Genteel

Hushed and awed tones were heard on NPR this morning—

The scene was a luxury hotel in Zurich. The alleged crimes - corruption and bribery. The accused are some of the world's top soccer officials. They had gathered at the hotel for a meeting. Little did they know, Swiss police were also there to arrest them. This happened early this morning. Now seven officials in FIFA, the wealthy organization that governs soccer, are facing extradition to the United States....
...

"It was all very polite. People were escorted from the building. They were allowed to bring their luggage. People weren't in handcuffs. One of my colleagues remarked that it looked like people were leaving with a group of friends. It was all - it was all very friendly."

The quote is from NPR's guest, one of the NYT reporters covering the story.

Thoughtful hotel staff wielded bedsheets—held as privacy screens for the unfortunate guests being led off.

Photo: Pascal Mora, NYT

Indeed, it was a thoroughly genteel arrest, but these men are not are savages.

Certainly the Geneva hotel had no guests so terrifying as a twelve-year old, to be gunned down once a police car pulls up.

Nor were the FIFA arrests in need of a cop's jumping onto the hood of a stopped car, to fire "at least fifteen rounds" at the trapped occupants.

Regarding FIFA, Charles Pierce observes—

Here and overseas, the entire corporate universe is shot through with metastatic corruption and crime. It is an essential part of the business model almost everywhere, from Wall Street offices to the pitch at Wembley. FIFA's corruption is more than an endemic phenomenon. FIFA was simply one corrupt enterprise working with and through hundreds of other corrupt enterprises. There are governments, and there are communications empires, and there are all manner of companies advertising their wares -- the "corporate partners" of a claque of brigands. If you did business with the crooks of FIFA, you're a crook, too. There's no way to avoid it. All of them are guilty. All of them are responsible. All of them are complicit in the corruption in the spotlight today, and in the death of anonymous workers in Qatar whose names they don't even know. The whole goddamn corporate universe is begging for a gigantic RICO indictment.