Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

One of the advantages of being a man of my age is that you grew up at a time when westerns were rather popular on TV. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Western was the lack of a police department in all but the biggest cities. That gives those of us who are old enough a reference to a society where you have no police department.

As I suspect a lot of our friends on the left do not have a reference for a society without police as they go all in on the “Defund the Police” business over the next week or so let me illustrate just one of the may consequences that our ignorant at best or idiotic at worst leftists are not considering because they’re well ignorant and/or well IDIOTS.

Likely you have heard the term “Riding Shotgun” which over the last 50 years has meant riding in the front with the driver.

However 150 years ago riding shotgun meant just that.

If you had someone “riding shotgun” that meant that next to the stagecoach driver whose attention had to be on the horses and what passed for roads you would have a 2nd person next to him, armed with a shotgun.

His job was to watch for armed attackers on any stripe. In an age when lawlessness was common and the entire population was acquainted with death as an everyday risk and thanks to a bloody civil war inoculated against horror over the killing of another a shotgun guard would not have too much to worry about if he found it necessary to discharge his weapon at a potential attacker.

Now with the advent of the automobile, quicker travel, communications and of course a regular police force the necessity for additional armed guards for all but the most valuable cargoes (like a brinks truck) became unnecessary. Furthermore as laws have become stricter and death less familiar the risks of discharging a weapon in defense of a cargo have increased and of course the presence of police who can be called in case of trouble makes the risk of going after a lesser cargo not worth the reward.

But the removal or de-funding of police changes that equation.

First of all if you are a thief looking for a quick score , or an addict in need of money for a fix these lesser targets, a UPS truck making deliveries, a Tractor trailer heading for a store, a mail truck delivering packages or even an UBER driver taking a passenger from an event become very inviting. The absence of police, either due to the force being abolished or because limited resources means nobody to respond to a call & even fewer available to follow up on a robbery after the fact.

This means bad news for a delivery driver who will be taking his life into his own hands in such a city. While any individual package might not be worth a lot a UPS Truck with anything near a full load would be worth enough to hit and loot and what isn’t kept for oneself will turn up at a flea market or pawn shop or sold on eBay.

This means a you need a 2nd person in the truck but if there are no police to call or no prospect that any would come a 2nd person would have no function other than to watch the truck get emptied, unless he was armed.

And if you are talking about a tractor trailer making regular delivers which might have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of items in tow the necessity of an armed guard ready to shoot exists every single day.

So while there a lot of downsides to the de-funding or departure of the police force on the plus side this will mean literally thousands of job opportunities for those both with steady nerves and the willingness to take a risk as shotgun riders for trailers, and UPS trucks and other cargo, jobs that have not been available in such quantity in a century and a half.

Alas for our friends on the left burdened with student loans who are triggered by a speaker who disagrees with them or who can’t function if the wrong pronoun is used, it’s unlikely that these new jobs will head their way. Much more likely a maga man, familiar with a gun and who knows how and when to use it (or not) will get that job.

I’m sure the sight of such a armed fellow in the delivery truck as it pulls up to their house or apartment building will be a great comfort to those inside.