Subtle Rantings

This is a post by guest author “Subnet”. This post has been edited somewhat to change the language and fix some obvious typos and such.

Stop asking the police to fix things. I’m serious.

“When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”

I’ve come to the realization that we’ve really fu***d up. I was reading the thread about the women in Stark county that were forcibly stripped naked, and I realized this is our fault. We keep asking the police and the government to solve our problems, and the fact is…they can’t. They shouldn’t. They’re ill equipped to do it. Every single time a statistically rare incident occurs, we scream “Do something! Fix this!”. And they eventually do, except it tends to create new problems. And when these new problems surface, what do we do? We blame them again, and scream “Fix this!”. And so it goes.

A woman hints that maybe she’d like to off herself, after she’s taken into custody. The subtle hints are dismissed or ignored. She eventually uses her clothes to hang herself. What do we do? We scream “FIX THIS! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!!”. We cheer loudly when the police department is sued, for not protecting someone in their custody. In response to this “problem”, the police reaction is predictable – “We will carefully evaluate your mental state, as best we can. If you so much as HINT or even JOKE about harming yourself…screw it. We’re not taking any chances. You’ll be wearing a paper suit, whether you like it or not”. Well eventually, this means a few women get forcibly stripped against their will (for their own safety…remember, we’re asking the police to solve a problem), and the result? Videos of women screaming as their clothes are being torn off. And our response? “FIX THIS!” Ugh.

We all hate drunk drivers. Every single time a drunk kills an innocent person, we scream for blood. We demand that the police fix this. Over the years, how have they (the government) attempted to do this? By forcing you to accept breath and blood tests, as a condition of having a driver’s license. By setting up road blocks to catch drunks (and anything else that happens to crop up, since they’ve got your attention). By lowering the BAC limit to catch even more. By following you on the way home from the bar. By making it illegal to operate while intoxicated on private property. By withholding federal highway dollars if you don’t enact certain laws. By making it illegal to drive stone cold sober with an open beer in the car. By making it illegal for a passenger to drink, even while the driver hasn’t had a drop.

Don’t like any of this? Tough. You keep asking for it. With each story of a drunk driver killing an innocent person, you keep asking the government to do MORE. MORE. MORE. I’ve got news for you – ~16,000 people a year die in alcohol related motor vehicle crashes. Statistically, this is pretty insignificant. My favorite aunt was killed by a drunk driver running from the cops, while her children watched from the living room window, so spare me your personal stories. And there is only ONE way this number is going to go down – the further erosion of your liberty. I’m telling you as sure as I’m sitting here, the government can nearly eliminate DUI deaths, but you’re not going to like what they’ll have to do to make it happen. You’d have to shred the Constitution to pull it off. Your call.

We all hate what drugs do to the people around them. And again, over the years, we’ve DEMANDED that government fix this. And they’re ordering the police to “do something” to appease the never ending cry to eliminate drugs in this country. When you get pulled over and the officer is asking to search your car, do you know what he’s looking for? Contraband. Drugs that shouldn’t be illegal in the first place, and guns that shouldn’t be illegal in the first place. When you’ve got a LOT of cash on you, and you’re asked to prove where you got it, do you know why? It’s because you’re suspected of selling drugs. When you’re sitting there refusing to allow your car to be searched, and you’re waiting until the K9 shows up, do you know why? Drugs. Do you think they’re looking for a stolen toaster?

Do you know why doors are kicked down, with no announcement made? Drugs. Do you know why virtually EVERY new exception and interpretation of the 4th amendment came about, by necessity? Drugs. Do you know why the police seem inclined to search a home, based on the shaky word of an anonymous letter? Drugs. Do you know why ghetto gobblins shoot each other up over financial disagreements, causing people to call for the further restriction of your gun rights? Drugs. Do you know why asset forfeiture laws have become so liberalized? Drugs. Do you know why you have to sign a piece of paper to get fucking cough medicine? Drugs.

The courts are CONSTANTLY having to redefine the original intent of the Constitution, and they’re doing this out of necessity. We keep asking them to, and we’re getting what we’ve asked for. It is a fact that you cannot be free, while at the same time not allowing *some* people to be free to do things that piss you off. It is a fact that you can not interpret the Constitution strictly with religious fervor, and ask that the government solve the drug problem – or most any problem. The two are completely incompatible. If your freedoms are “kind of” eroded, then the drug problem will be “kind of” fixed. There are very simple ways to completely (or close to it) eliminate drugs in this country, but it is absolutely impossible to do this, and allow the citizenry to live in any way that even remotely resembles freedom.

Decide how much freedom you think you can part with, in exchange for safety. Because you can not have liberal amounts of both. At some point, you’re going to have to declare that you and your family are “safe enough”. You’re going to have to decide how much risk is permissible. But know this – if your answer is “not safe enough yet”, and you ask the government to “fix this”, I promise you they WILL, and I’m reasonably certain you won’t like the results.

You made your bed, now lie in it. Or, hear my plea – STOP asking the government to solve what you perceive to be wrongs in society. Because they just might do just that.

I can absolutely guarantee the safety and security of a slave. The only person who would be able to harm him…is me.

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