Tom Bernhardt on police services

I hope that conservatives wake up to the reality of police.  Police are the violence/enforcement arm of the state and its dictates. 

The right has reflexively supported this arm of government because they focus on its theoretical mission of protecting people from criminals.  But this isn’t what they do most of the time.  Police mostly enforce petty laws and exert control.  You can count on most of them to go full totalitarian if their political management decrees so.  There will be little resistance among their ranks. 

As to the relative role and value of police, answer the following question: when you suddenly see a policeman, is your first reaction most often anxiety/alarm or appreciation/happiness?  When roving bands of thugs and looters burned cities and accosted people, police mostly stood down.  But they were there to arrest those that dared defend themselves and their neighbors. 

The left’s complaint about policing is a mostly-contrived claim of racism.  They don’t touch the fundamental issue because at the end of the day, they need the police and their guns to implement their edicts and control.  Ditto for the military and intelligence agencies.  Hoping for reform is naïve.

~ Tom Bernhardt, Facebook post, April 25, 2021

Cops harrassing teenagers on bikes
without a license in Perth Amboy, NJ

Lew Rockwell on looting, vigilantism and private security services

Ordinary Americans cannot rely on the police to protect them. In many cases, leftwing governors and mayors have ordered to police to stand down. For them, solidarity with the rioters is more important than the lives and property of decent citizens. We have seen the absurdity of rioters being called “peaceful protestors” when videos show cities aflame. When the police do their duty and counter the violence of the thugs, they are vilified as racists, indicted, and even shot at and killed. In these circumstances, they are hardly likely to stay on the job. If the police don’t protect you, you have no legal recourse, and in some places, police won’t even investigate cases of looting... 

What then are we supposed to do? In an interview on the Tucker Carlson show September 23, Danny Coulson, a retired Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, condemned the rioters. But he thought that there was something even worse than the burning and looting, and this was the main reason he condemned them. Their actions might lead to “vigilante justice”. People must not take the law into their own hands—that could lead to chaos. Instead, we must unify around support of the police. 

His advice is useless, and it rests on a false premise. How can we support the police, when they aren’t protecting us? His advice is like urging us to put out a fire with a hose unattached to a hydrant. The false premise is that vigilante justice is bad. Is it? Let’s look at the definition of the term: “Vigilantism is the act of enforcement, investigation or punishment of perceived offenses without legal authority... 

In other words, you are a vigilante if you exercise your basic right of self-defense, without the permission of the predatory State that support the rioters and looters. In fact, if people defended and protected themselves, the result would not be chaos, but a far better system than we have now. As the great Murray Rothbard explained, people in a free market society would defend themselves by hiring private protection agencies. The agencies would compete to provide the services customers wanted, rather than cater to the whim of a mob or promote venality and power-seeking, as officials of the State do now. As Murray again and again stressed, the free market is always better at supplying goods and services than the State, and protection and defense are no exceptions.

~ Lew Rockwell, "Self-Defense and 'Taking the Law into Your Own Hands'," LewRockwell.com, September 26, 2020

Police Department Capt. Jerry Leary after fatal BLM-related shooting at the Indianapolis canal

Our message is that the canal is still a safe place to go.

~ Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Jerry Leary, "Young mother, 24, is shot dead in front of her fiancé after saying "all lives matter" during an argument with Black Lives Matter supporters," DailyMail.com, July 13, 2020

Jeff Thomas on the police in America

In America, no one likes the police… not really.

There are many, perhaps even half of Americans, who conceptually support the idea of the police, but virtually no one likes what the police have become.

At one time, the fellow in the image above was America’s idea of the neighborhood cop. Today, if one were to conjure up an image of a policeman, it would be a more Darth Vader-like image of a man whose face is obscured by mask, goggles and helmet, wearing body armour, and carrying an assault weapon.

Decades ago, the local cop was looked upon as a good guy – part of the community. He may not have been thought of as having been part of the intelligentsia, but he did receive his training under the concept of “serve and protect,” and for the most part, he behaved accordingly.

But that’s no longer so. Somewhere along the line, policemen ceased to receive training under the heading of “serve and protect,” and now receive an entirely different form of training that focuses on control.

~ Jeff Thomas, "Why the Police Must Be Removed From the Equation," LewRockwell.com, July 8, 2020

Ryan McMaken on police and a second lockdown

Will police ignore murders while they rush to close businesses and arrest fathers who take their children to a park?

Experience suggests this would just be par for the course. After all, the evidence has long shown that police focus on petty crimes while devoting few resources to serious violent crimes. There would be nothing shocking about a police force that refuses to pursue dangerous criminals while bringing the full wrath of a SWAT team against patrons at a tavern. It is easier—both practically and politically—to arrest a middle-aged mom who refused to close her business while letting violent rioters go free.

~ Ryan McMaken, "Will the Police Crack Down on Lockdown Violators the Second Time Around?," Mises.org, June 26, 2020

Charles Barkley on defunding the police

I hear these guys getting on television, these politicians, telling "defund the police."  First of all that would have a negative effect on the black communities.  Who are the black people going to call, Ghostbusters?  Because they're not going to defund the police in the good white neighborhoods.

~ Charles Barkley, "Charles Barkley: NBA players sitting out would be a 'catastrophic mistake,'" YouTube.com, 4:45 mark, June 15, 2020

Walter Williams on the breakdown of law enforcement during 2020 riots

That brings me to one of the most disturbing aspects of the rioting and looting. That is the seeming impotence of people whom we elect and pay to enforce the law. That includes governors, mayors and police chiefs who refuse to use their law enforcement powers to protect citizens and their property from criminals. Unfortunately, politicians who call for law and order are often viewed negatively. But that makes little sense. Poor people are more dependent on law and order than anyone else. In the face of high crime or social disorder, wealthier people can afford to purchase alarm systems, buy guard dogs, hire guards and, if things get too bad, move to a gated community. These options are not available to poor people. Their only protection is an orderly society.

~ Walter Williams, "Now What?," LewRockwell.com, June 17, 2020

Daisy Luther on the Seattle riots

As you can see, you can’t depend on anyone to come and save you when unrest shows up in your neighborhood. The people who were there, willing, and able to defend Seattle were forced to stand down. You have to expect to be completely on your own.

~ Daisy Luther, editor of The Organic Prepper newsletter, "A Shocking Account of What REALLY Happened During the Seattle Riots," TMIN, June 14, 2020

Fox 9 News: "The state did not make much of a move to prevent this statue from coming down"

The state did not make much of a move to prevent this statue from coming down.  The state knew of this.  This was not a surprise.  The Public Safety Commissioner, John Herrington, said earlier today that he knew that there was a threat on social media against the Christopher Columbus statue.  He said that the state patrol would be out here to urge the group not to tear the statue down and to follow the normal channels.  There was only one trooper out here making that request to follow the normal channels.  The group didn't listen.  The statue is on the ground.

~ Fox 9 News, KMSP-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul, "Columbus statue toppled during live TV report at Minnesota capitol," June 10, 2020

Ryan McMaken on failure of the police to protect taxpaying citizens

A failure to protect taxpaying citizens from violence and crime in a wide variety of situations is standard operating procedure for police departments that are under no legal obligation to protect anyone, and where "officer safety" is the number one priority. The lesson to be learned here is that the alleged "social contract" between citizens and the state is a one-way street: you pay taxes for police "services," and the police may or may not give you anything in return.

It is now a well-established legal principle in the United States that police officers and police departments are not legally responsible for refusing to intervene in cases where private citizens are in imminent danger or even in the process of being victimized. The US Supreme Court has made it clear that law enforcement agencies are not required to provide protection to the citizens who are forced to pay for police services year in and year out.

~ Ryan McMaken, "Minneapolis Riots Are a Reminder That Police Don't Protect You or Your Property," Mises.org, May 29, 2020

Kevin Duffy on police reform

Ending the drug war and victimless crimes may be the lowest hanging fruit to police reform. Strangely, raising speed limits might also reduce harassment of peaceful, law abiding citizens.

The problem with socialism, of course, is the system. Tweak it all you want and hire the best people, and it will still ultimately fail. Police services are no different. The past 3 months reveal an epic failure of the police. They were very efficient at shutting down businesses (owned by peaceful, law abiding citizens), but when it came time to protecting those same businesses from hoodlums, they failed.

There are also the deep roots of moral decline, and not just in the black community where approximately 70% of children are born out of wedlock. If your cultural belief is that you're a victim of racism and/or exploitation by capitalists, and that education - the normal ticket out of poverty - is a tool to subjugate you, cultural deviancy is assured.

I have a white friend who grew up poor. He told me how he was afraid of getting beaten up for studying and trying to get ahead. Of course, the public schools have now become propaganda mills, poisoning young minds with victimology.

Another deep root is the welfare state, which provides incentives for the less fortunate to become dependent on the state and stay trapped. By taking over private welfare functions, the state eliminates the glue that holds communities and families together.

~ Kevin Duffy, Facebook post, June 5, 2020

Charles de Gaulle on the police

If police officers weren't stupid, they wouldn't be police officers.

~ Charles de Gaulle