You can get a good picture of how much we've changed just by going back through the history of this country to see what exactly constituted "law enforcement" at any given time. For generations, the classic symbol of law enforcement in America was the rural county sheriff. His role was very different from what police officers do today. There was never any illusion that people needed a sheriff to protect them -- since an armed citizenry was perfectly capable of protecting itself. In fact, the original role of a law enforcement officer was to protect accused criminals from law-abiding citizens -- by taking those criminals into protective custody where they awaited trial through a legitimate U.S. legal process.
The use of the term "outlaw" on the American frontier illustrates this perfectly. Contrary to popular belief, the word "outlaw" was not used to describe a person whose actions were "outside the law" from a standpoint of illegality. In fact, the term was used to describe a person whose actions were so reprehensible that he was no longer considered worthy of protection under the law -- i.e., he was living "outside the law" and therefore had forfeited any rights he may have had to due process, etc. So a person who was deemed an outlaw basically had a bounty put on his head, and any law-abiding citizen was free to do whatever was necessary (including killing the bastard) without fear of any legal trouble.
Of course, we've long forgotten what any of this even means anymore. But that's to be expected when you live in a nation whose government is perfectly comfortable having its agents grope law-abiding citizens at "TSA checkpoints," while that same government openly acknowledges that it cannot -- and will not -- do anything to keep millions of invaders from pouring across our southern border.
I read comments 1-37.
There were several good ones but you scored the most points so you win this thread, in one guy’s opinion, lol.
Outstanding post. Thank you.