Yesterday, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey was booed, heckled and told to "get the fuck out of here" after he refused to defund and abolish the Minneapolis Police Department at a Black Lives Matter protest.
Frey then left the protest his head hung in shame as the protesters chanted, "Go Home Jacob, Go Home!!!" It has been deemed a walk of shame for Frey and this might very well be the beginning of the end of his life in politics. But I believe the shame belongs to Black Lives Matters for their incivility, impracticality and intolerance.
I think what Frey ought to have done is take back the microphone and said, "Fine. I'll leave in a moment. But let me ask a question of my own. If we abolished the Minneapolis PD tomorrow and you were attacked in your home then who would you call for help?"
Mic drop.
BLM and their so-called progressive allies should be careful for what they wish. If there were no police there would still be a 911 to call for fire and ambulance. But to whom would one report a crime being committed against yourself, a member of your family or a friend and neighbor?
For all intents and purposes, with no police department there is no crime because there is no one to enforce the law and to protect the public. Which would also mean there are no criminal courts where people can be held to account for their unlawful actions. With no police and no courts one could steal, vandalize, beat, rape and murder with impunity.
Absent the police what recourse would people have to protect themselves and their property from harm? For starters, more people would arm themselves and those people who are already armed would arm themselves some more. Of course, there's a good chance that those who wish to harm you, your family and your home will have more guns than you.
In which case, we could expect the growth of gangs and militias to enforce the law of the streets. These gangs and militias need money to sustain themselves. In which case the people whom they protect would be required to pay a rather expensive tribute. Failure to pay this tribute would result in destruction of property as well as injury or death to you and your family and there is nothing you could do about it. The gangs and militias would be a law unto themselves. And when the gangs and militias weren't busy using violence against the populace they would fight among themselves.
To quote Thomas Hobbes, life would be "nasty, brutish and short."
Before Frey was unceremoniously told to fuck off, one of the protesters indicated that Frey was up for re-election next year. Those BLM protesters in Minneapolis might be perfectly content to vote out Jacob Frey in favor of a mayoral candidate who promises to defund and abolish the police. But once that candidate becomes mayor he or she is not going to abolish the police much less cut their budget. Of course, it is entirely possible that Minneapolis could end up with a mayor far more vigorously committed to law and order and BLM might wonder why they ever turned on Frey.
German political scientist Max Weber was right when he wrote more than 100 years ago that the state has a "monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory". This isn't to say there shouldn't be limits to enforcing that monopoly as we saw with President Trump's desire to use active duty military to enforce domestic law in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. But to surrender that monopoly entirely would result in far more death and destruction and exacerbate racism.
This is yet another example of how easy answers are invariably the wrong answers. If nothing else, when it comes to abolishing the police, BLM should be very careful for what it wishes because they might get it and everything that comes with it.
UPDATE: The Minneapolis city council is now pledging to disband the Minneapolis PD. They state in part, "We recognize that we don’t have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like, but our community does."
A police-free future? I wonder how many people in Minneapolis will die in the name of a police-free future. Good Lord.
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