If you were a billionaire who liked cops, primarily because they never give YOU grief, but DO give your low wage workers – who might, say, be inclined to organize and bargain with you, or bring actions against you for wage theft, or sexual harrassment, or other illegal workplace practices – a LOT of grief, what would you do about a “progressive prosecutor”, who sincerely believes in the principle of “equal justice under law”, and the precept that it would be better to risk letting a hundred guilty men go free than to take the life and freedom of a single innocent one?

One time, i was getting off a train platform with my hands full, juggling some groceries i had bought, along with a backpack with a broken strap. A bunch of transit cops were doing fare inspections. One of them forced me to put me all my stuff down and dig out my ticket. Then, before I even got off the platform, a couple more accosted me again, and again, demanding to see the same ticket the earlier cop did!

“Left vs right” as an enduring, dominant political metaphor is undoubtedly a gross reduction and simplification of reality that occasions endless confusion. But while I am sympathetic to such reservations, nevertheless, I have not yet seen a way to entirely supersede it. In fact, one of the best giveaways about someone’s intentions often consists of claims that they aim to “move beyond left-vs-right”. And, if one sympathizes more with the “left” side of the metaphor, those intentions are probably bad news.