Year: 2018

Privatize Police – Slash the Murder Rate!

Government Police Fail to Make Arrests In Nearly Half of Murder Cases

10/11/2018

Police departments in a number of U.S. cities — Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans — are receiving increased attention for their failure to clear even half of the homicides that occur in their jurisdiction. And note that to “clear” a case doesn’t even necessarily require that someone be convicted of the crime, but only that either an arrest was made or that the case was “cleared by exceptional means,” meaning that the police identified a suspect, had sufficient evidence to arrest, and knew their location, but encountered a circumstance that prevented them from making the arrest.

Of all the crimes classified as Index I crimes by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, murder, and nonnegligent manslaughter typically have the highest clearance rate by far.

[…]

What should be realized is just how much lower current homicide clearance rates are compared to the 1960s and 1970s, even though the number of killings in recent years is roughly on par with the early 70s. As can be seen in the following graph, the number of homicides has gone down since its peak in the 90s, but so has the clearance rate.

[…]

An explanation offered for why this is the case is that a growing proportion of these unsolved homicides are gangland killings where witnesses refuse to talk to the police due to anti-snitching norms, low trust in the police, or fear of reprisal. Indeed, the city of Indianapolis has created a witness protection fund in an effort to get more witnesses to cooperate with police.

Police Aren’t Your Friend — Even If You Want to Report a Crime

The hesitancy to cooperate with the police should not be surprising. For one thing, unless you have a personal relationship with police officers, you will always be a potential criminal suspect. At worst, calling the police for help can result in the arrest or death of you or a loved one. With the high potential costs of interacting with the police, individuals on the margin will seek substitutes for ensuring their safety.

[RELATED: “Too Many Laws: Why Police Encounters Escalate” by Ryan McMaken]

Furthermore, consider the incentives facing witnesses of crimes. It’s not like they can just leave an anonymous tip to the police and be done with it; rather, they will have to endure multiple interviews with police officers and prosecutors and will be expected to testify in court if the necessity arises. This will be a long, drawn-out process during which (and possibly after) one could be a target for reprisal. Government police have no duty to protect individuals (see Warren v. District of Columbia (1981)). The assassination of a witness may even be beneficial from the perspective of increasing clearance rates, as the police would already have a likely suspect.

Government Police Lack Accountability and Incentives

Yet for some reason, this state of affairs is tolerated. We have become conditioned to expect such service from government bureaucracies and see it as routine. But imagine if murders happened so frequently on the premises of any private business. We would fully expect that that business would make it their top priority to prevent any further slayings and ensure the public that their place of business is a safe place to be. We wouldn’t even consider the possibility that they would be able to remain in business while being unable to identify the killer in less than half of the cases.

Thus, at issue is not only the ineffectiveness of government policing but the intertwined issue of “public” property. Unlike the common areas provided by the proprietors of private business (such as hotel lobbies, parking lots, and the common areas within shopping malls), there is no residual claimant to the value of common areas in the public domain. They cannot be sold and therefore have no market prices. A private owner seeks to maintain or increase the market value of their property, an aspect of which is the safety of its common areas because they are the residual claimant of that value. However, this is not the case for areas that are in the public domain. Just like the other aspects of quality, such as the presence of graffiti, trash, atmosphere, and maintenance, tend to deteriorate in areas in the public domain, so does safety.

Entrepreneurs who might have better ideas than the Chicago police on how to increase the safety of public areas are unable to acquire the property, test their ideas, and determine whether those ideas work based on whether they result in profits or losses. Public officials have little incentive to invest in improving the safety of the common areas under their control, as they suffer no losses from letting them deteriorate and reap no profits from improving them. Since the homicides in question are of individuals who have little political influence, they are of little relevance to the immediate concerns of public officials.

In light of this, we should more deeply appreciate what is at stake in slogans like “Privatize Everything.” It is not simply about the nominal transfer of physical objects or land from government control to favored individuals, but transferring them from the realm of non-calculation and fiat to the realm of economic calculation and consumer sovereignty. As a practical matter, it could save many lives.

Tate Fegley is a 2018 Mises Institute Fellow and winner of the 2018 Grant Aldrich Prize for Best Graduate Student paper at the Austrian Economics Research Conference. He is currently a graduate student at George Mason University.

From Mises.org, here.

The Charedi Leadership Admit They Have No Vision

Can a modern state be run based on Halacha?

According to the Bostoner Rebbe, the answer is no. At a news conference (http://www.nrg.co.il/online/11/ART2/680/325.html?hp=11&cat=1102&loc=8), the Bostoner Rebbe said that “he is afraid of a halachic state”.
Here is the full context of his statement:
אני מפחד מהיום שיהיו 61 חברי כנסת, כי אני לא יודע איך ניתן לנהל מדינה עם האחריות של שמירת התורה. לדוגמה, לסגור את שדה התעופה בשבת, בעולם המודרני אני לא יודע איך אפשר לעשות את זה”. ובכנות הוסיף ש”ברוך השם שלא באים לשאול אותי שאלות כאלה”.
I am afraid of the day when we have 61 MKs because I don’t know how you can run a state with the responsibilities of keeping the Torah. For example, shutting down the airport on Shabbos, in the modern world I don’t see how you can do that. And in a moment of candour he added, “Thank God that no one comes to ask me these types questions”

Unfortunately, this is emblematic of the modern Charedi leadership,  don’t deal with the modern world, rather withdraw from it. Don’t engage with the world, rather have everyone sit and learn.

The problem is that it puts the Torah in a very bad light. The Torah is supposed to be a blueprint for society, and yet the Charedi leadership says that we can’t run a modern society based on Torah because we don’t have answers. What does that say about the נצחיות of Torah?

This was not always the case, R’ Waldenberg (שו”ת ציץ אליעזר) wrote a whole sefer about these issues as well as many teshuvas and R’ Sholmo Zalman Auerbach was already available to address these issues.

It’s very interesting that the Bostoner Rebbe pointed to closing the airport on Shabbos as a big problem. IMHO, that is the least of our problems. Power generation, police and army activity on Shabbos are much bigger problems. How do you deal with industries (for example Intel’s chip factories) which can’t be shut down once a week? How would you create a workable justice system given the Torah’s rules of evidence? The list goes on and on.

Additionally, there are very serious economic issues to be dealt with. Modern economies are based on credit and interest, for example, every modern state sells government bonds which pay interest. What about the prohibition of ריבית? How do you square advertising with the prohibitions of אונאת דברים?

To their credit, the RZ Rabbis are trying to deal with these issues. To their credit they are publishing seforim which focus on halacha in the modern world, dealing with issues like the army, police, economic issues, etc.

What the Israeli Deep State Would Be Doing If They Actually Believed Their Own Rhetoric

ההמלצה לניצחון לשמאלנים בבחירות / Recommendation for an Israeli Left-Wing Election Victory

ב׳ לחודש השמיני תשע״ט
English follows the Hebrew.

למי שרוצה לגייס בחורים חרדיים לצה״ל [אבל באמת לא רוצה אותם בצבא בגלל החשש שהם ישפיעו על הבנים שלהם]…
למי שמצפה מחיילים דתיים לראות ולהקשיב לבחורות שרות ורוקדות על הבמה…
למי שמתנגד לבניית ישיבה או מקווה חדש בשכונה שלכם…
למי שמתנגד לבניית סניף חדש של תנועות הנוער ״עזרא״ ו-״אריאל״ בשכונה למרות קיום הגרעין הדתי המתגדל בעיר שלכם…
יש לי המלצה אחת להמליץ לכם:
ללדת יותר ילדים.
אם אתם באמת מאמינים בדמוקרטיה, לכו ללדת עוד ויותר ילדים כדי שאתם תהיו הרוב ולא המיעוט.
יש כבר יותר תלמידים דתיים ומסורתיים [מוסורתים אמיתיים, ולא ה״קונסרבטיבים״] בכתות א׳ – ה׳ בבתי ספר במדינת ישראל מתלמידים חילוניים. אז בעיקרון לבסוף תהיה לנו כנסת שרוב החברים שלה יהיה דתי לאומי וחרדי.
אבל אני לא בטוח שאתם רוצים מערכת ממשלתית דמוקרטית אמיתית.
אלא אתם משיגים קולות נוספים לנצח בבחירות דרך קומבינות כאלה:
*עידוד לאתיופים נוצריים לעלות ארצה.
*לתת לעובדים הזרים מעמד חוקי ולבסוף תושבות קבע או אפילו אזרחות.
*לתת למסתננים האפריקאיים מעמד חוקי ולבסוף תושבות קבע או אפילו אזרחות.
*להקים מערכת נשואין אזרחי כדי לתת לישראלים להתחתן עם גוים בקלות יותר.
*לתת לבעלים ונשים הנוכריים האלה דרך לקבלת אזרחות.
*להגן על ״הזכויות״ של העברים [המזויפים] הכושים שמותרים להם להביא ארצה את כמה גוים שרוצים מארה״ב.
*לדרוש זכויות להבעה חופשית הדתות (חוץ מיהדות), קוראים לעניין הזה ״פלורליסטיות,״ ואגב עוזרים לנוצרים האבנג׳ליסטים, ״החברים״ של הכאילו ימינים, להשאר בארץ.
*ללמד את העניין ״כולנו חיים וגרים ביחד״ כדי להשפיע למדינת ישראל להפוך להיות מדינה דמוקרטית חילונית כמו המדינות של אומות העולם.
כבר ניסיתם את האסטרטגיה לעודד גוים מברית המועצות. אבל הרבה מהם מצביעים למפלגת ישראל ביתינו של אביגדור ליברמן ולא למפלגות השמאלניות.

וגם הקומבינה הכי מעודפת שלכם היא לבטל, לסלף, לשנות, להחליף את החוקים שאתם לא אוהבים דרך הבג״ץ למרות רצון העם.(ומה אכפת לכם על רצון העם??) ככה אתם ממשיכים להיות להשאר כשלטונים האמיתיים בישראל.

אין לנו מערכת ממשלתית דמוקרטות אמיתית כבר הרבה זמן. היתה לנו בכלל? ומה קשר בין דמוקרטיה לתורה בכל מקרה?

אין קשר.

For those of you who want to enlist Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) into the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] (but who really don’t want them in the army for fear of their influence on their sons)…

For those of you who expect religious soldiers to watch and listen to women sing and dance on stage…

For those of you who shout at the men who encourage Jews to put on tefillin…

For those who object to the building of a new yeshiva or mikveh (ritual immersion pool) in your neighborhood…

For those who oppose the construction of a new branch of the Ezra and Ariel youth movements in the neighborhood despite the growing religious sector in your town…

I have one recommendation for you:

Have more children.

If you truly believe in democracy, go and produce more children, so that someday you will be the majority who vote in elections, rather than the minority.

There are already more religious and traditional students than secular students in the first through fifth grades in Israel. Of course, by “traditional,” I mean those who actually believe in the traditional version of the Torah, and not members of the so-called Conservative Movement. Theoretically, this means we could have a Knesset whose majority of members will be Religious Zionist and Haredi in the not too distant future.

But I’m not sure you want a real democratic government system.

Instead, you prefer to increase your voter base through tricky strategies like the following:

  • Encouraging Ethiopian Christians to immigrate to Israel.
  • Working to provide foreign workers with a special status, and eventual permanent residency, if not citizenship.
  • Working to provide foreign workers with a special status, and eventual permanent residency, if not citizenship.
  • Working to establish civil marriage in Israel, allowing Israelis to “marry” non-Jews much more easily.
  • Providing these husbands and wives a way to receive Citizenship, which includes the so-called Black [Fake] Hebrews who allow them to bring all the non-Jews from the United States they want to bring into Israel.
  • Fighting for “freedom of religious expression,” calling it “pluralism,” and benefiting Evangelical Christian “friends” of the quasi-right-wing.
  • Preaching “Co-Existence,” with the eventuality of having a secular, democratic state, just like the goyim.

You have already tried this strategy of actively encouraging the immigration of non-Jews to Israel from the Former Soviet Union. But, many of them ended up voting for the Israel Our Home Party of Avigdor Lieberman, instead of left wing parties.

In addition, your favorite strategy seems to be canceling, distorting, changing, and replacing the laws you don’t like through the Israeli Supreme Court, in spite of the wishes of the people. (What do you care about the wishes of the people??) In this way, you maintain your position of power.

We haven’t had a real democratic system of government in Israel for years, now, assuming we ever had one. We have had a deMOCKracy. And what does democracy have to do with Torah anyway?

There isn’t one.

If Noah Tried Building the Ark Today…

From here:

And the Lord said to Noah, “In six months I’m going to make it rain until the whole earth is covered with water and all the evil people are destroyed. But I want to save a few good people and two of every living thing on the planet. I am ordering you to build Me an Ark.” And in a flash of lightning, he delivered the specifications for an Ark.

“OK,” said Noah, trembling in fear and fumbling with the blueprints. “Six months and it starts to rain,” thundered the Lord. “You’d better have my Ark completed, or learn how to swim for a very long time.”

Six months passed, the skies began to cloud up and the rain began to fall.

The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his yard and weeping and there was no Ark. “Noah,” shouted the Lord, “Where is my ark?”

“Lord, please forgive me!” begged Noah. “I did my best but there were big problems.

First, I had to get a building permit for the Ark construction project, and your plans didn’t meet the code. I had to hire an engineer to redraw the plans.

Second, I got into a big fight over whether or not the Ark needed a fire sprinkler system.

Third, my neighbors objected, claiming I was violating zoning codes building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the City Planning Commission.

Fourth, I had a big problem getting enough wood for the Ark because there was a ban on cutting trees to save the Spotted Owl. I had to convince U.S. Fish and Wildlife that I needed the wood to save the owls, but they wouldn’t let me catch any owls. So no owls.

Fifth, the carpenters formed a union and went on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or hammer. Now we have 16 carpenters going on the boat and still no owls.

Sixth, I started gathering up animals and got sued by an animal rights group. They objected to my taking only two of each kind.

Just when I got that suit dismissed, the seventh thing that happened was that EPA notified me that I couldn’t complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn’t take kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of the Supreme Being.

Eighth, the Army Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the proposed flood plain. I sent them a globe.

Right now I am still trying to resolve the complaint from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over how many Croatians I’m supposed to hire, the IRS has seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to avoid paying taxes by leaving the country, and I just got a notice from the state about owing some kind of Use Tax. I really don’t think I can finish Your Ark for at least another five years,” wailed Noah.

The sky began to clear, the sun began to shine and a rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. “You mean you are not going to destroy the earth?” Noah asked hopefully.

“No,” said the Lord sadly, “The government already has.”