#civil disoedience

[marta-bee]

The news out of Iran has me thinking about civil disobedience.

See, there’s a school of thought that by accepting the benefits of there being a system of law, you have to accept the law’s judgment. That doesn’t mean you have to obey it blindly, but if you disobey and get caught, you’re obligated to accept the penalty, pay the fine or go to jail or whatever. Ideally you do this in a way that sparks moral outrage against whatever unfair law you’ve had to break so people fight to change it. But by disobeying the law and then refusing to accept punishment (the argument goes) you’re making way for anarchy.

Philosophy 101 students, think Plato’s “Crito.” And think MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and MLK generally much more than Malcolm X; though that’s a real oversimplification and I’m far from an expert on them beyond the passages white people like to quote.

I’ve always thought it’s not perfect, there are big limitations on this argument, but generally I thought it was at least in the right ballpark. Because as horrible as the criminal justice system is, I think the worst parts are where cops work outside the rule of law (shooting a suspect rather than arresting and trying him), and even then I’d rather have a bad justice system than what would rush into the vacuum left by one, a whole universe of George Zimmermans and Kyle Rittenhouses.

Keep in mind I’m a white woman who was only arrested once as part of a protest, and released almost immediately. My experience with the criminal justice system is not that of a lot of people, and I probably have loads of blind-spots here. But that’s always been my thought.

What’s happening in Iran is so awful because it was started by something so thoroughly outside the rule of law. Law & order does more than just define crimes and penalties, it also defines how those who are accused or actually did something will be treated. When Trump wished cops would be a little less careful about banging arrested peoples’ heads on the doorframes of their cop cars when they arrested people, that’s not the rule of law. Nor is the beating that happened on Edmund Pettus Bridge, or what happened to George Floyd, or Tamir Rice, or Breonna Taylor, or way too many others. And when a young Iranian woman in her twenties is arrested by a police force famous for their brutality, and hours later they’re saying she died from a heart attack when she has no prior health conditions and was, what, in her 20s? That’s definitely not the rule of law.That’s just brute force and state-sponsored terrorism.

Even if I’m a bit naive about civil disobedience and how the criminal justice system actually works, I’m not blind to the fact that this is something else entirely. It’s wholly repugnant. And it’s a big part of why I fight so hard for good laws applied fairly: because we need a way  to tell even the police and the powerful, just because you have the power to hurt people this way doesn’t make it acceptable.

I guess that’s the point I’m circling around. “Civil disobedience” doesn’t apply to situations like this because there’s no good law & order system they’ve all been benefiting from. There’s just might makes right, and it’s violent, it’s bloody, and it’s fucking wrong.

Also, I know it’s been said elsewhere, but I’m truly in awe of all the women and people generally standing up to Iran’s policies. And protesting Putin’s new conscription policy in Russia. And fighting against the referendum in Ukraine where they’re being forced to say their territories should be part of Russia, at gunpoint. There’s so much bravery in the world right now. I can only manage a fraction of that from my safe-ish corner of the world, but still, I’m in awe.