On Defunding the Police

 

Yesterday I attended an event called a ”free store” held at a local Anglican Church. Pretty much says what it is: people donate items they no longer need, and other people come and take what they want or need.

Not sure this is a better concept than the self-sustaining Salvation Army Stores, though. The Sally Ann stores are sustainable because they are win-win. The donors get rid of things just taking up space; the buyers get a bargain; the proceeds can pay some salary to the workers, and the profits go to help the poor. The free store takes more volunteer effort. And it’s inevitably pretty hectic and disorganized. Grabbing wins the day; not need.

But I sure can’t complain personally.  It worked out well for me; I think I saved about $100 on items I needed for this big old house.

One thing I picked up was a 22-page pamphlet titled “A World without Police.” I have not read it all. It is calling to defund the police, on the grounds that they exist only to protect the property of the rich from the poor. They sustain the evil capitalist system.

This is so obviously wrong I suspect nobody believes it. Laws exist to protect the weak from the powerful. This is the stated premise of the best-preserved ancient legal system known to man, the Code of Hammurabi: government forms “to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak.”

The powerful do not need the police; they do not need laws or morality. They would rather be free to do as they like. 

Do rich people like Elon Musk or Donald Trump or George Soros need the police to protect their property? No; they can afford private security. Indeed, they could afford private armies. Without the police, they could run roughshod. If imperfect, the police protect us from this.

But then again, it was not the poor handing out the “Defund the Police” pamphlets. It was young “white” Anglican men. Some wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs. Probably university educated. Probably from well-off families. Anglicans are, after all, generally more prosperous than any other Christian denomination. 

It is the rich who crave this. Even a revolution would actually increase their power. They could be in complete and perpetual command as the “vanguard of the proletariat.” 

Meantime, they vote for corporate bankers like Mark Carney or wealthy lawyers like Jagmeet Singh, and scorn someone who has worked his way up from orphanhood and adoption like Pierre Poilievre as 'unqualified."

The great question in my mind is, do they realize they are being duplicitous?

Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

If you think black lives matter, you must be appalled by Black Lives Matter.

No doubt there is police misconduct. The shooting of Sammy Yatim in Toronto, for one example. It is not, however, so far as any evidence can tell us, racially motivated nor about racism. By falsifying the cause, BLM is doing its level best to avoid a solution.

This is bad for blacks just as it is bad for whites: either might be victims of police misconduct. But blacks come into contact with police far more often.

Moreover, BLM is stirring up racial prejudice among blacks, potentially provoking violence in which blacks as well as whites may die. And prejudice among blacks against the police.

The rioting it is encouraging and supporting kills blacks, loots and destroys black businesses, and economically depresses areas in which blacks live.

It subverts the rule of law in favour of a lynch mob mentality. How well did that work for American blacks last time? As a permanent minority, the last thing they need is to throw power into the streets. Let the largest mob rule? In the end, who is that going to be?

It makes perfect sense, from a police perspective, if they are already a bit jumpier and more likely to assume the worst when dealing with a black suspect. After all, violent criminals are disproportionately black. Racial profiling? I'd do it too, if my life could depend on it. In fact, the statistics do not show that police are more likely to shoot black suspects, but one could understand if it were true, and no racism need be involved.

Now BLM comes in and encourages black hatred towards police. This has demonstrably boosted the odds that any given black suspect will pull out a gun and start shooting. And this, in turn, naturally and reasonably enough, increases the odds that any given police officer will assume the worst, and shoot first.

Leading to a rapidly descending spiral of race hate and dead black men.

Or, to avoid the risk of becoming the target of this lynch mob treatment, police may choose to back off-- simply stay out of black neighbourhoods, avoid black suspects. Leading to chaos and murder in black neighbourhoods, as well, of course, as any business that can pulling out.

Who's that going to help?

Great job. Are BLM really that stupid? Or are they really that malicious?