In feudal japan the samurai had the legal right to kill any peasants they wanted. If people objected to a killing they could travel days to the capital to have the conduct reviewed. it was rarely punished for a variety of reasons
Good thing we don’t live in a federal system anymore.
This is an extremely apt comparison. The US formed out of feudal elements like a southern aristocracy, and the cops were invented to be their slave catchers. They are petty bourgie sheriffs of the Wild West, ronins who are a warrior class above us but below the royalty and owners.
In the north, they then brought those cops in alongside pinkertons to break strikes and kill trade unionists.
It’s the exact same relationship to the state and to the people as feudal ronins.
I read a short story called Iron Clads by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a dramatic retelling of the class conflict inherent in the martial classes. Kights were landlord cops. Same as samurai. The picture of knights we have is a rich guy wearing armor the equivalent of a Ferrari. Their equipment was purpose built for killing peasants. A knights sword didn’t work on other armored knights. The symbol of their power is for killing peasants. Same as most similar social classes. Our cops do not have the nobility or landlord aspect so they doubble dip on the violence.
At least the knights had to go war with each other every once and a while when there were squabbles between nobility. Modern cops never have to go to war against other cops.
Ehh, when they actually wanted to kill eachother they used specialized weapons peasants didn’t have. Most the time they just captured eachother for ransom and prestige. They were specialized for the managment and destruction of peasants
Depends on the period. There were some armors for that. However for most the periods we care about it was mostly used to fuck up poor people for being sad.
In feudal japan the samurai had the legal right to kill any peasants they wanted. If people objected to a killing they could travel days to the capital to have the conduct reviewed. it was rarely punished for a variety of reasons
Good thing we don’t live in a federal system anymore.
This is an extremely apt comparison. The US formed out of feudal elements like a southern aristocracy, and the cops were invented to be their slave catchers. They are petty bourgie sheriffs of the Wild West, ronins who are a warrior class above us but below the royalty and owners.
In the north, they then brought those cops in alongside pinkertons to break strikes and kill trade unionists.
It’s the exact same relationship to the state and to the people as feudal ronins.
I read a short story called Iron Clads by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is a dramatic retelling of the class conflict inherent in the martial classes. Kights were landlord cops. Same as samurai. The picture of knights we have is a rich guy wearing armor the equivalent of a Ferrari. Their equipment was purpose built for killing peasants. A knights sword didn’t work on other armored knights. The symbol of their power is for killing peasants. Same as most similar social classes. Our cops do not have the nobility or landlord aspect so they doubble dip on the violence.
At least the knights had to go war with each other every once and a while when there were squabbles between nobility. Modern cops never have to go to war against other cops.
Ehh, when they actually wanted to kill eachother they used specialized weapons peasants didn’t have. Most the time they just captured eachother for ransom and prestige. They were specialized for the managment and destruction of peasants
They pretty much only wore the armor when killing each other
Depends on the period. There were some armors for that. However for most the periods we care about it was mostly used to fuck up poor people for being sad.
Gangs of ronin kkkops wandering the country side blasting away at even the tiniest sound.