Thread by @chrislhayes

I've been thinking alot about what a left/liberal approach to the question of Pulic Order would look like, because I think it's a pretty missing part of the conversation.

https://twitter.com/dahvnyc/status/1494701909025955842

I write a bit about this in A Colony in a Nation, but recently I've come to think of it as the Smoker on the Subway Platform problem. If you say to me, do you want the cops to confront and arrest someone who is smoking on the subway platform? I would say, Absolutely not!

And if you say: the two options are: a) the cops confront and arrest him or b) nothing, I'll opt for nothing. But also, it seems eminently reasonable to say "I don't really want people smoking on the subway platform."

That's one example of a whole bunch of things that fall under the public order rubric. A lot of times "public order" can be a stalking horse for expressing contempt for the marginalized and needy...

But there is a question of how to negotiate the terms of public space *without* using the criminal justice system that seems a bit, to me, at least, unanswered at the moment, even with different alternatives out there that have been tried with varying level of success.