Toronto: Anarchy in the Streets

Also available at mises.ca

A Toronto cop shot a young man nine times on a streetcar.  The cop has been suspended with pay. This story is not an isolated event. There have been other questionable actions by the Toronto Police, as well the RCMP and every other police force in the country and around the world. Is there something fundamentally aggressive about cops? To provide law and order, is violence unavoidable? Or is the problem inherent in the organization? Does Toronto actually have law and order? Or is it just anarchy in the streets?


 
Everything we’ve been told about anarchy is exactly what we have now. Someone trying to explain anarcho-capitalism may get the response, “war-loads would take over.” But isn’t that what we have now? The First Nations weren’t exactly living in peaceful unity before the Europeans came. And surely, what are the wars and conquest of the European states than a massive amount of murders and mafia-style intimidation? The police shootings in Toronto – or anywhere else – are all reflections of the same underlying principle: there is anarchy in the streets! Individuals have been deprived of finding their own sources of law and order and instead have been subjected to “might-is-right” gang influence. This is a state of anarchy where individuals must be subjected to a state of criminals!
 
The free society – often referred to as anarchism – is a state of affairs where individuals choose law and order in the same way they choose where to buy food, where to sleep or whom to buy medicine from. It a system that also produces a free market in currency, thus diminishing the abuses and corruption of unfair businessmen.
 
Either the Toronto Police are running an impractical business or they are the criminal gang in charge of all other criminals – in both cases demanding “tribute” from “their” residents. If the former is true, the Toronto Police would be best to end their coercive monopoly, allowing for other protection services to freely enter the market. It would also be essential to abolish the mandatory payments, returning to the money to the taxpayer. Only an individual can determine where his or her interests are when choosing law and order. Subjecting everyone under a “one-size-fits-all” umbrella and forcing them to pay is inevitably going to cause tragedies like this one in Toronto.
 
But of course – the latter may true – police and the whole state apparatus are a criminal gang. In that case, we shouldn’t be so surprised when the cops become overly aggressive. In fact, we should be amazed they are as peaceful as they are. As the G20 showed, the police-state apparatus is already here. It’s just a question as to when the criminals-in-charge would like to display their power to the fullest extent.