Virtue does not exist merely by the possession of a badge. It must be earned. by Dan Steward
(libertarian)
Monday, January 5, 2009
Defending the property and lives of those they pledge to serve should be the only job law enforcement should be doing. Because they have outright abandoned these tenets in favor of the role of an occupying army with it's siege mentality, that "virtue" has been cast aside. Police disrupt lives as much as they protect them and in some areas, they overwhelmingly opt for such a vile tact.
Asset forfeiture laws have converted the cop to the role of the crook. Property that must be defended, is now taken without due process, from citizens for use by...you guessed it, the police. I'm hard pressed to find the goodness in that as virtue has been thrown out the window, along with the longstanding protections of property rights.
I suppose that it is instead that foul old goblin of "custom and tradition" that lends it's false sense of virtue to that of the law enforcement officer. The "peace officer" was once held up as a model of what was good and right about society. Over the years the cop strayed wildly from the goodness he was credited with by default, yet the praise still kept coming his way. Decades later the police propaganda machine, with it's fake heroes on television, the movies and in print keeps spinning along whistling its sad song, yet the reality us ordinary people endure at their behest, sings us all a different tune.
In a truly free society people would be offered a choice of what level of police protection they would be willing and able to pay for. To actually make them safer and more comfortable in their homes and businesses than the coercive system that exists now, choices must be given. Private security provides options that would treat the paying consumer as a true customer, worthy of the provider's respect, and not some lowly serf, who must "submit" him or herself to authority.
With Liberty,
Dan Steward
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