if you like this, you'll love those

For the past few months, a friend and I have played a game called add to the list of ways we're living in a more fascistic country this week. It's been a depressing past couple rounds this summer.

First, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott of civil liberties decisions in Berghuis v. Thompkins, as it dictated that the right to remain silent does not affirm a citizen's right to, you know, actually remain silent.

Then the New York Times profiled the NYPD's occupation (there's really no other word for it) of Brownsville, Brooklyn:

When night falls, police officers blanket some eight odd blocks of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Squad cars with flashing lights cruise along the main avenues: Livonia to Powell to Sutter to Rockaway. And again.

On the inner streets, dozens of officers, many fresh out of the police academy, walk in pairs or linger on corners. Others, deeper within the urban grid, navigate a maze of public housing complexes, patrolling the stairwells and hallways.

This small army of officers, night after night, spends much of its energy pursuing the controversial Police Department tactic known as “Stop, Question, Frisk,” and it does so at a rate unmatched anywhere else in the city.

The officers stop people they think might be carrying guns; they stop and question people who merely enter the public housing project buildings without a key; they ask for identification from, and run warrant checks on, young people halted for riding bicycles on the sidewalk.

One night, 20 officers surrounded a man outside the Brownsville Houses after he would not let an officer smell the contents of his orange juice container.

The whole thing is worth a read (a) to prove that long-form journalism isn't dead [yet] in a daily newspaper, and (b) because those who clamor loudest for law 'n' order should have their noses rubbed in the consequences of their call for a police state.

The article has proven useful; even though the Times is consistently the last to the party, its voice is still the most influential. On Friday New York Governor David Paterson signed into law a bill prohibiting the NYPD from retaining personal information regarding a stop and frisk in their official database where the individual was released without being arrested.

This is the kind of stuff commonly done by other policing authorities, most notably in the UK -- where the DNA information of innocent people is kept on file by the authorities without any cause whatsoever. But they don't have a written constitution. We do.

Not that it really helps to have it written down. Because Stop and Frisk here in NYC has a direct thread tying us to the new face of American fascism (aka the Arizona Legislature). Take a look at this piece of the new law (actually, you should read the whole thing: it's not that long):

B. IT IS UNLAWFUL FOR A PERSON TO ENTER A MOTOR VEHICLE THAT IS STOPPED ON A STREET, ROADWAY OR HIGHWAY IN ORDER TO BE HIRED BY AN OCCUPANT OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE AND TO BE TRANSPORTED TO WORK AT A DIFFERENT LOCATION IF THE MOTOR VEHICLE BLOCKS OR IMPEDES THE NORMAL MOVEMENT OF TRAFFIC.

So it's not only illegal to block traffic, and to hire illegal aliens -- it's illegal to block traffic for the express purpose of hiring illegal aliens. On top of reading like the irate rant of someone irrationally eager to get their Starbucks latte at the Phoenix Home Depot Strip Mall and Savings Emporium, it's a jackbooted thug's wet dream. How much probable cause does one traffic cop need? There's never enough if you're Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, or Police Commissioner Ray Kelley. (Kelley wants to be New York City's next Mayor. Want to see if someone will make us actually miss Rudy's restraint?)

But we don't have to slap the fascist tag on unwilling public figures. Real, actual fascists love Arizona!

Minutemen groups, a surge in Border Patrol agents and a tough new immigration law are not enough for a reputed neo-Nazi who is now leading a militia in the Arizona desert.

Jason Ready is taking matters into his own hands, declaring war on what he calls “narco-terrorists” and keeping an eye out for illegal immigrants. So far, he said, his patrols have found only a few border crossers, who were given water and handed over to the Border Patrol.

Normally, I would feel sympathy for any municipality that became a magnet for neo-Nazis. But Arizona? You guys put out the welcome mat. Enjoy.