Police Have Been Made Obsolete by the Internet
Monday, June 20, 2011 at 7:10PM When you tell those brainwashed by the government and public education system that we don't need government and, in fact, that things would be dramatically better without government, there is almost always three things that they immediately respond with:
1. Roads - This one is amusing because of how small of a thing it is. Road building and maintenance is such a tiny portion of most governments' budgets that it is almost a moot point from the start. Not to mention that roads used to be privatized. For more, see Walter Block's excellent book, "The Privatization of Roads and Highways"
2. Schools - Again, schools used to all be privately run and education was much better when it was. For proof, look at this 1895 Grade 8 school exam. Not only could most public school Grade 8 students not answer most of those questions but nowadays in the US, many of the people who graduate high school are functionally illiterate!
3. The Police - Let's focus on this today
It became starkly clear during the Vancouver Riots how obsolete the police have become.
Within seconds of the first car being lit on fire a Facebook page had sprung up titled "Vancouver Riot Pics". Another website called IdentifyRioters.com also sprang up soon after the riot. Literally, within moments, hundreds of pictures had been posted and tens of thousands of people had joined the group.
Even as the riot was ongoing people from all around Vancouver were identifying people they recognized who were destroying property or assaulting people.
By the next day many of the worst culprits of the riot had already been outed, fired from their jobs, thrown out of their universities and become the object of intense public scrutiny.
One young man, in particular, caught having his photo taken by dozens, if not hundreds of people with cellphone cameras, lighting a police car on fire, has had his prospective Olympic Polo career come to a halt as can be seen in this Vancouver Sun article.
In other words, within hours of the riot, most of the people responsible for the worst damage had already paid dearly from the publicity.
Yet, what does the Vancouver Police department have to say about this miracle of self-policing? They say that people should not identify rioters online because they are not police professionals!
The police, on the other hand, will likely spend millions of dollars in an investigation and, if not for all the evidence provided by people with cellphone cameras, they would likely not even prosecute more than one or two of the rioters. Even then, the court cases would drag on for years, wasting more money and if they eventually prosecute them they will then be thrown into a cage at yet more expense to taxpayers.
Of course the police don't want you to identify the rioters! The public themselves already has identified and prosecuted (socially) almost all of the rioters within hours of the riot ending at a total cost of $0.
We wouldn't want that to catch on!
This is also not to mention that the Vancouver Police have been highly criticized for not "stopping" the riot. Many even suggest that they intentionally understaffed in order to get MORE funding in the future as they state that the reason they couldn't stop the rioting was due to insufficient budgets.
This actually appears to be the case as for the first hour of the riot there was rarely even a policeman to be seen. This, however, was actually a good thing. This is because the Police in almost all cases just make things worse.
The crowds damaged a lot of property but there were not many significant injuries until the police arrived in full force. Then the hospitals started filling up with people with injuries from batons, flash bang grenades and tear gas.
Even the "kissing couple" who got their 15 minutes of fame for kissing amidst the chaos caused by the riot police stated, "I didn't think we were in danger down there until the riot police came along."
As well, with most things the government supplies, it causes more damage than good because people think they are being protected when, in most cases, they are not.
Not one of the shops in and around the hockey stadium and on Granville Street were boarded up that evening despite the fact that a riot was obviously going to happen. It was so obvious that after the game was over my girlfriend asked me why I wasn't turning the TV off... I told her, oh no, now the riots start - this will be the most interesting part!
As well, without a public police force many of the local retailers would have their own private security. Young angry kids would be much less apt to fight or taunt private security because they are just protecting their own private property whereas the public police force are seen as being oppressors who give you traffic tickets and hundreds of other attacks on your freedoms.
In the end, what occurred during the Vancouver Riots is about as good of a case that can be made for ridding ourselves of government policing.
Yet, look at what many Vancouverites did to this police car after the riots.
Hundreds of people wrote post-it-notes of thanks to the police for overseeing them! Slaves in Canada have a particularly dire case of Stockholm Syndrome.
Reader Comments (3)
The city of London started installing CCTV cameras at every conceivable intersection years ago before the social network was as prevalent as it is today. Once people realized they couldn't smash windows or set fires anonymously - street crime dropped dramatically. No police necessary! I bet that trick would work even if most of the cameras were fake.
Yeah, you may be right, but you do see the end result, don't you? Now, we are ALL "Big Brother," or shall I say "Big Brothers".
Need to consider witch hunts, lynchings, etc. Historically the administration of actual justice requires some training to get the facts right. I agree justice should not be in the hands of government, but leaving it in the hands of the general public can be just as bad. I don't want to live in a society where I may wake up one morning with my neighbours stringing a rope to a tree.
Very interesting development though.