[Mr. Jeeves]

Great article. This line struck me:

Several things struck me about the incident: the youths’ sense of invulnerability in broad daylight...

Years ago, such fools would have been physically detained (and likely beaten) by local men, a population evidently in just as short supply in France as in America. Fear of retribution from the local populace is the only real deterrent to crime - once it vanishes (in societies where people are forbidden to defend themselves) the criminals become wolves among sheep.

[vnix]

You're right, about ten years ago me and a friend stopped for a case of beer. Right next to the beer dist. there was a plot of ground where several men were "detaining" a younger fella, maybe 20 years old. I got out of the car, not knowing what exactly was going on, and was gonna help the yute, when the men told me that the boy just got done robbing a house and they were waitin for the law to get there, I understood why the boy was a bit bloody. I thought then as I do today, that vigiliance according to need is the best deterrent for crime. I have no sympathy for people who are doing wrong. There is forgiveness, mind you, however true change is needed before any trust can be established. When a amn, or men are out shootin people at random, and the lawmen are tellin you to let them handle it, the lawmen are in need of another type of work. This country was founded on certain principles, we have strayed far away from those principles through ignorance and complacency. Changes now, I fear, are too late. We have allowed ourselves to become a punching bag of sorts, but the consequences are now of fatal value.Stay tuned folks, cause soon there will be an upheaval bigger than most are willing to consider and the only way out now is through God himself.