Cops Don’t Make Me Feel Safe

Hi Walker,

Thanks for your input!

I find myself in a very strange position: I hate scumbag criminals (an oxymoron, I know) and so my natural instinct is to support peace officers. The problem, as you say, is that we don’t have peace officers anymore.

Non-criminals are now a major target of “law enforcement.” That is, people who in better times would have no (or few) dealings with the police … because they weren’t criminals. Mostly, the only people who had to sweat the cops were criminals – i.e., thieves, crooks, people who attacked other people – and so on.

That’s all changed – and it sucks all around.

We actually have some decent cops left where I live. But they seem to be increasingly rare. Do you think it’s the new training or just corruption?

Do they become corrupted and then only hire others that are the same as them? I kind of get that, why would they want to be surrouded by peace keepers when they are thugs?

When I was a kid it was so different. Cops were actually kind of cool. My wife who is actually more anti-government than me, if that is possible, says that when she was a little girl the local cop that walked the beat was always a nice guy.

What the hell happened? Was it the war on some drugs? Is it fear? Honestly what the hell happened?

This is an ongoing story and really a strange one. It’s one thing to fight back, but it’s another thing to beat up a cop steal his gun and car. I think this guy is toast. Actually he better not come knocking on my door. An 870 pump isn’t something you can just walk through. And what the hell are they going to do? If you were still a cop, what would you do? I think it would have to be center mass.

http://www.9and10news.com/story/18572621/developing-news

And yet.

There he sits; just “doing his job”.

And with every little action like that, the hell-hole gets deeper. What a god-damned hypocrite he is.

TOG don’t let yourself think “eh, he’s a nice enough guy.” No. He’s an evil little troll bereft of principle.

I used to have fun warning tourists that the beach in Monterey wasn’t clothing optional. It was a thousand dollar fine just for going topless. So I saved the ladies a thousand bucks and got to check out their ta ta’s.

I actually only bothered to warn them when I would see the police coming around.

Another good one was in Santa Cruz, they made it illegal to feed the parking meters for anyone but yourself. Someone, I think it was a woman was putting money in the meters when people had run out of time. Of course this was costing the tax feeders money, so they were having none of that.

What if pigs could fly?

It’s just a tax. I made for decades with no insurance, but now they have plate readers and software that flags fictitious registration, whatever means.
I know a guy that has “runners” who can smog vehicles, get tabs and many other official things without my involvement, but I knuckled under after about the third time explaining I was from out of state and all that cal to the grinning monkeys waiting to rip my face off, once they get the radio response from the Organ Grinders at HQ.
Even Ted Nugent wouldn’t qualify for self-insurance in Michigan. It’s only like 20/40/10 meaning 20k a person and 40k max for people and 10k max for property. Nugent’s worth over 10 million but he better have the 50k in special Mr. Monopoly’s money or he’ll find himself in a hell of a shitstorm.
I’d like to see data on premiums collected versus payouts, I’m sure it’s 100 to 1 or worse.

On a slightly different vein, but which still amounts to the State of “Californicate” inventing new ways to plunder the pocketbooks of its residents and others unlucky enough to be snared: I have a diesel-sipping “vee-hikkel” (1995 Mercedes E300 with the 3.0 inline six) which is three model years too older to require biannual smog inspections. On the “nooer” ones, I guess that diesel cars and light trucks are causing the skies of the great state of “Californicate” (thank you, RedHotChiliPeppers, for causing me to dream of “Californication”) to fill up with soot not unlike the rooftops of jolly ol’ London in Mary Poppins, eh? Can’t we just send Bert to “chim-chim-men-nee” sweep the skies of the Golden State clean? Anyway, the solution for CA DMV is to impose a “smog abatement” fee, explaining that it’s a surcharge levied on vehicles that are by their nature EXEMPTED from the biannual smog inspections. Their justification for this petty larceny ($94) is that the monies raised go for the buying up of “gross polluters” because they be “po folks” that “cain’ts ‘fford to pay to fix they vehikkels that be pollutin'”, (no, gotta prioritize, as the fictional Senator Jay Billington Bullworth said in ‘Bullworth’, the malt liquor and chicken wings). So my fees are doubled since I’m otherwise exempt from this smog crap. Never mind that there’s no agreement from climatologists, industrial hygienists, physicians, and related disciplines as to the actual public health danger of diesel exhaust! The soot that we often see when a diesel plant is laboring (or it’s just tired) is little more than very finely powdered charcoal (soot!). Since they operate under conditions of excess air (go back to your basic thermo classes and stoichiometry), by definition under normal operating conditions diesel exhaust is very clean. The worst that needs to be dealt with is some NOx and diesels don’t lose as much power as a comparable gasoline plant from an EGR system.
My guess is that some bean-counter figured out that there’s a sizeable enough community of diesel die-hards like myself that getting this fee through the state legislature, then programming the DMV computers to sort out the applicable vehicles and levy the fee(s) was well worth it.
If they figure out how to tax a sunny day, we’re even more fucked.

I may end up coughing forth a rant on this subject!

I’m unfortunate enough to be with you Mr. Amine. For years I thought about it, for a few more years I talked about it. Now I’m taking my wife and mother on a trip we may never come back from.

May you live in interesting times.

Je mehr desto besser! (The sooner the better).

Frank Chodorov (and Leonard Read) saw what was coming 75 years ago. We’re almost there now.

Chris, it’s comments like yours that keep me coming back to this site (no offense Eric, I like your stuff too). I’d never heard of Frank (Fishel) Chodorov or the “Old Right” until today. Thanks.

Density is a factor in my experience, too. In part because in a low density areas, you stand less chance of having to deal with them at all. And if you do, as you say, they tend to be less obnoxious. I think it’s because low density areas tend to have elected sheriffs rather than appointed police chiefs. It imposes at least some accountability.

Nonetheless, I agree with you that we’re rapidly approaching the shit or get off the pot moment. Either enough of us will decide – that’s it, I’m not talking it anymore – or all of us will live in a continental gulag.

“starting from those with nothing to lose”

I think this is an accurate prediction of how its going to go down. It will start with those who have nothing to lose. As social analysts looking for the “tipping point”, we’d be well advised to consider this observation well; it has immense predictive capacity.

Damn. I hope he comes back as a three legged dog in Bangledesh. Let him get beat and kicked and have to eat out of garbage cans.

Hey Brad, I was in the Navy in Panama – Galeta Island – from 85-87.

I remember what you’re talking about too. I’d go running late at night before a midnight shift and the MP’s would come give me shit about running so late. I remember that feeling of: just leave me the fuck alone! Just always sticking their nose in other people’s business because they could.

Here’s a keeper.

“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
― H.L. Mencken

I’ve had bad times in my life when I envied happy people but I never wanted to spoil their happiness.

I also fear the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

I oppose any infringement of any individual’s rights for any reason other than that specific individual having committed some specific, objectively real harm – or given reason to suspect he may be about to.

Period.

This whole business of treating responsible adults like irresponsible children because some adults (always a small minority) behave like irresponsible children is one of the the fundamental tyrannies of our time.

And once you’ve accepted the premise – that some “greater good” justifies trampling on the rights of people who have harmed no one because someone might (might!) harm someone (in the abstract, not even a real person) – then you have opened the door to absolute despotism.

And we’re already there, almost.

You know – you’re a pilot. Thanks to the TSA, I have not flown and will not fly again until I can board an airplane without being treated like an incoming felony convict by a gloved goon.

Hi Rick,

DWI testing should only be done if a specific individual gives reason to suspect he may be drunk. That I (and I’m sure most of the others here) have no problem with. What I – and others here – do have a problem with is stopping people at random without even the pretext that they appear to be intoxicated.

That’s the difference – and it’s a very important one.

Absolutely.

These days, you’d probably be cited for “reckless driving” and a whole roster of other things. The vehicle impounded – etc. Hundreds, if not thousands of dollars later, you might get your GMC back.

Check out this specimen:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/nypd-sergeant-lesly-charles-tirade-cop_n_1533840.html

Hi LC,

I am guessing you live in a very rural area or very small town – as I do. Yes, the situation is better in areas where there’s an elected sheriff vs. a police force. Nonetheless, even in the small town scenario, we still have “safety” checks – and the cops enforce all the idiotic/tyrannical laws passed by the state and federal government.

Th essential problem here is the laws. The cops are just a mechanism. If laws are legitimate – and cops are not legally empowered to abuse people – then cops will be less abusive. If laws are illegitimate, and cops empowered to abuse people’s rights, well, the result will be abusive cops.

L C you are lucky buddy, I have friends who when went to the station to file a complaint against an officer have then been asked “why”, “are you sure you want to do that/” and then frisked and searched. It is all about intimidation.
the solution is getting rid of the laws, then there is no reason for them to do anything. and if they aren’t imposing hteir will on others then the type of people who gravitate to those positions won’t end up there.

here is one of the more appauling instance of “law enforcement”
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=39610

My commute to work consists of seven towns spread across two counties. My commute is nine miles. That’s nine different police forces excluding the state cops which makes ten.

Theoretically I can have an electoral effect on three. (one town, one county, and state) Practically speaking I can have an effect on one, the town I live in. Even though I’ve had problems with them I believe it’s the only town that doesn’t have red light cameras of the seven. There is absolutely nothing I can do with regards to the others electorally. Only withhold my commerce from them.

Your local cops, sheriff, and mayor do not work for you. They are mandated and enfranchised from a top down pyramidal cabal with top capitanos installed in D.C., U.N., and NATO. They are wholly unlike salty snack manufacturers, talent show producers, and couch assemblers, who must earn your dollar in some fashion.

They are a type of feudal Duke or Earl, permitted a certain station and latitude for violence within their assigned enclosure sector.

All actions defined as criminal in a free society are actions involving force—and only such actions are answered by force.
Being that prisons are filled twice to capacity with only 8% violent offenders, one must conclude that we are not a free society in regards to the rule of law. You should concede that the voting gimmick is rendered moot and meaningless, and only a dog and pony petting zoo diversion.

Most are easily misled by sloppy expressions such as “A murderer commits a crime against society.” This is completely wrong. It is not society that a murderer murders, but an individual man. It is not a social right that he breaks, but an individual right. He is not punished for hurting a collective—he has not hurt a whole collective—he has hurt one man.

Even if a criminal robs ten men—it is still not “society” that he has robbed, but ten individuals. There are no “crimes against society”—all crimes are committed against specific men, against individuals. And it is precisely the duty of a proper social system and of a proper government to protect an individual against criminal attack—against force.

When all manner of extravagances of devices and offices are placed on the back of the working man, what else is this but tyranny?

To say anything other than these unwanted sheriffs and mayors are paid in funds forcibly extracted from unwilling victims is to be a liar and a bleating Orwellian farm animal of the worst sort.

Free people don’t need to answer to you. They are free to eat chips, watch musical talent shows, sit on couches, and complain liberally about the sorry state of their servitude.

Free people have grown weary and enraged by the subservient uncle tom turkeys like you strutting around telling them how their coops & pens are for their own protection, instead of for the purpose of making them a cash cow and source of guaranteed income for a network of human taxslave plantation owners.

I almost bought one of these – an ex-cop Kz1000 – before I found my ’83 Silverwing!

I own a Kz900 – same basic bike as the cop Kz1000 – and know them to be reliable (and powerful) bikes. So when I was in the market for a low-cost touring bike, it occurred to me: Why not shop for an ex-cop Kz? It would have the same solid mechanicals as my Kz900 – but also a fairing and hard bags. You can pick these up for not much money.

The only reason I don’t own one is because the ’83 Honda just kind of fell into my lap and I’d have been an idiot to shove it off!

Yes indeed. Why? Why all the focus on petty side issues when the core is deliberately ignored? Because that’s the plan. And unless you held their corrupt feet to the fire it will never change.

Tinsley – Let me provide some rhetorical answers to your rhetorical questions. The repeal of the fictitious “War on Drugs” won’t occur because it is one justification for the all too real war on Essential Liberty (the wars on poverty, illiteracy and terrorism also playing back up in the same band). It has allowed the federal, state and local kleptocracies carte blanche authority to audit our bank accounts, rifle through our pockets, grope our genitals and seize our cars, homes and any portable valuables that we can’t “prove” are ours. The idea that possession is 9/10’s of the law be damned. If you have more than a few bucks in your pocket you could, maybe, possibly, potentially buy drugs with that money. So the constabulary in true non-judicial pre-crime fashion (in order to protect you and “the public” from your hypothetical moral incontinence, of course) will relieve you of that filthy lucre, put it in safe keeping and may eventually let you have it back. That is if you and your court-approved mercenary shyster can prove to the black robed bandit behind the bench that the money was actually yours to begin with. If not, Officer 82nd Airborne’s department, the court and (either way it turns out) “your” attorney all hit payday at your expense. It’s a great system…for government sanctioned thieves.

But this silly-ass “War on Drugs” also denies us the one recreational drug that is far safer than alcohol (for numerous reasons); but primarily because any moron can grow Cannabis (and lots of it), thereby denying the regime much if not most of “their” liquor, beer and wine “revenue.” And that’s ignoring the billions in pot money the CIA and God knows who else in the regime rakes in due to prohibition. It’s the same way that early Amerikan tariffs forced the agrarian South to pay exorbitant taxes on imported manufactured goods or artificially elevated prices to Northern industrialists. This grievously skewed the free market economy in favor of the government and their chosen few; which led to smuggling, tax evasion and any end runs possible around the government pirates that took booty at the docks as opposed to the more honorable pirates working the high seas (who would probably only hit you once). Anyone that’s capable of tying their own shoes can see that this so-called “War on Drugs” is merely an excuse for taking our wealth and usurping legitimate power under the threat of force. If Joe Sixpack can see this (and most can), then we can be assured that the oligarchy knows damned well they can’t stop recreational drug use (and more importantly self medication and alternative / natural medicine) any more than they can stop gambling or prostitution. Simple logic and historical evidence clearly puts the lie to all the well worn official “reasons” for drug prohibition.

I don’t doubt for one moment that the CIA / military industrial complex is up to their eyeballs in the drug trade and its obscene profits. It’s the one source of funding that is virtually impossible to trace and congress doesn’t have to approve. You can bet the “money changers” (i.e. banksters, loan sharks, money-launderers) are taking their cut too. The worse things get economically, governmentally and socially the better the market share and profitability of recreational drugs due to the natural human desire to escape from a dismal reality. As long as prohibition creates high risk then recreational drug prices and profit margin will remain artificially elevated. Those who are able to will invariably seize that opportunity.

Those that have the force of law on their side (e.g. the CIA, DEA, narcotics cops, “confidential informants”, etc.) can and do take advantage of the drug prohibition windfall with impunity. This is why Hillary had a moment of candor and stated that there’s too much money involved to ever allow a free or even decriminalized market in drugs. Whether it was the high priests of Egypt, the Sorcerers of the Old Testament, the British Empire in China or the Cartels of Mexico those who would rule others have always sought control over any and all mind altering substances that enjoy a measure of popularity. Our fashion, modes of transportation and communication, along with energy production and consumption may have changed over the millennia; but human nature has never changed. Consequently the narcissists and sociopaths that would herd us like cattle can always count on the same old lies and tricks to work on us one generation after another. This is why Liberty, whether it relates to arms, public discourse, ingesting mind altering substances or any other individual right, is not a destination where one arrives, sets up camp and relaxes by the fire. No; achieving and maintaining a state of Liberty is a perpetual and potentially lethal struggle between free men and those who seek to oppress us.

Luke Skywalker laid aside the business of trying to run the galaxy once he was boinking Mara Jade. Maybe we need to get the cops laid so they’ll get off our backs.
Seriously, cops do NOT exist to ensure safety of individuals, they exist for purposes of PUBLIC safety, meaning they serve the interests of the State and whosoever is benefiting from it.
Were the Second Amendment respected (here in CA it is all but nullified), adults who are by default members of the unorganized militia would be more than capable of packing whatever heat they deemed necessary. The criminal underclass would be less inclined to prey realizing, like Treyvon Martin, that they’d quickly get an up-close encounter with some hot lead. That WHY I advocate that if there is ANYTHING that the state-run schools ought to do (they really shouldn’t exist at all, but one issue at a time…) it is to train young people in basic military concepts, discipline, physical fitness, and proficiency in firearms, along with their rights and duties as members of the great state militia. The young need to be taught from the get-go that the ultimate power is with them individually and as a group of citizens, and NOT with the various organs of the State. In such a state the number and powers of so-called “law enforcement” will be considerably less, as miscreant members of the militia can be readily deal with via a courts-martial of their peers.
Read SM Stirling books about the fictional Draka Empire in his series of novels, “The Domination”. It’s not that I think that America should be like the fictional Domination. It’s about how the power rests with the citizens and the organs of the State exist to serve them, NOT the other way around. However, committable with that is the responsibility to be ready, willing, and able to kick ass as needed!

When you simply boil it all down the entire Jedi/Sith turf battle is the equivalent of Repub/Demo fighting. Here you have two halves of the same corrupt coin. One does not exist without the other and you, citizen/slave, are to foot the bill or shed your blood so they can get their galactic rocks off.

Cops are weak-minded pussies looking for respect and authority. 99% of all cops I’ve ever encountered I’d classify as a piece of shit.

Stefan Molyneux and others have written on Libertarian Parenting. A parent has the ability to raise a child in a cocoon of justice and freedom from arbitrary rules and force based behaviors.
They may also demand that children perform age appropriate “work” 8 hours a day 5 days a week in an effort to “pay” their own way. Productive small adults can then live the lives they choose within a spectrum of miniature choices and options a parent finds permissible.

A child’s ability to focus fantasy and play for productive pursuits instead of for meaningless lounging about like that a housepet might engage in is the beginning of a path with more chance for success and less chances for failure.

Children Are People Too
http://youtu.be/uoWZjeFVvfk

I’m more interested in repeal than blame.

I had a teacher in 8th grade or so, who had a son in the same grade as me. Her son is now a State Police officer. She was, what you would call, a “clover”. Not that bright in terms of reality, but always trying to impose her whim and the universal “laws” upon others. She was nice and friendly, but rather dumb and shallow.

I once got into a discussion/debate with her. She pulled me aside, to talk privately regarding the importance of following the rules. I think it had something to do with chewing gum in school (which was banned). She became frustrated when I refuted her points.

Thinking back, the topic got onto the subject of when “I was older” and how it’s important for me, when I’m adult, to “obey the rules of society”. As an example, and during the course of the discussion, somehow the topic got on the subject of the DMV and car registrations, which I told her about some scheme to avoid it. She became infuriated and offended and asked me “why I was trying to come up with ways to beat the system”.

I think I responded, by telling her something along the lines of how the system is evil and needs to be beaten.

Thinking back, its scary to think how school was just as system to brainwash kids into be obedient slaves to the State.

It’s no surprise her son became a cop. He was a good kid, but a clover like her. He recently unfriended me on Facebook, probably due to my anti-police posts. He is clueless, endured a lifetime of brainwashing, and actually thinks a majority of the “laws” are for the “common good”; and seems to refuse to acknowledge the cognitive dissonance regarding the interest of the State and that of the people.

Perhaps I was a Libertarian/Anarchist since I childhood — as freedom is something very natural. Teachers never liked me because I refused to conform and be molded by their State institutions. It wasn’t until I got older, that I could read, articulate, and learn fully about the subjects thanks to people like Murray N. Rothbard, Mises, etc.

And implicit in his letting you “off” is that he knows the “offense” was bullshit. Because otherwise, he consciously allowed a person who deserved punishment to avoid it. Which also means he knew he was just hassling all those other non-connected victims.

What a shitty way to make a living!

I agree. About a year ago I was pulled over by a cop for speeding in the taxi. turns out the cop worked security on the weekends at a bar where I would often hang out on the cab stand. He let me off with a very light warning.

Perfect analogy. The worst vermin on the face of the earth right now are the savers and the guardians of the value of greenback federal reserve notes.
These vermin are a pestilence to the Special Drawing Rights currency and the UN Bill of Rights signed in 1947.
Luckily, these vermin are isolated to a small area between Canada & Mexico and are rapidly being eradicated.
If you are a rattlesnake, snakewrangler, or snakecharmer please apply immediately to http://www.un.org to learn more about the many exciting opportunities available during these exiting times.

Although the rattlesnake may provide an ecological benefit, what “benefits” do cops provide?

I remember reading that one. It’ one of my ATFs, kudos.
I understand why the elite d*bags indoctrinate us as children about the violent myths of the states’ benevolence. But it escapes me that with the availability of the internet and alternate media, why so many choose to remain eager children of their abusive deadbeat fatherland.

If a good thing gets made better by backing it with military and police power, then why not do this with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus as well.

The myth that there really is such a thing as the United States, or that the Policeman & Mailman are our helper is philosophically on equal footing with the myths about the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

Technically, that’s what happened to me as a child, though strictly speaking they weren’t pointing a gun at me personally but just generally shooting to kill the local white community that had holed up in a block of flats when the Force Publique mutinied after Congolese independence. Luckily we were armed and could hold them off for three days until a Belgian colonel disobeyed official orders not to intervene and organised a relief paratroop drop.

When I got the statutory reckless driving citation in Va. lawyers immediately started calling me wanting $800 to get it reduced to a speeding ticket. LMAO.

Nice little system they got there: cops, lawyers, judges all working together to keep us safe. 🙂

I can lie, too. I have 2 cars that are identical, except for color. I have pictures of both, with the other license plate on them. When I go to court, I take the picture of the other car with me. The ticket clearly states color, the registration does not. I have never had a judge fail to throw out a ticket because of “errors on the ticket”. Most of the time, just showing up in court takes care of the problem, because the cop isn’t there. My son beat a ticket where the judge was running through tickets without cop testimony, and I told him to ask where the cop who wrote the complaint was. The judge had to admit that the cop had not shown up. The she had the gaul to ask how he pleaded–he was smart enough to plead not guilty, and she said she wanted to continue the case, but he said, wait a second here, it has a specific date ant time to appear–I am here, where is my accuser? She decided to simply drop the case. Then when we went to get his license back, the cashier wanted $125. I hit the ceiling. I told the cashier to get off her fat ass, and find out what the judge had actually rules, not the pre-planned outcome. If everyone would show up and contest their tickets, the system would break down. I have never lost a ticket I have contested.

Google: TESTILYING

Correct! A cop is never there to “protect” you if a crime occurs. They’re only there after the fact to clean up the mess. No need for them on the street at all.

Plus if we pay for the cops to be on the street and “protect” us then why do we also pay for: home security systems, motion sensors and flood lights, neighborhood watches, car alarms, our own guns and everything else that we do to protect ourselves? We’ve already got the situation under control. It makes no sense.

That’s my attitude, also.

I’ve got little, if any use for cops. We live in a very rural area. If someone breaks into our home, it’s going to be between me and him. When the cops show up 20-30 minutes later, they can write a report.

So, let’s see. They don’t protect my property or my physical person. They harass me over BS “infractions” that are tyrannical on their face (e.g., seatbelt laws). I am forced at gunpoint to help provide money to pay for their costumes, cars and guns. And then these costumed goons roam around waiting for opportunities to threaten me (and other harming-no-one people) in order to cow us and make us pay yet again.

I support peace officering. But that’s not what we have in the USSA.

It’s like playing a game of Russian Roulette Monopoly with a bunch of Deliverance Leering Buzzcuts with itchy trigger fingers and fragile violence-prone egos.

Good afternoon, citizen. The reason I stopped you, is I need you to play a little game with me, just to keep me safe.

We’re all good guys, and if you can roll your dice for a few rounds and make it all the way around the board, you’ll advance to Go and collect $200 worth of services you don’t want and then be on your way.

We all play with the bankers money, but you’ll have to play with your own.

If you land on one of our properties, and you can’t pay the rent, the law says we have to put you in jail for as long as it takes you to raise the money and then roll doubles.

It’s all being conducted on behalf of Mr. Monopoly, who is a famous dignitary and public servant of the highest caliber.

Yes, modern US government claims a monopoly on the use of violence. Anarchist theory claims that government by definition is that institution which claims such a monopoly. Note though that the US government did not originally fit that definition. Early US government was marked by a division of access to violence. We did not have police as a governmental force, but the populace in general was the most common force for law enforcement. We did not have a standing army, but rather “We the People” had a clear right to every weapon available to a common soldier. we people had just as much claim to violence as the government, and in fact, the government could only enforce a call for violence when a large part of the people supported the call by showing up with their weapons. Only the Swiss still retain something similar.

I’ve come to regard them as fundamentally the same thing.

In living memory, the government was not entirely tyrannical. Though I oppose much of what it did, nonetheless, it left peaceful people alone to an extent that is almost inconceivable today. There was – generally – the rule of law and accountability. The system was far from perfect – but it was not an outright thugocracy as it has become today.

If people – enough people – don’t say Enough! – soon – I expect we’re in for a very rough ride.