Yesterday while waiting at a red light, I saw government "rent-a-cop" police officers, with their usual giant badges, all-black outfits, openly-carried firearms, and reflective sunglasses, descending on a lonely car that was abandoned along the side of the road. Of course, it took no fewer than three rent-a-cops to corral this dangerous beast (like all predatory pack hunters, cops can't ever do anything alone)... they strutted like peacocks, ready to go ape-shit crazy on any one or any thing that challenged their "authority."

I once described government rent-a-cops as having a "power complex, a sense of entitlement, and a hubristic nature", and that about sums up what I was seeing, just through their body language alone.

Watching them got me thinking: I'm more afraid of the government rent-a-cops than I am the actual criminals. The cops, very obviously, have too much power-- just look at the number of shootings and beatings perpetrated by government cops. The balance of power is out of whack.

I think it would be better if the criminals had more power in today's society. That might sound counter-intuitive at first-- especially if, like me, you don't morally condone typical criminal behavior, such as theft: but it would even out the distributon of power in society, creating an equilibrium state, in which each faction had some power, but no faction was totally dominant.

I think you would see the government rent-a-cop "angry, self-entitled strutting peacock armed with ballistic missiles" behavior disappear real fast. As for me, I'd rather take my chances with the two-bit criminals than the totally and utterly omnipotent cops (who are also essentially criminals-- go re-read my earlier-linked blog post) that we have today.

Now, if the criminals were madly raping and pillaging, I'd probably be writing a similar blog post wishing that the government's cops had more power. Hence why I use the term "equilibrium."