Jackboots back in fashion!
Jan. 9th, 2004 01:31 pmI'm not one to routinely parrot news stories in my LiveJournal, but I am one who is amazed when real-life decides to not only echo satire, but transcend it. The very nature of a good piece of satire -- situations and ideas taken to their absurd, (il)logical extremes to prove a point -- makes it really fucking creepy and depressing when an event predicted in a satirical piece becomes reality. And now I'm off my feed.
(And to slightly clarify my position: If the man was selling bootleg CDs, which it looks like he was, then I would presume it is the job of the police to handle the matter and see to it the man faces justice. Not a bunch of ex-cops in the employ of the RIAA who have absolutely no jurisdiction whatsoever and should very well face charges of impersonating law enforcement if this is the reaction they're getting. "Professionals" indeed.)
From http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/07/news-sullivan.php:
Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets
Quasi-legal squads raid street vendors
by Ben Sullivan
Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.
The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets.
( 'They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they’d take me away in handcuffs...' )
(And to slightly clarify my position: If the man was selling bootleg CDs, which it looks like he was, then I would presume it is the job of the police to handle the matter and see to it the man faces justice. Not a bunch of ex-cops in the employ of the RIAA who have absolutely no jurisdiction whatsoever and should very well face charges of impersonating law enforcement if this is the reaction they're getting. "Professionals" indeed.)
From http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/07/news-sullivan.php:
Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets
Quasi-legal squads raid street vendors
by Ben Sullivan
Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.
The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets.
( 'They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they’d take me away in handcuffs...' )
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