Dave Hardy’s latest book, “I’m From the Government and I’m Here to Kill you” is now available for preorder on Amazon. I’m told it should ship in a few weeks. I’d strongly recommend the introduction:
The proposition that a king, a government, can do wrong is central to the Declaration, America’s foundational document. So how did America get to a situation where government employees, “public servants,†can kill by sheer sloppiness and walk away? Where an agency can level a town and kill six hundred citizens and escape all responsibility? Where a federal agency can run guns to Mexican drug cartels, causing hundreds of deaths on both sides of the border, and wash its hands of the matter? Where veterans can die awaiting doctors’ appointments, and the hospital administrators can collect their bonuses and walk away?
Answering these questions requires a brief look at legal history. English common law developed the concept of “sovereign immunity,†commonly expressed as “the King can do no wrong.†But common-law sovereign immunity was actually a narrow concept. A subject could not sue or pros- ecute the king, but could take legal action against anyone carrying out the king’s orders. Americans could better hold their government accountable when they were ruled by George III than they can today!
Read the whole thing.
“So how did America get to a situation…”
A quick answer might be that in the great sweep of history, things are returning to “normal” after a brief 241 years — no time at all, compared to the lives of earlier empires. Or perhaps certain myths are just becoming dated, and we are just waking up to what has always been true?
“Americans could better hold their government accountable when they were ruled by George III than they can today!”
There is a theory that, given that there had been something like 40-odd local, popular rebellions and uprisings in the colonies before the Revolutionary period began, the colonial ruling class worked at shifting blame and dissatisfaction from themselves to the crown, and had thus fomented the Revolution. Whether that was the case or not, it is likely no ruling class was going to repeat the recent mistakes of the class they had just supplanted; their object was to take power and hold it.
Dave is the troublemaker who went through the Waco evidence locker and found some of the ferret rounds that the Federal Bureau of Incineration claimed were never used.
Just a few days ago cops went to the wrong house with guns blazing. The town will end up paying a massive settlement – probably won’t even cost a cop his job.
https://reason.com/blog/2017/08/09/police-go-to-wrong-address-fatally-shoot
“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. I’m from the government. Prepare to die”.
“But common-law sovereign immunity was actually a narrow concept.” And it was not quite as big a problem when the government’s powers were more limited.
“… it was not quite as big a problem when the government’s powers were more limited.”
Serious question: Are you talking about government power de facto, or de jure? Because through most of history the government could and would and did do as it damn saw fit with probably 95 percent of the population. I’m thinking of the old chestnut that “the constitution means what the cop on the beat says it means,” which still remains true for most of population, who can’t afford four or five figures in legal fees to prove otherwise, and aren’t sophisticated or resourceful enough to be able to recruit support from organized advocates on their behalf.