Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!ihnp4!homxb!mtuxo!pegasus!ho95e!rutgers!mit-eddie!mit-amt!joel
From: joel@mit-amt.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,rec.arts.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Future Police Speculations Needed
Message-ID: <1702@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Sun, 1-Nov-87 20:22:22 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-amt.1702
Posted: Sun Nov  1 20:22:22 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Nov-87 01:12:56 EST
References: <1463@haddock.ISC.COM> <1824@trex.rutgers.edu> <23473AE4@PSUVMA> <1948@clash.rutgers.edu> <6201@sunybcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: joel@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (joel s. kollin)
Distribution: alt.cyberpunk
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA
Lines: 18
Xref: hoptoad alt.cyberpunk:139 rec.arts.sf-lovers:8330

In article <6201@sunybcs.UUCP> ugcherk@joey.UUCP (Kevin Cherkauer) writes:

> I didn't notice any mention of police in _Neuromancer_ nor _Count
>Zero_. Maybe I am wrong about this, but from my personal preferences
>I have built my mental model of Gibson's world without the presence
>of police. Any "government" would be pretty impotent at the street
>level and would know better than to try to meddle. 

You have indeed built your model from your personal preferences.
I am reading _Neuromancer_ for the second time and you will find the
police in the middle of the book, trying to isolate the Sense/Net building
because they think the inhabitants have been dosed with a dangerous drug.
They've been had, of course.  The police don't seem to be very effective
in GIbson's books.  In a way this is already true in most urban areas -
crime is either too random or too organized to stop.  Serial murderers
and other flagrant assholes get caught but your average low level drug
dealer or organized extortion ring can usually operate for very long
periods of time. If the latter is dealt with, it is usually by the Feds.