Reality Is Not Your Virtue Signal
Why ACAB is True and the Ignorance of the Armchair Anarchist
Police are the worst. They are the enforcers of the law. Enforcers and laws are not something that I, as an anarchist, appreciate. There are many reasons why I don’t appreciate them, but at the moment I want to discuss what it is that police “do,” and what this means for anarchists once government is abolished. To make clear that I know what I am talking about: I went to Western State Colorado University for Criminal Justice and Pre-Law. I have a certificate of 40 course hours completed for Psychology in Behavior Analysis, and I have been trained extensively in self-defense/hand-to-hand combat and hand-held weapons including training with less-than lethal weapons and pistols. My practical knowledge is that I am live-on security for a private business in Wichita where I encounter many situations that need de-escalated as well as some situations that require action. This article isn’t only going to be me taking a massive bowel movement on the police, it is also going to be me informing on what communities/life would be like without the enforcers of the state. There is need to separate the fee-fees from what “is.”
One must realize that de-escalation is a real thing that needs to be taken seriously. Seeing all these clips of police shootings shouldn’t surprise anyone, but the thirty seconds available initially doesn’t show anything leading up to the shootings. If the claim is made that one shouldn’t have been shot over something and that person making the claim doesn’t have all of the information, then it is just a virtue signal. If I had to make an estimation on the percentage of how many people I interact with that make assumptions on de-escalation not being used because they saw the last thirty seconds of a half-hour situation, it’d be about 80%. Police are bad, yes, but the assumption of failure to preform just proves one does not know anything about what occurred. If one is truly upset about it, they would need to get all the information they can in order to do something about it instead of virtue moral supremacy and claim to be able to do better or know better. If one doesn’t know all the information, has not been trained, and/or has not been in high-risk situations, then the opinion on what could and should have happened is “nice” but irrelevant to what occurred. It is wise to remember that hindsight is 20/20. Obviously the agents of the state are murder hounds paid through the slave labor of those in prison and the extortion of those outside of it. However, they also do things that will need to be done once their employers are abolished. Learn from police mistakes so they don’t happen when the responsibility is on you.
Training. Yes, I believe everyone should get some and I need more too. Especially anyone claiming to know the job. Training is continuous. If one has to call someone to do a job, then they usually don’t know that job. This will be the case in an anarchist reality. There may be private police but those private police will mimic what the state does due to the collective perceived authority and the training that one would have in order to do, and be “qualified” for, the “job.” Competition may work together, but if one is upset now about multiple police divisions being involved in the same case, then they would be upset in anarchy as well. Reality doesn’t stop when government is abolished; it is time people realize this if they truly believe Anarchy is achievable. Theory is nice until reality slaps it with some oomph. Chaz/Chop was a communist LARPing event that failed due to incompetence and ignorance.
Anarchy, as it is, would mean that all these state police no longer have a job. What would they think to do for a living? Most likely they would try to find a private police firm or do something like I do. Some might become what most would call a vigilante or even be security for a commune. Police are criminals if one claims to have an authority over them. Authority is antithetical to anarchy. This is why there will be problems with assertions, assumptions, claims of properties, and the like. There is no system of anarchy. There are no prisons to uphold a system in anarchy, even if there are some private entites that would wish to make it so. Prisons are the stomach of the machine; the 13th Ammendment legalized slavery as punishment for a crime, so in enters the prison complex. If there is a system, then it isn’t anarchy. Anarchy is not beholden to ones own desires of the philosophy they claim is “true” anarchy. One can scream until the heavens reverberate the sound of a higher claim of morality, but those echoes are nothing but white noise in the background of what “is.”
The reason police fail at a lot of situations isn’t due to lack of trying to de-escalate situations. They fail because, by the time they arrive on scene, others have decided that they could not handle the situation themselves. Things have already escalated. Police failed here immediately. Even if the officer happens upon a situation, things can still escalate. Why do officers fail when they arrive after others have failed, and why can situations escalate if it’s just a passerby moment? The root cause of the issue is the authority the officer is perceived to hold due to a collective understanding/indoctrination of the basic “function” of the states existence. “Law, Safety, and Order.” An officer’s appearance in most situations makes the assumption that one is getting fined by the state, going to jail, or getting shot. All of these are justified through “safety and law” whether it be for uninvolved civilians, oneself, or the fear of the officers life. Not all situations become higher-risk due to their presence, but the chances it can get worse for anyone and everyone once they arrive is almost guaranteed. At the minimum level, a fine, or predatory policing to catch any violations of the law, could occur for having “wasted an officers time.” Police love their arrest/fine rates. They claim it means they’re doing their job. Well, when the job is to enforce laws of victimless actions and arrest, or even kill, those whom flee because they may have already been convicted of such, then the “job” is nothing more than an overseer of slaves given a license to kill the runaways. So, sure. They do that part of the job “well.” The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of shooting a fleeing suspect at the officers discretion, or “probable cause,” regarding the safety of others or themselves (Tennessee v. Garner). The portion of their job to learn from is the security aspect, and do better than them. Security without law and government is protection and serving. Law enforcement is inherent to government, and therefore they protect and serve the state, not the people. In all reality “to protect and serve” is more of a slogan for state police than a declaration of duty, also affirmed by the Supreme Court (Castle Rock v. Gonzales). In anarchy, one may get stopped by someone else for jaywalking, but in anarchy there is no authority and the situation needs not to escalate; the previous history of the individual is their privacy, what matters is the moment of the incident. De-escalation is achievable without authority, and all someone can do in anarchy is suggest another doesn’t do “x” again for “x” safety reason for victimless occurrences of “stupidity.” Another cool fact of the lack of authority is the person being stopped can leave without consequence to the nonsense. The shooting in anarchy comes when situations escalate regardless of any attempt to de-escalate, much like state police, where the situations involve armed individuals and dangerous actions. At that point it truly is who is better at the defensive/offensive use of their weapons; fair fights are a fantasy. Firearms beat knives every time.
When I get upset at a police shooting, it isn’t due to the circumstances that led to the shooting as much as the existence of a state and the justification of such that is “solidified” by high-risk situations. “They had to kill the ‘bad guy’ so the government isn’t entirely terrible!” The strawman exclaims.
Everything the police do is inherently corrupt due to the nature of their employment, but the skills of the job are also very important. Witnessing a plumber do their job and fail at it doesn’t mean one knows the job of the plumber. When it is their turn to be a plumber after they’ve claimed they could do better, and then they do worse, they’re going to have lots of egg on their face, and lots of feces. When it comes to security and protection, these armchair virtue signals being put into practice don’t produce busted pipes, they produce busted skulls and death. One cannot assume that they can do better either, they have to make the attempt to be better by knowing better. Know what is dangerous and what is not. If one is ignorant to what can harm or kill, then there will be an even worse time trying to protect oneself or their community/friends.
In the end, I hope to have brought forth a desire to know better when it comes to such situations that the police partake in. Once their established form of employment is abolished they will still exist. If ones answer is to shoot all of the police, I cannot say I oppose due to the nature of their employment, but I also cannot agree they are consistent in their view of how situations and people should be handled. At that point, they’re no more than a LARPer that wishes to get away with murder like state agents do. One must learn to de-escalate, always assume someone is armed if one is opposed to laws restricting access to arms, and one mustn’t claim to know a plumbers job if they aren’t one. Collect all the information; body camera footage is a friend. One may try avoiding calling the police by opting to call an armed friend if they feel in need of help with a situation. However, one cannot learn de-escalation and how to secure the self and the community through only reading books and opinions online; also keep in mind that not everyone can do these things. One must know it is possible protect the community and oneself if it is actually known what it is like to do the “job.” The internet can give pictures of grass and people can debate on the beauty all day, but it is nothing compared to real grass, so one might benefit by remembering to touch some; perhaps smoke some if one so chooses.
