There was something that took me far, far longer to accept as bad when it came to critiquing the state than everything else. Looking back at it, it pains me that it took me this long to accept because it is the physical manifestation of Government power. Their armed guard in civilian life. The most basic and fundamental expression of violence from the State. Their mid-lane defense. The police. | Alex Utopium, editor

It is easy to call something indoctrination, brainwashing or manipulation – especially when you are constantly fed the same narrative from different sources. I’ve tried to soul-seek why it was this hard to shrug off and the simplest answer I’ve found was: “I had the perspective wrong”. I will try and share my new perspective with you.

What the police are not.

When you try and come to grips with something, the easiest way is to find the negatives. What something is not is easier to de-obfuscate and pin down. The first and perhaps the most important part is the identification that the police are not there to protect you.

The job of the policeman is to uphold law produced by legislators. That is, the police officer is concerned with protecting the law – not you. Unless you invented and implemented the law that the officer is currently arresting you for, you didn’t make that law and are not necessarily agreeing with it. That is beside the point for the police force, they are only interested in following their job description and letting others sort out later if it was right or wrong.

This is the reason why you can do something good for society, yet still get arrested. Unpasteurized milk is one of the most nutritious and calorie dense drinks you can get your hands on, making it ideal for cancer-patients that need a boost as the mutating cells grow – but selling it is against the law. You will stand trial for doing it. You will get arrested by an officer. You will get fined and put into jail.

It is true though that some laws are designed to protect you, it doesn’t change the fact that if changed, the police officers will still follow and uphold the law because that is their job. If they don’t do it, they are no longer officers of the law. The German Ordnungspolizei during World War II is a typical example of how the rules can change, yet the work description remains the same.

The police cannot bargain with the Government, the police officer alone cannot decide which laws to enforce and which ones to skip over – Maybe a very locally based officer can have this sort of Robin Hood-attitude for a while, but the state protects itself against these renegades by internal review bureaucrats, colleagues, higher ranking officers and as a last resort: The State is funding the police force. If someone is stripped off their paycheck and pension, there is very little motivation for “Protecting and serving” left. At least in a police uniform.

On the other hand, as a group the police force, together with the so-called justice department, can decide which laws they can go against, for a perceived gain. When the Norwegian police got caught smuggling and selling 50 kilos of hashish (that later got sold on the streets), the gangster that paid for the drug smuggling said in court that he could never get that much drugs across the Norwegian borders without the assistance of the police.

The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty. – Ludwig von Mises

What you think the police should do is not what they practice.

It is a perfect system of control – the State needs to loot productive value out of the citizens because that is the basis of its power. Their armed forces are the way they collect it, in the end. There are tax collectors that act as the middleman, but when push comes to shove and the revenue starts to shrink it is boots on the ground, batons in hand.

When you make crimes out of tax-dodging, failing to pay for property taxes (a tax on living on land) and such things and you have an army ready to collect? You have a powerful tool and through rhetoric, you can justify arresting people for the misdeed of not complying with the overlords. “It is for the greater good of all that you get arrested for not agreeing with paying your fee on living. It is promoting social order“.

And sure, there is some merit to that point. Ii is a form of social order. But, is it really a social order we can, deep down, agree with? I hope not.

– ALEX UTOPIUM Scandinavian anti-establishment blogger, editor for the Utopium Blog. Counter-economics, agorist-separatism and Free Market advocate.