Shocker: Leftists Who Live in a Bubble Claim that Conservatives and Libertarians Aren't Saying Anything At All About the Militarization of Police

Mmm-hm.

I saw Roland Martin claim this on Twitter -- "Where are all the Libertarians protesting the excessive tactics of the Ferguson police?" or something like that.

I'll tell you where they were -- they were all in my timeline, hammering that point every few minutes.

Today, I'm arguing with Mary Katherine Ham about it, and Drew, a coblogger, is arguing back against me, basically taking MKH's position.

The comments right here feature a back-and-forth about the acceptable limits of police coercion.

But whatev's -- sure, Dumb Lefties Who Don't Read, make your claim that no one on the right is arguing this, in service of your real point, which is, eternally, that Right-Leaning People Are Horrible Racists.

Incidentally, I'm very willing to bet an amount of money that the very term "militarization of police" was invented by the writers at Reason. Certainly they've been the ones repeating it, frequently, thus giving L.Z. Granderson the very words he uses to claim that Libertarians (and conservatives) aren't discussing this issue:

In Cupp’s amalgamation of links to right-of-center commentators expressing concern about the militarization of police, she could only link to Reason magazine's tag "militarization of police." Therein, nearly 30 full pages of articles on the subject go all the way back to 2006.

You know who's not talking about this issue?

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Jordan.*

Odd that they're not expected to join in the debate that the whole of the right is actively engaged in.

* I originally wrote Jean Napolitano. I'd forgotten (if I'd ever known) that she'd resigned.

Thanks to the commenters who are not discussing the militarization of police at all for pointing this out to me.

Update: To clarify, I'm actually skeptical of the Libertarian take on this issue, at least in its Strong Form.

In a Weak Form, I buy it. Strong Form, no.

So I don't want to suggest that I am one of the Libertarians who's been pounding this issue.

I haven't.

But the idea that Libertarians and conservatarians haven't been discussing it is so absurd that it could only come from the lips of our increasingly ignorant and incompetent media.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

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