe the Atlanta Police Department when they said they followed the law by arresting this gentleman. Just as I believed the Birmingham police department when they said they followed the law by arresting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr...

- Badtux the Legal Penguin
# posted by BadTux : 11/1/07 11:12 PM

Oh, my, God.

You know, I do nearly all of my travelling on foot, and I've probably jaywalked eight thousand times. No cop has ever given me an earful over it, never mind a ticket. At this stage in my life, if a cop did dress me down for jaywalking, I'd probably get my skull bashed in for laughing in his face. If jaywalkers like me go unpunished, then the terrorists have won?

Didn't take much, did it?
# posted by Mimus Pauly : 12/1/07 10:28 AM

Hello, Badtux. Perhaps this fellow was teaching one of those "soft" sciences at one of those liberal arts colleges; hence the need for johnny to bash the weirdo....

Perhaps they might take on this one professor I had that made me read Thomas Hardy....
# posted by Progressive Traditionalist : 13/1/07 1:00 AM

Honor Roll

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"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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