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]

Forgive me, but it's not saying much that private police enforcement is an improvement over an area that was run by gangs selling drugs. It's also a bit early to be saying anything conclusively... what happens when one neighborhood decides they don't want to (or can't) pay anymore? Who will hold the private militia accountable if they mistake a few kids smoking pot for a violent gang meeting, and kill them? What happens if the gangs organize a bit better, and decide to bring a full-fledged firefight against the militia in the middle of a residential area

[mickj]

Who holds police accountable when they shoot the wrong person? In theory there is accountability in the system but in reality there practically is none. This happens with some scary frequency over here in the US, where police botches a drug raid and some innocent people end up getting gunned down by police. Hardly ever is an officer even slightly disciplined when his fuck ups cause someone to die.

In the end the private militia is accountable to the general populace, because the populace's money is what keeps it operating. There is definitely an incentive to keep the citizens happen and not be trigger happy fuck ups like the government police tend to be.

[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

[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.