America 2020 is in disarray.  Less than a month ago, anyone going out of their house for things deemed “non-essential” was being called a grandma killer.  If you didn’t wear a mask, you were at risk of being accused of wanting to kill innocent people.  If you were with groups of people who were voluntarily not “social distancing”, you were irresponsible.

Now that we have mass protests, many of the same people previously calling names are encouraging protesting for social justice.  I guess social justice now takes precedence over grandma.  It’s either that, or the whole coronavirus hysteria was a fraud.  Take your pick.

I’m not saying everyone has been inconsistent.  There are some people who called for lockdowns before who are calling the protests irresponsible (although not many).  There are some who didn’t care about social distancing before who are in favor of the protesting.  But for anyone paying attention, most of the same people who were calling for lockdowns and saying that there would be body bags when beaches reopened are the people now actively encouraging protesting in mass groups.

When the protesting started, it seemed to focus on police brutality.  It has quickly shifted to racial justice.  As a libertarian, I am quite sympathetic towards the cause of stopping, or at least reducing, police brutality.  I have been for some time.  I think police officers are given way too much power, and I think they should be held civilly and criminally liable for their actions the same as any private citizen would be.  If a police officer kills someone, it better be in self-defense or else they should face the same penalties as any other person.

Although the George Floyd case is not the best example of this, a lot of police brutality happens because there are simply too many laws on the books.  The biggest and most obvious are the drug laws.  If you end the war on drugs, then it is one less excuse for police officers to harass individuals.

I believe there are many steps local governments can take to reduce police brutality.  It shouldn’t be up to the police chief to determine if there was any wrongdoing.  Unfortunately, most police officers protect their own. This is obvious by the apparent murder of George Floyd.  Why didn’t any one of the officers present stop the one who had his knee on the victim’s neck?

Local governments could have a committee of private citizens on a volunteer basis who review cases.   They could decide whether it is appropriate if police officers are suspended or arrested for wrongdoing.  They could recommend prosecution for certain cases, although the victims and their family should retain the right to seek justice.

All body camera footage should be released.  Perhaps there would be certain exceptions to this if the person being arrested did not want it released.

These are just a few things I came up with off the top of my head.  There are many smarter people out there than me on this topic. But if you interview these protesters, most of them will not say these things.  They will talk in clichés.  They will talk about needing racial justice, but they won’t offer anything substantive that would actually do something.

Congress is passing a law to make lynching a federal crime.  This is just another unconstitutional law that will do no good.  It may do more harm. It will certainly do almost nothing to advance racial justice.  It won’t do anything to stop police brutality.

The biggest factor here is power.  Libertarians are the only ones calling for a major reduction in state power.  The problem isn’t the abuse of power.  The problem is the power to abuse.  If you expect the government to do everything, then you will get everything, including police brutality.  If the government were only expected to defend people’s lives and property and to enforce contracts, then it would drastically reduce police brutality.

Unfortunately, the police in many places couldn’t even handle its one most important function. They have failed in many places to protect people and their property.

A few weeks ago, I was watching videos of police officers arresting mothers for taking their kids to the park.  I was watching videos of business owners getting arrested for trying to open up their businesses to try to make a living.  Now I am watching videos of looters and stores being destroyed while the police stand by and do nothing to stop it.

This is America 2020. We didn’t start here, and it isn’t going to end here.  But everything has seemed to hit a climax here.  I hope that peace and liberty win out in the end.