Disarmament has certain psychological and physical effects on the men in a given society. Republics and militias are commonly associated in political history for good reason — citizens bear arms and responsibility for the defense of the republic. Depleting this relationship between the obligations of military service and the rights of citizenship has been important to the degeneration of republican principles of government, particularly in the United States.
The urban riot dynamic is a good demonstration of why the institution of the republican militia developed as a brake against tyranny. When there’s no direct link between the people who actually own the property and lead the polity and the people who have the right to use force, it creates some perverse possible incentives. In this case, the state can destroy some property to make a point, in the same way that a mafioso extorting people smashes a window, in order to raise more protection money.
In the case of the republican militia, the militia is unlikely to destroy some of its’ own members property in order to raise dues or increase the drilling obligations for the members.
The degenerative ratchet in the US is likely to continue until the militia tradition is properly restarted, as some are attempting to put into order. This is also the appropriate compromise response. Unfortunately, it’s challenging to have a proper transition in most regions. You can’t simply fire the police and instantaneously have a functioning militia ready to supplant it — the transition has to occur in a more natural way, particularly because republican character can’t be forged in a day, even when the need is dire.
Thorgeir Lawspeaker says
The police are the militia. That was Peel’s idea, anyway. Principle No. 7: “To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”
http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/policeNine.php
We’ve come a long way, in a mostly bad direction
henrydampier says
Not really possible to maintain in a diverse population and funding that comes from the Imperial capitol.
Bob Wallace says
I’ve said many times: fire 90% of the police and arm all the citizens.