Policing in New Zealand

Reading the online version of my local paper today, I was struck by the differences between New Zealand and the United States. The top story – so I presume it’s on the front-page of the dead tree version – has the headline “Armed police brought in to arrest man in Christchurch.” This obviously wouldn’t be [...]

UK Cop Detains and Beats Photographer for Acting “Cocky”

Prepare to get angry: Hat tip: Boing Boing

Police State – The Militarization of the Police Force in USA

Police Thuggery in Pittsburgh

I haven’t really been following the happenings in Pittsburgh, but it looks pretty nasty. As I understand it, the protests were broken up due to the lack of a permit rather than any violence. The US is looking increasingly like a police state.

Philip Zimbardo Interview

Believer Magazine has a very interesting interview with Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the Stanford prison experiment. There’s a lot of great stuff, but I particularly liked Zimbardo’s emphasis of the inertia of institutions: Yes, even there, you know, what comes out of that is the guilt or innocence of each of the leaders. So [...]

Woman Tased in Front of Kids for Driving with Hand on Cheek, Questioning Authoritah

I’ve been assuming that the forthcoming ban on using a cellphone while driving is just an unenforceable piece of symbolic politics unlikely to do any harm. I still think that’s right, but this story from the States of a woman being pulled over for allegedly talking on a cellphone, tased, arrested, and having her kids [...]

Cop Tortures Dog for No Apparent Reason

This video isn’t as horrific as some of the police brutality we see these days thanks to the ubiquity of video cameras, but the pointlessness is quite astounding. Dog barks at cop. Owners are on their way. Cop tases dog, gets a noose around its neck. Cop tases dog again once it’s already subdued from [...]