Well that saying goes on with ‘spoiles the bunch’, and that’s exactly what we’re seeeing. To much bad apples left alone, now the whole bunch is spoiled.

True, but to a lesser extent than it seems is suggested. Taking basic precautions can greatly lessen the exposure to such events (defensive driving rather than just hugging bumpers; hardening your house with motion lights, decent windows and entryways, not having your big screen visible from your front window, perhaps getting a dog or two), which in turn lessens any chance of interacting with law enforcement.

Further, such interactions are not necessarily a dependency. When most people think of police, they think of robber-catching, murder-stopping, scumbag-cuffing activities. Those are precisely the activities which cops are least capable of performing to most folks’ expectations, usually because the average person has had no or little interaction with law enforcement at all. The responsible individual at or very near the crime scene is best suited for such defensive activity.

Until we make these people very uncomfortable having these jobs, they’ll continue to sleep well at night.

If they come home each night, and the spouse and kids ask why everyone hates them, maybe they’ll change.

But then again, maybe they won’t.

Technically, that’s not vigilante justice. What most societies had was a legal system with no professional law enforcement. England had the sheriffs, but no full time police force beyond that aside from whatever armed men were retained by the local nobility.

Your point, however, stands aside from that. What we need today is to break the monopoly on law enforcement. A local PI should have the same arrest authority as a local police officer. Ideally, local police would have to go through the sheriff, not their own authority, to bring people to a prosecutor.

Privatizing local law enforcement should be one of the top priorities of conservatives and libertarians. The only positions that should be staffed full time should be the sheriff’s office, highway patrol and border guards.

Respect for civil authority (in the modern sense) is the primary cause of these sorts of problems, and needs to go.

Societies have gotten by just fine without cops in the past. They’ll be fine without them in the future. People often wax paranoid about the dangers of vigilante justice, but truth is, vigilantes (the law enforcement mechanism of the vast majority of societies that have existed) have historically been better about things like due process and not abusing suspects (or, hell, non-suspects) than professional minders with legal immunity. Where vigilante-run legal systems have been worse than what we have tended to have more to do with the content of the laws being enforced than the law enforcement mechanism, so it’s not really something that can be pinned on the difference in enforcement mechanisms.

Wish that there was another option, a “Fair Witness” perhaps. But if wishes were horses….

@28 – Dante: Too true. Anymore that looks to be the most reasonable course of action for anybody in a costume that sports a badge.

And that’s not going to happen when the authorities tell us that we have no right to resist unlawful arrest. Cops want to beat the crap out of you? They’re not “beating” you, they’re “arresting” you, and you’re “resisting”.

Staring them down when confronted about recording isn’t the answer; that’s a fight your going to lose. You need to not get caught in the first place, escape with the video, and plaster it all over the place.

@27 One day soon, one of these videos (streamed to YouTube via Qik) will end with the miscreant in uniform having his grey matter scattered to the four winds. On that day I will toast the unseen patriot.

@28 What’s the difference between a police department and a street gang? Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

1. Get our own heads straight, as necessary. There can be a lot of conflicting cobwebs in the brain, and it takes work to clear them out and arrive at a self-consistent philosophy.

2. Spread the word. When a critical mass of understanding is reached, things will change.

3. Be prepared for a situation in which we are called upon to record. That means carrying a recording device (cell phone, camera with video capability, etc.) and pulling it out and using it when necessary. AND, staring down any cop who tries to get us to delete a recording “voluntarily” to avoid further trouble.