"The police aren't there to protect people from criminals, but criminals (and presumably merely suspected criminals) from vigilantes."
I don't think so. There's a foolish line from the song's lyrics "When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune And we'll all meet back at the local saloon." Some vigilantes never came home.
The issue is unfortunately quite relevant in certain of our cities where it looks, from where I sit, as a power struggle in the Democratic/Progressive parties is playing out with street thugs, and police are ordered to stand down. Some of the brownshirts have have marched into residential areas. I've read this story before, and it doesn't turn out well.
I've not made a systematic study, but what I've read of history is full of situations where a tiny violent group cowed a larger one--even when the larger one was also armed at some level. Just being armed is only part of the story--being confident in your arms and being ready to go first is the rest. If antifa's brownshirts decided to march down our block, I don't know how many of my neighbors would be standing guard outside their homes. I suspect very few. (I know several who'd call the cops and trust that the cops would magically do the job.) The risks of standing out are high--you get to be the target of deniably lethal attacks (they're just throwing stones...), the enemy makes a note of your address, and there's a non-trivial chance that when the police do arrest somebody they'll go for the easy stationary target, the one with a home to lose. And if your face gets on the national news, you'll get lots of death threats, some of them serious, maybe lose your job--lots of downsides. And, maybe somebody else will do the defense for you, so hiding inside is probably fine.
A march through your home streets is literally a threat close to home. Defending it isn't like asking you to counter-protest somewhere else.
I know a few men who'd not think twice about standing in front of their homes, even alone--disciplined sorts, too, just not living in my neighborhood. I gather from the news that they exist elsewhere too. But I wonder how many there are who are ready to be first. Would I be? It's easy to kid yourself. I know it would take a lot to get me to join a countermarch somewhere else. Ditto for the guys I mentioned, so I'm in good company there.
3 comments:
If you grow up thinking that the police will come if there's a problem, and people who take matters into their own hands are a problem themselves, then you tend to keep thinking that, even when the situation changes.
While the rhetoric of some of the people willing to take matters into their own hands is sometimes a little alarming, you will notice that it is not actually happening. We are not getting news reports of vigilantes going out and striking back. It is so rare that a middle-aged couple who stood in front of their home waving guns at the thugs who had broken into their community became national news. If those muttering about defense were actually doing dangerous things, that couple would never have been noticed.
It fits my picture that conservatives are essentially defensive, while liberals are much more likely to go on offense. Usually they restrict their targets to objects. But that is changing, and note: there is already a long history of following through with dangerous object violence at protests.
I last fired a .22 at summer camp in 1962, but I am wondering whether I should purchase a firearm and get training.
You have a broken HTML tag.
Whether you need one or not is a judgment call, and depends on what risks or opportunities you see. (I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever succeed in bagging a deer.). Game it out: will you be able to actually take the time to go duck hunting or will family obligations intervene; what are the chances that someone will attack your workplace, etc. (I figured my erstwhile workplace was at greater risk than average, but that there were more tempting targets very close by--like the state capitol building.)
But target shooting is fun anyway.
K: Thanks for the warning: I'd put down the wrong closing tag, and for some reason preview doesn't work right on this machine.
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