The Benefits and Limits of the Law and Order Approach

Law and order. Protect society by winning the war between criminals and law enforcement. Make the penalties for breaking the law severe and the punishment swift and decisive, and remember a well armed law enforcement team is best at keeping the peace. Cops as peacekeepers. Just like the old days when Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterton and their ilk established peace in the old west. Remember the beginning of Gunsmoke when Marshall Dillon outdraws and shoots the bad guy? That is old west style law and order. Our legends of the west had the fastest guns and were always ready to use them. One hired himself out regularly when someone needed his services  and contacted him in his San Francisco Hotel Carlton abode. Somehow one of his business cards - always made it to some far off place in the US and off  went Paladin to right the weekly wrong with his trusty six-shooter. That gun is what our western legends had in common - the good guys kept the peace by being the baddest of the bad - quite literally often they were bad guys - Earp, Masterson, Doc Halliday, Wild Bill Hickock, Buffalo Bill and the rest. Well most of them - Jim Bowie was famous for his big knife but it was an early form of law and order by the balance of terror. We employed that system through the last Cold War quite successfully we are told.

And then we had Teddy Roosevelt as President and his walk softly and carry a big stick philosophy - literally more of the same. World War I - more guns and more shooting then the great depression and the blazing guns of the mob vs the Untouchables aka the FBI. Law and Order from the barrel of a gun got more refined as the weapons got more sophisticated, and thanks to our Second Amendment  the bad guys were well armed.

What is the point of this brief legendary history lesson? We have grown up with a Law and Order enforced by the barrel of a gun system of policing all of our lives so it should be NO surprise that our peacekeepers continue to this day to enforce the law by being fast on the draw. That balance of terror still exists but it is not universally applied. People of color are more likely to be targets of those peacekeeper's guns than white people. Now that community is mad as hell and they are not going to take it any more - society is in an uproar about systemic racism and the last vestiges of racism that remain from the civil rights battles of the sixties and seventies that were tamped down and left smoldering but not extinguished are flaring up and threatening us once again.

Law and Order proponents claim we need stricter law and order enforcement and so-called progressives are clamoring for the police to be defunded. A huge cultural war is about to explode. The right supports the police and law and order, the left is for changes in how law and order is maintained. Black Lives Matter hates Blue Lives Matter and All Lives Matter - which is the real truth - is constantly shouted down. Interestingly enough, at one time I very much wanted to be a police officer but my wife very bluntly said she would divorce me if I went that route so clearly I gave that one up. Today, though, I doubt you could pay me enough  to be a cop. While most police officers never fire their guns in the line of duty, a growing number seem to do it on a regular basis. Rarely is a white person stopped for driving while being white but it is a regular thing for blacks to be stopped for driving while being black. I know that from personal experience, having been in cars being driven by my daughter's significant other at the time who just happened to be black. I have been aggressively challenged and questioned by police under those conditions but when stopped on my own, usually presenting my license and insurance card is sufficient to be told have a nice day and drive carefully. Once I was stopped and quizzed about why I was driving a vehicle that allegedly belonged to my daughter's boyfriend. The officer was not amused when I laughed at his question but when I showed him the registration and insurance card in my name, in spite of his apparent belief that I was up to something nefarious (I was headed to an ATM) he sent me on my way.

As  long as we promote Law and Order at the barrel of a gun we will be plagued with more of the problems we are currently experiencing. Yes we are using a system that inherited systemic racism - often times not intentionally. Yes white privilege is a fact but often not intentional. It is simply built into the "system" aka culture. IMHO the fact that it is subtly embedded within our culture makes white privilege more nefarious and harmful. Fact - a higher number of minorities by percentage are incarcerated than whites. Also a fact - people of color are more harshly judged by the courts so it is to be expected they are incarcerated at a higher rate. Fact but neither fair nor right.

History has shown us that winners write and record history, so many inconvenient truths are simply left out of our history lessons, like the Tulsa Oklahoma massacre in 1921 of an entire black middle class community. I never heard about it in high school  or college and only now is it being discussed. Interested? For starters, check it out on Wikipedia here.

I was educated in the supposed liberal bastion of California. I also learned very little about the mistreatment of Hispanics and indigenous Indian tribes until I read some enlightened fiction. If reading about the Tulsa Race Riot does not disgust you or upset you then I suspect your humanity is in doubt. Too often things like this are simply left out of text books. But you can be sure that in places like Texas you are likely to find creationism taught as fact and evolution as flawed theory. Ever heard of Juneteenth? I hadn't until a couple of years ago when my daughter's boyfriend explained it to me. It is a holiday celebrated on 19 June to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, slaves were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. Imagine that - it started in Texas.

 But did it make it into school texts?

And this so-called shining city on a hill that we claim to be? Our country was built by robber barons. The fact that they are now praised as philanthropists and heroes shows the inherent benefits of having the winners write history.

Do not misinterpret this commentary - I love this country and what it purports to be. What it really is? Well lets just say there is some work to be done, starting with Law and Order. The benefits of our current system? It got us through the halcyon days of the wild wild west and kept us fairly stable into the 20th Century. But as many thought it worked well, it was never really examined closely for any damage it has been causing for decades. Now we are faced with deeply rooted issues that will take significant time and effort to address and address them we must as our cultural survival is at stake. No, we do not need to defund or eliminate police - we need to address how and what they do. If I hear someone breaking into my home in the middle of the night then damn right I want to call the police, But a drunk passed out in his car in a drive through line? I am not sure armed peacekeepers are called for. Surely we can come up with something better and safer.

We are at the limits and probably well beyond the limits of our Law and Order approach. Time is of the essence but something needs to be done - something that has to begin by breaking the logjam of tribalism we are presently seemingly locked into. The time has come to start chipping away at what divides us and get back to finding some common ground.

Please be sure to check my blogging compatriots comments - and I'll see ya next week, same shack time and same shack channel.

Sanjana, Padmum, Raju,  Conrad, Ramana.