The sex-violence-state nexus

Telescoping batons in action! - The sex-violence-state nexus, illustrated

At right you see the cover of Naše Vojsko — Vojesnký a policejní magazín (“Our Military — The Military and Police Manazine”), a Czech publication. This is issue 3/2009, and the magazine is in its fifth year of production.

I picked up this issue at Svět Knihy Praha 2009, the annual Prague book fair, earlier this year. The cover photo really caught my eye.

The article which goes with the photo is entitled “Teleskopy v akci” (“Telescoping batons in action”). It features a series of photographs in which men dressed in clown suits military and police uniforms can be seen using these telescoping police batons to:

• Immobilize a man in a pain hold which threatens to break his elbow
• Subdue a prone man
• Project an image of power
• Conduct close combat with an unruly crowd
• Smash a train window
• Smash the window of a van
• Threaten the resident of an apartment during a raid
• Inspect the underside of a vehicle with a mirror extension

There is also another photo accompanying the article, with the telescoping baton filling the role of striptease club dance pole, complete with a beautiful young lingerie-clad pole dancer.

Rather than project my own thoughts here, I’d like to invite you, gentle reader, to share yours. Your comments on the image are most welcome, but if you really want to have an impact, click through on the picture for the full-resolution version, and make your own blog post, Facebook note or whatever with it, alongside your own commentary.