Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/07/31/wooden-american-flag-crafted-o.html
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What’s a “peace officer”?
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So you say you weren’t even finished making it before you started burning it?
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Newspeak for Police Officer.
I do not mean to offend anyone by saying that, but it is clearly a moniker designed to shape how you think about the folks who enforce the laws of the regime.
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So it’s “Good Guy With A Gun And A Badge” ?
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You know I cant figure out BoingBoings editorial process.
Many days its anti Jeff Bezos/ amazon due to being proworker and then they post BUY THIS GREAT DEAL NOW ON AMAZON!!
Many days its anti cop and anti jingoist due to being pro freedom and they post this procop crap surprised that flag doesnt have a blue line in it
I thought there were some prohibitions about putting a flame to the American flag…
(And yes, why does it matter at all that the recipient is a ‘peace officer’? Seems like the maker went out of his way to make that point. Who cares what his friend does?)
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Term used when police officers were only used to enforce the law, before judge jury trial and sentencing was added to their list of duties.
Our governments act as the muscle in the system in which concentrated power makes itself stronger and the exploited get screwed, and law-enforcement officers are the point of that spear. But I don’t want to live in a society with no cops; how many times a day does somebody reach out to the police and get aid in a time of need? If you argue that the aid/exploitation ratio is far too small, I’ll agree, but when they’re helping, they deserve our gratitude.
Your comment neatly captures my feelings about the flag-art cop gift.
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Jasper Johns meets Bob Vila
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pro-cop, anti-cop, everyone has an opinion. fine. i am choosing to look at this post as being about the process of taking a bunch of cheap wood and applying some know-how and creativity and making something. try that. you’ll feel better.
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Policing per se is not a problem when recruiting, training and rules are enforced and all community based.
But in the US at least, my perception is the police are increasingly militarized and trained to have an adversarial approach to citizens, especially citizens of color or lower socio economic positions in the community.
That pervasive culture also attracts a different kind of applicant than previously.
I also know my personal experience, as a solidly middle class white male, has for the most part been positive with the police. But folks who are not of similar situation often times have a 100% opposite experience every time they deal with the police, see “Driving while black”
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The nationalist obsession with the flag is such a weird trip. It has to be folded properly, you can’t let it touch the ground, and if it does it has to be burned ceremoniously, but they get pissed if you burn it in protest. (In college we had a small flag in our dorm, and it got dirty, so in a drunken haze we decided to go outside and burn it while singing the national anthem-- were we being sarcastic or serious-- hard to tell.)
Then there are flag-designed things, flag shirts and flag underwear that I guess are OK to get soiled and don’t have to be burned (well, maybe soiled underwear should get burned, for other reasons)-- if I smash an American flag guitar on stage how is that viewed? You’d think that with conservatives focus on money and profit they would be all for special flags to be burned at protests-- a single use item they can sell over and over, they can even foment unrest to boost sales !!
Yeah. I would love it if cops really were “peace officers”, but human beings are human beings with all their defects, and cops can be as corrupt and violent as any mafioso given the chance.
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To echo @dabeyc, I think this was posted on BB because of the woodworking aspect, which is nice I guess, but not that impressive.
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Agree. The fetishization of the flag we’re seeing in the U.S. is troubling, and the fact that it often is at odds with proper display is dizzying.
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“Peace Officer” is a modern legal term for any person with law enforcement authority within a given jurisdiction. So it includes city police officers but also county sheriffs’ deputies and state troopers.
It’s kind of like how the term “troops” is used as a catchall for “soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.”
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Because when your on a diet, all you can talk about is that diet. Keto, Paleo, Gluten Free, licking boots …all the same
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Was it a USian flag before he finished burning it?
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Nobody at my job shoots black people, maybe I should make my coworkers a flag too.
Everyone does their own thing.
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