State-sponsored terrorism
Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit -which means, "what starts by daylight is done after dark." I take this to mean the doing of legitimate business. In other words, business with nothing to hide, may justifiably continue after hours. Furthermore, I take the implied premise (enthymeme) of Nietzsche's Latin aphorism to be that what is begun by cover of darkness dare not continue by day. The exact nature of the implied “quidquid” is likewise left to the imagination.
Burglary comes to mind. The original Common Law definition of burglary is "the breaking and entering of someone else's dwelling at night with the intent to commit a felony." Although the crime of burglary now includes unauthorized entry at all times—day or night—the original intent was to make the wrongness of the act vivid in the mind of the jury. Picture, if the jury so pleases, the defendant as a “cat burglar.”
My intent is to make vivid the wrongness of evicting homeless persons, indeed anyone under any circumstances, at any time other than regular business hours. That excludes all seven nights a week. The implicit premise, in this analogy, is the legitimacy—the necessity—of removing vagrants, even if by force (if necessary), but always during regular business hours. It is the only time slot when they can be properly assigned to suitable shelter by legitimate administrative procedures. Not unjustifiably, expeditiously, dispersed under cover of darkness.
The fictional novel Ironweed, by writer William Kennedy, narrates vividly a raid by "bulls" on a Hobo encampment in the novel's final pages. As the story relates emphatically, any alleged threat presented by the vagrants is outweighed by the brutality of their forced eviction—which is unauthorized—and without legal warrant. The Hobos are guilty of nothing but inflaming the animosity of a mid-to-low-level public administrator, himself unwillingly given the disagreeable task of eradicating the nuisance.
Reading the Ironweed raid narrative reminded me of nothing so much as Ku Klux Klan tactics. Both are guilty of vigilantism. You could say the Klan was the first declared terrorist organization. It is not the pointed hoods worn by Klansmen that strikes fear. It is the nighttime raid, the knock at the door in the dead of night, awaking the intended victims from sleep—which may be fairly characterized as a waking nightmare—followed by the back-slapping good ol' boys making good their escape leaving no evidence of physical harm -except on the mind.
Nietzsche's comments, which follow the initial aphorism are, “What we experience in a dream, provided we experience it frequently, finally is as much a part of the collective household of our souls as anything "truly" experienced.” It essentially reminds me of the infamous precept, attributed to Joseph Goebbels, proponent of the brainwashing school of psychology, which goes “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes truth.” The “lie,” here, is intimidation under any guise.
It all gave me an idea, a positive suggestion, not cheap-shot critical remarks. A curfew is needed, both for the public, and for the public administration. I would call a curfew, Governor, compulsory on all sides after dark, and when government offices are closed. Conditions which are in place when the Sun goes down should remain so until the next business day. There absolutely are services in place, now, for vagrants, and all indigents. These citizens should—and they must—be duly enrolled. All I ask is make processing for social services transparent, fair, and Constitutional.