We all should keep the peace, not just peace officers

Relying exclusively on peace officers to stop criminals endangers us. All the people should keep the peace.

The people are everywhere, whereas peace officers are not. The people can respond immediately, peace officers must travel to a crime scene. The people immediately know who is a stranger, peace officers may not.

A woman fled to her roof when a man entered her home and she waited 15 minutes for peace officers to arrive. The criminal took his chances that the police would not arrive before he could steal and flee. Had she had a firearm or observant neighbors with firearms, the criminal could have been deterred or subdued promptly, and even better the criminal might have not committed the crime at all, knowing that the people on her street were the ‘peace force’.

The infamous Jesse James gang was partially stopped by the people of a small town who noticed something amiss outside a local bank. A story on History.com says, “During the attempted robbery, three members of the [Jesse James] gang went inside and demanded the cashier open the safe, but he refused. Meanwhile, after townspeople outside got wind that a holdup was taking place, they engaged in a shootout with the gang members who’d been stationed on the street. In the end, the bank cashier was killed by the outlaws as was a passerby, while two bandits were shot to death by townsfolk before the rest of the gang fled.”

On a local bike path in my neighborhood, a man rode a gas-powered bicycle recklessly down a bike path, used by both cyclists and pedestrians. He took his chances that a police officer would not see him. His chances were good. However, many people did see him and if we knew how to arrest criminals, we could have stopped him. If this man knew the people of my town were ready to make arrests, he never would have traveled on the bike path.

All the people, not just peace officers, need to be ready to keep the peace. Our communities will be safer.

I mean no disrespect towards peace officers. They do excellent work. I am only emphasizing the fundamental flaws of exclusively relying on a peace force. A police force, due to a fixed budget, has a limited number of officers. If the police force is the people, the people will always outnumber criminals.

More recently, six people in Washington (state) surrounded a car with two criminals who had stolen hardware tools from a store. Two of the people shot out the tires. Peace officers arrived quickly and found the car nearby and apprehended the criminals. This is a great example of everyday people working with peace officers to stop crime.

I’m not worried about everyone having a gun. Just as I’m not worried about my neighbors using a knife or bat to harm anyone. My neighbors are trustworthy, and I count on them to help me defend myself and belongings. Any thing they may own that could be a weapon will be used to make me and my town safer.

I’ve read that ‘Wild West’ was not wild. How could it be? All the people were ready to subdue any criminal or reckless behavior. Just ask the Jesse James gang. If the West was actually wild, then the people might have joined the Jesse James gang to rob that bank.

The phrase “The Wild West” smears the idea of honest, trustworthy people having the means to keep the peace when the sheriff and deputy are not present.

Movies admittedly stretch the facts but I’ve rarely seen more than a sheriff and deputy in the old West films. I think the sheriff and deputy managed the jail. It was the people who primarily kept the peace. One of the people might stop a crime, then have someone else get the sheriff who would take criminal to the local jail.

Stories abound on the NRA Armed Citizen website of people keeping the peace, well before peace officers arrive. That the crime occurred should be news, as crime is always news, but that one of the people stopped it should be a common event.

The irony is that in communities with people who have the standard skills of peace officers, there is much less crime. The criminals know they should not mess with anyone in the town.

All government officers are doing tasks that we, the people, have delegated to them. The only reason they have the authority to arrest people or direct traffic is because we gave them that authority. Therefore, we also have the authority to do the same tasks, as long as we do these tasks correctly.

What we may not keep in mind about the old West is that people knew how to use a gun and likely how to physically subdue criminals. I have taken an NRA course but need to get the range more often. I do not know defensive holds that can subdue someone. Relying my town’s peace officers has made me deficient in basic skills.

We can change our communities now by walking the neighborhood one night a week. Then finding other people who will patrol the other nights. We can use walkie-talkies to communicate with someone at a fixed location.

We can learn how to physically restrain criminals. We can become skilled with firearms by regularly going to the shooting range. We can take self-defense courses. We can read the peace officer manuals.

We need to ready like the elite British soldier who recently rescued hostages at a Kenya hotel stormed by criminals. He was ‘out shopping’ when the attack happened, ran back to his car, put on his gear, and took action against the criminals. No one needed to call him. He was nearby.

Training to keep the peace and working with our neighbors will be good practice for the other important task of filling the roles in our somewhat dormant state governments. These are the original governments, not the corporate government imposters, as explained by Anna Von Reitz and others. We have a lot of work to do.

Anna explains:

1. Getting your own political status cleaned up is Job One.
2. Getting your local county jural assembly together is Job Two.
3. Getting your local unincorporated county government up and fully functioning is Job Three.
4. After that, your counties will form your land jurisdiction states.
5. Your states will then be enabled to call a land jurisdiction Continental Congress together.
6. And whatever changes need to be made in our relationship with the hired government can be made via peaceful and agreed upon processes.

I did not refer the peace officers as ‘police’ officers because their may be a difference. The peace officers keep the peace, whereas police (or policy) officers enforce statutes. I have read that it’s important to ask if an officer is acting as a peace officer or a police(y) officer. Our neighborhood patrols would be to keep the peace, not policy.