I am certainly no fan of government police.
I devote plenty of space in my book, Foundations of Private Property Society Theory: Anarchism for the Civilized Person Paperback, to private alternatives to government police.
That said, I must issue a warning to commenters in recent posts here at Target Liberty where I discuss the Defund the Police movement. The comments are along the lines "Well, good riddance to the police."
This is a dangerous perspective in the current environment.
I don't desire public streets or sidewalks or air traffic controllers, for that matter, that are operated by government agencies.
At the same time, I don't want the current government-constructed streets and sidewalks to be torn up and left in the torn-up condition. I do not want government air-traffic controllers to be hauled off the job while planes are in the air. A move to private sidewalks streets and air-traffic controllers should ideally be done expeditiously but with the opportunity for private-sector alternatives to develop.
The current Defund the Police movement is not about the opportunity for private-sector police alternatives to develop. It is about a desire to destroy capitalism and any remnants of western civilization.
The powers behind the curtain of this movement are not proponents of private property. They are simply very aggressive seekers of power. They are not going to replace the current police with nice guy mall-type security. They will replace them with enforcers of the plans of the behind the curtain power regime.
This is an extremely dangerous group to support. They have no plans, zero, to make any advancements toward freedom and liberty. They must be stopped and battled at every juncture. Supporting them in any cause is supporting greater authoritarianism.
The leaders of the Defund the Police movement are extremely shrewd and steeped in strategy and tactics. They are not interested in any supposed black plight. It is simply a cause for them that can be exploited for their advantage. It's blacksploitation of the worst kind. The protesters you see on the streets are simply useful idiots.
Do not fall for the movement, it is extremely dangerous. It is the opposite of a move toward liberty.
-RW
The phrase "Defund the police" is not a libertarian-sounding phrase, because taxpayers don't directly fund the police; rather, the state takes our income and then spends some of it on the police. So the phrase really means that "we" want the state to change the way that it spends our confiscated income. It doesn't mean take less of our income, it just means spend it differently.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, the correct libertarian-sounding phrase is "Defund the state."
It seems that your statement is a little bit contradictory, because you say the tax payers don't directly fund the police, however they actually do, we just don't have a choice of how much or in what way. I also don't think Robert W is really aligned with his typically opinions. He has stated that Hillary would have been better for liberty in the bigger picture, and it seems somewhat relatable to this topic. Defund may not be perfect but it's a step toward the general goal of overturning the power structure of police as it is now.
DeleteWell argued but it may happen that some of that "defund the police" sentiment will lead some communities to try switching from government to private security. From this might well come examples of money saved, greater feeling of safety achieved, etc.
ReplyDeleteThis of course is not what the evil planners you describe want, but I think the idea, properly applied, can lead to good.