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DC often serves as America's protest stage. Controlling its police means controlling what kinds of dissent are permissible at the symbolic heart of democracy.

DC often serves as America's protest stage. Controlling its police means controlling what kinds of dissent are permissible at the symbolic heart of democracy. Controlling the physical space around Congress, the Supreme Court, the federal bureaucracy means that every legislator, judge, and federal worker sees the Guard on their commute. The message is environmental and atmospheric. Propaganda for the governing class. Power made visible to those for whom there is intent to intimidate. Extending that, DC notoriously exists as an anomaly violating the foundation that the US was founded on. It is a city that isn't a city, a population with little representation in the federal apparatus that controls it. DC's legal vulnerability makes it perfect for testing. What works there can be threatened elsewhere. "We did it in Washington" becomes the precedent. The 30-day limit isn't a constraint. It's a demonstration period.

a-posteriori 1y ago
This reads a little bit like AI. Particularly the sentence flow of the final few lines.
- random3 1y ago
  Because that’s what it is.
  - aeon_ai 1y ago
    We ought to refuse to address the content of the message if there is even a single em-dash — things written with AI can’t be true, aren’t worth considering, and lack substance or merit.
    - random3 1y ago
      Either have opinions or don't, but don't delegate opinions to chat bots. It defeats the purpose of discussion forums. Also slop is only partially due to the model. The rest is the prompt and editing process. It's tiresome to read to ChatGPT-specific bombastic drama like "The 30-day limit isn't a constraint. It's a demonstration period."
      - aeon_ai 1y ago
        You think I delegated the opinion or the seriousness of this situation to the chatbot? This is not just a run-of-the-mill news story. It's a fight for the rights enshrined in our constitution. (And yes - I framed that the way a chatbot might to emphasize the point.) You're going to have a hard time convincing me this is "overly dramatic" given the context.
dvt 1y ago
Have you ever been to DC? National Guard is literally constantly all over the city. The headlines are a bit sensationalized and even DC's mayor on MSNBC earlier today was cautiously optimistic about more law enforcement on the streets. > "We did it in Washington" becomes the precedent. The fact that Trump mobilized troops in LA to help with ICE raids was way more worrying, but they were withdrawn a week and a half ago by the Pentagon without much hullabaloo.
- dvogel 1y ago
  I lived in DC for 5 years. From 2011 to 2014 and 2019 to 2020. I saw _a lot_ of cops, of nearly every jurisdiction, but never a national guard member.
rayiner 1y ago
> DC often serves as America's protest stage. DC is also the capital of the country and a major tourist destination, and makes a terrible impression being covered with homeless encampments. Democrats, more than anyone else, should want Trump to flood D.C. with police and turn it into Disney Land. When tourists from Wisconsin or Idaho come to visit the nation's capital, you want them to have a positive impression of what the federal government can build!
- ajross 1y ago
  > makes a terrible impression being covered with homeless encampments. I salute your honesty about what it is you think (and I agree!) this is actually about. Obviously deploying literal military force against the homeless is batshit crazy. But that is where we are.
  - justin66 1y ago
    In fairness they are also talking about using FBI special agents to assist with the homeless problem. I, uh... can't imagine that will actually happen but who the hell knows as this point.
    - selimthegrim 1y ago
      I guess FBI counterintelligence will be sweeping them for bugs
- aeon_ai 1y ago
  Your proposal is that the military response is primarily to combat homeless encampments in DC, that this is appropriate, and that this won’t happen elsewhere because this problem is unique to DC? I’m not a democrat. Help me steel-man your point.
  - rayiner 1y ago
    It's not just a military response, but also federalizing the police force. He can go after both the homeless encampments and the gangs. This is appropriate because: 1) Americans deserve a capital city that's at least as safe and orderly as similarly affluent cities like Austin or San Diego, which have homicide rates one-third or one-quarter as high as D.C. over the last decade--even excluding the COVID-era spike in homicides. 2) The orderliness of a city is primarily an issue of policing and incarceration. You don't need to pass national gun control, or address "root causes"--just take gang members off the streets and put them in prison. 3) The problem isn't unique to D.C., but D.C. is an outlier because (a) the aesthetics of D.C. are important because it's the nation's capital; and (b) Trump has express statutory authority to federalize the D.C. police force under the DC Home Rule Act. DC thus can serve as a testbed for Republican policing in a major city, most of which won't elect Republican mayors.

a-posteriori 1y ago

This reads a little bit like AI. Particularly the sentence flow of the final few lines.

random3 1y ago
Because that’s what it is.
- aeon_ai 1y ago
  We ought to refuse to address the content of the message if there is even a single em-dash — things written with AI can’t be true, aren’t worth considering, and lack substance or merit.
  - random3 1y ago
    Either have opinions or don't, but don't delegate opinions to chat bots. It defeats the purpose of discussion forums. Also slop is only partially due to the model. The rest is the prompt and editing process. It's tiresome to read to ChatGPT-specific bombastic drama like "The 30-day limit isn't a constraint. It's a demonstration period."
    - aeon_ai 1y ago
      You think I delegated the opinion or the seriousness of this situation to the chatbot? This is not just a run-of-the-mill news story. It's a fight for the rights enshrined in our constitution. (And yes - I framed that the way a chatbot might to emphasize the point.) You're going to have a hard time convincing me this is "overly dramatic" given the context.

dvt 1y ago

Have you ever been to DC? National Guard is literally constantly all over the city. The headlines are a bit sensationalized and even DC's mayor on MSNBC earlier today was cautiously optimistic about more law enforcement on the streets. > "We did it in Washington" becomes the precedent. The fact that Trump mobilized troops in LA to help with ICE raids was way more worrying, but they were withdrawn a week and a half ago by the Pentagon without much hullabaloo.

dvogel 1y ago
I lived in DC for 5 years. From 2011 to 2014 and 2019 to 2020. I saw _a lot_ of cops, of nearly every jurisdiction, but never a national guard member.

rayiner 1y ago

> DC often serves as America's protest stage. DC is also the capital of the country and a major tourist destination, and makes a terrible impression being covered with homeless encampments. Democrats, more than anyone else, should want Trump to flood D.C. with police and turn it into Disney Land. When tourists from Wisconsin or Idaho come to visit the nation's capital, you want them to have a positive impression of what the federal government can build!

ajross 1y ago
> makes a terrible impression being covered with homeless encampments. I salute your honesty about what it is you think (and I agree!) this is actually about. Obviously deploying literal military force against the homeless is batshit crazy. But that is where we are.
- justin66 1y ago
  In fairness they are also talking about using FBI special agents to assist with the homeless problem. I, uh... can't imagine that will actually happen but who the hell knows as this point.
  - selimthegrim 1y ago
    I guess FBI counterintelligence will be sweeping them for bugs
aeon_ai 1y ago
Your proposal is that the military response is primarily to combat homeless encampments in DC, that this is appropriate, and that this won’t happen elsewhere because this problem is unique to DC? I’m not a democrat. Help me steel-man your point.
- rayiner 1y ago
  It's not just a military response, but also federalizing the police force. He can go after both the homeless encampments and the gangs. This is appropriate because: 1) Americans deserve a capital city that's at least as safe and orderly as similarly affluent cities like Austin or San Diego, which have homicide rates one-third or one-quarter as high as D.C. over the last decade--even excluding the COVID-era spike in homicides. 2) The orderliness of a city is primarily an issue of policing and incarceration. You don't need to pass national gun control, or address "root causes"--just take gang members off the streets and put them in prison. 3) The problem isn't unique to D.C., but D.C. is an outlier because (a) the aesthetics of D.C. are important because it's the nation's capital; and (b) Trump has express statutory authority to federalize the D.C. police force under the DC Home Rule Act. DC thus can serve as a testbed for Republican policing in a major city, most of which won't elect Republican mayors.