Organized violence trumps unorganized violence any time. The idea that citizens should defend themselves without resorting to the help any organization is pure fantasy. If you want to know what happened in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union when all government security organizations got "defunded", you can read about it in Vadim Volkov's Violent Entrepreneurs.
What happened was that the mafia took over. In their hayday crime bosses ruled entire industries. The worst case was probably the city of Tambov and the Uralmash machine building combinate that fell into the hands of criminal organizations. In the 1990's, shootings and bombings in the middle of the day were commonplace. Many innocent bystanders were caught in the crossfire.
Private security companies may be able to keep random acts of violence at bay. But what about solving crimes? Minneapolis risks becoming a basket case that the FBI or the state of Minnesota will have to sort out.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1229632.Violent_Entrepreneurs
This is a very good point.
This can be seen on a smaller scale when a mafia/organized crime family is removed/eliminated from an area and there's a "power vacuum" and a violent turf war takes place between rival gangs in order to control the now vacated area.
It might be difficult for people to imagine but this sort of thing could certainly happen where police (authority with a license for violence) are displaced.
Yes. Physical violence is the most primitive and primary form of power. We live in a physical universe.
It is guaranteed to happen. What precise form it will take will be interesting to see but sooner or later other police departments in the state of Minnesota and the FBI will have to step in and sort out the mess.
A public professional police force authorized not only to maintain order but to solve crimes is simply the most cost effective way to keep the peace and solve crimes. No posse of armed civilians has the ability to do that. I doubt private security firms with the expertise to do criminal investigation can easily be found. Besides there is a serious risk of conflict of interest when the profit motive is introduced to police work.
Yeah, I can understand the motive to reduce massive budgets of some police departments that spend enormous sums on second hand military equipment - that actually makes a lot of sense.
What you're saying is also right on point. There's no incentive for armed civilians or private mercs to investigate crimes.
This idea is also echoed in my comments above about the fact that the profit driven private security forces will be concerned with making revenue. To me that would suggest locking more people up to justify their existence.
As much as there's a real need for change in the current system, I think that ousting the entire police force is just going to create more problems and isn't really a longterm solution. It scores political points and is emotionally cathartic but it's short sighted and could make things much worse.
Speak of the devil, Looks like Chicago has just hired 3 private security firms to help control protestors.
Militarizing the police is something I've heard has been taking place in the US. I don't really know the circumstances in which this has happened. But it seems strange as a police force exists to solve crimes first and foremost. All other roles it has can be performed by organizations like the National Guard in case of large-scale riots and private security firms when it comes to guarding private or public spaces. Investigating crime is a core task that cannot be outsourced to any other organization.
That Bolshevik Revolution sure showed how self-defense doesn't matter and you can depend on a centralized authority. USSR was such a great system of control from oppressors, how about Solschenizyn for a lessen on the tyranny of authority? Imagine if people organized to protect themselves and not let a gang of thugs called the mafia of government or non-government mafia or "revolutionaries" oppress them...
There are specialists and there are non-specialists in violence. It takes a special mentality to dedicate your life to violence. It takes preparedness to give up for your life at any moment. You must be able to sacrifice the lives of your loved ones as well. Not everyone is like that. Only a small minority of people have what it takes to be specialists in violence.
It's unrealistic to expect the average person to be a match for the kind of cold-blooded killers that the criminal underworld or the likes of the KGB breed. The ordinary person will not stand a chance anywhere. Not even in the land of the free. Forget about it.
The only way a modern state can function without turning into a police state is to have several professional organizations specializing in violence with partially conflicting jurisdictions. That guarantees that there won't be too much fraternizing between them. Then put civilians in control of the entire system. Dictatorships use the same system to keep the security apparatuses in check.