Republicans have spent decades branding Democrats as anti-capitalist collectivists bent on the destruction of private property and free enterprise. In the Right’s propa-melodrama, the leftist locomotive flattens virtuous Little Nell’s of capitalism after tying them to the railroad tracks of taxes with the ropes of regulation.

The character inversion is pure genius.

Looks like we can add “participating in a flash mob at a public monument” to the list of things that are more illegal than torture, assassination, starting a war under false pretenses, foreclosure fraud, securities fraud, warrantless wiretapping, and buying public officials.

This is the city. Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge. My name’s Friday. The story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I grew up watching Dragnet, which began its run in 1967 and lasted three and a half seasons. I thought it was a pretty weird, but I learned lots of things about my hometown, and about life in general–like how to judge the quality of a fur, from the episode where Joe Friday’s partner’s Frank Gannon went undercover to bust a burglary ring; and it was always fun to to try and guess the what the sentences for crimes would be.