In the seventh part of Night Watch, Vimes further integrates himself into the Watch in order to change it. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Discworld.
Trigger Warning: For discussion of police brutality and corruption.
I’ll say this: Night Watch is showing that it takes a whole lot of work to undo police corruption. A LOT. Sam Vimes is just getting started, y’all, and THIS FORCE IS A MESS. They’re not happy with Vimes’s presence and his consistent interference in what’s considered “normal.†You can see that initially in the reaction from Ned Coates, who layers on a lot of sarcasm when he’s asked to give a receipt for those he caught violating curfew. I had to remind myself that curfew actually existed during this point in Ankh-Morpork history. It is something that’s been used in our world to try and counter certain social ills, and Pratchett absolutely makes reference to those things: Public drunkenness. Criminals. Sex workers.
And I didn’t quite understand what Pratchett was doing by having Vimes seem so exuberant about taking the four curfew violators to the Unmentionables. What lesson would that teach? Playing it by the rules seemed odd because… well, some of the rules are fucked up, aren’t they? Why subject these people to those rules? I understood this from the perspective of organizing the Watch members, but why use people like Miss Palm and Miss Battye?
Vimes’s plan—and Pratchett’s intent—slowly bled into the page as I read this, and HOLY SHIT. He used the flaws of this system against itself. He exploited the rules by following them to a T, and in doing so, he has upset the existing order. It sure seems simple on the surface, though. He rejects all attempts at bribes. He asks for a receipt before dropping off his prisoners at the Cable Street location. That’s it! THAT’S LITERALLY WHAT HE DOES. yet in these two acts, he demonstrates the absurdity of this whole system. Bribes exist because the Watch knows they can take them. It’s an unspoken arrangement that is so integrated into being a part of the Watch that EVERYONE is surprised when Vimes openly rejects a bribe.
And look, I don’t think this is particularly radical, but no one should be making money off of this element of society. I have complicated (and mostly negative) thoughts on the existence of law enforcement within my country, but I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that no one should profit from crime. That goes for bribes, for private prisons, for the weaponization of precincts and police forces. Because as we’ve seen here in the US, once you allow people to make money from policing, policing will adapt to further its capitalistic interests. It’s inevitable. It’s what happens because capitalism compels a higher profit margin, and as the Watch gets greedier, and the Ankh-Morpork dollar doesn’t buy as much… okay, now I’m getting ahead of myself. IT’S A TERRIBLE THING.
Which is why it’s so clever that Vimes follows the rules in order to piss these people off. He exploits these men’s laziness and complicity, and OH LORD, ARE THEY EVER UPSET. Henry has probably never been asked to prove his identity, least of all from someone else in the Watch. And then there’s Captain Swing, who didn’t really bother me until he MEASURED DIFFERENT PARTS OF VIMES’S HEAD WITH A PAIR OF CALIPERS. What the fuck, y’all??? NO, THANK YOU, HARD PASS. The important thing, though, is that by sticking to the “rules,†he got Swing and Henry to back down, meaning that Vimes got to release his prisoners without anything but a half dollar “traveling†expense. And how great was it that we got an entire section from Miss Palm’s view that showed us just how confusing this whole thing was for her? Vimes has only been in the past for a day, and everyone is losing their shit over him.
(ALSO: I LOVE THAT SANDRA IS A REAL SEAMSTRESS. What a great joke that doesn’t degrade any of the sex workers in the process. Which… don’t take my word on that, obviously. I feel like Pratchett isn’t being cruel about these women, but if I’m missing something here, that’s absolutely something I should talk about.)
Anyway, it wasn’t that surprising that the Unmentionables retaliated against Vimes, and it wasn’t surprising that he was able to disarm both the men who came after him so quickly. Yet even then, Vimes showed compassion. He still took the unconscious one to Dr. Lawn to be taken care of. Which is more than I could say of… well, pretty much anyone else in the Watch, right?
Let’s hope that changes.
https://youtu.be/mko0H0sIneU
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