15 Aug 03

Police here and there:

A friend and student from the UK recently attended a course here in Colorado. He greatly enjoys shooting and realizes the importance of firearms skills, but, of course, in the UK any kind of defensive shooting training is nearly impossible for anyone but the politically connected. So, he joins us in the mountains once a year.

He shared with the class an interesting observation: He said, in observing American police officers, he noticed their attitude is one of "service." They look upon themselves as "public servants." Conversely, in Europe (even Western Europe), police look upon themselves as "public regulators." They are told their job is to "modulate" the public and, most of all, provide protection for government officials.

Some might call it a subtitle, even inconsequential, difference, but, coming from his mouth, it caused us all to realize what a great country we live in. Government officials and employees looking upon themselves as "public servants," rather than "public regulators," what a concept!

Not surprisingly, all tyrants and tyrannies see themselves a "benevolent," but, as Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out, the will of man is thus not shattered by "beneficent regulators," but it is slowly softened, bent, and, in the end, asphyxiated. Men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power may not destroy in the physical sense, but it prevents true existence. It prevents one from claiming his own magnificence. It may not exactly tyrannize, but it squeezes, enfeebles, extinguishes, and ultimately smothers a people, until they are reduced nothing better than a flock of timid and fearful sheep, of which the government is (of course) the shepherd.

/John