Fuck the Police

[mickj]

What happens when police are replaced by private enterprise. Not quite the OMG CHAOS EVERYWHERES that naysayers say, is it? This certainly put a damper on the "why do you need assault weapons?" crowd as well.

And since John McCain is now my favoritist person in the world, I would like to take some time to rag on him a bit. There we go. But the

Comments

[pierceh]

I think you're way off about police accountabity for mistakes in our society. We hear about cases like that 92-year-old lady in Georgia who was killed in a no-knock raid because they're exceptional. But don't get me wrong, I'm behind a very strict level of oversight of police enforcement from all branches of government, which are themselves accountable via the voting process and other levels of oversight.

As for the accountability of private militia, what exactly stops them from simply taking their "dues" by force when their own interests conflict with keeping the peace? The mafia has done this forever, warlords in third world countries do it. You'll probably argue that this is no different from taxation, but that's disingenuous because in the end, taxes are based on explicit (if convoluted) policies which are enacted by elected officials. No one elected the militia in Rio, so what recourse do civilians have if they decide "benign" isn't the most profitable way to go? Other than revolution and more violence, of course, which doesn't seem like much of an improvement over what they had before.

[mickj]

This isn't the mafia though. It's going to get expensive to start extorting people if these guys ever decide to go gung-ho. The reason the mafia were able to get away with it was because they had numerous other sources of income (thank you very much, governemnt prohibition), to go along with their protection money. The miltias here have no such sources of income other than the people themselves. A Martial law type situtaion is something they cannot afford to do. This potential problem is even mitigated further if the general populace is also armed, making it even more expensive for the militia to take their protection money by force. Both sides have a great incentive to make sure they work together, and there is much for both sides to lose if they can't work things out on amicable terms.

[pierceh]

What? Extortion expensive? It's not just the mafia that does that, it's a well-known source of income for every two-bit street gang that calls more than a three block area their "turf." Nothing is expensive about pointing a gun (that you already have) at a store owner and demanding money. And if you're representing a whole militia, you don't even need the gun. Just the threat that nonpayment will lead to guns.

And no, the general populace being armed is not a solution, because someone who fights back against the two thugs who were harassing them is simply marking themselves as a target to the rest of the gang. They could hire a competing "police force" (read: gang) to protect them but then they risk losing the battle (and subsequently their lives), or winning the battle and having their new benefactors be just as bad as the old ones.