"Ninth Time -- That Business on Cato Neimoidia Doesn't Count"

• "Why do police guys beat on peace guys?"  -- "The Pause of Mr. Claus," Arlo Guthrie
  
  The Boston Police Department believed peace activists were more dangerous than the Tsarnaev brothers turned out to be.  OK, that's a very compressed summary.  Let's open it out a little:

  In March 2010, the BPD finally responded to records inquiries made by the ACLU for info on the BRIC. Rather than turn over all requested documents, though, police attorneys only produced papers outlining the center’s procedural guidelines and policies, and neglected to hand over records that revealed specific targets of surveillance. So in August 2011, the ACLU joined 10 groups and federations—Veterans for Peace, the Boston Stop the Wars Coalition, and others—in suing the BPD, and its commissioner Davis.
  
  Under increased legal pressure, 14 months later the department released embarrassing documents showing that the BRIC had indeed been spying on peace activists since at least 2008.
  
  As assumed, they were also keeping records of their non-criminal behavior.

  and

  By that time, the U.S. government had twice been warned by the Russian government that Tamerlan had radical ties. He was also on at least three watch lists: the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) which is compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database, and a compendium amassed by the DHS’s Customs and Border Protection bureau. For what it’s worth, it also appears that Tamerlan had an Amazon wish list that included several books on how to manufacture fake IDs. Considering that, and his noted anti-peace outbursts at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Cambridge, and
  
  it’s almost like he was trying to get caught.
  
  Meanwhile, in Boston, the BRIC spent much of September 2011 monitoring Occupy protesters in Dewey Square, as well as anti-foreclosure activists and other peaceful crusaders. As such, the question now being asked of the BPD and Commissioner Davis—by the ACLU, by Congress, by an increasing number of reporters—is if police intelligence could have, should have netted Tsarnaev.

  Because, y'know, peace activists are a clear and present danger.  Not.  I have never really understood the animosity toward people who oppose war.  War is not really a good thing; it should be a very last resort, rare thing (really, don't talk to me about Iraq).
• Destroying the New York Public Library system (Nathan Tankus at naked capitalism reports):

  When the public sector divests itself of physical space en masse, the ability for it to regain control is substantially decreased. If an upswing in municipal finances occurs in the future, the enormous amounts of money it takes to purchase and develop real estate (especially in New York) for public use makes rolling back any sell-offs nearly impossible. Additionally, harming the quality of research libraries in New York has a substantial impact on the regional economy since researchers from all over the world come here to access them.
  
  On a more personal note, the New York Public Library has been indispensable for my research (including research I’ve done for this site). Public libraries are essentially the only organization that provide access to journals (both digital and physical) for those without an academic affiliation. Even for those with Academic affiliations, they have a fantastic collection of books and will even digitize selected pages and send them to you at no cost. Destroying public libraries and schools is not only a great boon to the FIRE sector, it also greatly harms [our] ability to resist and articulately criticize dominant narratives and conventional wisdom. As Orwell famously wrote in 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past”.

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