Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,
Here is an often-used tactic to defend government police organizations from criticism. Whenever critics point out abusive tactics of police officers, defenders counter with: "And yet you won't refuse police help the next time there's a robber in your house!" This, we are told, illustrates that all police critics are "hypocrites."
This has always been a dishonest tactic, of course, since "consumers" of police "services" are forced to pay for the local monopoly police force, and have no other options. Government police forces have monopolized the marketplace and crowded out many private security services. Thus, calling the police to scare off some robbers on one's property is no more hypocritical than a critic of the local power company who nevertheless turns on a lightbulb. It's simply a matter of making do with a high-priced, low-quality monopolist when no competition is allowed.
Just how low these low-quality services are has become more apparent in recent months.
In the wake of yesterday's church shooting in Texas, for example, private citizens were the ones who shot back at the assailant, and then chased him down in a high speed pursuit. The police did nothing but write some reports afterward.
A few months earlier, as violence escalated during the Charlottesville riot in Virginia, the law enforcement agencies stood back and did little except crash a helicopter in the woods.
Worst of all, of course, is the fact that it took police an hour and 12 minutes to respond to the Las Vegas shooter who killed more than fifty people as he opened fire on a crowd near the Las Vegas strip. Although hotel security had reported the location of the gunman — who had shot a security guard — even before the shooting began, local police agencies waited more than hour before entering the shooter's room. It remains unclear why the shooter stopped shooting after only about ten minutes, but we do know that he would have been free to keep shooting for a much, much longer period of time.1
Among advocates for private firearms ownership, the old joke is that "when seconds matter, the police are only minutes away." In Las Vegas at least, the saying could be "when second matter, the police are only an hour (or more) away."
Defenders of the police, of course, will claim that an hour of preparation was necessary in order to protect "officer safety." But this also tells you a lot about how government police function: while a gunman is raining down gunfire upon a crowd of people, it's officer safety that comes first, not citizen safety.
These are just some more recent examples. A multitude of historical examples remain, as well, including the Columbine school shooting in which local police agencies did nothing but seal off the area while the shooters remained untouched inside the school. The students and faculty trapped inside the school were on their own.
One might also point to the Waco Texas massacre in which police agencies, claiming to be rescuing women and children from the cultist David Koresh, decided to burn most of them to death instead.
None of this should surprise us.
It is established policy in the United States that police agencies have no duty to protect citizens, and are not liable for any harm that comes to citizens due to police inaction. In other words, the taxpayers are required to pay for "protection" from police. But the police aren't required to actually provide services. One can only imagine the howls we'd hear if any private industry were allowed to function in a similar way.
So, we shouldn't expect any reform or any other measure that will hold police accountable for doing so little to engage and stop violent criminals in times of extreme crisis.
If anything, we should expect police agencies to call for the taxpayers to pay even more for more police services. This, of course, is what happened in the wake of September 11, 2001. One of the worst security failures in American history — a failure allowed by the most well-funded security and police agencies in the world — did not lead to questions of whether Americans are actually getting their money's worth for the generous budgets that go year after year to federal law enforcement agencies. Instead, we were all told the taxpayers should be prepared to shell out even more money and give up even more of their freedoms.
The same is true of local police agencies. Police departments are ever hungry for more funding, for combat vehicles to use against the local population, and for more firepower.
But even when police are armed and equipped to teeth, arrests for petty drug offenses remain the priority, while car thefts, rapes, and assaults produce few arrests. As the police response to the riots on Ferguson Missouri showed, police are happy to protect government buildings and government property. Everyone else, it seems, is on his own.
US gov't is a corporation.
Clintons, Comey & more are officers of the Corp & above the law.
Cops are corporate security guards.
The police are not there "To Protect and To Serve".
They are there to pick up the pieces and write the reports.
Period.
You left out the part about how police pensions are bankrupting governments at all levels: local, city and state. With overtime, cops in many jurisdictions earn 6 figure salaries after five years on the job and half pay after 20 years barring a disability pension (75%). Also leave out the payoffs for letting government rigs loaded with Aghan opiates drive through.
Kids in the Hall Cops Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZjwoYPNFE
True. SCOTUS ruled that police dont have the duty to protect or to serve.
Police = Corporate Policy Enforcement.
dip dupe dop
When seconds count and the police are 72 minutes away
In the very least, I encourage everyone to get a hand gun and Conceal Carry.
We are in highly questionable times for sure.
Practice shooting and find a bullet weight that works well for ya.
We need to protect each other out there to be a tighter community. The assume bad people will not do bad things is insanity.
Everything is ass backwards. Take away the guns from the police and the armed forces, and require Swiss style weapons training , proficiency, and gun ownership by citizens in order to vote. Militias don't invade other countries.
No one seems to question why the Swiss were left alone in WW2, when Hitler went after Austria and Sudentland first.
the author hates the popo moar than the afros in the nfl. lulz
yeah big Fuck you.. last time you met the cops? fuck you again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr0NFyD0Nzw
true hero's shoot innocent people and tell them to "not move" ive met dogshit i have more respect for..
if i have to choose between the cops and thugs like you it won't take me long. i'll tell you what, you go find a city with no cops to live in while the rest of us build a new town with lots of cops and no thugs. keep out bitchez.
Get yourself, and those you love, trained, licensed, locked, and loaded.
The bad guys may or may not come for you; but if they do, at least you will send some off to hell with you.
What is with the "licenced" part of your statement? Even Canada dropped gun registration.
The 2nd Amendment.
The original and best anti-terror legislation ever made law for a people.
They will call out the National Guard when a bag of potato chips is stolen, but when a career criminal like Corzine steals billions, no fucking action whatsoever.
I've read articles where Sheriffs say the same thing and advise folks to arm themselves.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/local/this-war-florida-sheriff-urges-c...
the funny thing is the cops have no idea who their real bosses are or what their historical role in society has been. cops are not your friends.
fuck da police!
call them if you don't mind getting shot. and if there's' anyone else around you don't mind getting shot to include your dog and neighbors... the police are shitbags, i've run into some nice ones but we all know Nazi sS were pleasant from time to time as well.
Police? Ha ha ha.
So they suck, THEY'RE HERE TO HELP, take our freedoms, our treasure and our lives.
DeShaney v Winnebago (SCOTUS Decision)
The state knew that a father was abusive and did not remove a child from his custody
The father beat the ever living shit out of the child to the point where he had brain damage and was likely to need to be institutionalized for the rest of his life
SCOTUS says, sorry, the state is not required to protect a person from non-state actors except under very specific circumstances that do not apply to most situations.
Castle Rock v Gonzales (SCOTUS Decision)
Woman and children have restraining order against estranged husband. Husband cannot have unsupervised visits with children.
Children disappear, and woman suspects husband
Woman calls police. Police say nothing they can do about it
Husband calls woman, states that he has kids and states his location
Woman calls police and confirms that husband has kids in violation of restraining order. Police blow her off
Woman continually blown off by police
Woman shows up at PD, and is again blown off by PD
Early next morning, husband shows up to PD and opens fire. Police return fire and kill him.
PD find kids, murdered by husband in his vehicle in the parking lot
SCOTUS says that even a restraining order does not require police to act
So ban guns and you'll never walk alone under someone's gun!
The whole world does it except the Wild West of NRA run Congress!
WTF !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr0NFyD0Nzw
Not doing very well on these two of Sir Robert Peel's 9 Principles of Ethical Policing from 1829
1. “The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.”
9. “The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.”
part of the problem with local PD's is that shitty city counsels are hiring the worst of the worst for police chiefs. who in turn, demoralize the "good" cops who retire asap.
what's left are the psychopathic cops that really should be locked up behind bars, sterilized and forced to eat each others shit.
Don't depend on anyone other than yourself when danger arises. Carry a weapon, know how to use it. Stay away from trouble when possible, i.e. avert the danger that has yet to arise, but if it does rear its ugly head, be prepared to live. the rest of your life, with the outcome.
This is exactly why our government needs to establish national concealed carry reciprocity. Presently a citizen of the United States may or may not lose their permission to carry when they cross atate lines. All of the concealed carry laws and permits required are at face value unconstitutional. If a person jumps through a state governments hoops, pays all the fees, qualifies and is issued a permit in their state of residence they have done far more than any state has the right to demand and should allow that person to carry nationwide. "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed" is not negotialable.
I read the LA Times article on the Vegas massacre. Doesn't seem to back up the "Hour away" thing.
He shot for 10 minutes and then stopped (killed himself?) just before the cops arrived. So 10 minutes response time then.
Am I wrong?
If all these shootings are a mental health problem then why does the US have so many people killed by mental health than any other civilized nation?
This isn't strictly a law enforcement problem. Need sandbags during a flood? Maybe you can have some after the community has rallied to protect all the government buildings first. Gotta protect where the bureaucrats sit on their ass during the day. Fuck where YOU actually LIVE. If you're lucky, FEMA will give the bureaucrats money to buy your destroyed home and turn it into a park.