Tag Archives: police

Rightful Liberty Versus Both Police Abuses and BLM Violence

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All lives matter, including black lives, and it’s great to attempt to remedy inequities in how our society values people. Such noble ends have been proclaimed by Black Lives Matter, but BLM protestors have engaged in terribly-counterproductive means, such as pillaging-and-burning while attempting to foment a violent Marxist revolution. Their violence even touched Provo yesterday, as some rioters committed attempted murder and property damage. Such destruction does not build both unity and mutual respect, but it can help victims (whether real or fancied) to become oppressors.

Both tyrants and criminals feel emboldened whenever public officers do nothing. And some have readily accused Provo police of “standing down” under orders from Mayor Kaufusi; however, this author has not yet seen any credible evidence to support these claims. Although we have definitely criticized the mayor (and her predecessor) for many statist policies, we desire to comment ONLY about things that she has actually done, and not about imaginary grievances. And we also like to applaud her when we notice her getting things right. So, at this time, we express our gratitude that (unlike some other mayors) she has NOT treated such crimes with astounding permissiveness. Or proposed bad policies (yet) in response, as far as we’ve noticed.

Unfortunately, responding with bad policy is something that we will need to counteract in the near future. Marxists have repeatedly employed a “pincers” movement of applying pressure from both above and below—for example, they will use street groups to foment riots and then use politicians to propose bills that allegedly address rioters’ concerns but that actually further the Marxist agenda. Which is arguably why some federal politicians are now considering legislation that would begin to nationalize our local police officers. Police nationalization, along dumbing-down and militarization, is part of the long-term Marxist agenda for our nation. Such dangerous trends would render our local peace officers more like a federal standing army that some aspiring Caesar could potentially wield to subjugate our nation from within.

National police are normal in totalitarian regimes, but are antithetical to free societies. Ideally, with respect to our fellow mortals, we should each be kings or queens of our own figurative castles, and nobody else’s, free to love/serve God and our neighbors according to the dictates of our own respective consciences. Whether or not we choose Him as our Master, the state should NOT be our master but our servant, with the specialized duty of expertly helping us to defend our equal God-given rights from others’ aggression so that we may remain free. The state’s larger jurisdictions exist NOT to rule but only to serve the smaller jurisdictions within themselves, of which the smallest units are individual households.

So, to preserve a free society, we need to actively oppose efforts to nationalize and dumb-down and militarize our local peace officers, including by electing like-minded municipal officers. Politicians who incentivize our police to wantonly behave like brutal thugs will only give increased legitimacy to anarchic BLM rioters, which will only provide further excuses to corrupt politicians to enact counterproductive reforms, thereby perpetuating a vicious cycle toward tyranny. As in the movie “WarGames” (1983), the only way to win such a power struggle is to NOT participate in it. Let’s keep this cycle broken by actively promoting liberty, instead, along with peace, respect, and the value of EVERY human life, whether black or blue or both or neither.

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Provo’s Budget for FY 2021

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Provo’s city council recently adopted a budget for fiscal year 2021, which was reduced somewhat due to the COVID19 pandemic of 2020.

During this budgeting process, some citizens advocated defunding Provo’s police force in response to recent incidents of local police abusing their power to violate citizens’ rights. These calls derive from valid concerns because police, like other public officers, should act within the limits of their delegated authority (including due process) to expertly help people to defend their equal God-given rights from others’ aggression. And it’s sad when police become aggressors themselves. Such trends toward police aggression are arguably facilitated by ongoing nationwide efforts to nationalize and dumb-down and militarize our local peace officers. Such a national police force could be used as a standing army to conquer our nation from within, and is a normal part of totalitarian regimes. We should resist such trends, including abuse of our local SWAT team, but we should definitely NOT eliminate our police force. So, I applaud our city officers for rejecting such calls.

What they should actually defund—or, better yet, privatize—is most everything else in Provo’s municipal budget. As we’ve noted before, Provo’s city-owned businesses include a redevelopment agency, a power company, an airport, a television channel, a library, a performing arts center, a recreation center, a fitness center, a golf course, an ice rink, a water park, a beach, a park service, a gun range, a garbage-collection service, a recycling service, and a cemetery, none of which are involved in defending our rights. It would be better for Provo’s municipal officers to spin off all of these divisions fully into the private sector, and then sever all lingering ties with them. As competitive private enterprises, these former agencies would become far more innovative and efficient and effective, serving customers better—and simultaneously allowing public officers to focus better on defending rights, and perhaps also on a few other tasks like maintaining local roads. It’s always easier for public officers to focus on performing their core duties well whenever they aren’t needlessly overwhelming themselves with excessive responsibility over other parts of our local economy. And our economy always works best whenever politicians stop trying to subjugate it to their will and, instead, simply help defend everyone’s equal God-given rights from others’ aggression.

But such structural change won’t happen without electoral change. For at least 20 years, Provo’s public officers have remained rather enamored with big government. And this is partly because Provo’s municipal elections have remained dominated year-after-year by big-government voters. And they prevail NOT because they constitute a large percentage of Provo’s population, but because most voters don’t bother to participate. So, we who value our rightful liberty need to change this sad status quo. We won’t reverse these statist trends unless we grow our ranks in both numbers and effectiveness. And there’s no time like the present to begin—so, please make a plan and implement it.

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