2 comments

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  Josh

  2 years ago

  You make a valid point about throwing police at a problem, I remember laughing at Clinton's 100,000 cops programs. Stimulating the economy with tax cuts so people would have more opportunities would have done far more than federal government temporarily paying for more local cops.
  
  People need to take more responsibility for their lives, I know I feel more comfortable having a concealed 9mm than looking around for a cop when a bum comes after me with a knife. Ironically liberals seem to fear concealed guns more than cops -- still can't figure that one out.
  
  I especially agree with your point about overlapping agencies -- why do we still need a county government that includes a sheriff department anyways? Where we do need added law enforcement is at the ports and in the intelligence agencies. We need people abroad infiltrating the groups that are out to harm us, not an extra cop on the street corner.
  
  What disturbs me about your post is the last point, and the underlying theme, is that some how 911 and future terrorist events are our fault. Do you seriously believe that somehow "our behavior in the world" caused an attack by Islamic Extremists? The US and its people hold zero responsibility for the events 911, and any other conclusion suggests we that we need to tolerate and embrace their twisted view of the world.
  
  What I fear more than cops on the street is a pacifist attitude that tells the lunatic terrorists that if you bomb, we will listen. We live in a democracy that allows us to change laws based will of the majority, tempered by the restraints of the constitution. So a group need not crash planes into buildings to bring about change.
  
  As we've witnessed around the world, democracy takes a great deal of work to establish and maintain. But once rooted in the people, people are willing to sacrifice lives to defend it.
  
  The cowards behind 911 know their dogmatic ideas of a perfect Islamic state are not popular. Unfortunately they are convinced that killing innocent people in the US and Europe will rally more converts.
  
  The last thing we should do is placate this behavior by blaming ourselves. Their culture only recognizes strong action. The only solution is to crush them until they no longer believe Allah is behind them. This doesn't involve more local police, but it certainly doesn't mean blaming ourselves for their actions.
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  David Gelles

  2 years ago

  It's deeper than the many agencies, and it's been around for much longer than a few years. We may not live in a dictatorship, but we do live in a police state. Last month I spent a few weeks driving around Greece. For days on end I sped through beautiful countryside and never did I encounter a speed trap. I get back here, and in 6 hours of driving through northern Virginia I see exactly 6 speedtraps.
  The war on drugs, which I think you've written about, is another example of over-policing by our government. There's a fundamental mistrust between state and citizens in this country.
  As for tactical and strategic, it seems fairly obvious that until the people actually call for strategic solutions, little will change. Tactical solutions look more impressive, and are easier to implement and easier to excuse if they fail. And even if there is a call for strategic change, I'll believe it when I see it. The Gubernator made great claims about prison reform in California, yet as we approach the election, he's on the verge of implementing exclusively tactical solutions.
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