By Mike Simmons
“Do we need Law Enforcement?” I have heard that question numerous times. After all, for many centuries, people policed themselves. When a problem arose, people handled it themselves, end of story. Why can’t we do that today? We can just let the public handle the problems and keep the government out of it.
Of course, there is truth to that. When I was a kid in elementary school, we would, like all kids, have fights. We often handled it ourselves. We fought each other, licked our wounds, and went about our day. The next day, we had forgotten all about it and were friends again. Except girls. Girls NEVER forget. Today, we would each be arrested for the same fight. There are arguments for abolishing the police. But they aren’t good ones.
The reason that the phenomenon known as “the police” came into being was that the problems created were bigger than individuals or families could handle. For instance, if a large or powerful family took water or food from a smaller family, nothing could be done. Or a robber took money from a kid and couldn’t be found by the father, he just got away. Sometimes things went undetected, so a force had to be collected to keep things more balanced than they were.
A friend of mine said once that he was asked the question, “What would things look like if there were no police?” His answer? “Just look at downtown New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The police officers were on duty but were heavily outnumbered. Looting, robberies, burglaries, and even murders were committed without accountability. I will add to that the images of Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. No one wants that.
Does everyone follow the law when the police exist? Of course not. But they think twice about committing a crime if the police are close. The police pose a threat to continued lawlessness. Some people might disagree with that statement, but here is an example…name one place that will never have a successful active shooter situation…” The answer? A police station. Why? Because it is full of police officers.
Speaks volumes. Yes, we need the police.
Mike