When I was a kid, the police I knew looked something like this picture. I think this is a sheriff’s department photo from the Midwest.
The cops back then were local guys who often had done a stretch in the military and then got a job as a local cop. Maybe they had ambitions to be a state trooper. Most were fine working as a county or town cop because they got to stick close to home and the job was not all that difficult. City cops had it tougher because they had real crime, but city cops came from the city so they knew the score before they signed onto the force. For many, the action was the attraction.
It was not an idyllic age. There was plenty of real crime and plenty of real criminals for the cops to apprehend. Take a look at homicide rates over the last century and you can see that we live is a relatively safe time. Crime has ticked up a bit recently, but nothing like we saw in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
back then, the cops had radios, revolvers and fast cars for traffic duty. When I was a kid, radar was becoming common for traffic duty and it created a lot of friction between citizens and cops. Suddenly, the cops felt like highwaymen to a lot of people. CB radio probably got popular in the 70’s because it was a way for motorists to warn one another about radar traps. I don’t know that for certain, but someone once told me that and it jives with my memories as a kid in the 70’s.
The point of this trip down memory lane is to point out that it was not so long ago when cops were just guys in the neighborhood. The only people who saw them as an adversary were up to no good. That’s not the case today. This is what the cops look like in the typical American town.
Every time Donald Trump has a rally, we see employees of the DNC and George Soros out attacking people and we also see cops in battle gear. They look like extras from a Star Wars movie, kitted out in black and Darth Vader helmets. The point of the outfit is to be intimidating and look dangerous. These are not citizens hired to enforce the law. These are agents of the state ready to crack heads.
This is a scene from the Trump San Diego rally a few weeks ago:
Now, you can say that riot control is dangerous stuff so the cops need to be dressed like storm troopers. The fact that we managed to control mobs for generations without having militarized cops is the obvious counter argument. We could also arrest the people financing these riots, which would pull the plug on all of this without having a massive display of force. But, where’s the fun in that? No, the state wants the display. That’s the point.
It’s tempting to call what we are seeing an “emerging police state” and there is an argument in support of that claim. It used to be the politicians feared the people. They could be voted out of office and if that did not work, they could dragged from their office and hanged from the nearest light pole. They have no fear of that today. Those guys with the gas masks, body armor and full-auto rifles stand between you and the rulers. That’s right gun grabbers, the cops now have mil-spec automatic weapons.
The West is not East Asia so “police state” is the wrong way to put it. The security forces in America will not be opening fire on peaceful crowds. They will not be driving armored vehicles through protest camps like we saw in China. Instead, it will be beanbags, rubber bullets and other non-lethal crowd control tools. It will also be endless surveillance from the state and corporate partners.
Sept, 29, 2015. San Diego, CA. USA| Cameras in the alley by the Hi-Lite Theater where police shot and killed a man.|Photos by Jamie Scott Lytle.Copyright.
If you read this interesting story on the geezers who pulled the Hatton Garden Heist, the thing that should jump out at you is the causal celebration of the custodial state. The robbers were, in part, caught by the use of CCTV. Like most cities now, London is under 24×7 video surveillance by the authorities. On my way to the office, a two mile drive, I pass 12 security cameras and two speed cameras. They are watching us all the time now.
It’s why the people in charge increasingly talk to us like we are pets, barely able to understand them. They see us as zoo animals. It’s also why they are increasingly cavalier about bucking the will of the people. Paul Ryan laughs at so-called conservatives as he helps Obama push through his agenda in the remaining months of his rule. Angela Merkel is indifferent to public sentiment because, well, what are they going to do about it? How many divisions do they have?
At some point, maybe sooner than we realize, the pols in Washington will decide they have had enough with the voters. It’s simply too much of a hassle. Some excuse will be trotted out so they can pretend to one another that it is necessary or temporary, but voting will come to an end. The people will protest, but the state will have men in body armor pouring out of APC’s holding MP-5’s. In the name of public safety, the protests will be broken up and the people put back in their enclosures.
Welcome to the custodial state.
Zman, any chance of a post about the MP killed in the U.K. today?
News says it was a mental patient set loos by the authorities for some reason. Sounds like the Gabby Giffords shooting. Tragic, but just a random thing that means nothing.
Disagree that it means nothing.
Here in the States the policy is, “Open the door a bit, and something useful will fall through.”
Sometimes that something useful is heavily… encouraged.
Like Sarajevo shooting was? 😛
I wouldn’t mind the ‘hats and bats’ if they’d use them. There the enemy is in all it’s pot stinking, BO smelling, trigglypuff shrieking glory and they stand there like the praetorian guard while the plebes get chased and beaten.
I mean look at the protestors, pissing on the flag, flipping police cars burning property. They’re not protestors they are rioters when I was a kid we knew how to put down a riot. But since the sixties they’ve let them ‘burn themselves out’. Those guys in their gear should be cleaning them out under general principles. Not standing by while decent people get beat.
Well, it’s depressingly obvious to me that among the myriad purposes of this current administration and the left generally — with the *enthusiastic* support of the GOP — is to inundate the US with hostiles in order to ADVANCE the totalitarian state, eliminate our rights under the Constitution, and to de facto place our country under the control of the UN. De facto, because to say — to declare — that this is their goal is to court violent pushback, which I wager is coming, at any rate. Said pushback will be blamed on the victims of the nefarious state, said push-backers; it will in no wise be media-reported as a just and legitimate recourse to the state’s usurpation of its powers as granted in our Constitution.
I am not wrong about this.
Not so impressed with this essay. Most local cops still look like the cops in the top picture when on routine duty.
Riot control is a separate duty and has always been quasi-militarized. Your assertion that we managed to control mobs for generations without militarized cops is simply incorrect. Look back at pictures from any of the riots during the Vietnam era. The response was militarized–usually literally via National Guard troops.
The steep drop in violent crime rates beginning in 1994 and extending through 1999 was largely the result of the 1994 crime bill and the mandatory sentencing provisions associated therewith. Crime rates dropped because those persons with a propensity to commit crime were sitting in jail, not on the street. This has nothing to do with riot control.
Finally, voting is too deeply embedded in American political culture to disappear. It’s much easier for our elites to acquire both parties. Hence the Uniparty that currently runs Washington.
Good point… though I think its a valid observation and discussion overall.
I’d say look even further back than Vietnam era…. which I remember fairly well…..the Railroad strikes of 1877 and of course the coal miners too….Many cities still have Armories that were built during these periods, for the support of these militarized groups and militias. So yeah….nothin new really, in that context…..
Agreed, Guest.
I was a kid during the first Watts riots in the early 60s and remember full well the Nat’l Guard being called out by Gov. Pat Brown (Moonbeam’s daddy. He was a no-bullshit guy). They set up sandbagged .30 cal machine-gun nests (WWII vintage) at multiple intersections to keep the black rioters within their own areas. Front page pics of them in the L.A. Times and on the evening news. Troops armed with Tommy guns and 30.06 M1s and BARs coming in by the truckloads day and night. If I remember correctly well over 3000 troops were called out to quell the uprising.
We lived in the Los Feliz area (google map it to see how far away it is from South Central) but my dad still got his guns out and loaded them.
Can you imagine that happening today in another Ferguson (which is, to be sure, coming)? It will be sorely needed but with the Magic Negroe still occupying the White Hut, never gonna happen. Just imagine the firestorm he would unleash on any governor that would attempt such a thing. And of course the execrable ACLU, the MSM, every single democrat and a sizable percentage of RINOs would do the same.
January 20th, 2017 cannot come soon enough.
Well, that depends on your local.
I see all flavors of cops in New Jersey. My town doesn’t have a police force thankfully since all the cops in the small towns around us seem to do is pester commuters for traffic fine revenue.
Some towns do look like the first picture. The NJ State Troopers are dressed like Army Officers in class A’s thanks to uniform Norman Schwarzkopf Sr. designed for them.
The town right next ours is more like the second picture minus the leg armor and headgear. Basically blue military utilities, body armor, and bloused boots. Doesn’t exactly project an image of “Officer Friendly”, more like a military policeman.
They look like Barney Fife when standing around for pictures. In a typical year, cops in in battle gear serves about 25,000 warrants for dangerous things like overdue child support payments and missing a drug test.
As far as the connection to crime, there’s zero relationship between militarized cops and crime drops. As you said, crime fell when we started throwing crack dealers in jail for long stretches. Cops started up-armoring after the 1997 North Hollywood shootout in 1997. By the time this rolled out crime had fallen sharply.
The line between the military and police has probably always been blurred. George Washington called up militia to enforce liquor taxes soon after the constitution was ratified and most of the south was occupied for more than ten years after the states were invaded.
I was gonna say that Guest 🙂 Yes, the article is a good one, but the jive comparison of old and new policing is a huge flaw. Police don’t look like star wars when they aren’t on riot duty or a SWAT-type raid. Yes, the police are becoming more militarized, but in the late 60’s and early 70’s they looked almost the same on riot duty. In fact, I think they looked more military then when they would form in ranks and march down the street clearing it and beating heads. They aren’t often told to do that nowadays.
The police-citizen compact is well established as regards the modern world. Robert Peel made it clear the police were not above the law, should be impartial in the quest for justice and should not receive special treatment. They were, in fact, an extension of the public and no more.
But that appears to be forgotten as the police become the defendants not of liberty and order but the protection of the wealthy and the powerful. The cops who stand in their armour and helmets with batons ready give every impression by their actions they indicating to the ordinary people they are there to protect the elites, the elite’s property and the elite’s reputations.
Until that positioning stops and the police return to their former role in society, there will be not trust between the two sides. It really is becoming us and them, and they have the weapons and law on their side, however corrupt it is.
Grateful for the Woman that just injected race politics into your country? Karl that’s not a small fuck up and it will be Merkle’s legacy. Have you learned anything from your study of Americans that you did not know before?
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I could be wrong entirely but worth the thought. Are “they” losing control? It’s always after the fact we see that the fbi were investigating these people. With all the “technology” (nsa/tsa or otherwise) they never prevent any of it. I get the feeling they want it to happen in order to tighten the screws even more. Ordered chaos anyone? What do they expect we’re going to get when the border is agape? Are they just pretending they have a handle on things or is it out of control and they won’t acknowledge it? It seems all points are going to converge in the near future (global strife, economics, political…etc), then pop.
Are “they” losing control? It’s always after the fact we see that the fbi were investigating these people.
How terribly Naive. The FBI manufactures these people.
Yup. Not investigating- recruiting.
It’s called “creating a demand”. Never ending profits for politicos investing in the startup.
The unbridled lust for control by our custodians is increasingly implemented through the agency of computer systems. What if the goons in star wars suits are dispatched to the “wrong” location? Ultimately it may be that software checkmates hardware.
“Welcome to the custodial state”
And that’s when I’ll be really glad I was born in the 1930’s and I’m too old to be Mr Fixit any more.
Z, your essay illumines the state may not need to declare martial law at all. A few more evil & criminal events, coupled with wolfpack jihad mayhem to a cowed populace will do it, unless civilians opt for disobedience.
Would simply raise the point that the 4G warfare we see employed by ISIS and the fact that a single active shooter report can basically tie down the entire resource base of LEO in San Diego for a day shows the weak underbelly. The only thing that surprises me is that our adversaries haven’t become more tuned to that and simply upped the tempo of operations to simply wear them out.
4GW relies on the local population for support. If there were enough attacks, non-Muslims would realize the state won’t protect them and take matters into their own hands. Muhammad commanded his followers to play the victim while they were few and feign weakness.
They’re attacking often enough to terrorize but not often enough that the average joe decides to fight back. Of course, the state would surely go after any “Islamophobes” who retaliate. As the state’s incompetence grows and the number of Muslims grows, the calculus may change.
Always amuses me when a cop starts bitching about how they aren’t respected any longer. Don’t dress, act, and arm yourself like a member of an army of occupation – unless you want to be treated like one.
I find the level of paranoia in America is nearly epidemic to the point of a national psychosis. As one of the countries with the lowest risk of an outside attack or invasion from its neighbors, it never fails to amaze me how Americans are always looking for a boogie man somewhere. If it’s not a commie, it’s a liberal, if not a liberal, then it’s a Muslim. And when those threats go away, you always have the ingrained fear of your own government or your police and of course the every growing threat of a zombie apocalypse. I must ask, has there ever been a time in recent American history when you didn’t think someone wasn’t out to get you?
At no time has an American neighborhood had a ‘Blockwart’ (block warden) nor has the Stasi shown up at your workplace to discuss your personal activities with your supervisor. But then again, why would they need to? You post every intimate detail about yourself and your family on Facebook, Twitter and every other possible internet outlet, not to mention professional sites such as LinkedIn, and Makerbase to dating sites like Match or Eharmony. There’s little else the NSA could want to know that’s not already public knowledge.
And you worry about a few surveillance cameras? Then again, at no time in Germany has someone been pulled over by the police and had their personal property confiscated as seems to be quite common place in the US under civil forfeiture. So maybe they are out to get you after all.
You call it paranoia. I call it eternal vigilance. “WE” learn from history. History which states like the Nazi’s, among others, have perpetuated on their own people after they have disarmed the public. Hence, we know that as much as we would not want that to happen in America, it is still possible. And if you read the tea leaves, watch what has been going on, the “paranoia” has all the reason for existing. That the powers that be have learned as well from past failures of dictators and adjusted their tactics and strategies to use available technologies, means that while “historical” markers may be absent, it does not mean they are not out to get us.
I have to laugh at your naivete to say that this stuff does not happen in Germany when those in Brussels are really in control of your lives and your so-called leaders like Frau Merkel have sold you down the river in the name of “humanitarian aid” to the poor middle eastern rabble who invade your country and your neighbors.
So go ahead and scoff at what you perceive as paranoia. Look around, put the pieces together and you will get a clear picture that all is not right with the world and it is heading for an explosion that will make WWII look like a picnic. There are malevolent powers about that want to bring down the “last best hope” for the world, America, and their work over decades since the end of WWII has nearly been completed. Except for the individuals which no government can negotiate with or reconcile. Because those who believe in freedom are willing, able and prepared to fight for it. Are you?
Remind me again about how safe Americans are shopping at Wal-Mart or going to a gay bar or taking your toddler to Disney Land – gunmen and jihadists and alligators – oh my! Please tell me how your university system is so great, when your students graduate in debt and jobless. And how’s all the offs-horing of jobs working out for you? Learning from history? Let me think – Afghanistan…the Brits tried it, the Russians tried, and yet there you are.
And how exactly will you fight? With what and against whom? Your first and second amendment rights are already stuff of fiction. Have you stood shoulder to shoulder with your neighbors and your “right to bear arms” in order to prevent the southern hordes from crossing into the US? I think not. Just look at the two candidates who are running for president of “the last best hope”. Over 300-million of you, and these are the two best Americans you could come up with? You should be so lucky as to have a Frau Merkel.
Everything you point out is valid but the result of government run amok. The wars, Dept. of Education, Big Business and labor cabals, those are completely, and quite different from many individual people who value their freedom over free stuff.
As for politics, I agree. You would thinK that of 330 million people we could do better with the pool of leaders to choose from but that shows just how corrupt and broken the system is. It is no different in your country if you are honest. So if you think Merkel is so great, you keep her! We are trying to keep our own Merkel (Clinton) away from the levers of government. She is a worthless, do nothing piece of white trash.
Do you own your copy of the Koran yet? Better start studying …
@ Infidel – No country is perfect, no citizenry infallible and we both have our fair share of problems. As I hope the EU can sort itself out to the benefit of all Europeans, I also hope Americans can come to terms with your upcoming election in a positive way that will secure and maintain the rights and freedoms you are so proud of. And I mean that with all sincerity.
Yes, I must agree that Frau Merkel made a big mistake with her Syrian refugee policy, but personally I can forgive her given her political track record. Overall she is trust worthy, intelligent and cautious. Things we Germans value very highly. Germany has done well under her leadership, and even good people make honest mistakes now and then.
While you and I may disagree and share different opinions of each others countries, we both share a common enemy to our freedoms. Therefore we remain kindred in hopes for a better future on either side of the pond.
And no, I don’t have a copy of the Koran. To paraphrase a American expression “They can pry my Bible out of my cold dead hands!”
Karl, it is good to dialog with you about these many issues. Thanks for continuing despite some of the negative response to your comments. As for the upcoming US election, the problem is really between a divided America. It used to be that Republican and Democrat could say they agreed on the definition of the problem, it was the solution to the problem that was contentious. Now, there is no agreement on anything except on the two coasts where socialism/liberalism rules for the most part. Now no one can even agree on how to define a problem.
As for Chancellor Merkel, I do not know her “track” record but from what I see going on, it is no good and especially her dealings with the French and those in the ME. Boy, don’t those two working together send shivers up your spine!? The French and the ME, like Iran, I mean. Little mistakes are one thing. Screwing the pooch big time is another and leaders need to be held accountable.
As for my comment about the Koran, I meant that your country is being invaded and you may well wind up dead clutching your Bible as the horde comes at you demanding you convert or else. I hope not. I pray not. But the direction things are going and the lack of concern leaders have for national sovereignty is pretty scary, even here in the USA. Everyone’s focus on the EU and big business is so out of whack, you really have to question people’s priorities. Survival is the number one priority and prerogative of the human race. Defending ones self is the second. Getting rich is falls far down the scale, or up, as you look at Maslow’s need hierarchy or any other way of measuring priorities. It really gets down to basics. No fancy technology or aims to achieve world peace, solve world hunger, end global warming (if you believe that tripe), claim the moonscape as someone’s property, go to Mars, or anything else.
Why are your leaders in bed with these twerps in Brussels and Antwerp? Who the hell are those people anyway and why should anyone want to listen to them much less turn over their lives to them? This is what I mean by the German people being sold down the river. You have the strongest country, economy and people in Europe and yet you “need” an EU? Why? Get busy and start procreating. That will solve your long term problems. he he, and maybe some short term ones also!
@ Infidel – Thanks for your response. I do very much enjoy this opportunity to make a point especially when it can be critical of things going on in the US. I do so not to insult, but to make a point from a different perspective. It is why I am completely open to anyone in this blog being critical of EU or German political decisions or the direction we seem to be heading. Critical observations and discussions are a must if we are to understand one another, especially within the confines of a blog.
I think we are very much on the same page with regards to the perceived threats. As mentioned, they come to us both from the south and in your country as in mine. The powers that be are generally entrenched political hacks who are more interested in maintaining the status quo so long as it keeps them in office. I think I am safe in saying that is true everywhere. However while most Americans are not happy with President Obama for any number of reasons, most Germans, with some exceptions, are generally quite happy with Frau Merkel.
I think where I may differ on a humanitarian perspective with regards to the Syrians is the fact the overall, whenever there has been an epic disaster in the world, the EU is dead last in showing up to help. The US is always first, always there, and even the civilian population quickly donates clothing and comes up with money from private citizens to provide aid and assistance. Something we Europeans, and in many cases we Germans tend to fail miserably at doing.
This is why I believe Frau Merkel made the decision she did and support the intent behind it. She didn’t do it to encourage illiterate, Muslim invaders from Iraq, Iran and every backwards, caliphate, but to show that on a united front, Europe could step up and offer help to people in a horrible situation – in this case, only the Syrians. However the failure to properly implement such a grand scheme was a disaster waiting to happen since the EU is not fully unified in the way your Federal government and Americans citizens are. The results, as they unfolded between October and January, were just waiting to happen.
So…let us agree to disagree and be open to criticism of one another. Together we can learn more about our respective cultures and our people. Of course the intended sarcasm will be there, gallows humor if you will, to point out the obvious failures. I appreciate a jab as much as the next person. We Germans have thick skin.
In a 100 years we’ll be here, we may not be called the United States of America, but we’ll be here. Germany wont.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
No offense, but Continentals have never figured out Anglo-Saxon liberty. There are very good reasons for it. Strong central authority is necessary when adversarial tribes are jammed against one another, squabbling for resources. Discipline, control and submission to authority are necessary to survival. Island people with a penchant for piracy have little use for those attributes.
No offense taken – by you or others on this site. 🙂 The discussions here are excellent, pointed, and clearly emotional at times which makes these exchanges exactly what keep your site interesting to all involved. I know I will touch a nerve, as do others, such is the nature of debate and exchange of different ideas and opinions. It’s what makes us think and pushes our defined boundaries. Please – keep it up! I am always open to what others think of us “continentals” from across the great pond.
Buddy, you have a lot of great insights too. At some juncture in this equation you just got to cut the crap and fight for what matters most. There is no bullshitting on that. And that time is rapidly approaching.
Your primal rights, same as mine, the rights of men, are universal. There are no borders or territories, states or systems of rule over others when it comes to rightful liberty. Think about it, those constructs are the very reason why we are in this mess to begin with.
@ Doug – Agreed. All men, regardless of race or religion, have the right to live as they see fit so long as they don’t impose themselves, their ideas or religion upon others. The construct you mention however is a cycle of humanity that is destined to repeat itself. If, as Infidel pointed out, we do learn from history, the lesson is clear – civilizations don’t last forever. I’m sure the average Roman citizen was thinking the same thing we are today when German mercenaries joined their legions and the Vandals showed up at their gates nearly 2,000 years ago.
I should point out this article rings true to me given my parents lived through this exact same police state as defined by the Gestapo and supported by private citizen known as block wardens. Our East German brethren continued to live under it as it was then called Die Stasi.
I don’t think it was like that in the least until about 104 years ago. Right about the time the Progressives decided to punch through the Constitutional limits and get the Federal government involved in our personal lives – and – we were drawn into two bloody European wars.
They are out to get us. They are out to get you too. The indignities Europeans are willing to accept has always amazed me. Maybe that’s why ancestors left and your’s stayed.
“Maybe that’s why ancestors left and yours stayed”. If you look at the history of immigration, it’s generally the least desirable, the poor, criminals and social outcasts that leave.The ones who were successful remain. Why would anyone intentionally leave when things are good? Just saying. 😉
Because things may be bad enough to leave Germany doesn’t mean those leaving are trashy outcasts – you have conflated the two. For example, my people left after being on the losing side of the revolutions of 1848 – it’s chintzy for those who won (or who knuckled under) to denigrate the ones who “got the hell out of Hesse”.
1848 was a bumper year for Europe to export it’s many people. It was a blessing that America existed, and one would be ignorant do deny it was often their last hope. On the other side of that coin, America grew into a super power while we were still busy slogging it out across European battle fields for the next 100-years. So to the point, maybe those who left made a better decision.
You call it paranoia? Paranoia is an unjustified belief that one is being persecuted. Perhaps you haven’t been paying attention, but just this week there was a little incident in a Florida nightclub involving a Muslim and a lot of dead gays. And what was the response of our political elite and the echo chamber media? Well, with one prominent exception, it was to inform us unequivocally that more, lots more Muslims were going to be imported, and that more Muslims were good for us so as to cure us of our nasty Islamophobia – because only bigots could have anything against peace loving Muslims And if you had any fears, based on certain recent events, that the government wasn’t all that interested in protecting you and yours and that you should perhaps be thinking about how to protect yourself, those very same elites and their media enablers reiterated their profound belief that your constitutionally enshrined right to own a firearm was something that they would like to take away from you – for your own good, of course.
Perhaps Germans have simply gotten used to their political elites ass-raping them. Americans, perhaps from force of habit some 200 years in the making, while accustomed to being conned and swindled by the political class, are a tad reluctant to undergo unlubricated ass-raping. Frankly, it makes us upset. And as a volatile people prone to violence, when we get upset the situation tends to become somewhat unpredictable.
@ Christopher – And how many “incidents” have happened in American schools where children have been shot to death or seriously wounded at the hands of non-Muslims? I have provided a link so you can check for yourself. Its been going on in your country since July 26, 1764 starting at the Enoch Brown school massacre and it hasn’t stopped since. Your own countrymen are doing a great job of slaughtering innocents without any help from outsiders.
You are right, Americans are volatile people indeed. They say people get the government they deserve. Perhaps you get the police you deserve too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States
We’ve got plenty of murderous nutjobs in America and always have. This is not an argument for importing any more, however.
That’s a pretty pathetic effort to change the subject, and your little listicle is lame, even by Wikipedia standards. Really Karl, ever been in a vibrantly diverse US HS in a vibrantly diverse urban community? The miracle is that there aren’t more shootings. “Innocents”? That’s a good one.
Clearly then, we should do just as good frau Merkel does, and import more Muslims, so (in a fitting twist on pro-immigration sloganeering) they can shoot the approved minorities that (white) Americans just won’t do.
The point I’m trying to make with regards to this topic, is there’s a reason your police act the way they do and why the average American citizen feels slightly afraid when being pulled over for a minor traffic violation. America is and always has been a violent place. Certainly not on the scale of Africa or South America, and without the help of the new colonizers. Your government is reacting to it by the only means it has available without imposing Marshal law or calling out the military – as it has on any number of occasions.
Let’s look at the statistics (and this is just one source, there are plenty of others that will support nearly identical findings) keeping in mind, Germans own guns too. The intentional homicide rate by guns per 100 people in 0.81 in Germany and 4.7 in the US. The murder rate per million people is 8.44 in Germany while it’s 42.01 in the US. I don’t want to get into an argument about statistics, I’m simply saying that everyone knows America has a violence problem on par with some of the worse places on the planet.
Yes, I know the black problems in cities like Detroit or Baltimore, but I used the school shootings to make a point that the majority of these kids were shot by legally owned guns in the hands of whites. And while you can argue it’s a black problem skewing the data, the fact of the matter is Americans are just as likely to be shot by their next door neighbor in Wal-Mart as by some foreigner acting on behalf of their great prophet.
I get your point about the Muslim invaders, but their violence is widespread around the world and well understood. American violence, like school shootings, makes no sense unless you take the gun culture into account. I’m not blaming guns, we have them here too. I’m simply putting the blame on the people behind the guns and the question is why does America remain such a violent country?
Back to the point of this blog – The Zman makes the argument that this new militarized police force is an extension of the political elites to impose law and civil order and their will on you. “…the state will have men in body armor pouring out of APC’s holding MP-5’s. In the name of public safety, the protests will be broken up and the people put back in their enclosures.” I say, its simply a reaction of a government attempting to do what it’s supposed to do – “in the name of public safety” to protect its citizens from its own citizens.
* http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Germany/United-States/Crime
Karl, when you say that “America is and always has been a violent place” it makes me think you grew up in America.
Even though I grew up an Army brat, and four of my formative years were spent in W. Germany (Bamberg/Erlangen), my experience in the US is nothing like you describe. In fact, it was the epitome of freedom and security. Were we lived, we never locked the doors to our home; as a child, I would leave home in the morning and go play all day long and come home at dinner time. I would walk to wherever I was going and being with friends was a matter of following Mom’s rule about being careful who I chose for friends. You can’t think of doing such things today if for no other reason than someone will report you as an irresponsible parent and your kids will be taken away BY THE STATE. The all-knowing, all beneficent state.
I say this to counter your statement that “America has always been a violent place.”
Next, there are plenty of statistics around that show, if you back out the top murder capitals of the US, large cities that are Democrat controlled and have strict gun control policies in place, back out those statistics from the aggregate US data, the US in general is one of the safer countries in the world even with all the gun ownership. So you tell me where the problem lies and who manages it all?
And then you tell me why, when something like a mass murder happens, public, using a semi or fully automatic weapon is used by a Muslim, or even a deranged person bent on revenge for some slight their fragile ego can’t handle, it is blamed on the number of guns that are owned by Americans, the process by which they are acquired, and not on the individual that loads the weapon, points it at someone and pulls the trigger?
So when you say ” America has a violence problem on par with some of the worse places on the planet”, I would amend that to say “certain cities in America have certainly look that way, but not the entirety of America.” You paint with a broad brush Sir.
And finally, about the “militarized police force.” “In the name of public safety?” Are you serious? The only time these guys are trotted out is after-the-fact. Unless there is a back robbery gone bad or some other kind of standoff, there are few situations where these Robo-cops actually protect anyone. What they are there for is to protect PROPERTY. The property of the people with the MONEY. And if the neighborhood does not warrant protection, they just let it burn. They could care less about the citizens. When they abuse our rights every way to Sunday and twice then, what makes you think they care about “public safety?”
@ Infidel – Many Europeans see America the way I do. We constantly read about someone, somewhere in American being gunned down on a near daily basis. That’s what we read about in the US papers in our airports and railway stations and see on CNN international. I lived in the SF bay area for about 20-years during the 1980-90’s so much of what I know is first hand knowledge.
As mentioned in a previous comment, my parents and grand parents lived under a real police state run by the Nazi’s through the Gestapo. Block wardens were civilians who monitored civilian activities in local neighborhoods. So there are many Germans who know what it is to live under the fear of a real police state. A police state where people disappeared in the night – literally., And while Zman makes some good points in this blog, America, despite the “storm trooper looking police” is not a police state by that definition.
Since you lived in Germany, you know that our streets were safe then and were up until recently. While we are nothing like some suburbs in London or Paris, we remain a peaceful people who respect each other’s lives and property. As with the black problem in your major cities, ours comes from immigrants who came here through our new “borderless” neighbors of Romania, Albania, and of course Russia. Where your prisons have a minority white population, ours have a minority German population. But I am sure, given the size our your country, there are plenty of places in rural areas where people don’t lock their doors. But that doesn’t take away from the daily news reports of shootings around your country.
You don’t understand. Back in the 70s, the liberals decided that committing crazy people for observation was wrong. Crazy people were just free spirits! And so they turned them out and made it very hard to commit anyone.
And you can add to that the psychotropic drugs that they give to teenage boys. They have warnings that they can cause psychotic episodes. But we aren’t allowed to talk about that or consider it after mass shootings.
How many children have been lost to abortion? That is the number to focus on…
The left is opposed to the death penalty. The far-left (which keeps dragging the ordinary left to its positions) is even more passionately opposed to the death penalty and is increasingly against prisons.
At the same time, the far left considers the word “Trump” to be hate-speech and ‘violence’.
So here’s a question: What percentage of social justice warriors would like to have a death sentence for people who say “I don’t like Islam”, or “Mass Muslim immigration is a terrible idea”, or “I think the threat of global warming is greatly exaggerated”?
Those same people who say nobody should be imprisoned want to criminalise these sentences.
What percentage would end up justifying a death sentence for saying “A man can’t become a woman just by thinking he’s a woman”?
I’m going to guess if you had a poll of social justice warriors, you’d get 5% in favor.
And I’ll guess it if would pass into law, the percentage would rise to 60%.
The Left opposes the death penalty because it freaks out the squares. History makes clear that they are perfectly willing to kill in volume.
Just like with free speech and sexual liberty. First they champion the cause, then they call the former ‘hate speech’ (or ‘violence’) and the latter ‘rape’. First back it, then crush it.
Public hangings via actual process of rule of law are a sublime indicator of a cultures mental health and courage to face the law of consequences unintended and otherwise. The Oligarchy won’t permit them any more than they permit the Tea Party, The Confederate Flag, the dirt people owning property, (specifically weapons, never mind personal wealth and prosperity), and last but not least, The Truth.
Besides, the sonofabitches wouldn’t want the dirt people getting ideas about public officials, lamp posts, and 13 knots.
So Iran’s mad Mullahs represent their culture’s ‘mental health’? Public hangings are common.
To put it politely, that is kind of a different kettle of fish. A totalitarian government of musloid psychopaths with nukes who threaten to destroy America, running a stone age police state. A blood thirsty splinter sect of islam who have an ideology that close to total martyrdom of themselves and self flagellation with edged weapons will bring the second coming of their own version of muhammad.
so “yes” the Mullah’s most definitely represent the mental health of Iran; which is crazy as a loon!
I think mental health is the wrong way to look at it. I prefer to think of it as fitness. It’s a measure of strength and vigor not right. You cannot deny that Islam is vital, while the West is anemic.
Yes!!
Or, the government runs out of money to pay all the goons, and it all withers away.
My own observation is that the Managerial State has already passed the point of diminishing returns. These days our greatest protection is bureaucratic overreach and incompetence. The military and police look the way they do because we don’t manage people anymore, we manage their fantasies. I realized this when I saw pics of Army Rangers in one of the sandbox countries and realized they were dressed just like G. I. Joe dolls from fifteen years earlier.
Toot! Toot! All Aboard! Next Stop Banana Republic! Excellent point you make Ivar. Just follow the money. There is no crazy conspiracy theory or ideological driving force. It is greed and power. It’s aha is at the heart of it. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think the Managerial State, Administrative tyranny really, has passed the point of no return, on their part at least. The oligarchy is going to give up the wealth and power it has acquired. That just is basic political logic, (was that an oxymoron?), or reality. “Law Enforcement” is essentially the armed badged leg breaker faction of that administrative tyranny. And they ain’t going to give up their proceeds from the state either, at the very least.
That only leaves the dirt people as the sole object of resistance to this tyranny. And they are coming after us dirt people. It is the why of all this sudden magnitude of calls for “gun control”, people control. and control of people who refuse to be controlled, who have weapons to defend themselves from those who desire to rule over them. Bad mistake, bad bad mistake. That is akin to sticking your hand in a hornets nest. Gonna be a fight here pretty soon, lot of people are not going to go quietly into that tyrannical night, if at all.
I’m pretty sure it begins with the :expansion” of terms to describe criminal behavior.
Repeated “false flag” operations…”SEE! THIS is why you NEED us!”
I’m pretty sure firearms confiscation, termed “common sense”, follows, one paper cut at a time.
I COULD be wrong, of course.
My recent favorite: (para) “The People are tired of the Senate doing NOTHING on this”
After repeated denials of 2A “challenges” , AND while filibustering from the floor.
300 million firearms
500 billion rounds of ammo in civilian hands
Just waiting on Richard the Lion Hearted’s return to rally the troops
It is not those weapons and materiel they are really after, it is the dirt people who will use them in defense of their liberty and life they wish to liquidate. Personally, I believe it is the dirt people who are the only existential threat to the oligarchy, that they know it, and are afraid of what the dirt people will do to them for what they are doing to the dirt people. Nonetheless as you point out, that is a lot of guns, it is, a potential, Small Infantry, citizen army unequaled in size by any army in the world, if, it becomes aroused to arms and in support of armed defiance of the oligarchy and resistance to tyranny, will make the Revolutionary War and War from Northern aggression look like a skirmish. This is one big-ass country, unlimited resources and industry even on an underground and cottage level, lot of smart people, ingenious, and industrious people, and the support potential would have no equal in the annals of insurgency warfare. It begs the question, just how it is those running things expect to disarm and further enslave the dirt people. Once people have nothing to loose, they become utterly and ultimately manifest in their survival and destiny regardless of the evil facing them. This is here below an outstanding essay on what you and ZMan posted here: http://www.henrydampier.com/2015/04/about-the-corporate-slave-class/
I refer to this little known but superlative essay document written by Valparaiso University Law Review on the condensed and concise subject of why arms in the hands of the dirt people. THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT
David E. Vandercoy,1994 http://www.guncite.com/journals/vandhist.html
You were doing so well until you spelled lose as loose.
You must have got your new spelling police badge in the mail.
It was actually at the bottom of his bowl of Count Cuckula this morning,