Funnily enough I work in private security and have experience making dangerous situations safer. Like the Young Jeezy concert, on every other stop on his Canadian tour there was serious violent incidents. While at our venue our security team kept everyone safe but we had the police outside. We could have controlled the crowd without the police but only by employing extreme violence. So my problem with this example is that Detroit isn't safe, if you step out of a protected neighbourhood. They have great security firms in South Africa too I'm still not moving there.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
I think the point here is: The protected neighborhood is, well...protected. And it's protected by private security.
That's a positive sign that private security is not only possible, but that it can be successful/profitable without any need for coercion. And the private security companies are actually accountable to their customers. If they went around harassing, robbing, beating, and/or killing their customers, they'd probably be out of business in a hurry.
I dunno about you, but I heard that beating and killing your customers is the best way to get repeat business.
And yet, the city police are responsible for the entirety of the city. So who's fault is it that the rest of the city isn't safer?
I also worked in private security, and I was armed. Drove around some absolutely unsafe places to be as a white guy in a uniform at 12:30am, citing cars and calling tow trucks. Did that for a few years, and you wanna know the only time I ever had to draw a baton (never had to draw my firearm)? When some crazy guy in a really ritzy neighborhood by the beach in South Orange County, California got mad at me for towing his car.
What do you mean by extreme violence? Would you have had to start shooting people?
No this is Canada, and doormen aren't allowed to used weapons. More like salutary beating which sounds bad and looks bad but safer than wrestling with someone on concrete. I would lay the blame for the the lack of safety on the specific government involved and a lack of public will to accept the admittedly nasty business of tackling violent criminals.
So then you admit that you could have controlled the crowds without resorting to the ultimate method of conflict resolution that law enforcement can, and does, rely on. My question is: if this is possible to do on a voluntary basis, i.e. where people volunteer for your protection by paying you for it, why does this necessitate the formation and enforcement of a monopoly on the provision of said service? Couldn't an armed security force backing you up provide the same amount of deterrence as a police force?
Yet this has been accomplished, as you've admitted, without reliance on police and instead via private security firms. Recall your protected communities comment. Public will is a reification fallacy; there's no such thing as public will, unless you're referring to the market, in which case, I think by your own admission private security - where it's allowed to operate without state interference - has provided superior results.
I don't deny it could work, and already does work for those who can afford it. I will have to look into your detroit example.
It's not a matter of being affordable though. We don't need revenue collectors and tyrants driving around. Special protections, double standards, and monopolies on force should be fought and resisted.
I would say your Detroit example still has state interference. I would also say my city Vancouver, BC, Canada has a state run police force(municipal) and in my opinion they provide superior results.
Compared to what metric? And how would not being forced to pay for a service you may not want prove superior to allowing market competition to increase quality and decrease cost? Moreover, how do you square the "superior results" of your municipal PD with the inverse incentives and violence attraction of state-operated security services?
I suppose the inverse incentives (is that their poor pay?) is a valid criticism I don't see how the violence attraction differs for state or private employment. The more I think about it most criticism that could be laid at the feet of state security could also be levelled at private security and vice versa,the only difference being financial market driven or political market (will you be upset if call the Cromwellian Monarchy I live under a political marketplace?) driven. I would still like to know of any real world instances of ancap operating without state influence. I personally like the ideas that ancap espouse( my understanding of them anyways) but I think it assumes people to be rational actors at least when it comes to self interest. Historically I have seen people fight for ultimate freedom only to be shackled with ultimate tyranny, Spain, Russia(the anarchists who fought to throw off the chains of czarism never even got to don the chains of marxism they were shot too quickly).
Which is why I look to the historical example of the Commonwealth and find a place with longest instance of stable and ever increasing freedoms. Excepting India during world war II free from mass starvation.
Absent the state, private companies can't shield themselves from liability like they can now. Moreover, the state is its own arbitrator; the state court is the one that decides whether or not state agents are guilty of wrongdoing. Violent people would naturally be attracted to work that involves violence, but there is an enormous disincentive pressure in the form of liability and retribution that is non-existent when it comes to state security. State-monopolized security services are insulated from negative externalities; they don't have to bear the brunt of bad acts that they perform because they use force to make everyone go to them for security services. That's the problem with every monopoly enforced by violence, and also why there is no negative pressure discouraging sociopathy and aggression in state-provided security services.
It doesn't. All it assumes is that people will pursue certain ends using certain means. The only assumption is makes about what kind of ends those are is that they will relieve some sort of felt unease. Case in point, a serial killer will relieve the unease of his compulsions and desires by killing others. Even clinically insane people and drug users follow this same pattern, but for different causes of unease.
That's the problem. You can't fight your way to freedom. If you're pushing for anarcho-capitalism, and you're surrounded by communists, you might join the wave of revolution at overthrowing your oppressive totalitarian regime, but you're still surrounded by communists. Government overthrow has accomplished nothing.
I don't disagree with you that there are western countries that are more stable and more amenable to liberty than others. Not all states are equally bad. However, they are all worse than the ultimate preference: no coercive monopoly on ultimate decision-making.
They are still funded by theft (taxes). That's nor moral. They also probably enjoy the double standards and special protections I mentioned above. Cops should not be above the law in ANY way.
Either we are equal under the law or not. Which is it?