Discworld QOTD, from Night Watch
“Once you get troops on the streets, it’s only a matter of time before it goes bad. Some kid throws a stone, next minute there’s houses on fire and people getting killed.”
Discworld QOTD, from Eric
“The captain glared at him. The sergeant put on the poker face that has been handed down from NCO to NCO ever since one protoamphibian told another, lower-ranking protoamphibian to muster a squad of newts and Take That Beach.”
Too relevant!
Sir Terry Prachett was a wise man and his books are just great and wonderful.
That's what I'm currently reading.
My favorite in the series, and for so many good reasons
A policeman yelled “cover me,” meaning hold your fire but prepare to shoot as necessary. The Marines, however, “responded instantly in the way they had been trained, where ‘cover me’ means ‘provide me with cover using firepower.’”
Since the founding of the United States, domestic deployment of the military has been a move of last resort; that may be about to change.
Just in that one quote you can tell that Sir Terry grew up during the time of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland.
Night Watch remains my absolute favorite Discworld book. I've read it a half dozen times, at least. Just so good. Pratchett was firing on all cylinders with that one.
This has pretty much been policing for way too many damn years. The police act like Troops On The Streets, and have no concept of de-escalation.
The US Military has an order of magnitude more discipline than beat cops. Their actions have consequences instead of "leave with pay" .
Early in the Civil War, Federal troops won the peaceful surrender of a secessionist state militia encamped in St. Louis Trouble started when the troops marched them to a prison, and gunfire was exchanged between civilians and troops, leading to days of disorder and civilian deaths.
Turns out using people whose job it is to engage in combat to prevent violence doesn’t work. Scientists are still trying to figure out why.
Every boy in every snowball fight in suburban Boston fought with extra relish knowing that he was a direct descendant of the kid who started the American Revolution, and could do it again if he needed, or wanted to.
It's a good tradition to grow up with.
Yup. Dolly Sisters Massacre any time now.
Some kid throws a sausage inna bun...
Sadly, and oh so relevant 😓
Night Watch, right now, is basically an entire manual on What Not To Do and they're doing all of it
