Signs of a Dying Empire

[David Horn]

(09-22-2017, 03:26 PM)noway2 Wrote:

(09-20-2017, 04:22 PM)David Horn Wrote: Yeah, yeah, yeah: guns are the great equalizer.  Of course, in a free-for-all economy, wealth always wins.  Your guns?  It's been tried.  What good is a gun when the rich and powerful can openly hire a professional army.  The Pinkerton Agency is a perfect example, having been formed in your ideal year of 1850.

One thing that I find interesting is the history of policing in the US.  In the North at least, the origins of government policing began with groups like the Pinkerton Agency.  Things have gotten so much better now that the politicians have an army funded with money stolen from the taxpayers to enforce their edicts, the will of The People be damned.  The "legal" system is this side of worthless when it comes to any semblance of dealing with actual "crime" committed against other people.  The only thing it excels at is extorting more money from The People when the do something horrific like drive at a velocity greater than that mandated by some stupid politician.

Several points:

1. The Pinkertons were never a "police force".  They were private muscle, pure and simple.  They were employed by the railroads, mining companies and industrialists to assure "labor peace" -- not exactly policing in any sense I recognize.
   
2. The army is not in the business of policing at all, will of The People or not. Posse comitatus is strictly obeyed, at least by the military itself. The National Guard may be mobilized to serve law-and-order functions, but mostly by State government. In any case, they don't arrest people.
   
3. Our criminal justice system focuses too much on convictions and punishment, and not enough on justice, so we actually agree (somewhat) on this.
   
4. On the other hand, some laws are there because their absence made people scared or at least uncomfortable. You mention speeding, which is a prime example. Politicians respond to angry voters, hence those traffic laws.