Reprimands considered useless

[Tim May]

On Sunday, November 4, 2001, at 10:09 AM, georgemw at speakeasy.net wrote:

>>
> I think "overlooking" is too strong a word,  I think it's more
> reasonable to call it mitigating circimstances.  The guardsman
> needs to have it explained to him (in a way that the lesson will
> stick) that he does not have the authority to block travellers
> because he doesn't like their attitude or their political views.
> I'm not sure what disciplinary action is appropriate,  probably
> a reptimand is good enough as long as it's made VERY clear that
> any sort of repeat performance will result in sever consequences.
>

The problem lies in the _institutional_ abuse of power. Whether that 
particular soldier is on duty, or "learns his lesson," is neither here 
nor there. Some _other_ soldier is probably, as we speak, doing the same 
thing to some other person reading an Unapproved Book, being a member of 
an Unapproved Political Party, or displaying Unapproved Religious 
Ornaments.

"Reprimanding" a particular soldier does nothing useful.

Left as an exercise is what should be done to curtail such violations of 
Posse Comitatus and such violations of the First and Fourth Amendments.

--Tim May
"How we burned in the prison camps later thinking: What would things 
have been like if every security operative, when he went out at night to 
make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive?" 
--Alexander Solzhenitzyn, Gulag Archipelago