We need law and order in Washington
'Turn left, you will be fine,' he said. 'Turn right and you may be murdered.' This, in the hallowed capital of the world's most powerful nation.
I was already well familiar with the many dangers of one of America's most crime-ridden cities. As a graduate of the Foreign Service School of Georgetown University, I knew all about street crime. A girlfriend of mine, Barbara M., was raped and murdered in trendy Georgetown. A CIA officer was killed in Georgetown by a mugger.
We lived in a swamp of violence and
fear. The city police were useless. The city's black mayors ordered the police to avoid antagonising the city's 80% black voters.
Washington once held the nation's highest murder rate, rivalled by Baltimore, Cleveland and Detroit. I used to own a manufacturing company across the river from Detroit. Our general manager was murdered there during a holdup.
Crime rates in the US are intolerable. The key problem arose from America's black people. It was our curse and punishment for slavery. Millions of black Americans had no education, family, discipline or reason to observe the laws. Social problems were the cause but so was sheer lawlessness. The crime rate in South Africa's cities, as I observed, was as bad as in the US.
I rarely agree with President Donald Trump but this time I applaud his sending of federal agents, the National Guard and more police into DC. This is a real emergency. Even way back when I was at Georgetown University, we used to say, 'Mr President, please send in the US Army and Marine Corps to DC'.
Until now, there has been almost no law or order in DC. No action was taken for fear of creating a major racial crisis. Democrats, who relied on black votes, thwarted effective
action to impose law and order. The same thing happened – to a somewhat lesser degree – in my native New York.
Now, none too soon, comes Trump's iron fist. This is classical dictatorial behaviour. Lucius Cornelius Sulla did this in ancient Rome around 60BC. Mussolini made the trains run on time. The public always prefers law and order to abstractions about proper democratic behaviour and loves political theatrics, such as the former showman Trump offers nightly.
Washington needs martial law but authoritarian governance is, as was said of fire, 'a useful servant but a dangerous master'. The draconian steps taken by Trump in Los Angeles and now Washington are very dangerous.
The Trump administration is too drunk on power and could quickly become addicted to using martial law to enforce its policies.
Such, as noted, was the case with the Roman Republic that quickly slid into dictatorship. The Roman Senate was turned into an impotent talking shop where mad emperor Caligula proposed making his horse a senator. One would not be astounded to see such lunacy in today's US Congress with a moonshiner made head of the FBI.
So, Trump's imposition of law and order in Washington, DC must be limited by Congress to remain only in the District of Columbia.
Congress is too busy taking great sums of money from the White House – much of it is supplied by gambling interests and a foreign 'ally'. Time to think of America, which should be as free of street crime as Europe.
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