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10/14/08
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June 22,
2005 Why? Because the guy was a bum and a panhandler, and I've had a my fill of them. My record is being hit up four times in one block by aggressive and sometimes hostile panhanders, whom I just ignore and walk around. Because of this, I am a great believer in the "broken window" theory -- if the police take care of the minor stuff, then the major stuff doesn't happen very much. And one of those "minor things" I am absolutely opposed to is panhandling. The"broken window" theory is the hypothesis that if a small crime is allowed, then big ones will follow. If a window in a building is not repaired, then it's open season for vandals to break the rest of the windows. When it was put into effect in New York city, when the cops cracked down on "sqeegee men" who would clean car windows at a stoplight and then demand payment, and those who didn't pay for the subway by hopping the turnstyles, major crimes dropped. Speaking of squeegee men, a woman I know refused to pay him, so he flipped her windshield wipers up so they were standing on end on the glass, then walked away. That is the kind of "minor" crimes the police should take care of. In my hometown I could have whacked the guy and the cops would have arrested him for assaulting me. But big-city cops don't do that much. They probably would have arrested me for hitting him. I was walking through a parking lot to my car, when I noticed a cop out of his car, talking to what is these days called "a street person." To me, they're just bums. The guy was deeply tanned, raggedly dressed, and had unkempt hair and an even more unkempt beard -- the kind that grew down the front his throat to his clavicles. I wouldn't be surprised if he'd never had a job in his life. Then pow, the guy runs. The cop took off after him, but I knew he would never catch him. The cop was about 220 pounds, and weighed down with his bulletproof vest and all the rest of the stuff they carry. The runner was about 5'9", maybe 145 pounds. He was heading toward an opening in a fence, about 10 feet from me. I didn't even think about it; I just acted impulsively. I got up enough speed in that 10 feet to hit this guy broadside with all 180 pounds of me and smash him up against the fence with my left shoulder. It was a perfect block. If I had missed him he would have been out the opening and gone. I hit him as hard as I could, and saw him grimace and grunt with pain as I squished him against the fence. I am a bad athlete, because I have short legs (I look like Marvin the Martian when I run -- legs a blur, but I don't go anywhere). But I have a big body, and when I can get going, when I hit someone with all that mass, I can always hurt him. And it didn't bother me in the slightest I had hurt the guy. About a second after I had pinned the guy against the fence the cop got his mitts on him and threw him down and cuffed him. It was just like an episode of "Cops," the way he tossed him down. Too bad none of it was videotaped. I'd get a copy and show it to everyone. You know what the guy did? He complained, "Why are you treating me like this? What did I do?" Is that what they always say, "What did I do?" The cop told him, "We've been looking for you for a long time. You're a panhandler, this is federal property, and you know you're not supposed to be on it." The one word, "property," says everything that anyone needs to know. Panhandlers, in fact all criminals, don't respect private property. They think they are have right to go anywhere they want, and harass anyone they want to. I've lost count of the number of times I'm been hit up at gas stations by bums. Private property? What's that to them? Two more cops showed up from the inside of the building, walking toward the bum as he denied he was a panhandler and still whining about his treatment. I got in my car and left. I am no fan of the cops. The way I see it, if we got rid of 75% of them and armed everyone, crime would drop about 80%. Most police spend way too much time running speed traps or giving out parking tickets to fill the city's coffers. And when I go into the local gas station/convenience store late at night, there're always half a dozen of them loafing around. But then, on the other hand, when someone runs from a cop, I'll bet 99.9999% of the time, they've done something they shouldn't have. The only problem I had with the whole episode is the cop grabbing the guy because he was panhandling on federal property (it was a VA hospital). I don't see the cops rousting pandhandlers on city property. I once called the cops because two people were fighting in my front yard and what I got 15 minutes later was a fat female cop casually driving up and then ignoring the whole thing. As for the VA hospital, it sounds like a case of the feds applying laws to themselves while ignoring the rest of the country. I have no idea what happened to the guy. Arresting him wouldn't do much good. Personally, I'm a great believer in the cops pounding such people, telling them, "You stay away from here, because every time we catch you here you'll get beat up," then sending them on their way. My experience with criminals is that they are impulsive, not very bright, don't respect people's rights, and can't be reasoned with. What they do understand is a nightstick upside the head. In other words, a bit of violence. Forget the court system. Just knock the guy around and kick him loose. He'll learn his lesson sooner or later, which he won't while in jail getting a free meal and a free place to sleep. Did I offend the libertarian Zero-Aggression Principle, in which you're not supposed to do anything physically to someone who hasn't done anything to you? Yes, I did. What was I supposed to do? Stand there and watch the scum run? What if he was a murderer or rapist? How was I supposed to know what he did? How can anyone think I can time for calm reflection in a fraction of a second? There used to be a time, not so long ago, when cities had Boweries. The bums were forced to live there. They were eradicated, in the naive liberal belief if you got ride of the Boweries, the bums would disappear. Instead they wandered through entire cities, harassing citizens and causing trouble. When bums left the Bowery, the cops smacked them and sent them right back. We need Boweries again. Under a system of natural liberty, there will always be a Bowery. There will always be bums, because not all people want to work and improve their position. There will always be bums, drug addicts and winos who want to sink to the bottom, even if there are people and organizations who want to pull them up. A system of natural liberty and the free market minimizes the amount of these people, and for those who want to sink to the bottom, they can stay in the company of their own, removed from the hard-working and the law-abiding. My left
shoulder is a bit sore. But hey, it was worth it. (Editor's note: In a truly free society there would be no need for this. Since everything would be private property, there would be nowhere for such a "bum" to go, no way to get food or anything else unless someone gave him charity. Charity would have definite strings attached, and he would have to choose between starvation and learning responsibility. Those who chose a life of crime would not live long. It is incredibly dangerous to put the power of initiation of violence into the hands of anyone, but even more so those who love violence and pretend to be our betters: the police are NOT our servants, and never will be. MamaLiberty)
Lew Rockwell See Bob's archives there. |
Archives Bad Fantasies to Worse Realities Schoolgirl Tazered for Playing 'Scissors, Paper, Rock' Those Comforting but Dangerous Stories See Dick. See Jane. See-- Argh! Clang! Clang! Clang! The Mind of the Political Terrorist Those Pesky Natural Socialists Biff! Baff! Pow! Let's be Fascists Now! Complete Archives for Bob Wallace
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