2. San Francisco was taken over by armed vigilantes in 1851 & 1856. In 1856, the forces of law & order turned to a banker & ex-Army officer running the state militia: William Tecumseh Sherman. He proposed an overwhelming show of force to back them down.
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3. The War Department, then run by Jefferson Davis, refused to back Sherman up; they said the Army could only protect federal facilities (not Davis' stance 5 yrs later). Refused support, Sherman resigned in disgust, resolved to have nothing to do with politics again.
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4. Without Sherman's militia, the California Governor ended up sending the state Chief Justice to parley with the vigilantes; he stabbed one of them nearly to death, & they held him hostage for months. Teetered on the bring of hanging him.
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5. California would have been better off following Sherman's advice to let the legitimately constituted authorities maintain a monopoly of force. Vigilante justice cut a wide swath through the Old West, often with terrible consequences.
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6. The creation of professional big-city police departments, originally a French legacy, was seen as a great progressive step forward when introduced by Robert Peel in London in 1829. We have apparently forgotten what the alternative was.
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Well if the Dems are serious abort disbanding the police that’s what we will have
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‘alternative to police’. take away the ‘to’ and we got something started.
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When people say "defund police", they're reminding police that we have leverage over them. Unwise to brutalize your employer.
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We can replace these cops with a new institution that is more accountable and less violent. Many developed countries don't even arm their police.
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Like the U.K.? I’m glad they have no crime...
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