Here is a link to a story about breakdown of rule-of-law.

https://noticethenews.com/todaysnews/vigilantes-force-squatters-from-nyc-home-after-police-arrested-homeowner-mob-law-is-back/

In case the link goes bad, the story refers to a NYC homeowner who was arrested for changing the locks on a house she owned, after police once removed a squatter who had been occupying it.

There are lots of problems with the story, both the events and the reporting.

Let’s start with True Law. Property. If I own it, you don’t. That way, things are clear. The fruits of my labor are kept safe by “society” = Law = you-and-me collaborating . If you want what I have, we can try to work out a peaceful, mutually satisfactory agreement under which I sell it to you, if we can’t, that is that, You can shop elsewhere.

Today in this country, certain misguided or maybe wicked office-holders are subverting this model. Shoplifting is not prosecuted, home invaders’ interests are upheld over property owners’.

Everyone should remember my ten-cent lecture about law standing on three legs (if you don’t, it’s another blog article on this web-site). These anti-property acts cannot be Law, because they violate Divine or natural Law. So you might say that the “vigilante” evictions are actually acts of law-enforcement, not “vigilantism”.

Tim draws a very interesting parallel with the Mafia. Mafia arose in Sicily long ago, because the corrupt government failed to protect the common people. Leaders arose who determined to provide this protection…by any means necessary. Because “Law” was a government monopoly/playground in that time and place, actions to protect local people were by definition outside the “law”, so ALL elements of law (like “Thou Shalt Not Murder”) were ignored. Bad law drove out good law, you might say. With the concept of law demonized, self-interest became the only law, and Mafia evolved to the criminal syndicate we know today.

Our self-protection = People-s Law Enforcement = Militia need not (must not!) evolve (devolve) this way, for several reasons.

First and most important, our 1776 Revolution ESTABLISHED THE PRINCIPLE that law and government exist TO SECURE OUR RIGHTS (not for the convenience of rapacious elites). That gives us a clear and simple test for what can, and what cannot, be law, in our system: “Does it secure the rights of the individual”?

Second, Militia and its necessity, and its authority to execute the Law, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, are found in black and white in our Constitution. Our authority to protect ourselves, our property, and our communities is no shadowy surreptitious hope, it is THE LAW.

Third, we can and must teach these principles and prove our good-will in our communities until our local governing body explicitly provides the support and recognition that our State and federal governments neglect (out of their own corrupt self-interest). And we can and must do our defensive job with meticulous respect for the due-process (trial, not knee-capping!) that protects us all from our own human fallibility.