further to my thesis that every political institution just grows cops on it as a kind of mold over time, I’d like to talk about New York City

they certainly have some of this - the city department of sanitation has a police department within it, so they can shoot you for dumping garbage on the street. this is why NYC streets are so clean

there’s also city sheriffs, who are the ones who evict you

what’s really funny about cops in New York City, though, is that it’s essentially a bunch of different countervailing institutions all growing cops while the NYPD runs around like Pac-man trying to consume them

So for instance there used to be a separate Transit Police into the 90s and then the NYPD ate it and it became their Transit Bureau

But there’s also another phenomenon here, which is something I’d like to call ‘SWAT envy’

So the NYPD’s equivalent of a SWAT team is called the Emergency Service Unit and while ACAB it’s not inherently unreasonable to suggest that maybe you need some kind of tactical unit for New York City. mostly they stand around with AR-15s in Times Square though

so what’s really, really funny is that pretty much every police agency in New York City decides, you know what, we should get that federal money and make our own ESU! what if somebody does 9/11 to the trash cans!

a thousand flowers bloom. what if they do 9/11 to the jails, says the department of correction

what if they do 9/11 to da bus terminal

what if they do 9/11 to the MTA

what if they do 9/11 to da trains

until finally we’re back at the start, with: what if they do 9/11 while we’re evicting them

and that’s how, even discounting federal and state law enforcement, New York has a dozen different SWAT teams all bumping into each other trying to breach through the same door, until the terrorists take pity and shoot all of them