We Pay Big to Be Mistreated.

What's the biggest building in town?

Likely it's the courthouse.  Which is filled with judges and baliffs and sheriff's deputies and secretaries and jail guards and guys who polish the floors.  All paid directly or indirectly by the Public $Dollar.  Did you ever notice?  

BTW, they have very shiny floors.

Oh yeah, and there are those who've been charged with a crime.  Whether small, like an infraction, you didn't take out the trash on Wednesday or something, all the way up to mass murder.  And their job is to mete out punishment on behalf of the township.  Or the city.  Or the county or state.  Or maybe the Federal Gubmint.  

There's a lot of meting going on around these parts.  Yet, some would say not nearly enough...

And all the buildings around the courthouse are filled with law firms.  Each packed with those who are proud to be predators.  Those entitled by virtue of their education, and their ability to pass the bar exam, after two or three tries, to prey on the rest of us.  Like lions on the Serengheti.  And our Congress is packed full of them.  About 90% of them are lawyers.  Speaking to each other in their own special language.  Which we plebians are not permitted to speak.  

We, the 'Murican Public, go about our daily lives usually without knowing we're at their behest.  We live in their world.  Whatever they say we have to do.  Whether we know it or not. 

And whether we like it or not.

So these guys hire a bunch of LEO's.  That stands for "Law Enforcement Officers."  There's just about One Million of them out there, patrolling around, looking for us to commit an infraction.  Or having been sent to corral your butt because there's a warrant out for your arrest.  An entire community of folks who all wear spiffy uniforms, and carry billy clubs, and a taser, and handcuffs, and a flashlight that would bake your retinas.  And at least one firearm.  To protect them from us.  The UNARMED.  One would rightly presume that's overkill.  

And statistics confirm you can take that literally.

They think of themselves as the "annointed."  The selected.  The chosen.  The Centurions.  The ones to keep 'Murica on the straight and narrow.  Except when they screw up.  Which they do every day.  Because our hiring and selection process is flawed.  And our training process is flawed.  Our police and sheriffs and constables will take just about anyone.  GED's?  Okay.  Lots of tattoos?  Sure.  No more than one felony?  If you insist.  

And then they send you to school for 6 months, and...VOILA!  You're an LEO.  And you get to go out and write tickets.  And chase folks in your shiny patrol car.  And then arrest them.  Or maybe shoot them.  Happened nearly 1,000 times last year. 

All this brings in boucoup revenue.  Without which their little communities couldn't exist.  You first are forced to pay taxes, on your income and on what you do with it, and then pay an additional "Road Tax" for failing to use your turn signal, or something.  Does all that sound like a good idea to you?

Oh yeah, I've done the computations.  The fact that some small percentage of our residents are criminals, is forcing us to dedicate almost 9% of our Gross Domestic Product to try and change their ways.  We might as well pay them to sit at home and suck back Colt .45's.  Cogitate upon that bit of information if you will.  

Okay.  I've vented my massive spleen.  I get to do that every couple of days, 'else I'd blow my expansive stack.  I get to pick a topic about which I'm interested and go off on it.  And you get to decide whether or not to read it.  And then agree with it.  Or not.  

It's okay, either way.