BROKEN WINDOWS

The French Revolution was remarkably different than the American revolution because it was led by out of control mobs. On September 3, 1791 France adopted its first written constitution. The Legislative Assembly was replaced in August 1792 by the National Convention when radicals took control. The result was an absolute bloodbath in 1793. The National Convention adopted several things including the eradication of Christianity. It was fueled by hatred of the aristocracy and the Catholic Church. During a ten-month period, thousands of people were killed under the orders of Robespierre who dominated the Committee of Public Safely. He was executed on July 28, 1794. While reforms in France were long overdue and many of the participants had good intentions, France paid a terrible price for yielding to mob rule. Within a short period of time Napoleon Bonaparte seized power and became a dictator.

https://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution

Today we are watching another attempt to seize power by mob rule. Most of those students and the other people participating in the protest this week have only minimal understanding of the issues. Nothing being proposed will make our schools safer. I question whether the people directing this chaos have any interest in making our schools safe. They certainly are not interested in a reasoned debate. They are solely interested in seizing power and these protests show the same lack of restraint that resulted in the French revolution. Anyone who disagrees with them is demonized. If you do not support gun control legislation it is because you hate children. Opposition is not only silenced in many cases there is violent opposition.

If these mobs succeed we will soon see mobs decide every public issue. One of the first missions will be to further eradicate Christianity. When you combine this with increased pressure on the police to avoid confrontation, violence is inevitable. There is a lot more than a naïve ban on the AR15 at stake. What is at stake is the balance of power that has kept us free for over 250 years. Our revolution was different because our founding fathers wrote a constitution that protected all of us. Wise men knew that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The constitution granted enough power to govern but not enough power to implement dictatorship.

The mob thinks they are the ones in control, but the opposite is true. History teaches us that evil dictators often ride to power on the backs of the unsuspecting who naively think they are engaged in a righteous cause. Lynch mobs, while exciting, are the polar opposite of justice.

This week we saw more mobs in Sacramento. An unarmed man was shot by police. No one wants that to happen, but there is more to the story. This man was shown on police helicopter video running through back yards and possibly breaking the windows on a neighbor’s house. The police were there because the neighbors asked for help. In a dark backyard, two police officers made a tragic mistake. They thought a cell phone was a gun and they shot someone who was no threat to them.

The most likely response is that police will become more hesitant to respond to requests for help. The only real solution to preventing this tragic event would have been if police didn’t respond at all. However history teaches us that if police only respond to crimes like rape, robbery and murder, the results are often catastrophic.

The broken window theory, developed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982 argues that ignoring disorder and incivility in a community inevitably results in occurrence of serious and violent crime.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/broken-windows-theory

New York City Police Commission William Bratton adopted this theory and the aggressive order-maintenance practices of the NYP resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime. By the time Bratton resigned in 1996 felonies were down 40% and the homicide rate had been cut in half.

There are still those who dispute the broken windows theory. They run places like Stockton, Baltimore and Chicago. Does anyone want to move to any of these cities?

These mobs, so adored by CNN and the rest of the main stream media are extremely dangerous. The problem is made worse when politicians, who should know better, surrender common sense at the first sign of public protest.  The owner of the Sacramento Kings talked about his support for the protestors.  He failed to mention supporting the police who were at that very moment protecting his stadium from an angry mob.

We ignore broken windows to our peril.

TDM