The Right Coast

August 18, 2004
 
Send us your police
By Tom Smith

This is absolutely correct. We need more police, especially in ludicrously underpoliced Southern California. It would make it more like Italy, which is a good thing. I like those caribineri strolling along with their sub-machine guns. But a few thousand of them in East LA and give the Bloods and Crips something to think about. The greatest beneficiaries would be poor, minority families liberated from rule by thugs.

I once had as a pro-bono client a housing project sponsored by a Catholic parish in Northeast DC. It was one of the few places not infested by drug dealers in the area. Some dealer got kicked out of the project and demanded to be able to come back to visit his mother or something. What he really wanted to do is sell drugs. He hired a lawyer, who called to say he and his client were going to march back into the project and that to stop him would violate his civil rights. We hired a bunch of off-duty cops as extra security and were waiting for him. They came, they saw, they left. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a bunch of guys with guns. Among them are peace, order and security, which you need to do anything else.