photog’s Republic – Part 4

I said at the end of the third installment that we need to continue with the clean-up program. A lot will have to be fixed to get us back to a sane place to live.  Ain’t that the truth!

And the epicenters of this dysfunction are the urban centers.  Think of the states that are typically considered the red states and would probably be included in Goodenoughia; Missouri, Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, etc.  Some of the large cities in these states are war zones.  There are permanent populations that do not work and live off of welfare and crime of various types and are basically illiterate and anti-social.  These areas are the headquarters of criminal organizations that sell narcotics and engage in human trafficking of various sorts.  And since the George Floyd riots the police have abdicated responsibility for protecting the remaining portions of the urban population from these criminal elements.

This must be corrected.

First and foremost, the authority of the police must be reestablished.  The governors and legislatures of the effected states must produce laws that allow emergency powers to round up the worst and most dangerous criminals and take them permanently off the streets.  After that “broken windows” policing must be reestablished.  The ghettos need to be as safe as the business district.  All of this will require a very large prison system.  That is just the price of being a society.  And it makes sense for the prison system be as technologically advanced as possible to eliminate as much of the prison violence as is practical.  One thing that might help is restoring capital punishment for repeat violent offenders.  It would be a kindness to everyone.

So, there’s the band aid.  Now to attack the underlying problem.  Welfare does not need to be reformed.  It needs to be eliminated.  The idea is if you don’t work you don’t eat.  Certainly, this will have to be eased into but the idea is to force useless people to become useful.  This will require a lot of creative thinking on the part of municipal authorities.  But considering the number of pot holes currently existing in urban streets, road repair comes to mind.  But however it is done, we have to end the idea that we pay people to sit around on their streets shooting each other and playing basketball.  Those that prove that they can only rob and kill will be fed into the prison system.  Everyone else will adapt.

And next in the program is school.  School for the urban poor will also have to adapt.  For the cooperative, intelligent cohort it can be the normal public school; reading, writing, arithmetic.  For the unintelligent, it can be some kind of vocational training.  Even learning to use a broom and a mop is a viable skill that has some value.  For the uncooperative there is the road to prison with a last chance in a reform school type environment.  But what is uppermost is that the kids who actually can and want to learn are separated from the cretins and criminals.

The fact that our cities have been allowed to become war zones is the clearest proof that those in charge are unfit to serve.  Any city that doesn’t quickly adopt an improvement plan like the one I’ve outlined must be taken over by the state and forced into line.  Rudy Giuliani in the late 1990s proved unmistakably that empowering the police to combat crime, head on, works.  New York City’s subsequent relapse into chaos is clear proof that the correct political orientation must also be there.  In Goodenoughia any city administrations that allow anarchy and crime to go unchecked will be impeached by the Governor and replaced by a commission to oversee the administration of law and order.  And this can become a permanent arrangement if the locals refuse to maintain order.

I consider fixing the cities the emergency action needed to restore order.  Next up I’ll think of what other changes will turn Goodenoughia into a photog’s paradise.

Updates

Glenn W

I completely agree with everything you wrote. All hail photog! I would like to add another related item. A major driver, if not THE major driver, of these societies disintegrating is the breakdown of the family. This is another thing that will take some time to reverse but most of the feminist “reforms” that have discouraged two parent families need to be dismantled. To have well adjusted children the norm must be two parent families.

The thing that I think will be very difficult to do is to re-establish trust in the police in these nearly lawless areas. There are people I trust (not BLM types!) that have told stories about some really lousy things local police have done. Truth be told, I have a neighbor that is a policeman who has anger management issues. I do not feel more safe having him so close to my home. I really and truly hope I don’t get on his bad side.

You are correct though, law enforcement is a basic function of government and it needs to be reestablished everywhere immediately.

Glenn, I know that there are some very bad cops and I have very close relatives who are very negative on the police because they feel that policing often violates protected civil liberties.  Nevertheless trying to run a large city without the police doesn’t work.  Living in a city requires certain losses of freedom by definition.

What should be easier to define is behavior that requires the perpetrators to be incarcerated.  Theft, assault, reckless endangerment; all of these trample on someone else’s rights and require someone to apply force to stop their commission.

Things like helmet cams make it easier for cops to be monitored.  It will never be a perfect system but in places like New York and Los Angeles we are learning what it means to have no police force on duty.  It doesn’t work very well.