Why We Need No Police

In theory, practice and history we see there is no reason to have police.  Less common is an explanation of the alternatives.  Here is one of very many:


Detroit makes an interesting contrast to Washington, DC.  Detroit has a murder rate (2011) or 48 per 100,000, Washington DC 21 per 100,000.  They have similar gun laws, so what is the difference?  Gentrification.  If the peninsula upon which Detroit resides becomes a free market polity, under a "one country, two systems" regime, then gentrification can come to the city with its attendant benefits.

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Koichi Kashiwaya Sensei

The other day I visited with Sifu Andy Dale who stocks a prodigious collection of videos from the early days, as well as instructional videos he has produced.  As we were reminiscing about the good old days (circa 71) at 306 South Main, it dawned on me how we had maybe thirty regular students and both Hirata and Lau senseis as instructors.  Chief Instructor Tohei Sensei was a regular visitor, and Seattle was a transfer point out of Haneda for JAL and NWA flights, so we have a steady stream of visitors like Imaizumi, Maruyama and Toyoda senseis.   Aikido comes from kendo, and we had several students who were advanced kendo-men, and even the legendary kendo sensei Omoto graced us with a few practices. Proportionally I doubt there was any place outside of Japan with better instructional talent to student ratio.

And then in 1973 Tohei sensei added Kashiwaya (Koichi) sensei to the mix.   Kashiwaya sensei was a newly minted san-dan, and Hirata sensei appointed him instructor of the children's class.  I had been teaching the children's class for about a year, and I was demoted to assistant instructor of the kid's class.  Only a blue belt and already demoted!  Hirata sensei consoled me by saying I was an uchi deshi (except for the fact I was not live-in, nor cared to be).  In retrospect appointing Kashiwaya "children's instructor" was probably one of those martial art discipline things wherein Hirata made clear to Kashiwaya who was boss.

Of course the kids were far better off with Kashiwaya sensei, and staying on as assistant instructor meant I was schooled by Kashiwaya sensei as well.  He built up the program and the watching parents were treated to some cross-cultural experiences.  Once a walloped kid was about to offer tears when Kashiwaya sensei barked "Don't cry!"  The kid did not cry.  Interesting.  Another time while explaining a katate tori movement from the beginning, Kashiwaya's eight year old uke unintentionally let rip an astonishing fart, much to the delight of the assembled kids.  "Oooooo!  Too much ki extension!"  cautioned Kashiwaya sensei.

You see in those gung-fu movies where the fighters are trying to sweep or knock off balance the opponent but one has made his "legs like tree trunks" and is immovable.  Kashiwaya sensei provided my first experience going up against someone who decided if you were not going to move him, he wasn't going to move.  Nat Steiger had it in his arms, but Kashiwaya in his whole body.

At this point there was aikido available seven days a week in Seattle, up to four hours a day, five days at Seattle Budokan, four days at University of Washington, all under one club.  It was one of the brief and shining moments you do not realize you are in except in retrospect.

Then came the "multiplying of aikido by dividing."  At first there was just the idea of some special club, you know, for like uchi deshi, and there was going to be a training facility and dorm in Japan and that sounded pretty good to this uchi deshi, so I bought a lifetime membership, I got the ID card and the Ki Society pin, and I was set.  But then it transpired this was a split into something called Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, with an emphasis on spiritual development.  Well, that was always the least interesting part of aikido to me, so when the split came, I was on the Hombu side of the divide. Like some Japanese period drama, Hirata and Kashiwaya senseis stayed with their champion. Although Tohei sensei had recruited a 15 year old Bernie Lau into aikido in Hawaii circa 1955, Lau Sensei had received his first two black belt ranks from O Sensei, and his instructors were tighter with O Sensei than Tohei sensei.  Just as well, both sides of the divide were happier with the alternative emphases.

We decamped to probably the oldest continuous judo dojo in USA, 1510 S Washington Street (which probably has the best value for martial arts instruction in USA: $25/month.  They gave us Mo We Fr nights, so with Lau Sensei as our chief instructor, away we went.  Les bon temps, sont finis.

We still had a procession of excellent visitors, and in some the differences were beneficial as many of the members were not so aikido-centric, which made for plenty of innovations.  Aikido newcomers to Seattle were invited to visit and even instruct, and I recall Mary Heiny, Bruce Bookman, and one extremely unfortunate fellow who expected to be proclaimed chief instructor of aikido in all of Seattle.

Bernie Lau reasoned that a fellow who had practiced a year or two in Japan, regardless of his instructor, was not up to leading people who collectively, nodding to his top students, offered well over a century of experience.  The fellow stormed out after vowing to report us to his master.

Even with the split, Seattle was small enough and feelings cordial enough to where I and a few others were supernumeraries at Kashiwaya sensei's wedding reception.  About that time I began travelling for work and always took a gi to practice on trips since it seemed aikido was everywhere.  There were some wonderful seminar opportunities in various cities and I was able to train at Hombu dojo and in Hong Kong among other places.

In the late 70s San Francisco had an awesome dojo and I managed to visit a few times, and be there for a black belt test, which must have been 79, since Doran, Nadeau and I believe Dobson senseis were officiating.  No doubt Wada and Klickstein were there since it was a black belt test, who knows who else.  Talk about a concentration of talent.  (Klickstein later suffered abandonment when unwarranted claims of sexual abuse surfaced in the false-accusation, witchhunt rich 90s.  Nothing came of any of the claims, not even charges, and Klickstein went off to build another life.  C'est la vie.)

On a business trip to Boulder I looked up Kashiwaya sensei circa 1980 and we had dinner.  Mixed expectations.  I figured on catching up and maybe some practice, but it seemed that to him my visit meant I repented of my decision and came seeking reinstatement.  Ooops.  Apparently feelings were hard in Japan and over time those feelings filtered down, I suspect.  Things had changed.  Too bad.

I saw him again maybe 20 years later on the UW campus and happily, with time, no one gives a hoot anymore.  That is better.  Tohei Sensei did in fact build his training center, and as  life member I guess I belong there, but even his school has broken up.    His top people found a return to the Hombu fold to include a chilly reception, so most of them have seem to have started their own schools.  More multiplication by division.  Even those who who stayed with Tohei Sensei, such as Kashiwaya sensei, seem to have formed independent disciplines.

And so it goes.  The good thing is just about everywhere on earth you can find a dojo, some practice partners regardless of the "style", a club to which you are a member with branches worldwide.  Good enough.

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Aikido As A Martial Art

Aikido is a martial art because it is used as a martial art.  That is to say, in case of violence, aikidoists use a system to deal with threats and acts.  The system itself is more principles than forms, thus there are so many styles.  And what styles people adopt are more a matter of weights and measures than orthodoxy.

I was having a beer at the Blue Moon on my daughter's birthday when a fellow slipped me a note informing me he had been at Cafe Racer in Seattle when the gunman came in and killed several people.  I'd recalled the shooting and when I heard, what was it, 5 dead(?) one injured, immediately I thought "talent." Anyone who can manage to kill five scattering people with a handgun is highly trained and likely a natural talent with a gun.  That the fellow was a long-time victim of the medical industry was a given.  Sure enough, the fellow was military trained, so he did what he was trained to do, shoot to kill, and he was drugged, so the drugs did what they were designed to do, and that is eliminate human sympathy.  The only wonder is why we do not have more of these killings given our constant wars and aggressive medicalization.

Why the fellow approached me in the bar, and why he intro'd himself in a note, I do not know why.  I wasn't particularly interested in the topic or him, but I figured when I got another beer I'd acknowledge him and hear him out.  Maybe he just needed to talk.  I think he said he was a vietnam vet, I don't quite recall, but I do recall he related he was the one who began throwing chairs at the shooter at the Cafe Racer shooting.  Apparently there is unreleased surveillance video of this and the whole event.

Now that was interesting, he fought back with chairs against a gunman and survived.  He went straight at the gunman. A natural martial artist. With aikido training, he might have been able to make an arrest as well, since aikido has so many arrest techniques.

Aikido is a martial art because the principle is you go straight at the threat.  Of course this very well may get you killed, but you knew that when you signed up for a martial art.  You'd rather die than be a victim.  But guns are notoriously ill-suited to the task of killing, even when in the hands of native talent.  Aikido-man Ramon Reiser related how in Vietnam the "enemy" kept fighting him hand-to-hand even with plenty of bullet holes incurred.  Most soldiers survive the gunshot wounds they incur, so gunshot does not equal death.

In any event, as a martial art, regardless of the threat we go straight at the threat.  Whatever that yields, if you lose the encounter, hopefully you've reduced the threat to the point where the next martial artist does better, and eventually the threat is neutralized.  If your number is up, it is up.

Now in aikido as a martial art there is much training in the "eight directions."  So straight at the attack should only mean 1 in 8 times straight is head on...  only three of five times you are within peripheral vision.  Five of eight times straight at the attacker you are outside of the attacker's peripheral vision.   One in eight times straight at the attacker means you are directly behind.

So in aikido as a martial art, one goes straight at the threat and uses what techniques, based on the principles, best addresses the threat.  It is in addressing threat that we see aikido is a martial art, because in practice it is used as a martial art.

Given the world we live in,  why every coffee shop does not have a shotgun under the counter, I do not know.  Starbucks welcomes concealed carry customers, and where legal, open carry customers. But then, they have no illusions about the world they live in.  You never know who is armed in Starbucks, and these shooters, trained and drugged to kill, specifically prefer gun-free zones: schools, post offices, and places people are not likely to be armed.

If people are not going to arm themselves, then they should at least train in the martial art of aikido.

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Separation of Justice and State

Here is a common enough example of a citizen being murdered and plenty of cover-up and so on.  It is a story that gets deeper as it goes, and pretty distressing, I am sure, for the victims.

There is a problem in life of believing your own PR, and this fellow is a lawyer, attempting to get justice for his brother, and mistakenly believing justice can be had in USA.  As the story deepens, he gets more surprised, and bitter.

None of this is new in history, it is just how it goes.  And if any right thinking person tries to help, they too are destroyed.  That has been happening on this continent at least as long as the Salem witch trials.

If you'll note his last comment regarding how judges will view the fact their staffs, along with churches, have been infiltrated by FBI informants, with consternation.  The fellow seems to think they judges will lash out, sort this out, and bring the FBI to heel.  Rather delusional.  The FBI already has the goods on all of the judges.  Any judge that crosses the FBI will find all of his secrets revealed, and thus destroyed.

There would seem to be no way out.  There seems to be a dichotomy: be abused or an abuser.  Be a murderer, or be murdered.  And so people hear about these terrible things and blame the victim, change the channel, or get philosophical, whatever it takes to get away from reality.

To enter law enforcement with a view to being for good things and against bad things, or whatever motivates people who want such jobs, and then to find you are obliged to turn a blind eye to murder, etc, can be as distressful for these perpetrators as it is for the victims.  They believe the world is a wicked place, there is no justice, better to meet out punishment than take it.

It is a false dichotomy.  There is an alternative, and that is what might be "truth commissions."  In essence, a truth commission has the community's support to offer immunity to anyone on any matter, including capital offenses.  The proposal is simple:  actors are given immunity on anything to which they confess.  Confessions are then cross referenced and given ratings as to veracity, and revelations are fair game for state actors to go after unrepentant criminals.

This will never work in USA, which is yet to have a single independent police review board.  It necessarily cannot be associated with a state, since the state cannot be trusted with criminal justice matters.  But there is a precedent for making this work: the one country, two systems that China maintains.

Take an area, such as the peninsula upon which Detroit reposes, and make it a free polity zone like Hong Kong.  And there, once established, people can find sanctuary from the murderers who hide behind badges in the USA.  There they can find immunity from prosecution, and at the same time have their stories subject to the most aggressive forensics.

You think you have a better solution?


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Being Soviet Means Never Having to Say You are Sorry

Since 2009 20,000 people have viewed this abstract which states in part:

 The so-called “global war on terror” is not an armed conflict. In addition, members of the CIA are not lawful combatants and their participation in killing—even in an armed conflict—is a crime.

Most of whom must have been lawyers.  Since then, not one has brought criminal charges against criminals.  That is because, ultimately, they are state employees and will never cross the state.  On inconsequential matters, surely, but on matters existential to the criminal elements in government, never.

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Best Way to Get Out is to Not Go In

Here a pregnant mother of four is to be sent to prison for trying to change jobs.


She fled to Canada, and was sent back.

Private First Class Kimberly Rivera — a conscientious objector and pregnant mother of four — has just been sentenced to military prison for refusing to serve in the Iraq War. Rivera was on a two-week leave in December 2006 when she decided she would not return to Iraq for a second tour of duty. She and her family fled to Canada in February 2007, living there until their deportation back to the United States last year. On Monday, a military court sentenced her to 10 months behind bars. Her fifth child is due in December. 

Keep that in mind, those who think they have an out.    I am not real sympathetic to people who join then quit, because the information before joining is exactly the same after joining.  I think all too often people think "freebies" and getting deployed in harms way is a long shot.  Then when they lose that bet, they want to skip out.

Ten months to think about it may not be too long.  Her life and kids will be better off as a convict with no benefits.

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Mistaking Patience for Approval

My legs were not blown off in Boston the day of the marathon, nor was I killed.  But I certainly would deserve such a fate, and worse.  What goes around comes around, and as an American taxpayer, I am certainly responsible for what happened to Razia, especially when there is not the slightest effort to prosecute the perpetrators of her injuries, nor act on the certain knowledge that our presence in her country is wrong.  I, like you, am personally responsibly for what happened to Razia.




I do not for a second believe two Chechen knuckleheads had anything to do with the bombing, because if they did, someone somewhere by now would have provided evidence somehow linking them to the crime.  Hasn't happened, won't happen. The only evidence you have is the news outlets repeat what law enforcement said a witness said.  Unreliable.  At the same time, there is overwhelming evidence others did it. It doesn't really matter.  In these things, there are bad guys on both sides, and the bad guys on both sides benefit when bombs go off.

It is not enough to vote against war, which is pointless since election fraud is material in USA.  Even if I pray and fast against the war, I still enjoy the benefits of imperialism.  I am guilty as hell.

We all take comfort, and imagine, that the fact that we do not suffer for our crimes must mean that we are innocent.  If so, we mistake God's patience for approval.  I am told God's patience is ordered to our salvation.  Our love of money is the root of all evil, even if we only love seeing CEOs, starlets and ball players get fantastically wealthy, relatively speaking.  How strange it is we in poverty settle on the thrill of vicarious living.

There is a point where our banality will cross a point of no return, when patience is ended and come what may comes.  Afterwards, there must be enough people who say no to letting others aggregate power through usury to the point they can call the shots, literally.  No law against it, just no state supporting it.

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