The oddly beautiful and sometimes disturbing artistic talent of drug cops (2015)

I've designed a few patches over the years (military). The image submitted to the printer often varies wildly from the look of the finished patch. The forgotten part of this article is the artistic input from those actually building the patches. They take the vision and make it work in thread.

(FYI, the patches that really matter don't come in bright colors. Patches worn by actual operators, the people who put their lives on the line, use only muted colors, certainly not white or silver anything.)

What makes me laugh is seeing how these cops throw around military or legal symbols without any idea of what they mean. The lightning bolts mean something in the military. So too the skulls. And I don't think cops should be using the scales of justice. That is something reserved for judges. By adopting it they are basically declaring themselves judge and jury.

It's a little interesting to see the contrast between the DEA as a straight-laced government agency, and the patches they make. Frankly speaking, there's an "edginess" to it that's hard to reconcile with their public image.

>and many if not most of them look like they were made in MS Paint.//

Isn't that just because of the limited pallet and resolution available with an [cheaply] embroidered badge.

Are there examples of cloth badges produced this way that have better design?

I used to take a similar view on the war on drugs- now it's more nuanced given my immersion into the problem. It's hard to say wasting countless lives and millions of dollars to combat organizations illegaly smuggling harmless product (marijuana) into the states is hardly worth the mess left behind. Take a step back and it's easier to justify when the income of that product is going to large criminal organizations that also create problems such as the meth epidemic in california or the opioid crisis across the country. And to facilitate the delivery of these criminalized products, criminal organization have no hesitation of delivering those packs covered in the blood of poorest class of people in the hemisphere (the consumers are dying too, but from consumption, another problem entirely). Lots of people against the war on drugs will say "yeah but if it was decriminalized..." A lot of things would be different if it was decriminalized, but good luck selling that pipe dream to the traditional base of america that has a strong influence across the nation. Not happening anytime soon. In my opinion everything sucks here and I haven't heard a viable solution yet to this very complicated issue

Edit: I do want to say that decriminalization is probably the most hopeful option of them all, I just think it's going to take forever, generations probably. This is really a public health issue in my opinion, it's just not treated as one :/

The great Fred Woodworth, who has been prolifically self-publishing anti-establishment zines since the 1960s while keeping no online presence whatsoever (not even an email), famously referred to law enforcement as the largest and most powerful gang in USA history. And that was before the massive militarization of the past 20 years or so.

I say that's globally as well. I'm not crazy about Kim Dotcom, but in raiding his home the FBI was acting illegally on foreign soil. If any other gang in the world were to attempt such a thing, other law enforcement agencies would be all over them.

My girlfriend got me this book for Christmas! It's an absolute trip. Some of the Area 51 patches (for black site tech development, etc) have such surprising on-the-nose humor regarding aliens. It's nice to know that even people that work on top secret stuff have a sense of humor!

Trevor Paglen is an awesome artist.