The State = Unnecessary Force

by Mark Reynolds
by Mark Reynolds

The other day while I was driving through town I noticed a police cruiser. Realizing that there are at the most for a town of 12,000+ only 4–5 city police on duty during the day, and for the county maybe 3 Sheriff Deputies, I had to ask myself a simple question...

Do you suppose the reason Boone County Arkansas is a nice place to live and there is very little crime here because of these police patrolling our streets? Or do you suppose that the real reason is because people as a whole are not criminals in the common sense of the understanding, which would be people who violate the principle of my previous article on the Golden Rule?

I can see that the reason we are not in chaos is not because of a few police officers but because people as a whole are happy to live their lives without endangering the lives, liberty or property of their neighbors. This unnecessary force of the state that is in our midst is always looking for an outlet. It has to be used to keep the reason for its existence in place.

Here is how it works...a new "law" is passed making another previous freedom a crime. Let's look at a couple just for the sake of it. At one time it was not against the law to have a beer if you wanted on your front porch. Along comes a "do gooder" who is in the city, county or state legislature who has a dislike for alcohol, for who knows what reason, and they get a new law passed that says that you cannot have an open container of alcohol anywhere in public. And that, my friend, includes your front porch. Well, maybe you don't know about the new law and you walk out on the porch as officer friendly is driving by, with an open can of beer in your hand. Now, he stops, gets out of the car and walks up with unnecessary force and arrests you. In the process he is protecting his job and the statistics can now show he is needed to clean up the streets of criminals.

Here is one that happened in town one day. A preacher decided that God had told him to come to Harrison and preach against sin. He went to the local county judge and actually asked permission to use the meeting gazebo in back of the court house on the city square. Well at noon the next day he stepped up into the gazebo and started preaching his heart out to a crowd of zero. The local sheriff heard him "screaming" as he put it and told the police chief of Harrison that something should be done about the guy making all the racket at the gazebo. The police chief sent a sergeant out to the gazebo and the sergeant insisted the guy "identify" himself which of course is a nice way of saying he wanted to see his papers.

The preacher insisted on being left alone saying he had permission from the county judge to be there and wanted his allotted time to be used without interruption. So what do you suppose happened? The sergeant used unnecessary force against the preacher and twisted his hands behind his back, put handcuffs on him and effectively arrested him for refusing to identify himself to him, then threw him in the back of his patrol car. Before too long he was released, but still folks, this is just one tiny example where one of those 4–5 city police officers had to "justify" his job and did so by roughing up a 65-year-old preacher in the process.

Yes, they have made it a crime now to refuse to identify yourself to a police officer and that means that unnecessary state force can be used to compel you to identify yourself. This is just one more example of WHY we need less government agents and LESS laws for them to enforce. Instead we get more laws, which then are enforced with the unnecessary force of these law enforcement officers. By the way, at one time they used to be called peace officers, because they were supposed to keep the peace between quarrelling neighbors. Well, not any more. I suspect the "to protect and serve" announcement on their patrol cars is in reality to "protect and serve" the STATE.

I guess that is why one person I knew consistently called it the "law enforcement growth industry." The state has to justify its existence no matter how peaceful the populace is. Eventually we will all be criminals because SOMETHING we will be doing will be against a "law." I say, let's try something unique...how about NO police, NO legislature, NO governors or senators or any other agent of the state for a trial period of five years. Let's see what happens. Will self-government prevail or will we revert to barnyard animals and rob, rape and pillage? I think not. Most likely it will be the same as it was when I was driving along that one day, but I just won't be seeing any patrol cars.

Do you think?

September 28, 2004

Mark Reynolds [send him mail] is a web site developer residing with his wife and four boys in the place most folks call Arkansas.

Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com