I had to reach up to get this shot, so it’s poorly aimed, but here it is:
This is the robin’s nest built on what I had thought was an impossible location, on the light by my front door. It looks like I have neighbors, with, um, more on the way.
Pennsylvania
Erie
Fig. 1. Lake Erie, from Presque Isle State Park. Photograph by author, April 3, 2021.
The issue of official-looking badges to higher-ups in the Erie County bureaucracy sounds like a flawed response to a real problem. Brenton Davis’ complaint is that in some cases some people, including white supremacist gangsters, fail to recognize him or his authority. So he issued badges that look like law enforcement badges to himself and some other top-level county officials. They are not actually law enforcement badges and do not carry that authority. It’s an unusual solution and the problem with it lies in the potential for confusion.[1]
I don’t expect this to go well for Davis. But I do recognize the problem he’s trying to solve. In my experience, white supremacist gangsters (sometimes called ‘police’) are control freaks: They perceive a threat in any situation they do not control and it is my understanding that they are trained accordingly.
There are times when that’s a problem. It is certainly foreseeable that white supremacist gangsters will reject even appropriate authority. Hell, the Pittsburgh gangsters are ignoring a city ordinance that forbids secondary traffic stops.[2] They haven’t sued: Courts have not weighed in on an ordinance the gangsters object to. The gangsters just ignore it.
And when we talk about “trained law enforcement,” a good deal of the notion of “defunding the police” is about training that is in no way sufficient to the problems of what sociologists broadly term “deviant” behavior and about diverting resources to people who do have the necessary training,[3] which in my judgment would entail at least a Master’s degree in social work, psychology, or a closely related discipline (no, human science will not do), and frankly, I’d prefer to see doctoral-level folks out there and with actual authority over the gangsters.
I don’t know what the solution is here. I think Davis is well-intentioned. I think he has a real problem. But this problem has roots which reach deeply into our system of social organization’s reliance on white supremacist gangsters, a reliance which is beyond challenge.
A. J. Rao, “Erie County Executive Brenton Davis uses police-like badge to ID himself. Is it appropriate?” Erie Times-News, April 11, 2024, https://www.goerie.com/story/news/local/2024/04/11/erie-pa-county-executive-brenton-davis-uses-police-like-badge-to-id-himself/73272067007/
Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 2. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[4] fair use.
Regev Nathansohn, who teaches communications at Sapir College, is one of two dozen Israeli academics who have signed a petition calling for the United States to stop arming Israel in its war with Hamas. The petition, which more than 1,000 academics from around the world have signed, characterizes Israel’s conduct as a “plausible genocide.”
“President Biden, do not let the United States go down in history as the enabler of genocide,” said the petition, which has more than 1,000 signatories, from a group called Academics4Peace. “Respect the US’s obligation under international law and basic morality. The only way to stop the starvation of two million people, including 100+ Israeli hostages, is to end this war.”
Sapir is located on the Gaza border near the town of Sderot, which was one of the sites attacked in Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. . . .
Nathansohn, who earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan, is one of at least five Israeli signatories who have faced intense backlash from students, according to the petition’s organizer, Shira Klein, an Israeli American history professor at Chapman University in California. She said the others are Eran Fisher of the Open University of Israel, and three scholars at Beersheba’s Ben Gurion University: Michal Givoni, Maor Zeev-Wolf and Uri Mor. Klein pointed to posts from students denouncing them on social media and in an online petition, as well as, in one case, a campus protest.
In total, more than 20 Israeli academics have signed the letter, among more than 1,000 overall. Outside of Israel, signatories include two Nobel laureates and numerous scholars of the Holocaust and Jewish history. Klein is an expert on the Holocaust and has studied contemporary antisemitism.[5]
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden rebukes Israel over aid workers, but his Gaza policy is unchanged,” Washington Post, April 3, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/03/biden-world-central-kitchen-tough-statement-israel-policy/
Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry
Haroon Siddique, Eleni Courea, and Patrick Wintour, “Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law,” Guardian, April 3, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/former-supreme-court-judges-say-uk-arming-israel-breaches-international-law
Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel’s ‘unintentional’ strike on aid workers stirs global outrage,” Washington Post, April 3, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/03/israel-strike-world-central-kitchen-aid-workers-global-outrage/
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden warns Netanyahu the situation in Gaza is ‘unacceptable,’” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/04/biden-warns-netanyahu-situation-gaza-is-unacceptable/
Trinidad Deiros Bronte, “The unpunished deaths of other civilians question Israel’s willingness to clarify the attack on WCK,” El País, April 4, 2024, https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-04/the-unpunished-deaths-of-other-civilians-question-israels-willingness-to-clarify-the-attack-on-wck.html
Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Ties Support for Israel to Civilian Protection in Gaza, ” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793
Jacob Magid, “Senior Israeli official warns of growing ‘shoot first, ask later’ culture in IDF,” Times of Israel, April 4, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-israeli-official-warns-of-growing-shoot-first-ask-later-culture-in-idf/
Kate Sullivan, “Trump says Israel needs to ‘finish what they started’ and said war with Hamas is ‘taking a long time,’” CNN, April 4, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/04/politics/trump-israel-comments/index.html
Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/
Dov Lieber, Rory Jones, and Margherita Stancati, “Israel Says Troops Lacked Grounds for Strike That Killed Aid Workers in Gaza,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-to-allow-more-aid-into-gaza-after-biden-warning-over-u-s-support-49bc42e4
Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election
Lazar Berman, “Israel’s begrudging approach to humanitarian aid could cost it the war in Gaza,” Times of Israel, April 6, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-begrudging-approach-to-humanitarian-aid-could-cost-it-the-war-in-gaza/
Karen DeYoung, “Six months into Gaza war, Biden confronts the limits of U.S. leverage,” Washington Post, April 6, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/06/gaza-israel-biden-war/
Emanuel Fabian, “IDF chief says withdrawal of troops from Gaza doesn’t mean war is close to end,” Times of Israel, April 7, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-says-withdrawal-of-troops-from-gaza-doesnt-mean-war-is-close-to-end/
M. J. Lee, “Inside President Biden’s pointed phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu,” CNN, April 7, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/06/politics/biden-netanyahu-israel-gaza-war-phone-call-details/index.html
David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/
Katie Polglase et al., “Dying for a bag of flour: Videos and eyewitness accounts cast doubt on Israel’s timeline of deadly Gaza aid delivery,” CNN, April 9, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/09/middleeast/gaza-food-aid-convoy-deaths-eyewitness-intl-investigation-cmd/index.html
Times of Israel, “US Sen. Warren: World Court has ‘ample evidence’ to find Israel guilty of genocide,” April 9, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-sen-warren-world-court-has-ample-evidence-to-find-israel-guilty-of-genocide/
Guardian, “Netanyahu making a ‘mistake’ on Gaza, says Biden, as he urges Israel to push for ceasefire,” April 9, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/10/benjamin-netanyahu-joe-biden-gaza-mistake-ceasefire-israel-war-palestine
Asaf Elia-Shalev, “Israeli academics face backlash after signing letter accusing Israel of ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 10, 2024, https://www.jta.org/2024/04/10/israel/israeli-academics-face-backlash-after-signing-letter-accusing-israel-of-plausible-genocide-in-gaza
Matt Lebovic, “Has the term ‘antisemitism’ been overused – or overblown – beyond usefulness?” Times of Israel, April 10, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/has-the-term-antisemitism-been-overused-or-overblown-beyond-usefulness/
Jacob Magid, “Biden urges Israel ‘to just call for’ 6-8 week ceasefire, slams PM’s handling of Gaza war,” Times of Israel, April 10, 2024,