The people of the United State of Arizona are setting a brilliant example for democracy in gulliotine justice reminiscent of the French Revolution. Obviously, they do have a cause, if not an excuse, for their rejection of constitutional rights since the federal government has elected to ignore their genuine and irreconcilable problems.
There are two sides to the question, and both sides need to be considered. There are obvious steps that could be taken, such as eliminating the power of corporations to bring cheap labor into our country for the financial benefit of the few at the expense of the desperate poor.
“Citizen America, show us your papers in the name of Liberty, Equality and Humanity,” they demand of the usual suspects.
They’ve learned nothing from history in their mob-mentality solution to social problems. Under the head-chop leadership of Queen-of-Hearts Jan Brewer, a separation of state head from body politic is the way to go. When, eventually, the governor’s head falls from the block, along with every other “aristocrat” the “peasants” blame for the demolition of all order, the inevitable result is going to be a bloody militia operation under some self-crowned Napoleon, answerable to no legal restraint.
The same is true of the tea-party anarchy of the simple-minded Sarahs.
Such idealistic nonsense emerges in the idiotic notion to throw out responsible leadership, along with irresponsible incumbents; to toss out legal restraints on corporate take-over of government; to eject-button the holy along with the unholy; to tea-party drill-out the economy into a literal Gulf Oil blackout of the earth.
There is a reason why the American Revolution, unlike the French, was the only successful revolution in Western History. Wise and educated men knew better than to toss out the tested rules of governmental restraint while at the same time honoring individual liberty. The rule of law that followed us from Great Britain established a civilized order in the new world made up of people who exercised reason and resorted to force only in defense of it. Our forefathers even went so far as to advocate free and universal education for every citizen at the risk of inflicting a middle-class society and morality on its male white citizenry. The only argument left the “true individual” for freedom from federal meddling then was to move west with six-shooters and grab what Indian leftovers in land a settler could hold onto.
And despite that ungoverned beginning, leading to today’s NRA-backed privilege to bear Kalishnikovs, law and order still seem to be winning out. The exception, of course, is the present Mexican stand-off.
Walking the tightrope between tyranny and anarchy has never been easy for humanity. Guillotine “justice” is always a temptation because power corrupts and honesty amongst the powerful is bound to be iffy.
One example on the local scene is the arrest-‘em-all policy of our New Smyrna Beach constabulary.
Though their motto reads “Protect and Serve,” police officers are encouraged to pervert justice for their own promotion. Given the mandate to arrest any helpless citizen who looks like he cannot afford to argue, they exercise the “right” to toss anyone in jail who appears vulnerable. In this case, it isn’t so much Spanish accents or skin color as it is the helplessness of anyone half their size with none of their clout.
When the officer can gain promotion according to the number of arrests he can rack up, it’s an open invitation to abuse, and such an invitation is what they’re being given by the Powers That Be in our local administration. What “bum” are we to toss out here?
Check out the population of the holding pen in Daytona Beach where such “defenders of justice” throw in victims too poor and/or helpless to argue and you’ll find an unholy percentage of young girls who’ve been hand-cuffed, shoved into cages in police vehicles, and kept incommunicado for at least 24 hours without resort to aid or defense.
I know of one such victim who was evicted from her apartment for lack of rent money. She had no car, no home, nobody to turn to, and when she was able to get back to her former apartment to retrieve her dog she was arrested and thrown into jail for “cruelty to animals.”
She, along with many others in such circumstances, was denied representation by law, not only because she didn’t have the thousands of dollars it takes to retain a lawyer, but because she was automatically denied the opportunity to contact such representation. Declared a criminal and an inmate, she could not contact anyone from the jail. No bail bondsman will answer such calls and no “inmate” is permitted telephone contact, even though the authorities tease the prisoners by handing them telephones they’re forbidden to use.
Such Gestapo mentalities on the police force take it upon themselves to play judge, jury and executioner, regardless of the fiction that an American citizen is innocent until proven guilty.
So why not throw out all the New Smyrna police? So what if law-abiding citizens are threatened by thieves, murderers, rapists, home invaders and drug pushers, without any protection to call upon. Who needs police? We can simply vote criminals out of our lives via the blessings of the NRA and our “right” to rub out those who get in our American way.
And who needs that wonderful, courteous, truly protect-and serve officer on Tenth street who keeps the NSB high-schoolers and college students safe by enforcing speed limits in the area? This particular officer is never unfair and always ready to warn rather than punish. He feels no need to assert his masculinity by bullying women and children. He’s out there on his motorcycle in foul and fair weather, dispensing respect for law as well as justice rather than promoting fear of it
Off with his head, too?
Simple minds are content with simple solutions, so I modestly propose we think about what we’re doing by installing the simpleton-Sarahs to office and tossing out all incumbents, honorable or otherwise. I’m sure there’s some Emperor Napoleon out there just waiting to crown himself in their place.