Gov't, Police Have Forgotten the 'Rule of Law'

As much as the economy, the Rule of Law holds together this nation. Photo J. Purcell

By Rev. J.J. Purcell

Riots are alive throughout this country now. And, they are not going to get better for now, I fear.

Someone whom people do not learn about in school anymore is 17th century English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). Since most people are so badly schooled, they probably think that was when the pyramids were built. Regardless, Locke helped to intellectually enlighten most of our Founding Fathers here in America (that means 'they listened to what he said a lot').

So, this writer, Locke, said in his "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" that the mind is a blank slate at birth and is filled through experience. Well, old Locke was a great believer in "cause and effect." People are born understanding logical systems. For example, bad guy does something bad, they are arrested, then they are jailed and all is right with the world. But, wait! An example that would not be considered a logical system to people would be: 'Bad guy kills someone for no real reason, is caught, no one does anything about it and the killer is set free.' You see, if the bad guy can get away with murder, then who is to say he will not murder again, or people like him or her murder again? So, people become distressed and -- BANG! ZAP! -- you have yourself a mob looking to get rid of the murderer.

Of course, this does not examine things from a racial point of view. But, so many others are doing that I decided I would go another route.

What is the gist? In modern society, there must be rules and everyone must follow them or the society will become unhinged because, if there is a special group of people whom are not accountable for their actions, the center will not hold and the society will collapse upon itself.

I know some ignorant rednecks are having a tough time with this -- too much thinking. You should navigate away right about now. Go back to reading and making bumper stickers.

Riots rocked NYC during Tammany Hall days of corruption.

The Republicans in our National Government, many local Mayors and Councils and, apparently, most of the Police Departments in the country, now believe that ordinary Americans can be deprived of justice, beaten, murdered at the whim of police officers and subjected to a host of inhuman and wrongful acts. The ever-present "I feared for my life" offered by officers would go a lot farther, I believe, if there were not so many random shootings or strangling of unarmed Black men, from sea to shining sea.

As I write this today, two NYPD officers were killed by a lunatic for the misdeeds of Police who murdered unarmed Black men in Missouri and New York, respectively. The practice of randomly murdering whomever they wished has gone on quite a while for Police. No one said too much for the longest time. Well, the purpose for our system of justice (working rightly) is intended so mobs, such as we are seeing now, do not form into lynching parties in the street for murderers hiding behind badges.

Then, one day, people got sick of it; fed up to the gills.

Back when Tammany Hall (through the Society of Tammany) ran New York City, during the Civil War, the War of the Five Points destroyed the city because people believed it was impossible to receive justice or fairness out of the City and Police back then. The result? A goodly sized chunk of New York City was burned to the ground. 

In Newark, New Jersey in 1967, the White City Government and Police thought civil rights were a joke. Well, it wasn't. Newark was burned to the ground and didn't even start to come back until about 10 years later. All because some Police morons had to play cowboy and arrest and beat down some poor kid who did nothing to anyone -- oh, yes, he was Black. 

Right now, something in this country is going on too. People are fed up with injustice and the inability of American citizens to be treated with human rights in their own communities. Sadly, since the Police and Prosecutors decided to cover up things and explain away murder, and the Courts rubber stamping those farces -- the crowds started to react. They became mobs. 

I am a proud American. I do not want Police to be murdered. I do not want them to be goons either. I want bad guys arrested. But, I do not want them murdered for standing on the wrong corner. It is wrong that a Policeman not liking the way someone parts their hair can wrongly, conspicuously and in cold blood murder Americans. No, not that. The Rule of Law is broken when either police or mobs do it. Right now, aside from a nut-job here or there, it is mostly the protesters who have been the most civil, all things told. 

If all protesters are contributing to the murder of the policemen in NY today, then does that mean that all Police are contributing to the murder of helpless, unarmed people? We are on a slippery slope, kids.

Yet, it is not just these protesters of the moment to worry about. There can be many more coming soon.

The Republican Congress vows to end Social Service programs. So now, on top of there being no justice in the streets by Police or Courts, sea to shining sea, now the central government intends to starve people by ending Food Stamps, make them homeless with an end to rental assistance, and God knows what else. 

Did you know that when Franklin D. Roosevelt took charge of the Presidency in the midst of the Great Depression in the 1930s, he did not create a host of social programs just to build roads, help the poor, or get the economy going again. He did it, in some part, because the Federal Government was starting to lose control of the nation. When adherence to the laws of the land states that someone must go hungry, homeless, or untreated medically -- then people stop listening to the government and take over where it comes to their own survival.

People scraping to survive are not going to be 'cricket' about following laws. There were riots everywhere in the Depression. Towns disappeared and whole populations shifted. Riots broke out in Washington  DC among veterans, among many other places, many of whom were shot dead on the order of President Herbert Hoover (a Republican). Communists made an enormous foothold in this country and were not that far from taking it over. There was no law. The center was buckling.

FDR enacted scores of social legislation just so the Federal Government could keep this nation together. Thank God it worked. 

You watch, America, the inability for anyone in the GOP, City Halls or Police Departments to read an actual history book is going to come back to roost for us all. Perhaps this is the result of our terrible ranking in the world for our students in academic achievement revisiting us -- or in vernacular, 'biting us in the ass.'

What is the solution? Not more murder of unarmed people, not the elimination of social services. I fear for tomorrow. And, I fear for our young people the most. They have been so appallingly ill-prepared for the future, thanks to my generation and those before. No, we have not been good stewards of the trust of our fathers and mothers. We have economized until America today is more illiterate than it has been since the 18th century. There has to be a change in the tide if there is going to be a brighter day for our nation -- not ideas being met with guns, citizens fearing the Police, not insanity ruing the day, or the banishment of logic from our shores. Yes, things must change.

(Rev. J.J. Purcell is a graduate of the NY Theological Seminary. He was licensed to preach by ABC-NJ and is a U.S. Army veteran. Rev. Purcell was also a journalist for many years, who garnered several writing awards, among them Congressional and NJ Legislative proclamations, among others.)