“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence,—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” --George Washington
Every law is enforced by violence. If you break a law and the authorities decide to enforce it, they will arrive with the threat of violence. If you resist, they will use the violence and use enough of it to gain compliance.
Every law. From speeding and jaywalking to capital crimes. Men with weapons will come and if you resist, they will use all the force at their disposal. It is the only tool government has.
A 9 year old girl in California learned this lesson in an indelible way a couple of days ago. She had raised a goat and brought it to a livestock auction at the Shasta fair. It sold for $900.00. Afterwards she regretted the sale and wanted to keep the goat as it really had become a pet.
The winning bidder was willing to let the child keep the goat. The livestock manager for the fair was not and demanded the goat. He filed a criminal complaint. Two investigators drove ten hours to execute a search warrant and seize the goat.
The goat was delivered to the Shasta fairgrounds where it was promptly slaughtered.
There's a lawsuit filed by the family.
The answer to that family's lawsuit should be criminal prosecutions of all involved.
ReplyDeleteGrand theft of livestock, criminal conspiracy, criminal accessory, possession of stolen property, and obstruction of justice are all still a thing.
Doubtless a few thousand hours of community service apiece should be awarded in lieu of prison time, provided all involved cop a plea.
If they fight it, max them out.
This isn't "running an unpermitted lemonade stand" levels of nonsense, it's deliberate felonious conduct.
And it's never as funny at 9AM in criminal court in front of a superior court judge as it was at 3AM one night.
Aesop you mean in the land of "authorized to 1K theft" California there is still Rule of Law?
ReplyDeleteOr is it that the people in question are not of the Approved DNA for such "Permitted Theft"?
California Led the Way! Oh Rahhh!!
Aesop,
ReplyDeleteThanks for reinforcing my point. I didn't say they didn't break a law, I said that government always uses force because it is the only tool government has. Your proposal to charge them in criminal court would involve them being arrested by armed men, held, tried, and convicted. Your second proposal, that they be allowed to avoid prison if they grovel sufficiently and take a plea and do thousands of hours of community service, also shows another use of force.
Force has it's place. Maybe this is it. But I thought it was a good example of how government is force and nothing else. There are others.
Of course it's a good example of governmental use of force.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's also both legally and morally completely justified.
The difference between any government and anarchy is not the absence of uses of force.
It's the lack of any restraints on use of force.
Some people need to be punched in the mouth, and some people just need a heap o' killing.
Many of them are also inside the government.
The question, since ever, is not whether there should be government, but rather by whom?
There's the rub.
And FTR, the current problem isn't that every law is enforced by violence.
ReplyDeleteIt's precisely that every law isn't.
When you don't like the laws, you can either change the laws or change the government.
But when you don't know to whom they do or don't apply,
it's not law at all.
QED
Yeah, enter into a 4Hish program to raise stock animals and nobody ever understands that the animal is gonna be slaughtered?
ReplyDeleteThere is so much fail in all of this.
First, the parent of the child is wrong for indulging it's precious snowflake of a child.
Second, the goat belonged to whomever it was sold to. So if the goat owner decides to return the animal, it's his/her right to do so.
Third, what idiot police dick decides to spend time on this bullscat?
Fourth, forget it Jake, it's California. Land of fail, land of stupid wins. I can see a new saying being created. California always wins. (like the Du Toit phrase "Africa always wins" and not meant in a good way.
Since I know you all read my blog, you know my take on this. There were three transactions here:
ReplyDeleteThe mom sold the goat to the county fair in exchange for future consideration.
The fair sold the goat to the final buyer.
The mother tried to buy the goat back from the final buyer (a third transaction). Had she simply waited until the buyer took delivery and gotten it from him, that would have been the end of it.
Instead, she decided to burglarize the fair's barn and steal the goat while it was under the possession and control of the fair. That's what made this a crime. It doesn't matter that the final buyer was willing to sell, because that isn't who she stole it from.
Then she compounded her crime by hiding the goat on another farm. That's called "knowledge of guilt" and also obstruction of justice.
I don't think it was any more of a waste of police time than someone breaking into my garage and stealing a bicycle. To claim that the final buyer didn't lose anything is to engage in the same empty headed thinking that "restorative justice" is busy using to justify not punishing criminals.
Yes, they broke the law, plain and simple. Then tried to 'hide' the evidence.
ReplyDeletePretty much. And yeah, parents have some responsibility for educating their children in the realities of life. Including the harsh painful lessons about food sources.
ReplyDeleteHas no one here ever had 4h kids?
ReplyDeleteThe entrant and the bidder sign off to the fact that the animal does not get to go home. This was to lessen the likelyhood of getting all the animals together, then spreading some disease all over the place when they disperse.
This also applies to putting 90% of the nations bees together in the almonds then scattering them across the continent.
It would have been no more legal for the succesfull bidder to take that animal home.
The boys know it is their opertunity to console the heartbroken girls on the last day of fair!
Do not misconstrue my comment, Iam not a back the blue type. You are never in more danger than when the police are near you.
ReplyDeleteWell! Reading the last few comments cleared up some questions I had. Sucks to do something and not be able to have a 'do over'. Life lesson better learned when young. For mom, a hell of a thing to get a felony rap over.
ReplyDeleteShow your work, Beans.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia authorities arrested the crooks, and are prosecuting the crimes.
Tell me how that's supposed to work, and how it does work, in 49 other states, and then contrast that with CA.
If Gabbin' Nuisance pardons them all, you have an argument.
Otherwise, not so much.
I would only point out that, if you paid your Mafia "taxes," they actually PROTECTED you. Seen any sign of that from your GOVERNMENT lately?
ReplyDeleteit was designed to govern a civil and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for any other. We have a minority in power that are self defined as the any other. The plan is to make sure everyone is safe and healthy instead of free.
ReplyDelete