The phrase “cops and robbers” came to me while reading some birther comments on YouTube yesterday. Cops and Robbers is a role-laying game where children pretend that they are police trying to catch a bad guy. Toy stores sell pretend badges, cop cars and guns.
I want to say at the outset that I have nothing but admiration for the folks who do volunteer work to assist law enforcement, particularly search and rescue. I have a friend who is retired law enforcement who volunteers with the local sheriff’s office to help them keep up to date on paperwork. But when I read birther comments, all I see is pretend. Birthers are pretend investigators, pretend forensic scientists, and pretend grand juries pursuing a pretend fraud case against the President.
In real cops and robbers, people get hurt. In birther cops and robbers there is just a lot of yelling on the Internet and everybody goes home just like the day before—nothing actually happens. In real law enforcement, there is also accountability. An unprofessional investigation, misrepresentations and fabrication of evidence lead to a lost case. Real police face cross-examination in court. In children’s games, the one who shouts loudest might win.
The line between play and real gets just a little blurred with the Maricopa County Cold Case Posse. They are in some sense a real law enforcement auxiliary, but their activities and their techniques are those of children playing, and by the “nothing actually happens” standard and the “accountability” standard, they fail the real law enforcement test.
I don’t mean to say that only birthers are playing the game. Anti-birthers are also playing a game according to the “nothing actually happens” criteria. Some of the articles on this site are written to myself just as much as to the reader. In this case, I am suggesting to everyone in the Obama conspiracy scene not to take themselves too seriously. Enjoy the game.
Sheriff Conspiracy at 22 months.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
1 Corinthians 13:11
The Bible (ESV)
Cops and Robbers was still pretty popular when I was a kid.
And lets face it, small children pretending to be cops is way more convincing than Zullo’s Keystone Kop Kaper Posse.
Real cops don’t write books about ongoing investigations. An ad today from bookseller WND:
“In addition, WND is making available other resources in this critical hour at giveaway prices:
Get the e-book by Jerome Corsi and Cold Case Posse lead investigator Mike Zullo, “A Question of Eligibility: A Law-Enforcement Investigation into Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate and His Eligibility to be President.” This is a historic work, which will be constantly updated with the latest information and findings for those who purchase the e-book for only $9.99 and get free downloads whenever there’s breaking news. ”
“The line between play and real gets just a little blurred with the Maricopa County Cold Case Posse.”
Oh, Doc, you and Robin Thicke with your blurred lines. Now I’ve got visions of Mike Zullo and Joe Arpaio prancing around topless.
2nd paragraph Birthers are pretend investigators and pretend grand juries pursing a pretend fraud case against the President
should say grand juries pursuing unless we’re talking about stealing purses.
And twerking.
Or making kissy faces.
So, I’ll be sending you my therapy bill…
I don’t recall ever playing cops and robbers myself. We played army mostly. Hmmm. I have this vague image of a photo…
Doc started it! I was just a messenger.
Only when a Zullo does it, it’s called “birking.” And when Arpaio does it, it’s called, “My back!”
Zullo is playing “cowboys and Indonesians.”
This article has been update with photo at the end.
$9.99 is not a “giveaway” price.
Griftaway?
The “giveaway” refers to your self respect if you’re foolish enough to buy it
…. and how many updates have there been?
You know, this is technically a subscription. $9.99 for a subscription to anything WND is indeed a fire sale!
“Insider info* on Greatest Investigation of the Greatest Fraud in History—CHEAP!!!”
I’d be OK with Zullo getting a burking.
(NADT)
After watching this play out over 5 years, the only value of the CCP quilting bee/gossip session is that they were at least entertaining. They’ve pretty much lost that now. Even the birthers are starting to get fed up with being constantly lied to by Gallops and Zullo. Now I’m just waiting for Mr Zullo to get what’s really coming to him…ANY DAY NOW! 😆
Zullo in a burka would go over well.
Same here. Though your picture does remind me that I got a Roy Rogers outfit for my 7th birthday. And then, there was the Davy Crockett craze. That coonskin hat was real warm, as I recall.
Kid’s games tie to their media consumption. They play to imitate what they know and admire. Cops’n’Robers was big in the ’30s – ’50s (gangster movies, post-Prohibition nostalgia, later noir), along with Cowboys’n’Indians, before giving way to sci-fi play in the ’50s. Wartime brings Army games.
We played Batman & Robin, as my cousins and I were hooked on the ’60s show, then in syndication. We also watched lots of Star Trek, but I don’t recall any “away missions” … too sophisticated I guess.
And fast word to today, when adults do that it’s called reenactments, or LARPing, if you’re in with the RPG crowd…or so I’m told…yeah. That’s the ticket.
An unfortunately-not-real story from yesterday had Canadian Prime Minister Harper saying that he enjoyed “twerking” — because he thought it meant “tweeting.”
The fake story then started laying it on a little thick, quoting Harper as saying he twerked with President Obama on occasion, and that he “would like to twerk with every Canadian but that of course is impossible.” At which point anyone who knows what a tweet actually is would realize their leg was being twerked.
Ahhhhh,
I remember my mother taking me to a (to me) enormous store at age 5-6 and I was given the choice of a Batman outfit of a Thunderbirds outfit.
Naturally one went with the Dark Knight….well it was the KA-POW….BLAM camp period so less DK, more Liberace….8-)
Twerking a leg? That’s what my dog does when he’s really happy to see me.
I’ve still got the 45rpm record with the ‘Davy Crockett’ theme.
I really, really, really wish I still had my Hop-along Cassidy watch.
Do not follow this link.
You were warned, weren’t you? Its your own fault. Don’t come running to me for a new keyboard.
I am in a somewhat awkward position regarding childhood role playing. There was this guy whose name began with “Z” and ended in “o”.
Karl Gall Oops! : Hello again, listeners on the PeePee Summons Rodeo Nutwork, today we’ll be telling you how to get that Sheriff’s Kit, our new Deputy Sheriff’s Kit, our new Dog-Catcher’s Kit, and we’ve still got a few more, Neighborhood Nutbag’s Kits and those are of course, pairs.
But right now, I’ve got Field Marshall Mike Zoo Low on the phone with breaking news on the Obama Fraudulent Document Scandal, this is really it folks – after so many earlier disappointments – we’ve finally got the smoking gun – proof positive that Obama’s a murdering, lying, socialist, what-have-you, whose birth certificate and I-don’t-know-what-all are 10,000 % forgeries! And that we have improbable cause to declare that 100 million percent, he’s, it goes without saying, almost certainly ineligible to the Presidency so-help-me Joe McCarthy. No more secrets – we’re ready to announce this astonishing evidentiary finding – isn’t that right Mike?”
Field Marshall Mike Zoo Low: “Weh, Car, thas naw xakly wad I wuz sane..,….
Karl Gall Oops! :”Excuse me, Mike but could you not speak through that impressive cardboard badge – I’m afraid our listeners are missing some of this exciting news! Go right ahead, Field Marsh”
Field Marshall Mike Zoo Low: “Well, I feel naked, but can you hear me now? Okay Karl, real quick here. What’s happened, is that I added the names of three of my relatives to the list of our VIP’s who can really get this Congressional Investigation rolling, and they have all manufactured, FROM SCRATCH , damning ‘I witness’ testimony, against Obama stating that he is guilty on all imaginable counts and future accusations. Now, Karl, us being former police investigators ourselves, we can assure everyone that since this is accusing testimony made up out of whole cloth, it can never be honestly denied by the Obots!”
Karl Gall Oops! :”Oh, golly Mike! Golly! Praise paper money! Now let’s let loose with that PeePee Summons exclusive breaking revelation – what exactly are all of these new charges?”
Field Marshall Mike Zoo Low:”Well, Oops!, buddy….. I can’t announce that yet, it’s a secret! You might say, ‘a sheriff’s secret’. The kind of secret any Sherif or pretend Sheriff would trump up just to keep from having prosecutors receive the evidence for the biggest scandal in the History of the Universe! ‘Course, we can’t ever let the authorities know what we know, cause it would take them too long to get the job done. Uh, in the courts, and what-not…. officially too! So we are THAT close!”
Karl Gall Oops! :”Oh. Well……. Well….. Well, GOOD! THAT is exciting. And I’d like to say to our faithful listeners who haven’t donated any money toward our cause yet, this kind of exciting breaking news does not come cheap, am I right about that, Mike?”
Is it bad that I think he did a better job of it than Miley?
Keith: I really, really, really wish I still had my Hop-along Cassidy watch.
I still have my Hop-along Cassidy pocket knife.
Yeah, but you should copy this one:
http://youtu.be/k6Lb3kFwJRQ
Yeah, but the mark of Zullo is what’s left in the toilet after your morning constitutional.