What’s behind the new cop power
We jump into a discussion about what it takes to control a society….
Kaa Byington wrote:
> [ ]
> Life used to be a little less complicated–there were peasants and lords
I suspect that life is always the same. Even cloning can’t alter it.
The key might be that where there’s goodwill a code with ten rules
can handle any situation. Where there’s illwill, a million laws won’t
stem the tide.
> Perhaps because the alternative is worse. Laws and a judge of some kind
> (king, head man, priest, eldest and wisest) to decide who was right in a
What I *hate* about modern accountability theory is the aspect of
“our hands are tied, a rule’s a rule”. Accountability is fine. It’s the new
ROBOT aspect that causes all the trouble. The *entire* concept behind human
judges and juries is to decide how and if to apply a law.
Unscientific human judgment is needed, not further rules. If a culture demonstrates
that it has no appreciation for judgment, nothing can help it.
> Islamic law developed because the first Muslims were desert nomads, They
> were unable to cart a prison around with them, so they cut off the hand
> of a thief and cut out the tongue of a liar. That’s one alternative to
> prisons. What is informal ostracization? How might that work as a
> practical matter.
There were/are all levels of punishment. Mutilation meant payment in full.
I suspect that people let a one-handed person do as best he could after
that and didn’t hold a grudge. Our modern grudges will *ruin a life totally*
in the blink of an eye for anything that either a lawsuit or even law *case*
or felony might apply. In a small town (anywhere) ostracism means that if a guy
is bad (court or no), people won’t have anything to do with him. Depending
on his badness. If he’s too bad, they’ll appeal to someone with the needed
force. In old days this was always a judgment call. Now you just get in line
for the process. (Note: Europe still has about zero mobility, low serious crime.
The ability to move to new turf when you’re bad, let’s you keep being bad. That’s
what’s wrecked informal accountability in America. As Europe gets mobility,
bureaucracy or not, crime will increase.)
> Do you really think that those official paid firemen who got up on a
> flaming roof that was going to cave in any minute were just “showing up
> for work, not creating liability, and sucking up?”
The gung ho quality often seems to equally apply to whether they’re
doing impt work or whether they’re hassling innocents. The new
steroid cops seem to be on hair trigger. Sad. By taking power AWAY
from them you’d de-pressurize their jobs and they could relax and
be more human. They could still feel free to save old ladies! Around
here the same 20 guys would show up and stomp your little leaf pile fire
if you didn’t have a permit and gladly chalk up 50 billable hours at $100
per to the town, $200 fine to you. They’d also gladly pick a fist fight with
you if you objected. No modern firefighter would say “It’s just a leaf pile
and the guy’s there watching it? Leave him alone. It’s a waste of time.”
I’m not saying they can’t do good work or not. I’m saying ‘cross your fingers’.
Don’t *count* on the process. But it’s nice when it works! You don’t
think job/salaries and bureaucracy are the bigger forces at play in the end?
My girl cousin got a cop job coz of the pay. She’s not stupid (like me,
in free enterprise) and now she’s SWAT, too! (Hey, back to the subject
line!!!) Extra pay for every run, so why not? She doesn’t question what
they do one bit. Just collects the check. Like any prison guard at Dachau.
In our ever-more-wealthy rural home area, there are now 3 new DELUXE
fire stations. There’s a couple actual house fires a year, max. There are ever
more cops in brand new cars—full union workers with more security, job-expenses
(a $40K cop costs $50K with benefits, $100K including all support) and income
than MOST of their erstwhile employers (taxpayers). One murder every ten
years, hardly a single serious crime.
Aggressive, well-armored, zero-tolerance…traffic control. (“That was 38 in a
35 zone, maam.”) If they even do that. I think they go to seminars mostly.
Sensitivity training. There’s 2 $40K bike patrols now for the country roads!
They just go out riding! I think our area is a stepping stone for urban posts.
We actually have no ‘town’ per se! We had one bold armed robbery in the
last five years a month ago. A block from the cop shop. They got the call
while in progress. There was no contest (no road block either).
The local cornball news didn’t even bother asking the cops what they did to
try to catch them. I hope they felt the pain of the omission.
Some township folk (we don’t even have a town!) got a big fed up with
the idea of $millions a year for no fire and millions for no crime (but we
had to have that many cops to keep up with per capita rates!…or so
our lawyers and consultants advised) so they pulled a fast one.
They combined firemen with EMT. Cut 20 jobs or so
and gave the firemen more training. All the union forces went ape bonkers!!
They eventually got the council all replaced. Of course with so much gov’t,
when you cut it, you hurt lots of people and their pals. Why, they’d have to
get real jobs! They squawked, a little about safety per capita, but hardly
a peep about actually incident history. (We’re a quiet area where nothing
happens, more nothing than usual! but does safety pay? no! it costs!)
