Wednesday, August 07, 2019

What would happen if the police stopped responding?

I wonder what would happen if Chicago government refused to remove bodies from the streets, under a ‘You made the mess, you clean it up’ policy.

Just leave them. June, July, August... It would get ugly in a day or two, and stay ugly. I know, it’s a sick, dark, fantasy which won’t come about, but just what would happen?

I don’t know what can be done in the short run to reduce the violent crime rate in places like Chicago. Judging from news reports and commentary, as I don’t live in such an area, the politicians who represent those districts seem to believe the major problem is homicidally racist cops who leave home in the morning hoping for an excuse to murder some innocent minorities.

If they really believe that, then they should be calling for the police to stop servicing those area. Just stay out. Let the neighborhoods take care of their own issues. It actually would be an interesting experiment, but I think that in order to have any hope of a positive outcome (at least from a non-criminal perspective) one would have to allow non-criminals to arm themselves.

My guess is that in that scenario, the seriously bad guys wouldn’t last long. I lived in Milwaukee back during the crack wars. There was an interesting incident which kind of fits the scenario, though of course the police did intervene:

A guy complained several times to the police that crack dealers were operating on the sidewalk in front of his house. Broad daylight. Seriously degrading life for decent ie non-criminal people in the neighborhood.

Nothing happened. No arrests, no imprisonments, crack dealers just kept dealing crack in front of his house. For weeks, maybe months. It was a long time ago and I’m fuzzy on that.

So one day the guy decided he had had enough of crack dealers in front of his house and an unresponsive government. He stuck a 12 gauge shotgun out the window and ended that crack dealer’s career.

Then of course the police showed up.

So, suppose they didn’t show up anymore, and all the decent people knew they wouldn’t?

As a moral issue, the government has no legitimate powers which the People have not delegated to it. If the government refuses to exercise those powers in a responsible manner, then the People have a right to take back those powers. So, if government has a legitimate power to protect individuals and neighborhoods from violent criminals, it is only because the people, having that same right, have delegated it to government.

Now, ideally, that would mean going through the peaceful political process, but in real life that process has collapsed in places like Chicago. So, since government has clearly decided they aren’t willing to exercise their powers, maybe the decent people who have to put up with the reality of criminals openly operating could simply take back the powers delegated and do the job themselves.

I have trouble thinking that would be any bloodier or sicker or more immoral than the system we have today in parts of Chicago, Los Angeles, or Baltimore. Right now it looks to me that for practical purposes the government is on the side of the violent criminals. Government disarms all the potential victims but lets the criminals run free in the Disarmed Victim Zones the government created.

How sick a system is that?

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