As we noted recently, now-unidentified BART officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant III on New Years — an incident caught on camera by fellow train passengers. Yesterday rather than appear at a scheduled interview with police investigators, Mehserle turned in his resignation. Last night community members planned to meet in a nearby park then walk to Oakland City Hall to demand justice. But the atmosphere was so charged and the animosity between the community and the police so deep that the gathering soon took on a life of its own, as documented in the “Wednesday Night’s Reaction  . . .” thread on Bureaucrash Social.

It’s anybody’s guess whether this situation will further escalate. What is known is that complaints about police brutality aren’t limited to the streets of Oakland.

I just re-read Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member in which the author Sanyika Shakur touched on the L.A. riots that began at the corner of Normandie and Florence. I remember watching them on TV (and later visited there in person) wondering what the underlying causes were, to bring about such destruction of property.

Focus should be placed on the absolutely crippling impact that accompanies massive governmental intervention. I bet if you randomly asked folks on the street in Oakland their attitude toward the cops it wouldn’t be too favorable. But, since the government claims a monopoly on the provision of law enforcement those folks cannot fire the cops. Therefore cops know their jobs are secure, that they don’t have to be concerned with customer service, causing some to act with swagger (remember Amadou Diallo?).

There is no government monopoly (yet) on the supply of food, which is more important to an individuals’ survival than policing, but individuals are trusted to decide for themselves the type and quantity of food to buy. If they deem prices on a particular item too expensive, they’ll either not buy it or shop elsewhere. However, that same person is not allowed to make a similar decision about the provision of law enforcement. No matter the level of brutality, corruption, or inefficiency, citizens cannot choose not to patron their local law enforcement, as money is taken from them (taxes) to pay for the salaries of the cops and all their toys.

But there’s more to this story than over-aggressive cops. The burden of government — oppressive to us all — is magnified for those living in the inner-city.

Howie Baetjer, a Lecturer in Economics at Towson University uses the example of a ladder to more clearly communicate just how detrimental government policies are. He notes that most folks start at the bottom of the ladder and over time, gain experience and develop skills to move up the ladder to better high-paying jobs. A millionaire today may have been working the cashier at a McDonald’s a few decades ago. But for those living in the inner-city the first few rungs of the ladder are removed, making it much more difficult if not impossible to move up.

• The war on drugs is largely responsible for the fact that 1/3 of all black males are in prison or on probation. It’s more difficult to get a job with a felony record, not to mention the time spent out of the workforce. That’s one rung from the ladder removed.
• Government schools in inner-cities rank among the worst (is it any wonder why parents living in the inner-city are those leading the call to introduce choice and competition to education?). Another rung removed.
• Minimum wage laws, which in theory may sound good, actually lead to more unemployment. Think about it this way: You’re a business owner paying 10 workers $10 per hour. Then the government says you have to pay everyone $20 per hour. You can no longer afford to employee all 10 workers, so those with the least-marketable skills are let go. And not only are they not then able to bring home an income, many of these people will start to collect money from the government (which was originally taken  from taxpayers).

The solution is to shrink the scope of government so that people can live freely.

For more on this, check out the Freedom: My Anti-Gov and Progressives Against Progress overviews on Bureaucrash Social.