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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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To the extent that it’s anti democratic it’s a scene from Hungary

Or Canada -- relatively few cities here have their own police department; it's mostly managed either federally or provincially, but with the weird caveat that provinces and cities using the RCMP have to pay out of their own budget; same goes for cities that rely on the OPP (no, not that OPP) AFAIK.

I think the sticking point is more the arbitrary and selective nature of it. If Texas were to just abolish municipal police, hand all LE over to DPS and bill localities based on staffing and facilities levels, it might not be very popular but it wouldn't look like selectively overriding the customary autonomy of an opposition enclave.

Except that’s the normal way of doing business there and not a state of exception imposed due to either incompetence or state disagreement with their agenda, but yes, it’s definitely a precedented arrangement in the rest of the developed world.