“Just for the record, my deputies don’t wear masks,” Swank told a state legislative committee recently. “But once you pass this law that they can’t, I will not only allow them, but I will encourage them to do so, just to see what you do. “I don’t recognize your authority to impose these controls over me.” There you go: “I don’t recognize your authority.” That’s the masked-up mentality, as bluntly put as can be.
The response is pretty simple:
“This body does not recognize your department and will therefore allocate $0 to its budget for this fiscal year.”
They’d never do it but you could also respond with “then we’ll tell the citizens that they don’t have to recognize the authority of your officers and they can use deadly force in self defense against any masked goon that tries to put their hands on them.”
I feel like there is a genuine concern to be addressed there. Let’s say we have a massive shift in the country and abolish all police at every level. What stops a bunch of now-unemployed militarized bureaucrats from just becoming petty tyrants over small fiefdoms across the country?
The same thing that stops them now. Cops don’t work for free.
We’re far enough away from that at the moment that I think we would have plenty of time to adjust before it becomes a real problem.
Have to revoke their badges, or else they’ll do it for free.