1.22.2011 LOCALISM AND THE POLICE POWER II

continuing from localism and the police power I..the strategy, hence, is the abolition and destruction of the local police power in its every aspect. this is being done in several ways.

first, it is being done by insisting that we have a vast problem of crime which the police cannot cope with. this myth of the fearfulness of american criminality is unfortunately believed even by police 'experts'. thus, vollmer writes that 'nowhere in the civilized world will there be found a major crime condition as staggering in its proportions as that found in the u.s.'. statistics, here as elsewhere, are excellent liars.

the u.s., with its puritan background, has major and minor crimes on the statute books which do not exist elsewhere; it has better law enforcement, and it has better records, so that statistically its efficiency makes it look worse. moreover, except for certain major cities, most of the country has a good record of law enforcement and of a law abiding citizenry. regrettably, too, there is a high record of criminality on the part of certain minority groups, who now are seeking advancement, not through christian faith and character, but through legal impositions and privileges. very real problems of law enforcement do exist in every sector of the population, but the problem is not a technical one, calling for a substitute to local law enforcement, but a moral problem, cling for a christian renewal on the part of all the citizenry, including courts and police. the subversive strategy here is to assert that there is a problem of vast dimensions, that the local police are not competent to cope with it, and that new, centralized agencies must be created.

second, the subversion of the police is sought by agencies which, in the name of efficiency, would establish regional tie-ins for local civil government and for the police. the city and county managers are basically hostile to the local self sufficiency and independence of the police. the city and county managers are basically hostile to the local self-sufficiency and independence of the police. the managerial system is basically collectivist, elitist and hostile to localism. Civil Defense measures seek, in the name of emergency, to create a national control over the police; the desired controls would hamper local efficiency, but they would further totalitarian control and power.

third, the subversion of the police is sought by attacks on police integrity. certainly, corrupt police are a problem, but corruption is a moral problem in every area of life and is a general moral problem, not an occupational disease of the local police. a good case could be made for lower moral standards among the clergy. no group is without its moral problems. newspaper and television writers, often leftist in orientation, have done no small injustice to the police by a systematic impugning of the police forces and systems as a whole. collectivist psychologists and psychiatrists have added to the slander, so that the opinion is often bandied about that police mentality and criminal mentality are analogous. such vicious slanders have in some quarters become axioms of political faith.

fourth, to the insult of attacks of police reputation is added the injury of attacks on the police by means of provocative activity. lawless demonstrations today are an increasing instrument of social revolution, indicating a contempt of law and of the police...federal, and, in some areas, state authorities, have cooperated in the attack on police authority. thus the occupation by federal marshals of the campus of the university of mississippi on september 30, 1962 was a revolutionary act on the part of the u.s. department of justice against the local community and its police. a similar federal action occurred after the kennedy assassination. oswald was caught, not by federal agents, who were ostensibly in charge of security and controlled the entrances and exits of the various buildings, but by the local police. further investigation was taken out of local hands and placed in the questionable hands of a federal commisssion, headed by earl warren. there were complaints that neither oswald nor ruby could be tried in federal courts but had to face a local court. there were complaints also against the right of the citizenry to bear arms. thus, an assassination by a foreign agent was used by the federal government for an assault on the one effective agency, the local police and the local court!

fifth, various impediments are placed on the police. police review boards are created to establish a new authority over the police and to break the police-citizenry relationship. THE US SUPREME COURT, MEANWHILE, HAS BEEN STEADILY CURTAILING THE POLICE POWER, A LOCAL, CITIZEN'S POWER, while vastly augmenting federal, collectivist power and control. this is not an accidental development. an infamous example of this was the mallory case. arrested for a brutal rape, mallory confessed to the crime when questioned before his arraignment. no force or pressure had been applied. the conviction was nonetheless thrown out by the u.s. supreme court (mallory v. u.s.) by a unanimous decision of the ground that the police had no right to question him before arraignment. since it was now impossible to re-try him with any hope of conviction, a professedly guilty man went free. the court showed tenderness toward the rapist, but none towards the raped woman, and, by this decision and many, many others, circumscribed police work with such limitations as to make their work well nigh impossible. such impediments to police work are also to be found on the state level, to a lesser degree. both federal and state governments are seeking to usurp the police powers of the citizenry, of the city and of the county.

sixth, a low pay scale is used to demoralize the police. a city or county government which underpays and under staffs its police is usually knowingly trying to corrupt them and to control them. politicians are ready to increase bureau and agency personnel and pay, because this means an extension of their won power, but they balk, in the name of economy, at increasing the police force and pay, because a strong and independent force is a threat to corrupt politics. in some instances, police pay is kept so low that policemen must hold extra jobs after work, have their wives work, or accept graft, which means a surrender and subservience to the politicians and their cohorts. police pay should be high, in relationship to other local officials, so that police should be definitely the 'aristocracy' of civil employees. the issue with respect to police pay is a central one. by making the police an area of economy and limiting their force and effectiveness, corrupt politicians thereby weaken not only the police but the citizenry and subsidize themselves in corruption and criminals in criminality.

seventh, a major assault on the police comes, by indirection, from the mental health program. the prevailing psychiatric theory is that crime is a sickness, not a sin. the answer is not in law enforcement on the social level by the police, and conversion on the personal level through religious faith, but the answer is rather medical and psychological. the police, in this perspective, must give way to social workers and psychiatrists. an uncompromising attack on this perspective has been made by a psychiatist, thomas s. szasz, law, liberty and psychiatry, who denies the validity among other thing of the 'not guilty by reason of insanity' plea. the mental health program, however, is gaining ground, and a prison laboratory is currently demanded by university of california criminology, psychology, education, and sociology professors.

from all of this, it is apparent that the local police power is an extension of the citizens right of self-defense, and attacks on the police come from the same quarters as attacks on national military preparedness, on the right to bear arms (note the double demand, national and personal disarmament), on the liberties of the citizenry, and on the processes of criminal prosecution. those who call for a non-local law enforcement agency and 'larger territorial organization', also call for the registration of all inhabitants and a legal requirement that all carry registration cards in the name of efficiency. university departments of criminology are on the whole infected with such thinking and are statist and anti-police.

an attack on the local police is an attack on the right of self-defense. when the local police are destroyed, the totalitarian state will have arrived in full force. that great civilian army of local police, and a citizenry with police powers and the right to bear arms, is thus a major target of subversive activity, assault, legislation and propaganda.

as against this, it is good to note that the police are strengthening their local roots in many areas, instructing the citizenry in police powers, creating auxiliary police and sheriff's posses, all to further the efficacy and integrity of local law and order. more needs to be done, for the alienation of people and police from one another is disastrous to both.

note: when i recently heard, for the first time, the movement in new jersey (in the name of saving $) to give to localities, at this time, the voluntary option to disband their police and join in regional 'police' forces no longer under the control of local citizenry (who do they report to now?), i thought to share this read some time ago.