BS-
I have repeatedly observed case after case of lawlessness descend swiftly wherever there was a gap in enforcement. It's just human nature.
Ya, I remember the big hurricane which hit New Orleans...The cops were the first ones to take off...Some were even found looting.
Standing police forces are actually a relatively new invention in Western society, and really aren’t that necessary. Most of us “obey” the law most of the time not because of the threat of getting caught (because odds are you won’t) but because doing things the illegal way is usually more work and people are inherently lazy. Legal purchases are so much lower in stress and effort, the folks who turn to crime most of the time are just messed up in the heads (or they’re violating dumb laws nobody respects), and they actually tend to get caught by the regular people or their own stupidity more than the cops. Cops are there to look good, and to bring revenue, they do not make society safer, and that’s not their job, which is good because they’re not actually good at it.
Most of the country is in a “gap of enforcement” most of the time, think about it how often do the cops actually come to your neighborhood? If you live in a nice neighborhood that answer is “almost never”, if your answer is “frequently” then you probably live in a crappy neighborhood. See the better neighborhoods ARE a gap in enforcement, they’re the neighborhoods where the people take care of each other and the cops aren’t “needed”; and the neighborhoods where the cops go all the time they don’t actually help, they’re still high crime neighborhoods because the people don’t help each other.
What does that mean?
I was in the great exodus of hurricane Floyd, and that was orderly, polite, and effective with minimal contact by law enforcement.
Feelings are hard to debate.
However, just for posterity's sake- Communities with practically no law enforcement in many places are clean and safe, while others where you have law enforcement on every street corner and camera's everywhere, are unsafe. May it be when comparing nations, rural to urban, or even within the urban area's, the real cause and indicators are the culture (or lack thereof) of the people present within these areas. Your logic is the same reasoning that makes some think that less guns equates to less crime. Your argument is simply more cops equals less crime. Simple answers that don't address the real cause nor fix anything. If you want to see this in action: look at the vast waves of rape, robberies and murder in New Orleans and compare that to Fukushima where after an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear melt down you had a distinct lack of crime or even disorder and chaos. In Alaska, where I lived for many years, there are small towns with little to no law enforcement, yet there is practically no crime, how can that be? Cops simply temporarily keep a boot on the neck of savages, but they don't fix the problems causing this decay nor will they be there in disaster when they are confronted with their own families survival (Hence New Orleans). The rise of secularism and moral relativism, lack of cultural and national identity, lack of positive role models, broken families, lack of true accountability need addressed and police isn't going to do that.
Just like a cop isn't going to fix it, a government hand out is ineffective at really fixing the cultural issues that underlie. But back to the point. Cops in America are glorified meter-maids with an attitude, they have a presumption of guilt and use no discretion when enforcing the law. Under every joke, stereotype or cliche there is usually a thread of truth woven in that most people can identify with, otherwise it wouldn't be funny. US Cops have rightly earned that image.
Where were these incidents and what were the circumstances?