There is a movement afoot in the US to defund or dismantle the police. I don’t know what plan they have to replace it with, if there is one, but most of this philosophy is rooted in the silly notion that everyone is basically good. READ: Minneapolis City Council president: ‘Dismantle’ police department

We aren’t and I include myself in this (Romans 3:23).

I remember years ago when the police went on strike in our community. The union said the police would only handle the most serious of crimes. We were never really sure what that meant.

When it came to traffic lights, you quickly realized you needed to slow down even if the light was green. I remember slowing at one intersection to creep through a green light, when I suddenly heard the roar of an engine down the street on my right, as a guy half-way down the block decided he was running his red light. And he could because there was no one to stop him.

Don’t kid yourself, after a while everyone, myself included, was tempted to do it.

The city’s largest main street was blocked off for two full blocks, both sides, every night, so people could have drag races. And they did it at one of the street’s busiest thorough fares, because, you know, everyone is basically good.

We didn’t have James Bond’s license to kill, but very nearly a license for anything else. It did not happen all at once, but as the days went by the city slowly descended into chaos, as people realized it was every man for himself:

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25).

It took only a few days, before the government was forced to order the police back to work, because, you know, everyone is basically good. Legislation was eventually passed preventing police from striking.

The police aren’t perfect as we saw in the George Floyd incident, but neither is anyone else.