“We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”

Maybe you remember seeing the strange query and the photo via Reddit.com. The story of the California student who found a tracking device on his vehicle.

Well, faithful blog reader Sam just found the follow-up. The FBI fetched back their device and, even though the young man was reportedly completely cooperative already, an agent told him, “We’re going to make this much more difficult for you if you don’t cooperate.”

I know that any empathetic person, especially one who’s been observing the onward march of the jackbooterie, can imagine how it feels to be on the receiving end of those words. We can all guess what it must have been like to be standing in Yasir Afifi’s shoes just then.

But I don’t have to imagine it. Those words were spoken to me once, when I was 18. It was the scariest moment of my life. Still is — and I’ve lived a long time since then. The words weren’t spoken by an FBI agent, but nevertheless by a government authority figure who had the power, if I didn’t “cooperate” (as he saw it) to make my life hell and destroy my future.

That was not only the scariest moment of my life. It was a pivot point. Up to then, I’d been a troubled kid hoping and sincerely believing (because isn’t that always the way it happens in books and movies?) that some wise authority figure would recognize my plight and reach out to help me. From that moment, I knew I was on my own — and that authority figures weren’t ever going to be wise or sympathetic or understanding. They were just going to be Authorities. Okay, so it was a valuable lesson to learn. But the memory of my helplessness as I tearfully tried to explain my point of view to a man whose only interest was in wielding terrifying power over me still sometimes wakes me up at night.

That our whole political culture now operates on that cruel, unreasoning level is sickening.

I can see that FBI agent who threatened Afifi clearly. He’s not interested in truth or law or fairness. He’s certainly not interested in answering Afifi’s questions. His macho is feeling threatened because Afifi found his tracking device, which embarrasses him. And rather than dealing with embarrassment like an honest person, he acts like a man whose only tool is a hammer — a hammer provided by the government. He whacks Afifi down and lets him know he can hit him harder, harder, endlessly hard — at a whim.

I can’t even think of an epithet here strong enough to describe such a creature. The word “pig” would be an insult to swine.