The Harvard polymath Steven Pinker wrote about the hot debates he had with his parents from his perspective as a boneheaded teenage anarchist in Montreal in 1968.
As if on cue — to put the question to the test — the Montreal Police went on strike. In very short order the “friendly” city was in a chaos of looting, bank robbery, arson, murder and score settling. Needless to say, the young polymath drew the obvious conclusion regarding “the thin blue line” and ejected the doctrine he had so recently espoused in 18 year old — spittle spraying — vehemence !
“Defunding the police” is an anarchists dream and the attendant disasters are uncountable, especially for people of color. No doubt, even recent reductions and layoffs — like those here in Northampton — will quietly lead to a long list of issues, including citizens in dire need not being helped, unsolved crimes and of police withdrawing from their intensely heroic role.
The very first reason I willingly pay taxes is in order to “ensure domestic tranquility.” The clueless few and the cowardly — and the decidedly non-adult City Council — will never be held accountable. They will never know what the police chief knows about the repercussions of their folly.
There is something intensely curious and disturbing about the childlike radical/ utopian hive-mind, which seems to be the Valley norm. One of a litany of their otherworldly and grandiose ideas assumes that a citizenry can be so woke and evolved — like them — that the police and state are able to whither. This is an old idea which I would love to believe, but I know that it is fundamentally delusional and deranged.
Stand up to the vociferous few. They are not of sound mind and can not be bothered to think things through.
David Zimicki
Haydenville