There will be blood

There will be blood

Robert A. Hall

What has been a slow crumbling of civilization and civilized behavior has seemed to pick up steam since the Trump election. I am no Trump fan, and did not vote for him. My disdain for The Donald is long standing and has been fully explored on my blog many times, to the dismay of Republican friends who have accused me of being a liberal Democrat!

But increasingly groups feel because they oppose President Trump they have the right to use violence, destruction of property and denial of rights like freedom of speech or freedom of movement to others because they know they are right and anyone else is a hater--and they just hate those haters and will destroy them!

And the authorities are either powerless to protect people's rights to property, speak, move and perhaps even life because they are afraid to be accused of racism, islamophobia, homophobia or maybe cultural appropriation/white privilege. The list of reasons why the lawless and the vicious must be allowed to carry out repugnant acts with impunity grows weekly. Worse, the authorities are often on the political side of the lawless, thus colluding or turning a blind eye just as southern white supremacist governments once did for the KKK and other oppressors of minorities.

Inevitably this will lead to a violent reaction from the people who are their victims. And increasingly it will be from average people outraged at the violence and intimidation, not from the few crazies in the Alt-Right, White Supremacist or skinhead groups. Violence begets violence. Blood begets blood. Destruction begets destruction. We have seen this before in the 1930s in Germany, Italy, Spain and the USSR. We see it now in areas controlled by or attacked by Islamic Supremacists.

As blog readers know, I have been working part-time as a security officer for JBM Patrol, which is several cuts about other private security agencies I have seen, not to mention the one I worked for in college. JBM maintains high standards of appearance, training and professionalism--not an easy challenge even for the military in the face of today's social deterioration. But I think you are going to see a rapid expansion of such private security agencies as more people, businesses and organizations realize that protection from the police will depend on the political leanings of the destroyers and the political courage of politicians--a thin reed. And the uniform will not be a deterrence with these self-righteous, vicious political groups the way it is with casual opportunity-criminals. It will require troops--I use the word advisedly--trained in the use of force, with the will to counter violence with violence, but with the training and judgment not to use force when not appropriate just because they are provoked.

At 71, and having survived a lung transplant in December of 2013, I'm probably not prepared for riot control and it's unlikely I will be on the front lines in five or ten years, even if I yet live. But I see things getting much worse. I am sorry to say there is going to be blood.