Friday, January 9, 2009

A Reminder of What Gang is in Charge (Roger Young)

Roger Young on the lessons learned from observing an obscenely long funeral procession for a police officer:

A Dallas police officer was shot and killed this week while serving a warrant. A tragedy, to be sure, particularly since the officer had a record of mentoring youth to keep them out of trouble. But any grief is tempered by the immensely huge funeral procession that accompanied the dead officer. Humility has never been a vitrue for the those working in law enforcement. Public expositions such as this bring to mind the reality of the relationship between the state and the individual.

The police don’t exist to protect individuals. The police exist to serve the needs of the state and collect its revenue. The police will continually remind us just who matters most (it’s not you) and just who is in charge (it’s definitely not you). Today’s obscenely ostentatious display of pomp and public expense illustrates that well.

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