Posted - 2011.06.20 21:30:00 - [1]

 

There's a cute truism in the U.S,: If you shoot someone breaking into your house and the body falls into your yard, drag it into the house. Why? If the body's in the yard, you'll be arrested for murder. If it's in your house you'll be praised for successfully defending your home. Why parse it that finely? Well, if not, who's to stop someone from just shooting someone in their yard, then claiming they were breaking into your house? That would be a neat little loophole useable to get rid of a few annoying neighbors. So, what's stopping someone from shooting an annoying neighbor in the yard, dragging that body into the house, then calling the police claiming they broke into your house? Nothing really, but you better be able to prove it by the preponderance of evidence, or you'll be tried for murder. They will arrest you and hold you till it's sorted out to their satisfaction (“they” being the police acting on behalf of the community.)

Something else that may be common knowledge; something that helped put the “wild” into “The Wild West.” In the western U.S. Territories, before they all became states, it was a hanging offense to steal a horse. In those days, of course, a man without a horse was likely to be a dead man. It's a very long walk to that next water hole, and it's hard to flee from hostile “Native Americans” on foot. Therefore, the horse was more than a pet, if you see the reasoning here. So, a man steals your horse. What do you do? Back then, you hoofed it to the nearest ranch, or settlement and proclaimed loudly, “Someone stole my horse!” Without hesitation every able-bodied man would arm himself with pistola or rifle, climb on their horses and ride off in pursuit of this horse thief, and more times than not they'd catch up to him. So, what did they do then, put him under citizen's arrest, take him to town and wait for the circuit judge to show up for a trial? No. They found the nearest suitable tree and hung him with a rope. (These guys always carried rope around with them.) Not only that. They'd also hang a sign around his neck, if materials were available (charcoal on an old piece of plank will suffice). “Horse thief.” That's all that needed to be said. It explained everything to everyone's satisfaction.

Oh, but I said “before they became 'states'.” What happened after they became “states”? After that the sovereignty of the state required the matter be placed before duly constituted law enforcement officials who investigated, made an arrest and brought the man to trial in a duly constituted court of law. He was afforded a defense attorney, and was prosecuted by a District Attorney who then had to prove before a jury of 12 men, without a “shadow of a doubt” that the man indeed committed the crime. Should that be successful, a sentencing hearing was held separate from the trial and sentence was passed that was “commensurate with the crime.” All that sounds nice and legal, right? (We get into legality we start harvesting those big words with more than two syllables.) What would happen if in all the excitement after the crime a group of citizens set off after the offender, tracked him down and in the fever of the hunt strung him up on a suitable tree? They would be arrested. The crime? Lynching. They have turned from protectors to a lynch mob. Interesting change, no? Why this change?

Well. I'll tell you. The word is “sovereignty.” The territory had transformed into a sovereign state. The thing about sovereign states is, they like to enforce their own sovereignty. They don't like you to do it unless you're employed by them to do it. They like to do it themselves so much that over the past three thousand years inestimable treasure and lives have been spent by sovereign states to enforce their sovereignty. (There are exceptions, of course; citizen's arrest, self-defense, etc., but these are so strongly codified that if you intend to make such a claim, you better be able to prove it, or you'll find yourself in jail, or prison, or worse; grudgingly accepted exceptions.) We all know, the normal run of things in life involves the state enforcing its own sovereignty, however, with professionals and equipment that costs the state plenty, and the state is always willing to pay. There are no exceptions in this. Never has been. Never will be. For, if a state cannot, or will not enforce its sovereignty, guess what? It has no sovereignty. All it has is a claim. No one has to honor a claim. This is such an indelible fact in human history that it goes without question, unless (of course) you're oblivious of history.