YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SHUT UP AND DO AS YR TOLD

ITEM [via BoingBoing]: Canadian science-fiction writer Peter Watts is convicted of obstruction for getting out of his car at a US Border crossing and asking what was going on, then not complying fast enough when he was told to get back in the car. He faces up to two years in jail.

The details of the case are both fascinating and worrying. So is the fact that many news reports are claiming Watts was found guilty of assaulting one of the border guards, which is unequivocally untrue (he was initially accused of doing so, but that’s not what he was convicted for).

The full background is here, and Watts’ own take on his conviction is here and here. I recommend taking the time to read them and understand what happened here, which was basically this:

The jury essentially upheld the right of the US border guards under current law to bully, beat up, pepper spray and arrest anyone – not just terrorists or drug mules or illegal immigrants, but anyone – for merely not complying fast enough with an instruction. Which is troublesome because “immediate compliance” means to comply without question, no matter what the situation, how dumb it might be or how it might affect yr civil rights.

I realize a lot of people will blame Watts for getting out of the car in the first place, and that the border guards rely on unquestioning obedience to do their job properly, so anyone who counters that directive is asking for trouble. (Watts explains his actions here in Point 5.)

The problem for me is that the Watts case boils down to the “sit down and shut up” argument that authoritarians tend to use to justify whatever they do. Moreover (and I don’t want to get into Tea Party territory here, but ...) one of the first ingredients of creating a police state is to establish the right of the police to do anything they want and you don’t get to question the scope of their ability without risking being arrested.

If you want to see what that’s like, go to England where the police are constantly threatening to arrest people for taking photographs in public places, especially if they're photos of policemen.

Or you can just go here and imagine how much fun some police officers could have if there were no checks on them at all. Like, I don’t know, sodomizing suspects with Tasers.

We have checks on police powers for a reason, and one of them is so that simply asking “Why?” is not a criminal act punishable with jail time.

Depending on how the sentencing goes, Watts may go to jail for doing just that. I can’t imagine the Founding Fathers being cool with that.

Then again, I suppose it depends on who you ask or what school you go to.

Respect my authoritay,

This is dF

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EDITED TO ADD [27 APRIL 2010]: Watts is free – he was fined and his sentence was suspended by the judge. So no jail time. But the above points still stand.

SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER? SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT THE GOVT?

ITEM: A USC Norman Lear Center study concludes that Los Angeles television news stations manage just 22 seconds of local government coverage for every half hour on the air.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps says he is "flat-out alarmed" by the USC report, not least because the FCC does require that broadcasters operate in the "public interest," airing "programming that is responsive to the needs and problems of its local community."

On the other hand, who’s to say the local community isn’t more interested in car chases, cute animals, the Guitar Hero championships and Tiger Woods’ sex life than municipal legislation issues?

Anyway, I can’t say I’m surprised by the results. The study only covers LA, but when I visited my family in small-town East Tennessee in 2007 and 2008, I watched the local TV news and was amazed at how much news they reported – provided that you count weather and sports scores as “news”. If not, then 22 seconds sounds about right.

I’m exaggerating, of course. But not by much. Seriously, weather and sports comprised at least 90% of every broadcast, which didn’t leave a lot of room for actual news. Of course local murders and car crashes and robberies will have priority, but between that and whatever national headlines there are to report, there’s no room for local govt stories.

Compare that to the local Hong Kong late-night newscast, which is 15 minutes long, devotes about 12 of them to news, and frequently kicks off with local govt stories.

That said, we have a somewhat greater interest in what our local govt is up to, considering we don’t get to elect all of it at the moment. In the US, I suspect most people’s interests probably are better served by national stories, local sports and celebrity news. Local govt is boring ... or at least bad television. If you want to keep up, and if yr local newspaper hasn’t already died, you can find local govt stories there.

Still, it’s times like this that you realize Edward R Murrow was right.

No news is good news,

This is dF

LARGE COLLIDING HARDONS!

And now the headline typo you’ve all been waiting for:



[Story with fixed headline is here]

Juvenile? Of course. But we have a blog to run here and it’s not like you need to read ANOTHER post about healthcare reform today. We'll get to that later. Maybe.

That’s a big bang,

This is dF