Badon, this is not your opinion right?? I have to say that coming from a family full of police officers that include Boston PD administration with over 40 years on the force. Washington DC Mounted Police with over 30 years with that department and more than a dozen other family members that stretch over 3 generations I would have to say that might be the most ridiculous comment I have ever read.
First of all police work is not a monopoly, every private business is allowed to police themselves including using armed officers, CCTV, internal investigation, and third party agencies. Police Departments themselves often have multiple agencies overlapping jurisdictions Example: City departments, County Sheriffs department, State Troopers, Motor Vehicle enforcement, just to name a few.
Second, most if not all police would and do support and educated and trained civilian that is armed and ready to defend him/herself, those around them and in some states their property.
In fact in most states in order to receive a CCW or Carry a Concealed Weapons permit you must train, test and qualify with a state Peace Officer. Then that state issues a CCW which may or may not reciprocate with other states.
The comment is so far off it is laughable.
I say that directed at police as a political institution, not at individual police officers. The majority of police officers are just pawns like everybody else. In fact, many of the politicians are too. There is no one person or class of people to blame - We're talking about a flood where no individual raindrop feels responsible, and indeed, is actually not individually responsible. That's the nature of political governments (including democracy) in general.
The controlling Western governments are modeled on the Roman Republican system, which operates under the assumption that nobody can be trusted - That's the basis of the 3 branches of government in America, senates, houses, congresses, Bundesrats, Dumas, etc, and so on. They're all essentially the same thing - a tragedy of the commons, with no effective chain of command.
Did you know that the first recorded formalized modern democracies were bands and alliances of Caribbean pirates? That's right, if everybody is a criminal, democracy and politics are the governing systems of choice.
It's not until the house of cards collapses and everybody goes home that the people realize that they need strong, responsible, trustworthy leadership both within themselves and for the people above and below them in the societal hierarchy.
I have a personal policy. I never enter into binding contracts to do business with someone, and I never ask anyone else to do so either. If I can't trust the people I'm doing business with, and if they can't trust me, then I want nothing to do with it. That policy has served me very well, financially. I've been screwed over in a big way many, many times - a lot more than the average Joe - but I still ended up better off than the average Joe.
In the end, it's really all about arrogance and humility. Or, as the Western ancients preferred to call it, hubris and humility. In the West, people are taught from birth about democracy and how important their opinion is. Nobody considers if maybe it would be better if some decisions weren't made by people completely disconnected with it.
The East realizes this. Unity, trust, and responsibility (accountability) within a governing system is the only way to prevent a flood of self-destruction. The planet is at a crossroads. People thought in the 1950's that doomsday could come at any moment...that was long ago, and people are not nearly worried enough.
One more thing about the issue of police: one bad apple spoils the bunch. That's why policing is, and always has been, an organized criminal institution. I know plenty of fine people who are, or were, police officers. They tell me all kinds of stories of the horrors they've seen other police do to people. Not one of them that is still alive has ever tried to report it.
New York City did a study on their police brutality cases and discovered that, out of hundreds of police officers, most hospitalizations and deaths were caused by only a few of them. That's a handful of people who are able to terrorize millions. That's how a tiny minority of the population can heil the Fuhrer and wipe out entire countries of people.
Conversely, it only took one guy with a pistol in the Warsaw Ghetto to send a whole army of Nazi soldiers with the finest machine guns available, running for their lives.
Somebody has to say it like it is. Police is or will become a criminal institution every time it is formed. They are put to work as lap-dog thugs for the Alpha wolf that dominates them, just like everybody else. Anybody that challenges them ends up with a bullet in the face like Frank Serpico, or worse. Frank Serpico was privileged enough as a fellow police officer to be murdered with a relatively quick method (he survived to tell the story). Everybody else gets eaten alive.
We do not need guys with guns escalating every interaction until people get killed. The Alpha wolf is smart, and he can escalate without anybody noticing. Then when the fight starts, all of his less-intelligent lap-dogs come running to his aid, and then the whole situation turns into a pack of wild animals slurping blood and relishing screams, in a case of primitive prey-drive gone wrong.
The problem with smart criminals is you don't even realize they're criminals. If they all dressed like Emperor Ming, maybe they would stand out more. They're manipulators, and their primary tool is hate. You can control anyone by making them hate. It's incredibly easy - that's why the TV is all about who we're supposed to hate today. It worked for the Nazis, it worked for Stalin, and it works for the Alpha wolf on your local police force.
That's why I condemn irreconcilable hatred, even if it is justly deserved. Frank Serpico didn't beat his would-be murders with fire and brimstone - he did it with a cool head and a plan for resolution. That's why every country that came to be via revolution is a death trap right now. Here's a handy list:
* China
* Vietnam
* North Korea
* 99.999% of Africa
* Iran
* America
* Cuba
That should be enough get an idea of how things turn out after a revolution. If you're wondering what's so bad about America, did you know that 1 in 3 American men get imprisoned? Imprisonment is the opposite of freedom, but it's the solution for everything in America. Once imprisoned, torture, disease, and death are what awaits. Nobody talks about it, but because of America's prisons, disease epidemics are spreading throughout the nation.
The mathematical models of the spread predict that everyone in America will be infected until the population develops resistance ("herd immunity"). A lot of people are going to have to die before the population develops immunity to HIV, MRSA, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and other other fatal imprisonment diseases.
That's all I've got to say for now. Have a nice day :)
