Re: All the BATF's (was: Re: The Weavers)

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Thu, 18 Sep 1997 22:22:30 -0400

Arjen Kamphuis wrote:
>
> Maybe you should say: "why we mistrust *our* governement"
> The interesting question (If you want this to stop) surely becomes: Why you
> need a BATF (some sort of SWAT-team I suspect) so much in the first place?
> In the last ten years or so there has been only 1 accidental death of a
> civilian by a Special Arrest Team over here. That's not because our police
> force consists of supermen (they only wish ;-) but because the SAT's over
> here are very seldom needed. If a policeman fires his pistol it's most
> often national news. I'm pretty sure this was discussed before and I'm
> sorry if I'm repeating myself, please bear with me.
>
> Can you imagine that our Prime Minister (sort of like The President in the
> US) lives in a normal house among ordinary citizens and goes to work on his
> bicycle, alone, without a single bodyguard, everyday? Even if it rains? ;-)
> And there's no reason why he should not. Last time a Dutch polititian was
> shot at in-the-line of duty was in the 17th century to the best of my
> knowledge. We had a terrorist drama in 1972 that ended with much violence
> (3 dead civilans and all seven or so terrorists dead). It's still being
> talked about today, it's *that* special.
>
> We have 'big' governement, it spends a lot of money (almost 50% of GNP), it
> makes mistakes (they *are* human). I can think of many reasons to be
> critical toward them, some quite personal. But I have no reason to mistrust
> them in the sense that they are 'out to get me' or have big hidden agenda's.
>
>

The prime difference that I see, Arjen, is that Holland is more like one
of our states, while your EC is a loose confederate government. State
politics for most states here is quite open, responsive, accountable,
etc., far more so than the feds are. The federal government's greatest
impact is not so much due to taxation and entitlement promotion as due
to regulation. The cost of regulatory compliance is a great hidden tax
here that soaks up so much time and productivity, and causes stress to
many people who have to deal with it. This would not be so bad if the
benefits were worth it, but our schools and much of our infrastructure
is substandard compared to other industrialized nations. This has
occured in the last 30-40 years as the federal government has grown and
grown to become involved in almost every aspect of our lives, and
continually performs worse and worse at the job.

State politicians are typically very approachable. I've met several
state governors myself, and know a couple state senators and reps
personally.

Government police forces here need SWAT teams for one purpose only: to
be the heavy hand enforcing the morality of a minority on the rest of
us, namely with regards to personal drug use and self defense. Its
estimated that over 80% of our law enforcement expenditures are directly
related to our present drug laws, and despite the FBI's own statistical
evidence showing personal gun posession to reduce crime, further gun
restrictions are enacted every day.

-- 
TANSTAAFL!!!
			Michael Lorrey
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