Theologically Sound. Culturally Relevant.

lcyjpuf_400x400

Why I don’t back the blue

Total depravity is certainly a foundation of Christian teaching on man, and even a traditionalist/Arminian has some concept of depravity. The notion appears hard to accept but as our culture descends into Romans 1, it is increasingly apparent that so too will our law enforcement. And so police will be a means of rewarding evil and punishing good.

It is a shame that this is controversial position among conservatives and perhaps even more so Christians. Yet even after 2020, many will still back the blue, believing in a concept that no longer exist in perhaps most places in our culture. That concept is law enforcement, a concept everyone should support. However, what happens when a country is driven by technocratic mob rule as opposed to governed by law? The police in most instances will simply follow the mob and collect a paycheck.

In 2020, we learned that tyrannical governors imposed unlawful edicts only for the complicity of the state and local law enforcement mechanisms to further legitimize lawlessness. We saw too few sheriff departments stand up for their constituents. We’ve seen numerous embarrassing viral videos of law enforcement punishing what is not evil.

2020 is a revealing year, a year revealing massive underlying problems that stem from top to bottom. But it is not all that surprising as it is disappointing and saddening. We knew that federal law enforcement is exceedingly partial. They will shaft men like Michael Flynn and sandbag a laptop with incriminating evidence. In the event they do capture a Jeffrey Epstein, they let him get assassinated and pretend like nothing even happened.

We act like things are so much different at a local level, but the stakes are far pettier. HBO came out with The Wire several years ago, a story detailing the struggles of the Baltimore Police Department. It is a fascinating and realistic depiction of human nature. Big city police departments are notoriously corrupt. I was doing missions work in New York City, and was talking to a Christian there, and he had a far more antagonistic view towards the NYPD, for reasons that I think were related to brutality.

Maybe his criticisms were unfounded, but NYPD had stop and risk and broken widows theory, so maybe these created a divide that would ultimately lead to the NYPD currently playing Warsaw Ghetto with Jewish neighborhoods. Other areas, around where I live, it’s clear to me that police mainly exist to generate revenue for the county. And during lockdowns, local governments were lamenting their revenue shortfalls from lack of taxes (fines) collected from police. We have some major issues with policing in this country, and it has little to do with Black Lives Matter, except for that movement’s negative contributions to policing.

A lot of the issues come from the legal system. Courts believe they can determine their own jurisdiction. Then, there is the balancing of investigation with individual liberties. But the main issue is that we have forgotten the source of the law. Every legal system should strive to align as closely to the original source of the law as possible. America was founded on this belief: that God is the source of law, that there is a higher law. This was understood during the Nuremberg Trials, so “I was following orders” was a pitiful excuse.

But our legal system does not recognize a higher law. It redefines, life, marriage,men and women. It’s childish to ask how the Holocaust could have happened, how communist genocides could have happened. A proper biblical anthropology makes this easy to understand. We first thought we knew better than God and now police will be the apparatus that take away our freedoms.

I support law enforcement so I cannot support police.

Facebook
Twitter
Telegram
Reddit
LinkedIn

7 Responses

    1. I’m pro-choice. When you make a choice (such as having sex) you have chosen to accept responsibility for any consequences, foreseen or unintended.

      Ray, you might be interested in Bob Enyart’s position on abortion. rsr.org /abortion

  1. I understand the premise within this article; however, I think it sells policing quite short. Of course, there have been examples of abuse and complicity in policing, but I would argue that police are by and large operating for the betterment of society. I do back the blue for this very reason. Our country would be in a sad state of affairs without the multitude of officers doing good every day.

    1. I do believe that there are a lot of good officers out there in the same way that there are a lot of good teachers etc. But I do think we are at the point where corruption and abuse are rampant. The solution to this is not to get rid of police. That would embolden the lawlessness (Antifa) they permit. Rather the solution is reform, a return to first principles.

  2. “One bad apple spoils the barrel.” Olde Wisdom from Thee Frugal Curmudgeon (that’s me and copyrighted)

    While one unlawful action by a law enforcement officer is unacceptable, and “Perspective Isn’t News” (more Olde Wisdom by me), considering the Millions of interactions between law enforcement and civilians, the perspective is that any unlawful acts are an infinitesimal percentage of those.

    And I contend that those unlawful acts are committed by the same group of law enforcement officers multiple times upon the same group of civilians.

    In a city, one officer commits unlawful acts upon the same few individuals in their patrol area.

    If 100 unlawful acts are committed, one officer commits 10 unlawful acts upon 10 individuals (likely with criminal convictions) over the course of a year.

    It is not 100 law enforcement officers committing one unlawful act upon 100 different individuals over the course of a year.

    The young man in his mid-twenties whose trial I was a juror on had already been convicted of half a dozen felonies. The 12 members of the jury had committed none. Yet in that situation, you might see a statistic that said that 50% of the non-judicial system people in the room had been convicted of a felony.

    I have been for a very long time saying that law enforcement officers need to start honoring their oath of office and remember who they work for: We the people.

    Not the city council, not even the Sheriff. They work for us and need to remind their superiors of that.

    My mom tells me her father fled Russia (right before their Revolution) and loved America and always said to obey the government because it followed the “Rule of Law” (equal justice for all).

    She still says the Bible tells us to obey the government. I try to explain to her that the American government is well on its way to becoming the oppressive government that her father fled from, but she just doesn’t want to see it. Or more accurately, doesn’t see it because of MSM not showing it.

    Even living in an area where the government is descending into tyranny and the streets are filled with anarchists and the homeless, she still looks to the government to solve those problems.

    “Low information voters” are the problem. I bet you, Ray, haven’t even been to a public meeting in the last two years. I’m betting you know your elected employees’ names, but what about the unelected ones?

  3. When the tyrants are the ones cutting the paychecks, 99 out of 100 cops will chose following tyrannical orders above the constitution. We all like to think we wouldn’t have gone along with nazi regime in 30s Germany, but in reality almost all of us would have. To not to have gone along would mean losing your job and housing, and no one would lend you support. Maybe a single person could stand the repricutions for not going along, but someone with a family pretty much has no choice. Its a sad reality and what makes China’s credit score system so effective. The herd will make you play along.

    In Denver at a ‘Back the Blue’ rally the police followed orders to allow antifa to attack and beat at will. They stood back doing nothing as those there to support them were at the mercy of the mob. I do admire that most cops put their life at risk to maintain order and I do support their existence, but I’m not a cheerleader because THEY ARE NOT ON YOUR SIDE, they have families to support and simply will choose their paycheck over you.

    1. It’s a precarious time. Not only are police proving to not be our friend, those who would want them gone are communist insurgents. So we are sandwiched in an awkward nuanced position between two increasingly hostile entities.

Leave a Reply