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Systemic Racism, Police Brutality, and Governmental Overreach

There has been much talk lately about systemic racism.  There have been protests and riots and talks of defunding the police.  From no-knock warrants to knee-to-the-neck techniques, the training and accountability of police departments throughout our nation have come under intense scrutiny.  The multitude is screaming for change, but the movement seems to be tainted by Marxism and anti-Western sentiment.  What are we to think?

I'm not here to say whether systemic racism exists.  With the historical and modern examples of injustice against blacks and other people groups, it seems logical to affirm that there is an element of truths to these claims.  On the other hand, not every injustice against a black person is racially motivated, nor is systemic racism the answer to every inequality between different cultures and classes in our society, so we should be careful not to push that narrative past the limits of facts and reason.  This is a conversation that requires nuance and respect, two things that seem to be in short supply these days.  That is a conversation for another day.

What I want to discuss today is another, and perhaps the primary, issue underlying police brutality--governmental overreach.  As a general rule, we in the United States are overregulated.  We are regulated and taxed and fined and penalized, etc.  We have to have a permit to build on our own land, or to hunt, to fish, etc.  We're so overregulated that we don't even think about it anymore.  We're so overregulated that we embraced the closure of our economies and the violation of our rights for a virus about which we knew very little.

This government intervention in our lives is at least a part of the problem.  I don't want to distract from any valid class or race issues that may exist, but you can't fix the problem if you haven't properly identified all of the contributing factors.  Governmental overreach is at least a significant part of the problem, and it has largely gone unnoticed.  Governmental overreach is a systemic problem that underlies police brutality in the United States.

I feel bad for police officers.  I grew up wanting to be a cop, and I still think it would be a rewarding career, but it would be difficult to do their job in good conscience in many places in America today.  You see, cops don't make the silly laws they are required to enforce.  They aren't the ones who wrote the laws criminalizing marijuana or setting arbitrary speed limits.  They aren't the ones who outlawed the sale of raw milk or the collection of rainwater.   They aren't the ones who created thousands and thousands of laws that make it utterly impossible for normal people to go through their lives without infringing in some way upon one regulation or another.  They aren't the ones who shut down our States and made it illegal to get a haircut, play in the park, and walk on the beach.  They are simply the ones who have to enforce those laws.

Unfortunately, we have voted ourselves into this position.  The majority of citizens in our nation fear a world without government overreach.  We like to complain when we don't get to do what we want to do, but we really long to be coddled by Uncle Sam.  The responsibility of self-regulation is simply too scary.  We cannot fathom a world where the government, federal, state, or local, is not integrally involved in every aspect of our lives.  If the government doesn't do it, we assume, then it cannot possibly get done.  Without government schools, the masses would go uneducated, right?  If the government didn't build the roads, on what would we drive?  If the government didn't build parks, they wouldn't exist, right?  We are all closet Socialists.

Furthermore, because we have created an environment that presumes government intervention, our civil institutions often attract and/or create an attitude of superiority and condescension.  As someone who interacts with local health departments on a regular basis, I can assure you that many (though certainly not all) government employees have an inflated sense of self-worth.  Much like the average American citizen, they simply can't envision a world where anything gets accomplished without some regulatory bureaucracy being involved.  Career government employees often enter with and/or develop a savior complex, firmly believing that it is their job to solve our problems, to protect us from ourselves, and to keep us from making any decisions that might harm us.

Another recent news story illustrates this same principle.  The Supreme Court handed down a ruling regarding LBGT employment rights, one which portends a fierce battle for churches in the years to come.  The Internet is full of people arguing over whether or not the ruling was correct, but few are asking the correct question: why is Uncle Sam involved at all?  Why does the government have anything to do with hiring, firing, etc?  Governmental overreach is so pervasive that we now assume the Federal government's right to dictate the personnel decisions made by private business owners.

If we really want to eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, police brutality, limiting government is the first step.  Don't misunderstand me.  I am not proposing that we eliminate police departments, nor am I denying that we should reexamine the training that police officers receive and the regulations that leave them unaccountable.  I am suggesting, however, that we trim the penal code that encourages the pervasive police presence in our lives.  Imagine how many fewer encounters with police there would be in a less-regulated society!  Imagine how many encounters that escalated into violent episodes could have been avoided altogether without pointless invasions of personal liberty!

It is simply mystifying that so many people are calling to replace police officers with alternative government institutions and programs, as if more government could possibly be the answer to abuses by government employees.  There seems to be an inherent philosophical inconsistency amongst the #defundthepolice mindset.  If you really want to eliminate abuse by police officers, you have to go to the root of the problem.  Police officers are hired to enforce the will of the Legislature.  Police brutality is a symptom of an overregulated society, and you will not heal the symptom until you cure the disease.

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