The inspirational qualities of Blood and Fire

4.5 hours reading/research, 0.5 hours emailing, 0.5 hours administrivia

I'm at the stage where I need to do more research before I can usefully write more. Specifically, I need to understand more about the literature on institutional design, the literature on police systems, and the role of police during La Violencia. A tall order, and today I found myself flummoxed as I tried to decide what to tackle first. At the end of the day, I picked up Mary Roldan's Blood and Fire, which may be the best book ever written about Colombia, and it was a total inspiration. She gets into such detail at the local and regional level, I have enough there to work with for a while. One fact that leapt out for me was that the local Conservative government organized public/private militias that combined local police with private gangs. Though she doesn't say as much, these are precursors to the paramilitaries that have plagued Colombia in recent years. So that was a key insight that totally plugs in to my argument. Goes back to yesterday's piece about regular vs. irregular armed forces.

I'm telling you, whatever I write, however this turns out, it's going to make a contribution, because we just don't know enough about the police historically or comparatively, and there's a lot of good stuff there.