I’m inclined to say “I’ll believe it when I see it” but is this a case of the system actually working? By Jennifer Gonnerman The New Yorker Krasner asked his young prosecutors, “Who here has read Michelle Alexander?” Photograph by Jeff Brown for The New Yorker Until Larry […]
The late American paleoconservative columnist Samuel T. Francis on the phenomenon of “anarcho-tyranny”, a useful term for describing much of the systematic legalist bullshit plaguing the West today, particularly the U.K. and mainland Europe. ~MRDA~ By Samuel Francis If, as Bill Clinton tells us, the “era of Big […]
These are the things our anarchist and libertarian friends ought to focused on. By John Whitehead Rutherford Institute “Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.” ― Theodore Roosevelt There are those who would have you believe […]
This is a decent enough article as far as it goes, but it fails to address the real elephant in the room, i.e. that mass incarceration results from too many laws and the overly broad definition of “crime.” By Arthur Rizer and Lar Trautman The American Conservative Shutterstock/Sakhorn […]
By Ilya Somin Reason The Trump administration recently adopted a “zero tolerance” policy under which undocumented immigrants apprehended by federal officials are forcibly separated from their children. In April and May alone, almost 2000 children were torn from their parents and detained separately, often under cruel conditions likely […]
It is interesting to consider that both liberals and conservatives are constantly claiming that society is going completely down the tubes, with liberals insisting this is due to the availability of guns or the proliferation of hate crimes and public shootings, and conservatives insisting the problem is family […]
The ‘day for freedom’ saw thousands demonstrate on Whitehall in London in favour of freedom of speech. Led by Tommy Robinson, it was supported by UKIP, For Britian, Count Dankula and Sargon of Akkad.
Tom Woods interviews Professor William Anderson joins to discuss the perverse incentives in the American legal system that work against the accused and their ability to fight back against abuses and outrages perpetrated against them. Listen here.
The state always needs a moral panic to justify the expansion of its own power. Gay rights are now mainstream, marijuana legalization is moving rapidly, sanctuary cities are resisting immigration enforcement, skepticism of the drug war is growing, support for criminal justice reform is expanding, and protests against […]
This would seem to go against the general trend toward marijuana legalization, skepticism of the “war on drugs” and support for “criminal justice reform” generally. It’s also interesting how after 50 years of the “war on drugs,” there are now more drugs, more powerful drugs, and more drug […]
This Larry Krasner guy sounds too good to be true. But if he’s for real, I suppose it would be an illustration of the possibility of “reform within the system.” The idea that virtually any jurisdiction in the United States comes even remotely close to being “soft on […]
It is interesting how the state always seeks to capitalize on whatever moral panics are going on at the present time. The biggest moral panics at present are arguably illegal immigration (for the Red Tribe), guns (for the Blue Tribe), opioids and “sex trafficking” (for both tribes). Immigrants […]
A self-managed, libertarian penal system? That sounds like something right out of the ARV-ATS program. By Jo Griffin In a country where jails are seen as ticking timebombs, a system of self-rule among inmates has proved a striking success Renato Da Silva Junior was convicted of homicide five […]
I suspect Trump and Sessions’ latest efforts to throw a bone to their redneck “base” will likely fail, and potentially backfire given that the general trend is toward liberalization of both drug and criminal justice police. By Matt Ford The New Republic In a speech Monday in Manchester, […]
An interesting example of modest but potentially genuine reform from “within the system.” By Shaun King The Intercept When lifelong civil rights attorney Larry Krasner was elected in a landslide this past November to become the new district attorney of Philadelphia, to say that his fans and supporters […]
Aleksey Bashtavenko Academic Composition “However unwilling a person who has a strong opinion may be to admit that his opinion might be false, he ought to be moved by this thought: however true it may be, if it isn’t fully, frequently and fearlessly discussed, it will be […]
Most research shows that we live in a far more peaceful time than previous periods in human history. It’s a complicated topic with a lot of incomplete data for a massively huge period of examination, but the current conventional wisdom follows from Dr. Pinker’s study of the long […]
San Fransisco California Aug 11, 2017 Dale Brown Founder, DTMC
San Fransisco California Aug 11, 2017 Mark Lutter Lead Economist, Neway Capitol
This would be comical if it wasn’t so pathetic. A coalition of Republican luminaries admits that the police state and its related features are actually a problem. The list of signatories to this group’s manifesto includes many who were involved in creating the police state in the first […]
More creeping Stalinism. By Elizabeth Nolan Brown Reason Looking forward to a future when federal agents monitor Tinder? We won’t be far off if some folks in Congress get their way. Under a proposal from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R–Va.), anyone posting or hosting digital content that leads to […]
By Ellie Silverman Washington Post William Fears, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi from Houston who is holding the flag, clashes with a counterprotester at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Charlottesville residents criticized the review of the […]
A summary of the findings of the investigation conducted by a private law firm commissioned by the city of Charlottesville. Assuming this summary is accurate, the findings are fairly consistent with my own observations about Charlottesville. By Gregory Hood American Renaissance Independent report makes an honest effort to […]
Anarcho-Dictator Instead of a Blog I do not want the police and courts to engage in activities normally approved of by minarchists and some anarchists – such as protecting private property or prosecuting murderers. This is for several reasons: Police are not legitimate representatives of the victims. As […]
I’ve never been a fan of this guy, but I thought the charges that were put on him sounded like overkill. Apparently, the judge agreed. A thought: We need an “Anarchist Civil Liberties Union,” similar to the American Civil Liberties Union, but which defends all enemies of the […]
Defending all of those who come under attack by the state must be one of the first principles of a serious anarchist movement. This includes Communists protesting Donald Trump, Alt-Rightists protesting in favor of Confederate monuments, marijuana farmers attacked by the DEA, gun nuts attacked by the BATF, […]
Far too many libertarians and anarchists, left and right, are losing sight of who the real enemy is. Steven Horwitz Bleeding Heart Libertarians You’d think the statement in my title should be obvious, but if you were wondering why it’s been so easy for so many supposed libertarians […]
Press TV. Listen here. The US has been waging a war against drugs for half a century, viewing drug addiction as a criminal phenomenon instead of a health issue, therefore no headway has been made in curbing the US opioid crisis, an American analyst says. The so-called ‘War […]
Interview with former Alcatraz convict and depression-era gangster, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis (AZ-325). He was a key member of the Karpis/Barker gang, a criminal organization that terrorized the Midwest in the 1930s. Karpis spent nearly 26 years on Alcatraz, a record.
We need for anarchists to start running for mayor of cities and towns with this as part of their platform. I’m serious. Truth Fight. The community of Sharpstown, Texas decided that they didn’t need the police any longer. They made a controversial decision to fire the local police department […]
There are different types of criminal acts. Some are casual, unpredictable and opportunistic like a bag snatching or a smartphone lift from a club when someone rested their phone on the mahogany bar just for a second. Other times, crimes are planned well in advance, gestated for long […]
In recent years, there has been growing concern in some camps about matters involving police brutality, police militarization, mass incarceration, overcriminalization, electronic surveillance and related matters. The bulk of the concerns of these kinds have come from the left end of spectrum, and raised by those who are […]
This is a peer reviewed article published last year by the British Medical Journal on the subject of police brutality in the United States and how frequently it occurs. The researchers summarized their findings as follows. “US police killed or injured an estimated 55 400 people in 2012 (95% […]
Trump goes predictably full Nixon/Reagan on drug policy. Expect a backlash in the future given the racial implications of drug policy and the racially controversial nature of the Trump presidency.. The next Democratic President will likely be the furthest left the US has ever had. Just like Bill […]
By Nathan J. Robinson Current Affairs If you are a Trump supporter, the president has just pardoned “America’s toughest sheriff,” a man who was willing to fight illegal immigration using any means at his disposal. If you are a liberal, Trump has pardoned a despicable racist, a man […]
By Keith Preston The State exists for the purpose of maintaining a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence within a particular geographical territory in order to more effectively control resources, exploit subjects, protect an artificially privileged ruling class, and expand its own power both internally and externally. […]
I can’t think of any time since the conspiracy trials of the late 1960s and early 1970s that there has been an effort to attack political freedom on this magnitude and in such a direct manner. By David Cole and Faiz Shakir Washington Post David Cole is national […]
Shades of Emma Goldman. Eric Allison The Guardian I have been a student of the prison system since I first entered it in 1957. I was around when a bread and water diet was part of the punishment process, and even had a taste of it. And I […]
Where are the Shining Path when you need them? Anti-Media New Mexico — A small community in New Mexico is learning firsthand the consequences of relying on corporate industry to fuel your economy. In the case of Torrance County, it’s the private prison industry. From a July 25 article by the Santa […]
Oregon: Soon to be a Pan-Anarchist homeland for druggies? This bill isn’t as radical as it sounds but it’s a start. By Nicole Lewis Washington Post An Oregon bill that passed last week makes possession of small amounts of drugs such as cocaine, shown here, a misdemeanor instead […]
Jared Taylor of American Renaissance tries to understand the concept of “institutional racism.” Racism is said to be what holds back blacks and whites in American society, but there just don’t seem to be enough racist people or deliberately racist practices to explain large gaps in achievement. The […]
By Shaun King New York Daily News Are you familiar with the 10,000 hour rule that Malcolm Gladwell shares in his book, “Outliers?” It basically states that it takes about 10,000 hours of time and effort in a field to become an expert in it. I’m now nearing […]
An interesting new study. By Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy Prison Policy Initiative Wait, does the United States have 1.3 million or more than 2 million people in prison? Are most people in state and federal prisons locked up for drug offenses? Frustrating questions like these abound because […]
By Thaddeus Russell Reason Our cities are saturated with militarized law enforcement officers. An extraordinarily high number of American civilians are killed by police each year. The U.S. prison population is the largest in the world. And we are only beginning to understand why. In recent years, scholars […]
Part 2/2 – More Foucault! A look at Jeremy Bentham’s prison, the Panopticon, and what it says about Edward Snowden, cyber-security, government surveillance. Also discussing Stop & Search by the police in the UK, and what it says about power and spying.
Part 1/2 – What is prison for? How has crime and punishment changed in the last 250 years? Philosopher Michel Foucault says the penal system – that’s law, courts, police, surveillance – exists to protect the power of the ruling class, but what does that mean?
What does “law and order” really mean? What can we learn about history and politics from it? And do you always have to obey the law?
Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson
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