Contracted Cities Lead To Ghettos

Cities across America have squandered so much money they are now facing bankruptcy and the need to fire hundreds of employees and contract with outside agencies for services.  The city of Maywood, California will begin contracting many services including hiring an outside police department.  Some contracting makes sense as government services are notoriously wasteful and inefficient, or downright ridiculous.  For example, take the millions upon millions for street sweeping where it is not needed, and where it does more harm than good (unless you like mud stripes in front of your house, and playing hide your car one day a week; $60 if they find you).  But there is a line to be drawn at contracting law enforcement.

Philosophically, law enforcement stems from the enactment of certain laws by a citizenry who takes on the responsibility of enforcing those laws for the public good. Of course, cities and the Federal government have largely disconnected that citizenry over the years by edicts from unaccountable bureaucrats, executive orders, and things done in assemblies and in congress that shouldn’t happen in nightmares.

Still, the disassociation of enforcement and citizenry inevitably leads to a ghetto environment.  Employees who live outside a community don’t have the same stake in the quality of life of a community where they work as they do in the community they return home to at the end of the day.  They don’t associate themselves with the effects of their actions.  Witness what bussing has done to the public school system; now an assortment of ghetto microcosms across the nation complete with fences and armed guards.