Thursday, June 8, 2017

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
(Variously, who will watch the watchmen?
or Who will guard the guards?)

I've liked this phrase since I first saw it when I took Latin as a youngster, nearly fifty years ago (definitely over 40 years ago).  Roman History taught me that the tribunes were able to wield tribunitial power and overrule the watchers. It was then that I knew I wanted to be a Tribune.

Which is just a fancy word for lawyer, which I ended up being.

Anyway, I've been using this phrase in relation to out of control police (and general government power) for nearly 50 years.  It was pretty much the only useful thing I retained from taking Latin.

That said, I had to laugh when this site appeared in my radar with this statement:

"This is a very cool phrase indeed and you can use it to be pseudy, cool, or downright intellectual - and at the right moment it can be bomb shell in a discussion, chat-up scenario (I have dropped it often myself with great effect :-), or even to liven up a really boring business meeting"
Indeed!

On the other hand, it is useful to remember that the courts are there to do just that.

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