Tags
Anarchism, bad cop, death, freedom, good cop, law enforcement, liberty, mafia, police, statism, stormtroopers, Taxes
We’ve all driven by the guy in the red sports car with the flashing lights behind him. We’ve seen his new friend wielding the taxing pen and paper, or his flashlight peering into the dark interior. Let’s face it, we’ve all thought at one time or another, “Better him than me.” Multiple times.
In the view of the gun, most of us will back down, and respect his authority. Is the man worthy of respect? I fear not. The way we look at the police officer is entirely different that the respected looks we give our firefighters or other first responders. We like to pretend it isn’t there, but it’s unavoidable. The man carries a gun with him everywhere. He parades with it, he brandishes it as he directs traffic, he fondles it while talking to children, and he points it at you while getting you to pull your car over. Make no mistake, it isn’t the badge that makes people act that way, it is the gun.
Does he perform useful services to people? Absolutely. What is the cost? He is more than just a goon hired to help old ladies walk across the street and direct traffic around an accident. He is a hired gun on the lowest tier of executive authority. His main purpose isn’t to protect the peace and make sure everyone plays nicely. His purpose is to be the face of authority, to remind us POLITELY that they are the ones in charge, and if necessary, not so politely. His pay is extorted from us by the threat of violence, prison, and death.
I don’t care how nice of a smile he puts on. He is little more than a hall monitor with a gun. He hasn’t learned the high step march or high handed salute, but he is a civil stormtrooper. He arrests victimless criminals, jails them, and demands more funds for doing so. His duties are a microcosm of the state at large, and it is certain that his legal status and authority will grow.
It is often said, that only death and taxes are certain. His is the face of taxes backed by threatened death. Death remains certain, at least for now. Taxes, we can all live without. In fact, we can all live better without them ( except of course for the thieves feeding off of our lives ). A peace keeper can not call himself such if he supports himself with the theft, murder, and rape of his state proclaimed area of protection. He might not actually do any of those things himself, but neither does the Mafia Don.
We don’t know all the steps to reach a peaceful, stateless society. We do know that it will never be accomplished as long as anyone believes they have a right to anything of your life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness and flaunts it by waving the big stick of statehood.
After his Image 
How do you then explain the gun-less English Bobby?
Authority comes (represented) to us not from a side arm but from the uniform as an officer of the court. But make no mistake: the court’s authority – just like the government’s comes backed by the civilian and voluntary armed forces.
A police officer’s job in a secular liberal democracy is to enforce the law… usually determined by representative government (and usually subject to review by a supreme court). The individual within the uniform doesn’t matter; it’s the uniform that counts. To paint all police officers as Storm Troopers of a tyrannical state is quite the prejudiced stretch of the imagination. It’s like painting any doctor who receives state funds as a diabolical Nazi Mengele. Offering a utopian stateless peace as if this were a legitimate alternative seems to me to be a blatant false dichotomy.
I guess, I’d have to agree about the English Bobby. Difficult sometimes to see outside this country that has a past healthy fascination with firearms.
Yes, his job is to enforce the law regardless of the right or wrong of it. The uniform does count as a symbol of state authority, just as the flag.
As far as troopers go, I am not saying that all officers fully realize the part that they play in society and choose to be evil. Many of them are completely unaware of what they do and believe they are accomplishing good. This would apply to teachers as well. There is an agenda on the table, undeniable if one looks at the education that used to be widely available here.
There is a fine line to be walked here. The most productive slaves are the ones who believe that they are free, and that productivity is enhanced by some education. Too much education, however, and the slaves discover their real place in the world. I realize how “conspiracy theorist” this view seems, but it does seem to account all the information I have looked at.
Many people used to believe that slavery was a marvelous institution of society. That belief doesn’t make it moral though. It doesn’t matter if cotton was king, the use of slaves to process it was still immoral. Even if the economy was to be ruined by freeing the slaves, that is the better choice. Little did they know that the future held the answer to processing cotton in technology. The same goes for the state, and religion (imho).
As always, I thank you for your comment!
For the most part, I respect the men and women in law enforcement. But as a hitchhiker, I do meet a few people in uniform who don’t like hitchhikers. A few of these bad attitude cops see me on the side of the highway and want to throw their weight around.
“A Conversation with a Deputy Sheriff in Fremont County, Wyoming”
http://tim-shey.blogspot.com/2012/03/conversation-with-deputy-sheriff-in.html
I’ve met a few of them as well. Firemen are also quite cocky. My wife had a couple of them in her EMT class. Thanks for stopping by Tim.