On not passing go

When Jace and I were arrested in June, we were taken out from the van in a garage/loading area under the King County Jail. One of the most reassuring things at that point was the moderate degree of trust I had that the system that I found myself suddenly within would sooner or later (and presumably sooner) spit us back out again, and that nothing really terrible was going to happen in the interim. One of the good things about the US penal system is that, at least close to the surface level, things are generically not so unpleasant. I'm not saying that there are not serious problems close by, but I was pretty much right in figuring that we weren't likely to disappear into anything too horrible. But it was easy to imagine a slightly different situation where our fortunes were not so easy to predict.

Reed College sends out emails every so often keeping me posted on what notable things people associated with the school are up to. In today's mail, there was a story about a guy who graduated the same year I did, and also grew up in Santa Fe. I must have run into him at Reed, and we probably went to the same preschool for a little while. (For some reason, I apparently attended just about every preschool in Santa Fe). Even so, I can't say I recognize him. Anyway, he was arrested for creatively trying to woo his girlfriend with some stencil art, and for being of Afghan origin, and now every time he reenters the US, he is detained and questioned. Here's the story in the New Mexican.

In this same email, Reed told me about an article in Slate by Darius Rejali, a political science professor and general interesting person. The last time I ran into Darius, I was walking across the playa at Burning Man in 2003. In the article, he links to an interview that is posted on the white house web page which includes the following endorsement of torture by Dick Cheny:

Q Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's a no-brainer for me, ...

Darius goes on to make clear the connection between torture in a military or intelligence gathering context, and in a police context. It's pretty obvious really. Somebody learns all sorts of fancy torture techniques while off in Iraq or Afghanistan in their early twenties, and then comes back home for a long and distinguished career in their local police department. Meanwhile, terror suspects, or perhaps just graffitti artists, it is hard to tell these days, are pulled in off the street for something minor, and suddenly life is much less pleasant. Jail wasn't fun, but in most parts of the world (here for example) it is a lot less so.

And while I'm on the subject of torture, I'll link to this very sad story.

So I'm really glad that there are some long overdue checks to be put in place as of this week. And I'm glad that Valerie Rumsfeld's daddy is finally out.