The League

Because it’s important to make it so that you can’t root for either side.

by Tod Kelly · September 26, 2011

Tod Kelly

Tod is a writer from the Pacific Northwest. He is also serves as Executive Producer and host of both the 7 Deadly Sins Show at Portland's historic Mission Theatre and 7DS: Pants On Fire! at the White Eagle Hotel & Saloon. He is a regular inactive for Marie Claire International and the Daily Beast, and is currently writing a book on the sudden rise of exorcisms in the United States. Follow him on Twitter.

James K says:

September 27, 2011 at 12:07 am

I can’t condone private acts of retaliation, but given that there’s negligible chance of the officer receiving any official sanction for assaulting that woman I can at least understand why people might be entertaining the idea of taking the law into their own hands.Report
- Tod Kelly in reply to James K says:
  
  September 27, 2011 at 12:23 am
  
  Yeah…
  
  Publishing this guy’s personal info, to me, fits into the “I can’t condone but…” category. Doing the same for his family members (wife and kids, I’m assuming?), on the other hand, seems unnecessarily mean, irresponsible, and dick-ish, and does not seem in any way to be attempting to solve a problem.Report
  - Mike Schilling in reply to Tod Kelly says:
    
    September 27, 2011 at 12:59 am
    
    Publishing this guy’s personal info, to me, fits into the “I can’t condone but…” category.
    
    If anyone other than a cop had committed that kind of assault, he’d be under arrest and his name would be all over the news. (If “personal info” means his home address, then yes, that’s over the line.)Report
    - Kimmi in reply to Mike Schilling says:
      
      September 27, 2011 at 8:08 am
      
      … cops got a lot of defense against people who egg their house, don’t they just?Report
Brandon Berg says:

September 27, 2011 at 5:56 am

Does anyone else find it deeply, deeply disturbing that radical leftists are the most sympathetic characters in this story? How screwed up does a society have to be for them to come out on top?Report
- Kimmi in reply to Brandon Berg says:
  
  September 27, 2011 at 8:07 am
  
  I… don’t think Anonymous counts as radical leftists. They haven’t assassinated anyone that I can tell (and I doubt they’re organized enough to pull it off)[naturally, assassination is mostly a descriptor of how radical and not how left they are].
  In fact, I think the only way you’d associate that racist pile of fools with the left is that recruitment post on dailykos, that they had up a while ago.
  It’s fair enough to say that they’re a pro-free speech activist group, but I don’t consider that to be right or left, politically.Report
- DensityDuck in reply to Brandon Berg says:
  
  September 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm
  
  The “most sympathetic characters” are the ones suggesting mob violence in response to an event that hasn’t actually happened yet?
  
  I mean, it’s not like the guy has explicitly not been disciplined. Has the police department said “yeah, it was Sergeant Soandso, we fully support his action and see nothing wrong with it, in fact we think he should have done it sooner, no we aren’t going to censure him at all”?Report
- Jaybird in reply to Brandon Berg says:
  
  September 27, 2011 at 1:21 pm
  
  (Pssst. I think he’s talking about the people behind the barriers who got maced.)Report
Jeremy Hummel says:

September 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm

Join the petition to jail Anthony Bologna and remove Raymond Kelly as commissioner!

http://www.change.org/petitions/mayor-michael-bloomberg-remove-raymond-kelly-jail-anthony-bolognaReport
- Jaybird in reply to Jeremy Hummel says:
  
  September 27, 2011 at 12:23 pm
  
  An online petition??? WHERE DO I SIGN!
  
  While you’re there, please sign my online petition to legalize pot.Report
DensityDuck says:

September 27, 2011 at 1:27 pm

It is really weird that the guy just walks up and blasts them. Even the other cops in the video are standing around all “uh..what the fuck, dude” (although I note that they don’t drop the fence. In times of confusion it’s more important than ever to maintain the symbols of authority!)Report
Katherine says:

September 28, 2011 at 6:24 pm

To me it’s pretty clear that the more unsympathetic group is the ones who have already resorted to violence without cause (ie, the police). I don’t see anything to indicate that Anonymous is inciting violence; the worst he’ll likely have to deal with is protesters showing up at his house.Report
- Tod Kelly in reply to Katherine says:
  
  September 28, 2011 at 6:47 pm
  
  I would be more willing to agree with this if it weren’t for the distributing information about the family members. I am having a hard time picturing a scenario where this does not imply some very creepy intended consequences – even if it was just a “we know where your kids go to school” kind of warning shot.Report
  - Katherine in reply to Tod Kelly says:
    
    September 30, 2011 at 8:06 am
    
    Which information? His address would be both ‘information about him’ and ‘information about family members’, and I think it’s legit to put that out there.Report