Why Create Government?
– By Tom Garrison –
Why do humans create government? A variety of reasons. Think a bit more, and the paramount goal becomes clear. Governments are created to ensure the safety of their citizens—both personal safety and the safety of property.
If a rather high degree of safety for people and property does not exist, you won’t have much of a society. This is not a modern idea. The founding fathers of our republic understood the necessity for public safety. More than 235 years ago, at the founding of our republic, John Jay, one of the authors of The Federalist Papers, noted in The Federalist #3:
Among the many objects to which wise and free people find it necessary to direct their attention, that of providing for their safety seems to be the first.
At present, I mean only to consider it as it respects security for the preservation of peace and tranquility, as well as against dangers from foreign arms and influence. . .
Public safety—the paramount goal of civil society—depends on the arrest, conviction, and punishment of criminals. The rule of law requires the even-handed application of duly enacted laws.
Until the last couple of decades, Americans, absent the miscreants and criminals, clearly had a strong consensus that lawlessness and crime were morally bad. Crime and lawlessness, of course, fluctuated over the decades, but virtually no one thought crime was a good thing or something to be casually dismissed. Unfortunately, under the relentless attack by leftists and their fellow travelers in the Democrat Party, academia, and media, that consensus no longer exists. Removing civilizational underpinnings of safety for people and property creates social turmoil that leftists hope to exploit.
One may say, “Surely you are exaggerating.” Really? Let’s look at examples from the “defund the police” and its concomitant “go easy on criminals and to hell with victims” era of the last few years in Democrat-run large US cities, often the result of “woke” prosecutors.
For example, homicide rates have risen by an average of roughly 10% in 45 of the most populated US cities between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2023. What happened in the first quarter of 2021—President Biden took office. The top five homicide rates per capita are: Memphis, TN; New Orleans, LA; Baltimore, MD; St. Louis, MO; and Detroit, MI. Gosh, what do they all have in common? All are controlled by the Democrat Party and have been for many years.
Here’s one that, if it weren’t so typical of stupid leftist thinking, would be funny. In August 2023, Chicago, following the lead of other Democrat-controlled major cities, sued auto manufacturers Hyundai and Kia because these manufacturers had not installed anti-hot-wiring technology in their vehicles. It seems as though too many of these cars were being stolen.
Chicago had 21,516 reported auto thefts in 2022, up from 13,856 the previous year—a 55% increase.
The city never mentions the real cause of car thefts—car thieves. If car thieves did not steal cars, then one would not even have to lock their vehicle. No matter how hard or easy it is to steal a vehicle, the onus of responsibility is on the thief—not car manufacturers and not owners who forget to lock their cars. Pretty simple.
A relatively rare non-leftist Democrat, Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, recently said about socialists and ultra-progressives regarding their approach to crime:
… things like robbery, burglary, arson, assault, even threatening elected officials like myself do not warrant you being held on bond anymore in the state of Illinois, and criminals are taking note. They have become emboldened, and the deafening cry demanding change is not heard by the politicians.
Maybe Chicago-elected politician Lopez has it wrong. Well, three years ago, at the height of the “defund the police” movement, 81% of black Americans and 88% of white Americans wanted police presence to remain the same or increased in their area, according to a nationwide Gallup Poll.
And nearly two years ago, Jamie McBride, the head of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers, said:
My message to anyone thinking about coming to Los Angeles, especially during the holiday season, is don’t.
We can’t guarantee your safety. It is really, really out of control. I said it to people before it’s like that movie ‘Purge,’ you know, instead of 24 hours to commit your crime, these people have 365 days to commit whatever they want.
Until the last few years, it was unheard of for retail outlets to close stores in major cities due to safety concerns. Now, it is quite common.
In 2021, Walgreens closed five stores in San Francisco. Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso said:
Organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that. Retail theft across our San Francisco stores has continued to increase in the past few months to five times our chain average. During this time to help combat this issue, we increased our investments in security measures in stores across the city to 46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.
Two years later, in September 2023, Target announced it was closing nine stores in four states saying theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers. Not surprisingly, the stores include one in East Harlem in New York City, two locations in Seattle, three stores in Portland, Oregon, two in San Francisco, and one in Oakland, California. All these cities have long been dominated by the Democrat Party.
Another obvious aspect of public safety is control of US international borders.
The number of encounters along the southern border in September totaled 269,735, far greater than the 232,963 and 183,479 encounters that were reported in August and July, respectively according to CBP (US Customs and Border Patrol) data. September also marks the end of FY 2023 (the fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30), during which border encounters totaled 2,475,669, as opposed to 2,378,944 and 1,734,686 in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Our porous border is almost entirely a result of President Biden’s lackadaisical attitude toward the US southern border. Illegal aliens pour into the country. What’s the result of this attitude?
For one thing, fentanyl deaths have risen dramatically in the past few years. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Like other opioids, fentanyl use can lead to dependency and addiction. Most illicit fentanyl is made in labs outside the country and smuggled across the US-Mexico border.
In 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose, nearly 200 every day, in the US, more than double the amount of deaths from three years prior in 2019. Fentanyl deaths have increased every year for the past decade. Having a real border control policy, which leftists and their Democratic Party puppets abhor, would not eliminate fentanyl deaths, but would certainly reduce them.
How about murders and sexual assaults by criminal noncitizens (preferred term of the CBP)? According to the CBP criminal noncitizens refers to noncitizens who have been convicted of crime, whether in the United States or abroad, so long as the conviction is for conduct deemed criminal by the United States. Absent extenuating circumstances, criminal noncitizens encountered at ports of entry are denied admissible.
The CBP reported 29 convictions of criminal noncitizens for homicide/manslaughter in fiscal year (FY) 2023. The total was 62 in FY 2022 and 50 in FY 2021. There were 284 sexual assault convictions in FY 2023, 365 in FY 2022, and 488 in FY 2021.
Prior to President Biden taking office in January 2021, the murders never exceeded single digits, and sexual assaults never topped 156. Unless criminal noncitizens are suddenly more murderous and prone to sexual assault (very doubtful), this dramatic rise can be attributed totally to the open door policy favored by leftists, many Democrats, and President Biden
Well, you say, those numbers are pretty small in a country of 330 million. True, but consider that none of this would have taken place if the criminal noncitizens were not in the country. In the last three years hundreds of people died and were sexually assaulted because criminal noncitizens invaded the US. How would you feel if the person killed or sexually assaulted by someone who should not even be in the country was a friend or relative?
Leftists love to make excuses for criminal behavior. They will never touch the truth about criminal behavior—every criminal act is an individual choice. The thief stealing from a store made a choice to do so. The thug killing someone, decided to take that action. It didn’t just happen. How many people committing criminal acts were forced to do so? I imagine that number is zero. Whatever happened to clear thinking in government and personal responsibility in individuals?
References
Channick, Robert. “Chicago Sues Car Manufacturers Over Skyrocketing Auto Theft.” Governing website. August 25, 2023. https://www.governing.com/community/chicago-sues-car-manufacturers-over-skyrocketing-auto-theft
D’innocenzio, Anne. “Target to Close 9 Stores, Including 3 in the San Francisco Bay Area, Citing Safety Concerns. Associated Press website. September 26, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/target-theft-store-closures-national-retail-federation-2355eb9fa3f323e13691d6061bb81019
Hamilton, Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. Introduction by Clinton Rossiter. The Federalist Papers. New York, NY. The New American Library. 1961.
KCAL News website. “We Can’t Guarantee Your Safety: Head of LAPD’s Police Officers’ Union Warns Tourists Away.” December 7, 2021. https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/we-cant-guarantee-your-safety-head-of-lapds-police-officers-union-warns-tourists-away/
Kessler, Will. “Southern Border Sees More Migrant Encounters in September Than Ever Before,” Daily Caller website. October 21, 2023. https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/21/southern-border-sees-more-migrant-encounters-september-ever-before/?pnespid=q_F2GnUcJrpF1_eb.zPoDJ6WsE2gS54vNPe3mPZ4r01mnTTl_hn9fa64lNZBAiGcY0WHi2nThA
Rigolizzo, John. “Walgreens Now Closing Stores In San Francisco Following Retail Theft Spike.” Daily Wire website. October 13, 2021. https://www.dailywire.com/news/walgreens-now-closing-stores-in-san-francisco-following-retail-theft-spike?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=benshapiro&fbclid=IwAR0Nl7tF9IaCn8BDKLPHZw4rDAxRD2kCqB-rZNBY5-nFRN6_TPHDr5kPGmY
Roebuck, Sarah. “Report Ranks U.S. Cities with Increased Homicide Rates in 2023.” Police 1 website. April 27, 2023. https://www.police1.com/crime-prevention/articles/report-ranks-us-cities-with-increased-homicide-rates-in-2023-BeaNzXzmnnVlAw3b/
Saad, Lyndia. “Black Americans Want Police to Retain Local Presence.” Gallup website. August 5, 2020. https://news.gallup.com/poll/316571/black-americans-police-retain-local-presence.aspx#%3A~%3Atext%3DEighty-two%20percent%20of%20those%2Cpresence%3B%2018%25%20want%20less.
Urbanski, Dave. “ ‘Chicago Democrat Leader Rips ‘Socialists,’ ‘Ultra Progressives’ Who Turn Blind Eye to Violent Crime in City” Innocent People are Being Hunted Down Like Prey.” The Blaze website. October 2, 2023. https://www.theblaze.com/news/chicago-democrat-leader-rips-socialists-ultra-progressives-who-turn-blind-eye-to-violent-crime-in-city-innocent-people-are-being-hunted-down-like-prey
USA Facts website. “Are Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Rising in the US?” September 27, 2023. https://usafacts.org/articles/are-fentanyl-overdose-deaths-rising-in-the-us/
US Customs and Border Protection website. “CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2023.” Last modified October 21, 2023. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics
US Customs and Border Protection website, “Criminal Noncitizen Statistics Fiscal Year 2023.” Last modified October 21, 2023. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics/criminal-noncitizen-statistics
