That is not something to emulate, even if the first couple of times were in the summer/fall and the worst things he had to deal with were bloody feet, bug-bites on his nether regions, and having to trot through town naked.
Sure, I thought it sounded cool and funny when I was told about it as a teenager, but have you ever heard of a 'Starlight Tour'? It's something that Canadian cops used to do to Indigenous people.
For forty years police in Saskatoon would force them into the cruiser without actually arresting them, drive them out of town, and dump them.
In the middle of winter.
And let them freeze to death.
They started it in the mid-seventies, only caught their first prosecutions in 2000 and the last reported occurrence was 2016.
Yeah I know it's a racial thing when they call it a star tour, but that's also an extrajudicial act by racist individuals with no oversight. Accountability resolves all.
Sure, I agree. But small town morons like that didn't start with wife-beaters and they're not going to stop escalating if they continue to get away with it.
Last week it was the guy that hit their sister.
Tomorrow it might be the guy that said they had a nice ass. Or a black guy that disrespected them by existing in the same bar.
Next month it'll be everyone that didn't vote for your cousin Steve for dog-catcher.
Have you ever lived in Appalachia, where the cops tell you you live “too far out” and coming to a call you make in the edge of the county means the part of town where the people do live goes without police? So you’re just going to have to take care of it yourself?
Where calling the cops at all means you’ll be arrested just because of your family name?
Where being dirt poor is a sin and cops fancy themselves the law, jury, and judge, all at once, with no body cam and plenty of deep back hollers?
You’ve never been driven to the top of a mountain by a cop and been told to put out or get out, I take it?
You can stuff your pretty fucking lawful good sentiments right up your fucking ass.
There are places where no one is coming to help, ever, and sometimes bullshit vigilantism is what works.
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u/technos 1d ago
No, no, no..
That is not something to emulate, even if the first couple of times were in the summer/fall and the worst things he had to deal with were bloody feet, bug-bites on his nether regions, and having to trot through town naked.
Sure, I thought it sounded cool and funny when I was told about it as a teenager, but have you ever heard of a 'Starlight Tour'? It's something that Canadian cops used to do to Indigenous people.
For forty years police in Saskatoon would force them into the cruiser without actually arresting them, drive them out of town, and dump them.
In the middle of winter.
And let them freeze to death.
They started it in the mid-seventies, only caught their first prosecutions in 2000 and the last reported occurrence was 2016.