Word: bastinado
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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VVhile Turkish cops without a search warrant ransacked Sergeant King's house under the terrified eyes of his wife and children, King himself was taken not to jail but to the stable dungeon. There, says King, he was introduced to an old Turkish custom: the bastinado. As he hung head down from a rafter, two Turks took turns beating the soles of his bare feet with a "rubber or leather stick...
They did this, wonderful to tell, without riots of protest or direct coercion of the bastinado or bayonet kind. In the free U.S., anybody can speak his mind against the income tax. Few spoke loud enough to be heard...