I speak of course of the fundamental function of the government police. They rarely, if ever, prevent a crime, contrary to all those phony-baloney cop shows on TV. What they do is show up after the crime has occurred, take down a report, and then use the report to document that crime is out of control but would not be if only we had more and better-paid cops. They are essentially crime historians. As Ron Paul once said, the reason you are safe in your home is not because the cops are riding around town but because of the Second Amendment.
The second function of the police is to collect taxes from us for parking too long while shopping, not wearing seat belts, etc. Every cop understands that he is a revenue-gathering machine, and that that revenue is necessary to pay his salary and perks.
Case in point: A couple of weeks ago a small community market about 100 yards from Exit 52 on I-95 in Delray Beach, Florida was robbed. A few days later another community market two blocks away was robbed and two customers were shot and killed by the robbers. The police did what they always do: They showed up long after the criminals were gone, took down their report, and were therefore essentially useless.
But today they did put on quite a show of force at that same location: As I got off of Exit 52 this afternoon there were two state police cars and several heavily-armed, bullet proof vest-wearing state cops standing around, next to two cars with young middle-class-looking couples being ticketed. Their “offense” was that not everyone in the cars was wearing a seat belt. The fine was $165. (Last year the Florida legislature passed a law limiting how dark one may have his car windows tinted so that the cops can snoop and spy and tax us more effectively).
4:50 pm on January 8, 2013
