Every law put forward by the government that dictates the behavior of citizens adds another situation where police must confront citizens and enforce the law.
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We’re at an interesting impasse. The Left apparently wants to simultaneously use the arm of government to mandate the wearing of masks while calling for the dismantling, defunding, and public ridicule of those who would enforce said ban. Methinks there’s a disconnect here.
Just who, pray tell, does the Left think enforces its would-be statist demands, and, given they are so against any and all police use of force, why do they not consider that government mandates ultimately come down to someone with a gun telling a citizen what to do?
This all stems from the fundamental disconnect of progressive thought. They believe the government can be a tool wielded for the progression of society (hence why they are progressives). If there is anything unjust, inequitable, or amiss in society, progressives believe the government is uniquely positioned, through authority and means, to address such situations. Many progressives go so far as to assert that all good things in society inevitably flow from government intercession in one way or another (remember Obama’s “You didn’t build that” speech).
But here’s the problem. The exercise of government power is ultimately coercion by the state. Dennis, despite his conflict theory eccentricities, was not wrong when he stated there was “violence inherent in the system”:
Every law, every rule, every regulation, and, indeed, every act or order that comes from the government is ultimately enforced by the willingness to exercise violence and coercion against those who fail to comply. Whether through actual physical force and restraint, incarceration, or monetary punishment, all legislation includes consequences for failure to obey the law.
And yet, when progressives right a law to mandate certain behaviors they see as beneficial to society as a whole, they give no thought to the added brick and mortar they’ve laid upon the wall of the supposed police state they claim to abhor. Because, ultimately, the police are the arm of government that responds to immediate violations of law. Hence the term law enforcement.
Specific to the idea of mandating the wearing of masks, it is going to be uniformed police officers who will have to interact with citizens who are failing to comply. Sure, most of these interactions will be informational and conclude with no exertion of force. Presumably, however, some of these interactions will be confrontational, either through the officer’s demeanor or the citizen’s hostile response, and there will be situations that devolve towards the use of force. It stands to reason that some of these citizens will be African Americans, and it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that another George Floyd scenario could play out over the enforcement of a mask mandate.
If advocates on the Left are serious about decreasing the use of force by police, especially against African Americans, then they need to start recognizing that every law they put forward that dictates the behavior of citizens adds another situation where police must confront citizens and enforce the law.
Public opinion is often hard to change, and its tempting to take the seemingly easy path of mandating behaviors instead of making well-reasoned and consistent arguments in the free market of ideas. But passing a law does not wave a magic wand and immediately change prevailing attitudes. If public opinion remains against policy, then the public will engage in noncompliance, and noncompliance is going to be met with consequences at the hands of public officials, which, in most immediate circumstances, is the police.
Otherwise, a law has no teeth and simply amounts to virtue signaling which couldn’t possibly be what’s going on here, could it?
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