New Orleans Isn't Anarchy

New Orleans Isn’t Anarchy
September 3, 2005
by Brad Edmonds
freedomwins2001@yahoo.com

There are reports of rapes, beatings, looting, and widespread shooting at police and rescue officers in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Wire articles refer to the situation as "anarchy." These reports are probably exaggerated as to number, but there is no doubt that statists will use this situation as an example of what happens when there isn’t enough nanny government.

The truth is just the opposite: This is what happens when nanny government promises to protect us and does a bad job. Government can’t, and won’t, ever do a good job of protecting you. Here’s why the situation in New Orleans is worse with government than it would be without it:

The people committing some of the crimes are no doubt habitual offenders. The nanny state, with its monopoly on law enforcement and criminal justice, creates repeat offenders. Criminals with just a little sense know that government police aren’t very good at catching them; jails are already overcrowded with peaceful drug users; and small-timers usually get out of jail before long, or without doing any time at all.

Under the nanny state, criminals are also created from birth in housing projects where those willing to have children to get a government check, a government home, and free government medical care have only each other as role models, as do their children. Government-sponsored abortion also takes its toll on the way many people view the value of a human life, just as Clinton’s claim that oral sex wasn’t really sex is still having an effect on junior-high-school sexual culture.

The people committing some other of the crimes, such as at the Superdome, have been herded and held there by the government, and have been treated as criminals the entire time. Without probable cause, they were all searched for alcohol, weapons, and contraband before even being allowed in. After the storm, they were not allowed out for days! This would make any crowd of innocent people morph into an angry mob. We’ll call these the innocent folks. And nobody but government would attempt to hold innocent people against their will.

The people committing some of the other crimes, whom we’ll call criminal opportunists, have been given a free pass by the government that, for example, wouldn’t allow 25,000 people to return to their own homes to deal with the damage. And if a looter is caught red-handed by a homeowner right now, the looter knows the odds are improved that the homeowner is unarmed. More to the point, these opportunists also know the ineffectiveness of government law enforcement and protection of private property.

We all know that private relief organizations are more efficient, more effective, and faster than government relief organizations. The American "Wild West" proved, contrary to its name, as did Phoenix within the last several years, that private law enforcement and justice result in a more peaceful society – crime is much less likely to pay when the incomes of people doing the enforcement are dependent on their getting their man (and getting the right man). People who are emotionally capable of turning to crime for a living are also capable of responding to incentives; they’re capable of not turning to crime when there’s no profit in it.

Perhaps there will always be looters in the occasion of a natural disaster. Anarcho-capitalism, meaning the elimination of forcible government, would not change anything about the fundamental nature of human beings. It would, however, drastically change the incentives we all face, and therefore it would have an impact on everyone’s behavior.

Without government handouts, fewer people would have children they can’t afford to rear responsibly. Fewer women would risk getting pregnant outside marriage, which would force many men to relearn the notion of responsibility for themselves and their dependents.

For 50 years now, government has taken over the role of head of the family. This more than anything else has created a culture that breeds lawlessness, disrespect for private property, and disrespect for other people. This is the context in which we should view the disheartening events in New Orleans, which has been known for a high crime rate for many years anyway.

The current situation in New Orleans does not prove what happens when there’s no government. Rather, the current situation proves what can result when government is there, and responds badly in an emergency. It proves what sort of culture our intrusive government has spent decades nurturing. Remember, this all happened under forcible government monopoly of infrastructure, emergency services, police patrols, and justice. New Orleans’ descent into chaos isn’t evidence against liberty, but evidence that we need some.

Brad Edmonds [send him mail], author of There’s a Government in Your Soup, writes from Alabama.
==================================

WOOPS...
This website is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have lost their lives, health, and homes to this scourge as our government, insurance companies, social service organizations, and disaster management groups have ignored them in their greatest time of need. We offer the finest education, resources, and solutions regarding what everyone must know about the most devastating health hazard of this millennium.
http://www.mold-help.org/