Бесправие человека

[tijd]

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В книжке “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil“ известный психолог Филип Зимбардо объясняет роль, которую играет униформа и анонимность в производстве беспримесного зла из обычных людей.

Zimbardo discussed a number of deindividution studies in which disguises such as hoods facilitated overcoming moral barriers to hurting another person. He also cited anthropological research showing that warriors in cultures that donned masks or costumes before engaging in battle were significantly more likely to torture, mutilate, and kill their enemies than warriors in cultures that didn’t engage in self-disguise. “Masks have terrible power, they’re a medium of terror. And of course the first terrorists in the United States were the Ku Klux Klan.” Military uniforms, like disguises, are tools of deindividuating a person. And depersonalizing the enemy - if only through linguistic labels - is the flip side of the coin: He cited a study by Albert Bandura in which students delivered much higher electric shocks to another group of participants merely if they had overheard that those students from the other college seemed like “animals.”
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/2006/0806/0806/bad_apples.cfm



Вооруженные пограничники в виде «зелёных человечков» в неподходящем для города анонимном камуфляже на улицах Портланда служат иллюстрацией.

Speaking to NPR's All Things Considered on Friday, Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli acknowledged that federal agents had used unmarked vehicles to pick up people in Portland but said it was done to keep officers safe and away from crowds and to move detainees to a "safe location for questioning."
"The one instance I'm familiar with, they were, believed they had identified someone who had assaulted officers or ... the federal building there, the courthouse. Upon questioning, they determined they did not have the right person and that person was released," Cuccinelli said.
"I fully expect that as long as people continue to be violent and to destroy property that we will attempt to identify those folks," he added. "We will pick them up in front of the courthouse. If we spot them elsewhere, we will pick them up elsewhere. And if we have a question about somebody's identity, like the first example I noted to you, after questioning determine it isn't someone of interest, then they get released. And that's standard law enforcement procedure, and it's going to continue as long as the violence continues."
Customs and Border Protection released a statement Friday about one incident on video, though it did not specify which one. It said its agents approached a person suspected of assaulting federal agents or destroying federal property, but "a large and violent mob moved towards their location" so they moved to a safer place. "The CBP agents identified themselves and were wearing CBP insignia during the encounter. The names of the agents were not displayed due to recent doxing incidents against law enforcement personnel who serve and protect our country."
U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams, the Department of Justice's chief law enforcement official in Oregon, on Friday called for an inspector general investigation into DHS personnel over reports of two protesters being detained without probable cause.
"What is happening now in Portland should concern everyone in the United States. Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping," said Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, in a written statement. "The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered."
A judge has allowed the ACLU to add federal agencies to its lawsuit seeking to limit what law enforcement can do during the protests.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced early Saturday morning she would be filing a lawsuit against DHS, the U.S. Marshals Service, the United States Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protection Service and their agents.
A motion for a temporary restraining order follows the lawsuit. The order seeks to stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregon residents.
"The federal administration has chosen Portland to use their scare tactics to stop our residents from protesting police brutality and from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement," Rosenblum said in a statement. "Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening. If this can happen here in Portland, it can happen anywhere.”
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland

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Символично, что для примерочной акции устрашения был выбран Портланд - одновременно самый белый город в Америке и один из самых либеральных (на выборах 2016 Трамп набрал там 17% голосов). И что этой акцией руководят некомпетентные и не утверждённые Сенатом чиновники из вотчины Стивена Миллера. Выросшая при Трампе пограничная служба остаётся самой лояльной и наиболее озлобленной.

Хотя они пока не называют американцев, с которыми воюют, «животными», в ход идут другие дегуманизирующие определения вроде “violent anarchists”. Слово “violent” относится к граффити.

A Yale University philosophy professor who authored a book on fascism said the unfolding crackdown on the streets of Portland was ominous.
“Lawlessness in the name of law and order is the hallmark of fascism,” said Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works.
“We have been told by many that the Trump administration is just American politics as usual, with a dose of dysfunction, that we should not worry, that this too shall pass,” he said. “However, history teaches us that military and paramilitary forces bypassing the rule of law to crush dissent is a terrible sign of the nature of a regime. This is an alarm that must be heeded even by those who urge complacence.”
The AP, which first reported the applicability of the executive order to the Portland CBP deployment, identified on July 10 CBP personnel as an elite tactical team called BORTAC and noted it includes snipers.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday requested Wolf remove federal forces from Portland. Wolf, talking to Fox News, expressed defiance toward local elected authorities.
“I offered DHS support to help them locally address the situation that’s going on in Portland and their only response was, ‘Please pack up and go home,’” he said. “That’s just not going to happen on my watch… I saw the graffiti, I saw the broken windows, I saw the broken doors.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-spooky-right-now-inside-the-creepy-federal-crackdown-on-portland-protesters

At Powell’s Bookstore in Portland pic.twitter.com/VzQ5Lb9hJr
- Jason Stanley (@jasonintrator) January 10, 2019

Между тем Майк Помпео приблизился к завершению работы над пересмотром прав человека.

At the event on Thursday, which opened with a religious invocation from Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, Mr. Pompeo also waded into the culture war against what President Trump recently called “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”
“Today, the very core of what it means to be an American, indeed the American way of life itself, is under attack,” Mr. Pompeo said. “Instead of seeking to improve America, too many leading voices promulgate hatred of our founding principles.”
He specifically criticized the 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative re-examining the legacy of slavery, describing it as part of “a dark vision of America’s birth” and a “disturbed reading of our history.”
In a statement, Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Times, responded to Mr. Pompeo’s criticism.
“The 1619 Project, based on decades of recent historical scholarship that has deepened our understanding of the country’s founding, is one of the most impactful works of journalism published last year,” she said. “We’re proud that it continues to spark a dialogue that allows us to re-examine our assumptions about the past.”
Since naming the Commission on Unalienable Rights, as his panel is called, Mr. Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, has expressed confidence that it would create a document that enshrines religious freedom as a central tenet of American human rights policy, which diplomats could refer to for “decades to come.”
But human rights scholars cautioned that this could set a global precedent for other nations to define human rights on their own terms, undermining diplomatic efforts to stop the persecution of religious minorities in places like China, or the promotion of women’s rights in countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“You’re seeing the rise of autocrats across the world,” said Akila Radhakrishnan, the president of the Global Justice Center, an international human rights organization. “You’re giving a gift to those people, and not only taking away U.S. leadership, but giving them and feeding them arguments they’ve long been making as well.”
The commission is led by Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard Law School professor and former ambassador to the Vatican. She is a prominent anti-abortion activist who has stirred controversy in recent years for making comments that awarding The Boston Globe the Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on child abuse by Catholic priests “would be like giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Osama bin Laden.”
The panel is also rooted in the vision of Robert P. George, a Princeton professor and leading proponent of “natural law” theory, a term that human rights scholars say is code for “God-given rights” and is commonly deployed in fights to roll back rights for women and L.G.B.T.Q. people.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/us/politics/pompeo-human-rights-policy.html



Одним из первых на отчёт приветственно отреагировал Тони Перкинс, который сравнил деятельность Помпео с выпалыванием сорняков.

“It was time, he decided, to clear the 72 years' worth of weeds that had cropped up since the world settled on its original Declaration of Universal Human Rights in 1948. Together with a handpicked team of historians, scholars, and philosophers, he was going to get everyone on the same page about our freedoms and where they came from. And, once they did, separate the real rights from the imposters. <...>
Pompeo's commission is a chance for America to return to what matters, to the rich deep understanding that these rights come from God -- not governments, not courts, not multi-national bodies. And that understanding is not just what secures our freedom, he said on an FRC call Thursday night with pastors, but the freedom of different traditions around the world.”
https://arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com/2020/07/america-finds-its-mr-rights.html

Перкинс выполняет роль советника Трампа по связи с евангелистами. Проводя с его помощью телеконференцию с лидерами евангелистов в марте 2020, Трамп обещал им, что день его переизбрания станет “one of the biggest dates in the history of religion”.

“We have a very, very big election coming up, especially if you’re evangelical-if you’re evangelical, if you’re Christian, if you’re, frankly, almost any faith. And I guess probably you could go any faith, Tony, if you think about it. But we have a very important election coming up. We have people on the other side that are against a lot of the things we all stand for. And you know one of the things I’m most proud of is knocking out the Johnson Amendment, where the people that we most respect, namely the people on this line, you weren’t able to speak your will, speak what you thought, speak about where you stand politically, what’s good for the church, what’s good for all of the things that we represent. And we knocked out the Johnson Amendment. They would have held you very horribly responsible if they wanted to, and they did in some cases. What they did to the people that we want to hear from, and people that your people want to hear from, so importantly. So, we’re able to do that and many other things. And so, it’s just going to be, it’s a big date, Nov. 3-that’s going to be one of the biggest dates in the history of religion, as far as I’m concerned.”
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/trump-asks-pastors-to-pray-for-reelection-calls-nov-3-one-of-the-biggest-dates-in-the-history-of-religion/

Короткая справка:

Anthony Perkins (born 1962; not to be confused with the Psycho actor of the same nameWikipedia) is a professional homophobe and the president of the Family Research Council. <...> He is known to have associations with white supremacists, such as David Duke and the council of conservative citizens. After attending a convention run by the latter he claims he was unaware of the latter's racist intentions (despite blatantly speaking in front of a Confederate flag).
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tony_Perkins

We’ve walked this path before, and will continue marching on, hand in hand, elevating our voices, until justice and peace prevail.

Thank you for joining me at Black Lives Matter Plaza, in front of the White House, @repjohnlewis. pic.twitter.com/4l3y4lY4hV
- Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) June 7, 2020

“It is very moving, very moving, very impressive. I think what the people in DC and around the nation are sending a mighty, powerful and strong message to the world that WE WILL GET THERE.” Congressman John Lewis on #BlackLivesMatter Plaza this morning pic.twitter.com/kDNiOYzXta
- Muriel Bowser (@MurielBowser) June 7, 2020

Вчера скончался от рака легендарный правозащитник, известный как «совесть Конгресса», конгрессмен из Атланты Джон Льюис. Его послание протестующим:

“My fellow Americans, this is a special moment in our history. Just as people of all faiths and no faiths, and all backgrounds, creeds, and colors banded together decades ago to fight for equality and justice in a peaceful, orderly, non-violent fashion, we must do so again.
To the rioters here in Atlanta and across the country: I see you, and I hear you. I know your pain, your rage, your sense of despair and hopelessness. Justice has, indeed, been denied for far too long. Rioting, looting, and burning is not the way. Organize. Demonstrate. Sit-in. Stand-up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive. History has proven time and again that non-violent, peaceful protest is the way to achieve the justice and equality that we all deserve.
Our work won't be easy - nothing worth having ever is - but I strongly believe, as Dr. King once said, that while the arc of the moral universe is long, it bends toward justice.”
https://johnlewis.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-lewis-recent-police-killings-and-civil-unrest-atlanta-and-across

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Среди тех, чьи права защищал Льюис, были борющиеся за признание однополых браков. В 1996 он голосовал против DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) и произнёс эмоциональную речь о вреде этого закона. Такая позиция тогда не была популярной среди избирателей, но популярностью не пользовалось и движение за гражданские права, в котором Льюис участвовал в 1960ых. Дело было в защите базовых принципов.

“Mr. Chairman, this is a mean bill. It is cruel. This bill seeks to divide our nation, turn Americans against Americans, sow the seeds of fear, hatred and intolerance. Let us remember the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths self-evident that all people are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
This bill is a slap in the face of the Declaration of Independence. It denies gay men and women the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Marriage is a basic human right. You cannot tell people they cannot fall in love. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to say when people talked about interracial marriage and I quote, `Races do not fall in love and get married. Individuals fall in love and get married.'
Why do you not want your fellow men and women, your fellow Americans to be happy? Why do you attack them? Why do you want to destroy the love they hold in their hearts? Why do you want to crush their hopes, their dreams, their longings, their aspirations?
We are talking about human beings, people like you, people who want to get married, buy a house, and spend their lives with the one they love. They have done no wrong.
I will not turn my back on another American. I will not oppress my fellow human being. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Mr. Chairman, I have known racism. I have known bigotry. This bill stinks of the same fear, hatred and intolerance. It should not be called the Defense of Marriage Act. It should be called the defense of mean-spirited bigots act.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, to have the courage to do what is right. This bill appeals to our worst fears and emotions. It encourages hatred of our fellow Americans for political advantage. Every word, every purpose, every message is wrong. It is not the right thing to do, to divide Americans.
We are moving toward the 21st century. Let us come together and create one nation, one people, one family, one house, the American house, the American family, the American nation.”

So sayeth the American Taliban.
- Anita Creamer (@AnitaCreamer) July 19, 2020

Когда в 2013 Верховный суд отменил DOMA (“ defense of mean-spirited bigots act”), Льюис выразил закономерное удовлетворение:

“You cannot protect equality for one group and allow unequal treatment of another. If we are a society committed to the concept of equal justice under the law for every individual, then it must apply for every citizen, and cannot be reserved for some citizens. This decision is just one more step our society is taking toward building a more fair, more just society.“
https://johnlewis.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-john-lewis-says-doma-decision-victory-equality

Майк Помпео, в то время конгрессмен из Канзаса, выпускник West Point и Harvard Law School, выразил недоумение и желание бороться за «традиционные скрепы».

“As an attorney and a conservative, I am confounded by the Supreme Court’s bizarre set of decisions that found DOMA unconstitutional and didn’t rule on the merits of Prop 8. The Supreme Court has taken the position of refusing the right of Congress to legislate federal law based on the will of the people. This is a travesty.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20141117033323/http://pompeo.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=340948

Ныне он близок к осуществлению этого желания.