Videos of citizen abuse at the hands of the police are everywhere. --- America must start conducting way more psychological evaluations and criminal investigations of policemen.
On Friday, July 8, 2016 at 7:07:52 AM UTC-5, MJ wrote: > > > > > *"Every law and regulation, no matter how small, is ultimately enforced by > the threat of violence on the part of public authority. Laws are not > “nudges”; they are mandates enforced by the legal use of coercion against > person and property. " *Sunday, June 07, 2015 > > *What Bastiat Had to Say about Police Abuse *Jeffrey A. Tucker > > When it comes to being employed by the government, membership has its > privileges. How far do these privileges extend? It’s a question that is > central to political philosophy. It is most poignantly addressed by one of > my favorite pieces of writing, Frédéric Bastiat’s > <http://fee.org/resources/detail/the-law-3>*The Law* > <http://fee.org/resources/detail/the-law-3> (1850). > > The same question is being debated on the streets in every US city today. > Videos of citizen abuse at the hands of the police are everywhere. It seems > the cops have been empowered to do to us what we would never be allowed to > do to each other. Some cases have made it to grand juries and trial juries. > People are asking pointed questions regarding the relationship between the > state and its citizens. > > From the mainstream media to the courts, disagreement usually revolves > around questions of the motivation, the character, and the behavior of > police officers. Are they following the regulations? Abusing their > authority? Motivated at some level by racism? Some would like to confront > the related question: What level of citizen noncompliance justly prompts > the police to use extreme force? > > But there’s a question everyone wants to avoid here: > > *Are the laws themselves just? *Many of the most famous beatings and > killings at the hands of the police began with small infractions such a > selling contraband cigarettes, evading criminal prosecution for the failure > to pay child support, carrying knives, or small-time dealing of illegal > substances. Then there are the many cases of asset forfeiture > <http://fee.org/freeman/detail/asset-forfeiture-run-amok>that never make > it to YouTube, ongoing acts of plunder that aren’t flashy enough to inspire > mass protests. > > If the debate stays centered on police actions alone, we will never reach > the core issue. > > What is the law and what should it be? > > These are the bigger questions that are not yet part of public > consciousness. Every law and regulation, no matter how small, is ultimately > enforced by the threat of violence on the part of public authority. Laws > are not “nudges”; they are mandates enforced by the legal use of coercion > against person and property. > > Bastiat tried to get people to think hard about what was happening and how > the law had become an instrument of plunder and violence, rather than a > protector of property and peace. If the law itself is not just, the result > is social division and widespread discontent. The relationship between the > rulers and the ruled becomes distorted, and a sense of systemic injustice > pervades the culture. Bastiat observed this in horror in his time, and it’s > a good description of our own: > > The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the > unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and > property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to > protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order > to punish lawful defense. > > Further, and most poignantly in our time: “Sometimes the law places the > whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of > the plunderers, and treats the victim when he defends himself as a > criminal.” > > Indeed. > > Whether this happens at a traffic stop, at the arbitrary hands of an angry > cop, or due to a tax or regulation passed by a legislature doesn’t change > the nature of what is happening. > > Bastiat’s essay asks fundamental questions that most people go through > life never having thought about. The problem is that most people accept the > law as a given, a fundamental fact of life. > > As a member of society, you obey or face the consequences. It is not safe > to question why. This is because the enforcement arm of the law is the > state, that peculiar agency with a unique power to use legal force against > life and property. The state says what the law is however this decision > was made and that settles it. > > Bastiat could not accept this. He wanted to know what the law is, *apart > from what the state says it is*. He saw that the purpose of law is, most > fundamentally, to protect private property and life against invasion, or at > least to ensure that justice is done in cases in which such invasions do > take place. > > This is hardly a unique idea; it is a summary of what philosophers, > jurists, and theologians have thought in most times and places. It’s what > most of us think, intuitively, that the law should be about. What makes > Bastiat different is that he takes that next step, the one that opens the > reader’s eyes as nothing else does. He subjects the state itself to the > test of whether it complies with that idea of law. > > He takes notice, even from the first paragraph, of the corruption that > ensues when the state turns out to be a lawbreaker in the name of law > keeping: the state does the very thing that law is supposed to prevent. > Instead of protecting private property, it invades it. Instead of > protecting life, it destroys it. Instead of guarding liberty, it violates > it. And as the state advances and grows, it does these things ever more, > until it threatens the well-being of society. > > Even more tellingly, Bastiat observes that when you subject the state to > the same standards that the law uses to judge relations between > individuals, the state fails. He concludes that when this is the case, the > law has been perverted in the hands of the governing elites. It is employed > to do the very thing that the law is designed to prevent. The enforcer > turns out to be the main violator of its own standards. > > The law, wrote Bastiat, is supposed to protect property and person from > arbitrary attack. When the law becomes a tool for providing legal cover for > such attacks, as it has from Bastiat’s time to our own, its whole purpose > has been turned upside down and inside out. > > What Bastiat was seeking, as the embodiment of justice, was a consistent > ethic of public life. The law should be the same for everyone. We should > all obey the same rules. Neither the state nor any of its functionaries can > be exempt from the rules they purport to enforce. > > We cannot permit the state to judge itself by a different standard. > Indeed, when Marilyn Mosby, Maryland’s state attorney, announced that the > she was prosecuting the cops who beat and killed Freddie Gray, she struck a > chord that resonated far and wide. She might be a left-liberal Democrat, > and she might not share libertarian values across the board, but when she > said, “no one is above the law,” she was echoing Bastiat and the entire > liberal <http://fee.org/freeman/detail/take-back-the-word-liberal> > tradition. > > What are the social consequences of having a different sets of laws, one > for state agents and one for everyone else? Bastiat believed that the > result is lawlessness: > > As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true > purpose that it may violate property instead of protecting it then > everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect > himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. > > In this case, the law becomes a perpetual source of hatred and discord. It > even “tends to destroy society itself.” Whether this destruction takes > place in the controlled environment of a legislature, the routine quietude > of the bureaucracy, or on the streets through looting does not change the > essentials of what is happening. > > What does this say about abuse at the hands of the police? According to > Bastiat’s standard, the law should regard such abuse as the violation of > another’s rights. Period. > > The passion, the fire, the relentless logic of Bastiat’s monograph have > the power to shake up any reader. Nothing is the same after you read *The > Law*. That is why this essay is rightly famous. It is capable of shaking > up whole systems of government and whole societies a beautiful > illustration of the pen’s power. > > It is a habit of every generation to underestimate the importance and > power of ideas. Yet the whole world that we live in is built by them. > Nothing outside pure nature exists in this world that did not begin as an > idea held by human beings. That’s why an essay like Bastiat's is so > powerful and important. It helps you see the injustices that surround us, > which we are otherwise inclined to ignore. And it helps provide the > response to them. > > Seeing and explaining are the first steps to changing. > > https://fee.org/articles/what-bastiat-had-to-say-about-police-abuse/ > -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. 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