"They are the tip of the spear of government..."

In the Ace of Spades blog, CBD writes in part,

Yes. We have a policing problem in this country. But contrary to the anarcho-fascists running wild in our streets (and the halls of academia, and lots of city halls...but I digress), it isn't a race problem. It is a government problem.

Our governments, in our names but without our explicit approval, have given law enforcement in this country far too much power over us. From confiscatory civil forfeiture laws to ridiculous speeding fines to $85 parking tickets to byzantine laws of every flavor; if the cops want to charge you with something that will cost you money and often your freedom, and sometimes your life, they can. Because that parking ticket can easily turn into hundreds of dollars, and then a failure-to-appear means a warrant, and a warrant may result in an arrest with guns drawn.

And with that ever-growing power has come ever-growing firepower, in the form of military hardware that should never be on American streets operated by civilian law enforcement. Heavy weapons, armored vehicles and the tactics with which to use them belong on the battlefield, not Main Street. As the police became ersatz soldiers, they began to see us as the enemy, not as their fellow Americans. They left their walking beats and climbed into patrol cars, which further insulated them from the concept that they were supposed to be policing their neighbors, and should treat them as they would wish to be treated.

Combine this with the heavy-handed behavior of our national police forces (the ATF and the FBI), and we have a perfect storm that has alienated some of law-enforcement's most ardent supporters...conservatives!

Read the whole thing here.

"What a concept. Enforce the law!"

Ace of Spades co-blogger CBD writes in part,

Ah...homelessness! it rears its ugly head during every Republican administration, then scurries off to the back closet when Democrats hold the White House. But two or three generations of idiots in power in California have created the perfect storm of drug addicts and drunks and bums on their streets, and they can't ignore it any longer.

...The first and most obvious step is to return to the rule of law. Rudy Giuliani did exactly that in the 1990s in NYC, and he was fabulously successful. But that meant that shoplifting and shaking down drivers with squeegees and hopping subway turnstiles and a host of petty crimes got prosecuted vigorously.

What a concept! Enforce the law, and good things come of it.

And the converse is being demonstrated as we speak on those very same streets of NYC. De Blasio has carefully destroyed what Giuliani wrought, and the results are in...crime is up, surprising nobody except the true believers.

Short of creating a nation-wide system of drug rehabilitation centers, funded by the federal government, and federal law that will allow involuntary commitment, which will guarantee another vast, expensive, dysfunctional federal bureaucracy that fails to deliver on its goals, what else can be done besides simply enforcing the law?

Read more here.

Bad words versus bad deeds

Thomas Sowell asks,

Are women more in danger from Trump's words or Hillary's actions?

Trump's talk is indefensible. But Hillary Clinton's actions as Secretary of State, carrying out the Obama administration's foreign policies, have cost many lives in many places, including the American ambassador and others killed in Benghazi.

Women have a right to be offended by Trump's words. But women have suffered a far worse fate from Secretary Clinton's and President Obama's actions. Pulling American troops out of Iraq, despite military advice to the contrary, led to the sudden rise of ISIS and their seizing of many women and young girls as sex slaves.

Mrs. Clinton's own announced agenda attacks the very foundation of American Constitutional government, on which Americans' own freedom depends. She has already said that she will appoint Supreme Court justices who will specifically overturn a recent Supreme Court decision, "Citizens United versus FEC."

That decision said that both corporations and labor unions have freedom of speech, including the right to contribute money toward political campaigns.

Hillary Clinton's determination to pick judicial appointees on the basis of their willingness to overturn that decision is a more brazen extension of the political left's other attempts to stifle the free speech of those who oppose their agenda.

Demands that various advocacy organizations reveal the names of all their donors are an obvious attempt to scare off those donors, with harassment by everyone from vandals to rioters to the Internal Revenue Service and other government bureaucrats.

Without the right to free speech, none of the other rights is safe. Government officials can get away with all sorts of abuses, if others are not free to talk about those abuses.

Despite Hillary Clinton's claims to be a champion for black people, her political agenda threatens the education of black children, the employment of black adults and the physical safety of black communities.

Read more here.

"You'd be in jail!"

Protecting and serving

Ambulance Driver writes about the murder of Louisiana State Patrol Trooper Steven Vincent.

Now imagine that (adreniline) rush every single traffic stop, with the knowledge that the moment that rush starts to fade, the moment you let your guard down and your senses dull, might be the moment someone decides to kill you.

Your choices are to never let your guard down and see the job that you loved turn into the onerous task that eats away your soul, or you can reconcile the risk and continue to believe that most people are fundamentally good, and perhaps lose your life at the hands of someone you were trying to help, like Steven Vincent did.

And for those of you who shake your heads and wonder, “What is the world coming to?” I’ll point you to Fred Rogers’ wise words made for times and tragedies like these:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

Thus it has always been, and thus I suspect it always shall be.

A handful of motorists subdued Steven Vincent’s killer, rendered aid to Steven, and handcuffed the man with Steven’s own handcuffs. God willing, he’ll go to jail wearing those cuffs, and be wearing them when he is marched to whatever final punishment a jury deems appropriate.

For every maniac who just wants to see the world burn, twenty more helpers will show up to put out the flames, and offer assistance and succor to the wounded.

Most people are still fundamentally good and decent at heart, and many of the best of them wear badges.

I’m damned proud to know them.

Read more here.

Donald Trump walks the streets of Laredo

What is the legacy of Ferguson?

Victor Davis Hanson asks, in the wake of Ferguson,

Will some law enforcement officials now surmise that it is wiser to ignore some crimes in the inner city on the practicable logic that the denouement for the officer will likely be negative — either by stopping the assailant through force or not stopping the assault and thus being assaulted? If the suspect is unarmed but attacks, the post-Ferguson choice will either be to suffer physical harm or to respond in ways that may equate with the end of a career.

Just as the ethics reformer in the White House has left a legacy of unprecedented presidential scandal, so too the racial healer has presided over the greatest erosion in racial relations in the last half-century. That is the lesson of Ferguson — and the Fergusons to come — and the backlash outrages to the Fergusons to come — and on and on and on.

Read more here.

Sheriff Clarke calls out Eric Holder

Sheriff Clarke is a Democrat!

Thanks to Gerard Vanderleun

Senator Sessions talks about reality

"It's a deliberate plan by the President of the United States, and it's wrong."

Would you obey an immoral order?

Have you heard of Josie the Outlaw? I had not, until visiting Gerard Vanderleun's American Digest this morning. Josie has some questions and advice for police.

Will you say "I don't create the law, I just enforce it"?

Can you be held personally responsible for your actions?

Will you be an obedient pawn of those in power?

Always, in every situation, you, and you alone, are responsible for what you do.