Theodore Dalrymple wrote what might as well be a companion piece to VDH’s “Vandal” post below, but citing instead the case of last year’s riots in the UK:
It is true that the British police have come to resemble not the force of uniformed citizens of which Sir Robert Peel (the founder of the modern police) dreamed, but a paramilitary occupier, feared mainly by the innocent and law-abiding. The police have become simultaneously bullying and ineffectual, the worst of all combinations, barking rudely at motorists who stop where they shouldn’t but disregarding manifestations of serious criminality entirely. The reasons for the degeneration of British policing are (again) complex, but one of them is the extreme leniency of the courts. For a long time, the police had little incentive to pursue criminals short of murderers, for the courts will impose a trivial punishment on them.
There’s a lot more where that came from. And sadly, likely to be a lot more like that in the coming years.
Same place we are heading. Particularly in places like Kalifornia (but certainly not limited to there). Any place with with a loonball lefty government.
Why go after real criminals and risk your life for minimal punishment, when there are so many minor offenders that you can bust to keep your numbers up and can be relatively assured you will make it home later.
I realize a lot of cops are not that sorry. But the courts sure can be. We had a guy kill an NC Highway Patrolman about 3 years ago, in cold blood, for stopping him because he didn’t have a tag on the trailer he was pulling. The perp then went through the cops pockets and also took the cops piece and then took off. He got life without parole instead of busting a cap on him. Our courts don’t dispense justice unless you are a normally law abiding citizen, then they throw the book at you.
Sad situation, but the Brits are showing us where we are headed in just a few years. Normally, we are about 20 years behind them. Things seem to accelerating.
Coming to a street corner or home near you soon.
In some agencies the transformation seems complete. BATF certainly comes to mind, and TSA, not to mention every village, town and city with their own doorkicking SWAT team.
An obvious “canary in the mine” is the blatant disregard for our immigration laws, and the federal government’s cavalier malfeasance in performing their duties, while simultaneously slamming their full litigous weight around to halt or intimidate any attempts by states, cities, or even honest Sheriffs to slow the flood of illegals and round up those apprehended for other crimes.
If Washington does not get a total makeover to enforce our laws, borders, language and culture, we are doomed. Especially since economically we are probably already so far behind the pwer curve that even draconian spending cuts may not be sufficient.
The goading of the big city masses of non-producers into class warfare mode may well be the final act which destroys our nation. Geez, they are already rioting and killing for “Air-Jordan sneakers!” Just think what they will do if their free welfare plantation benefits are reduced.
We have a problem. Lots of problems. Most of them caused by Democrats, and many encouraged or ignored by Republicans. A pox on all of them!
There’s a “broken window” theory to fighting crime, where if you attempt to keep a neighborhood in order the criminal class will not see it as an inviting place to do business. This was hailed as a new and improved approach to fighting crime, mainly I believe because it didn’t actually require anybody to take responsibility for their actions or be arrested.
But ponder, how many police are out there sitting in their Donut Dreadnaughts looking for red-light runners (and the presence of a black-and-white at an intersection probably has a deterrent effect, so I’m not against it), sitting in the median at rush hour just over the hill, or operating DWI checkpoints? Compare to how many are sent to discover who dumped that refrigerator into the lake at the park, or who sprayed that graffiti on the wall at the strip-mall or on the overpass? It’s as if the crimes that can result in a fine to line the city coffers are the ones they’re waiting for. The crimes that will require prosecution and evidence gathering for what amounts to six months in the county lock-up if that? Not so much.
Policing has turned into a business. Major crimes get solved and the good PR helps keep the revenue coming. A good domestic dispute or armed stand-off can justify money for all sorts of new hardware. When a town like Sioux Falls, SD has a SWAT team you know the money spigots aren’t wide open because of evidenced need. What is ignored are the property crimes, and illegals, the vandalism and petty theft. You know, the crimes that don’t grab headlines, don’t generate revenue, and would take a lot of manpower to solve. Sort of like broken windows.
The broken window theory works best if somebody besides the cops and prosecutors have to fix the windows. It would seem the police and courts have better things to do.
Speaking of graffiti, am I the only one wishing the railroads could once again employ armed Pinkerton Guards to patrol their yards? I don’t think I’ve seen a boxcar in nearly 10 years that wasn’t covered in spray-paint.
– Max
Max/
Intersection traffic cameras, like those classic rural southern speed traps of old, are another manifestation of the the elevation of revenue enhancement over crime prevention/”true” traffic safety–the lights having been proven to cause as many accidents as they prevent. Thankfully, based on recent hard-fought evidence many communities are now abandoning them under public pressure.
And of course unofficial “quota” systems for traffic tickets in all police depts large & small are legendary. Cash-strapped LA recently had its “unofficial” (and strenuously denied) quota practices revealed in a critical piece in the LA WEEKLY a couple of years back.
Some 15 yrs+ago under the black Mayor Mark Morial Admin in New Orleans that was 70% black, late-nite DUI checkpoints were set up equally on major arteries coming INTO Orleans Parish from adj (across the street) Jefferson Parish as well as oat maj exit routes from the French Quarter. The check-points at the Parish boundaries serving mainly to acquire fines from whites with money for minor equipment infractions (expired safety stickers, etc.) and garnered few DUI arrests, while the failure to est. ((% of the checkpoints covering the drunks coming out of the QUARTER is to be seen as an attempt to not anger the black community as 1) a HUGE number of poor blacks living in areas surrounding the quarter drive with no lisc or registration and 2) an effort to show the people who voted the Mayor into office that he would “stick it” to whitey equally with the checkpoints, tho few of the supposed traffic safety aims were accomplished by doing so–but guess which checkpoints garnered the most revenue in the form of fines? NUMBERS COUNT. MAO was wrong. Political power/influence comes at the end of a tube all right, just a softer, more flexible one than a gun barrel. The failure to enforce the laws in the Central Valley VDH depicts is echoed by the latest recent move by the current Mayor of LA to order the police to stop enforcing current law and confiscating the autos of illegal aliens who lack drivers lisc & registration when stopped for traffic infractions–all as a sop to the community that is, of course, one of his maj political bases.
The lack of enforcement of the law when illegal aliens are involved is a national disgrace, prompting one wag recently to say that if one is caught committing murder the best thing to do is declare one’s self an illegal as then one can walk scott free. lol. An exaggeration? Yes, but not by much..
Signed:
Laughin’ on the outside and cryin’ on the inside..
*99%* viz *((%* –no coffee, lol
At that time of day it’s most likely 5-star deprivation.
OMG, Lex! That linked article is so engorged with such low hanging fruit that I can barely contain myself to counter!
But it will have to wait…. too late tonight, and lots of out-of-towners and family to entertain tomorrow.
But later I will crank it up……
I like Dalrymple’s writing, he is usually right on target,too.
I noticed that his gracelessness the Archbishop of Canterbury did not disappoint this year. His Christmas homily linked the August rioters to bankers and the one percent, implying that they were the moral equivalents. He has also claimed that Jesus would support the Occupy movement. He must use a different translation of the Tanakh and New Testament than I do.
The Britain has allowed too many in who do not share in Britain’s best interests, but use it as a place to live, get free benefits and call for the downfall of the once proud empire. People from other lands who stand on the sidewalk and jeer at British Military on Remembrance Day.
Dutch PM Geert Wilders addressed Parliment and made some great points about what is wrong in Europe – a piece of what he said -
” Ladies and gentlemen, I believe in another policy, it is time for change. . . .If I may quote one of my favourite American presidents: Ronald Reagan once said: “We need to act today, to preserve tomorrow”. That is why I propose the following measures, I only mention a few, in order to preserve our freedom:
First, we will have to defend freedom of speech. It is the most important of our liberties. In Europe and certainly in the Netherlands, we need something like the American First Amendment.
Second, we will have to end and get rid of cultural relativism. To the cultural relativists, the shariah socialists, I proudly say: Our Western culture is far superior to the Islamic culture. Don’t be afraid to say it. You are not a racist when you say that our own culture is better.
Third, we will have to stop mass immigration from Islamic countries. Because more Islam means less freedom.
Fourth, we will have to expel criminal immigrants and, following denaturalisation, we will have to expel criminals with a dual nationality. And there are many of them in my country.”
He makes good points about those who immigrate to cause harm and not become a contributing member of society. The rest of the post is here – http://usnavyjeep.blogspot.com/2010/03/freedom-must-prevail-and-freedom-will.html
“….The pump don’t work ‘Cause the vandals took the handles. “
Bob Dylan
…this is flippen “cranking it up”…pathetic. Best
Oh, yes, things are just great in Democraticland, and all around Obamaville, they sleep like new born babes….while Eric Holder asks for the right to, WARRENTLESSLY! have ISPs turn over any citizen’s email and web surfing history…(no note of if it’s terror related…you know, Homeland Security and all), and the Fast and Furious crowd even admits they were out to supplant The Constitution (you know, that paper we all took the Oath to “support and defend”), and denies a State on the border the right to defend it’s citizen’s from murder and mayhem, while simultaneously saying the Fed’s aren’t going to…and let’s not forget the Feds and the Congress passing a bill to allow the Feds to lie about having info requested by FOIA, if they feel the need to keep the sunshine from stirking the truth.
Used to be a time when GWB’s jack booted thugs wandered the streets, eating children and forcing atheists to pray, out loud, with conviction, every day, and just was pilloried for wanting to listen into phone conversations with a flagged, OUTCONUS terrorist at the other end.
So, no need for alarm, especially when they come around for your 401(k) and decide you’re too wilted to have any more treatment, or meds…yep, the most transparent administration in history, unless you see how much money is being passed to their friends….or power.
The OWS crowd got it wrong. Should have been OWH and OC (Congress).
Anarcho-Tyranny, it really is.
Dammit, in my youth I grew up in a country in which Western Civilization still mostly worked, and you could count on the government people to be mostly honest. These days, you have to behave like Yossarian in the last part of the book, always looking over yer shoulder with hand on piece, in case Nately’s Whore is sneaking up behind you. (I would not actually do this, this is just a long-winded metaphor.)
That irrational crazy vindictive bitch is very likely to be a guy wearing some kind of Federal badge, these days.
Right on stuff. If you want my views on the state of policing and the boys and girls dressed in a sort of uniform I call `the young pretenders` in the UK then I do jot down occasional anecdotes and stuff on my own blog, but I’m not here to tout my own ramblings.Dalrymple is on the money – well a lot of it.