All that brass is now a little more tarnished.

The chemisty set, some chemicals, some goggles, some “writing” (such as copies of SteamPunk magazine) were seized basically because the cops infer this proves the guy is an anarchist and thus, a dangerous man who was participating in the G20 protests.

It’s not that hard to figure this out. The fact that he’s into steampunk is being bizarrely used against him–although I’m sure the authorities haven’t the slightest clue wtf steampunk is.

What I contest however is that his arrest had much to do with him being a steampunk enthusiast. He is a much respected member of the steampunk community and an esteemed contributor to this magazine, that is beyond a doubt, as far as I’m concerned, but he was not arrested for these facts. Let me say this as plainly as possible: his arrest had nothing to do with steampunk.

At least, not with how I see “steampunk” and I suppose that that might be up for debate, but this is not the place for that discussion.

This comment would be lame enough, though perhaps not unexpected, if it was made on a non SP site merely regurgitating the news. However, that the founder and webmaster of The Gatehouse would make such a comment makes me very, very sad indeed.

Anyone can see that the arrest is a waste of time, resources, is unlawful, unethical and just plain wrong.

I certainly don’t believe that adding any kind of “this has nothing to do with dressing-up so it’s not really steampunk” disclaimer is necessary. The Prof. is a contributor to the magazine and is identified both by himself and those around him as a SP. What he was wearing really has no bearing on anything whatsoever.

I could see how, to a law enforcement officer, “gas masks, computers, corked glass vials, beakers and test tubes” could be seen as possible terrorist paraphernalia – indeed, I would be suprised if they were not. The fact that we understand them as steampunk kit is neither here nor there, the acts of the police and of the main protagonist here is premised upon his anarchist beliefs and activities.

Personally, I am leaning towards his side in what has happened, and would support his arguments for free speech, but I have yet to see a mention of steampunk anywhere in any of the reports, other than here. I can see how many steampunks of other political persuasions would be upset at the use of the genre in which they engage in this manner.

However,
Being men and women of Science!, Adventure!, and other capitalized verbs with exclamation points, I hardly see how any of us could NOT hold strong political views.
Similarly, something brought us all here, to the neo-post-victorian. If you claim it was merely the ‘cool duds’, then I’d suggest that you have a lot of reading to do, but even that base-line aesthetic attraction speaks to something.
We, as steampunks, are drawn, definitionally, to looking back at the way things were and envisioning a way they could have become. That, my good gentlemen and women, is political.
Every motivation we have in our day to day lives is political. Every time we look at the world around us and want to elicit change in it (even if it’s so simple as the way that we dress) is political. And the changes that we desire show the form of our politics whether we like it or not.

To claim that steampunk isn’t political is to deny any true knowledge of the period and of our inspirations. Babbage, Lovelace, Byron, Shelly, Verne, Wells, Gibson/Sterling; to claim that these inspirational artists were devoid of politics until the fine gentlemen of SPM inserted them is starkly absurd.

While I do not claim that “anarchy” and “steampunk” are the same by any means, I do claim that steampunks are political people. If the politics of this steampunk was anarchy, we, as his brethren, should discuss our agreement and disagreement with his doctrines in a public forum. However, when he is being denied a forum for peaceable discussion of his views, or politically punished for his thoughts, then yes, we as political steampunks ought to care about his plight. Whether we agree with his politics or not, we are cut from the same cloth, and the copper club that falls on him today could be swinging for any of us the next.

We are radically political people, whether we realize it or not, and when heavy handed draconian techniques like these spring up, effecting our own community especially, it is our duty as Gentlemen-Philosophers to do something.

As a resident of Pittsburgh, I’ve seen much more of this first hand than I imagine anyone else who wasn’t there personally. Peaceful protesters who had done their paperwork, payed their fines, and gone through all of the bureaucratic legal red tape required setting foot on the street to be strangled by cops. To watch as the men and women of the law grab one of them by the arm, pull them within a circle of armed men and beaten while being dared to do anything about it.

We’re not talking strictly about anarchs here, nor just about Prof. Calamity. When the state reaches down and brutalizes its citizens for thinking differently than they do, and when we are a gathered forum of gentlemen-and-women who think differently than the state (Noted by our chosen subculture), it is folly to turn a blind eye and act as if these events do not concern us.