Posted on 04/29/2007 11:27:53 AM PDT by Zakeet
Is anyone asking why Brazil can’t police its gangland crime wave? I blame the politicians, and I blame the people themselves, and their culture. Of course Los Angeles used to be a nice town, too. I remember when it was. These days, it looks a lot more like Rio, I’d say.
What would happen if a squad of beefy men with submachine guns started patrolling our slums and ghettos neighborhoods on foot instead of Taser armed men and women who must be concerned with criminal rights in a patrol car?
You and I both know the anser to that question. They’d be swept up into our criminal justice system pronto. Oprah and Ellen would croon about the operation, and David Letterman would tee off to a punchline that night. Al/Jesse would belly up to a couple of fundraisers dedicated to the event, and Saturday Night Live would do about 20 skits about it.
The advantage of an armed citizenry is that it is capable of assembling itself quickly into a group of whatever size is needed to deal with present circumstances, and then disbanding such group when it is no longer needed. Permanent police forces are at any given time almost always going to be either understaffed or overstaffed (since instantaneous demands on the police will vary far more quickly than staffing levels). I would guess long-term vigilante groups would probably have the same problem; if there isn't anything for them to do, they'll "find" something.
untouchable
Isn’t that nice!
Pretty much what happened throughout American history.
Extended-service vigilantes tended to provoke the formation of counter-vigilante groups, often called “Regulators,” with the conflict between the two groups sometimes escalating to something close to civil war.
Still, it’s difficult to see any other solution where the collapse or absence of government makes conditions intolerable for the average person.
Applies to our borders as well, IMO.
Carolyn
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)
Seems pretty clear that's what we're coming to...
Successful self-defense efforts like this are probably one of the big reasons a nation-wide gun-control initiative was voted down in Brazil a couple of years ago.
American anti-gun groups pumped millions into the campaign on behalf of their Brazilian socialist counterparts and were astonished that the common folk of the country didn’t buy it.
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