A Ringing Defeat for Stop-and-Frisk and a Huge Win for Civil Liberties

Slate ^ | Jan. 9, 2013 | Justin Peters

[dcwusmc]

You keep pointing out true facts, but some just don’t WANT to get it. Pity, that. Thanks for your persistence.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Actually, I'll think what is decidedly thinkable, that none of these commenters has lived in a slummy area of NYC (or anywhere else), but love indulging in the Walter Mitty-ish fantasies prevalent in Hollywood action thrillers.

If you don't like the lay of the land, don't live in a f*cking lawless hell hole, then. I think most of us can do the math on that, and we understand by instinct that free men cannot be ruled as though their default state were criminal.

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

- Ben Franklin

If you cannot grasp this, you, sir, are the fraud, and don't belong among free men here on FR.

[Zhang Fei]

If you don't like the lay of the land, don't live in a f*cking lawless hell hole

People live in these places because they can't afford anything else. Would I have preferred to live in the same building as Donald Trump? Sure.

And the whole Benjamin Franklin trope is getting old. He was trying to get the Patriots to revolt against the continued British rule so the colonies could expand further into Indian lands. Let's face it - the whole revolution wasn't such a bad thing, if only to instill a war-like spirit into North America ex-Canada, but in retrospect, it was about as necessary for liberty as teats on a bull. If it hadn't happened, we'd be a super-sized version of Canada or Australia, neither of which are what I'd call unfree. Franklin said some worthwhile things but let's not morph him into some kind of demi-god.