When I discuss police brutality with some apologists, some of them assert, “Not all officer are abusive and that there are actually good officers.” Now I did not claim that all officers are abusive and that there are no good officers but like anything in order to understand the kernel we must examine the incentives. The fact is “government” is a monopoly on initiated aggression financed by the stolen funds of taxation and propped up by the belief in authority. Law enforcement is the agency that gives teeth and claws to every piece of politician scribble that Washington DC hemorrhages, regardless of how inane the law is. Strictly speaking law enforcement offices must enforce the law unilaterally and without prejudice. Now if that would be the case we would ALL have been kidnapped and caged, according to a book written by attorney Harvey A. Silverglate called Three Felonies a Day: How The Feds Target the Innocent published in 2009. According to this book we all commit at least 3 felonies per day regardless of our desire to obey every law, every regulation, and pay every tax. The sheer number of legislation makes it positively impossible for anyone to claim complete compliance with the law.
As a result law enforcement officers blindly enforce the law, which any robot can be programmed to do; rather they also are given what is known as discretionary authority. This is defined as the ability to arbitrarily enforce whichever law they deem fit to enforce given the situation or their current mood. This a massive power placed in the hands of people who can, at a whim, extort, kidnap, and cage any peasant who displays the temerity to challenge their authority, whether justified or unjustified. If it is ruled by the “government” kangaroo courts that the peasant is in the wrong, the peasant may face a hefty fine, extensive prison sentence, or some other such drastic punishment. If it is ruled by the “government” kangaroo courts that the peasant is in the right, the officer, due to judicial immunity, may receive a small fine, a vacation with pay, or at most a short prison sentence with the ability to return to his/her position afterwards. This is a blatant bias towards the law enforcement officer that is typical of any “government” agent. This gives law enforcement the ability or license to rob, assault, rape, and kill with impunity.
As long there are rulers and the ruled and masters and slaves there is no equality under the law. There are only the political elite who fabricate the man-made laws, the special interest groups that sidestep the man-made laws with sovereign immunity, and law enforcement that arbitrarily enforce the man-made laws with discretionary authority. There is no equality that “government” can grant the people without first extorting and oppressing them. Being an advocate for “government” signifies that the people do not own themselves or the fruits of their labor; rather they are owned by the State. Voluntaryism is the only truly humane, compassionate, and peaceful philosophy because it grants full self-ownership and property rights for oneself as well as for every human being on Earth. This immediately repudiates and excludes any forceful authority AKA “government”. One cannot have two masters. Either you own yourself and the fruits of your 100% or you do not. If you do not then you are implying that someone else has a higher claim on you. This belief in authority has been responsible for some of the worst atrocities in history. It is the most dangerous superstition! Vacate the State!
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And, indeed, what is the State anyway but organized banditry? What is taxation but theft on a gigantic, unchecked, scale? What is war but mass murder on a scale impossible by private police forces? What is conscription but mass enslavement? Can anyone envision a private police force getting away with a tiny fraction of what States get away with, and do habitually, year after year, century after century?
Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto