The new cause célèbre from the Left is typical: the answer to the violence in the urban areas of our nation is More Federal Government,

It has been suggested that cities and states can no longer handle their policing duties. Of course, this is nonsense.  What policing can there be when police are told to back up, stand down, and let the mob have their way? 

The race hustler Al Sharpton has a problem with states rights, and suggests the Department of Justice take over the policing powers of the states.  Is this one of the objectives Sharpton and Obama have discussed in the many visits to the White House? Does the President share the views of his friend?  That would be a good question for a journalist.

“Sharpton said, “We need the Justice Department to step in and take over policing in this country. In the 20th century, they had to fight states’ rights in — to get the right to vote. We’re going to have to fight states’ rights in terms of closing down police cases.”

And exactly what would that look like, Al?  All under control from the central authority back in Washington DC.  Would we get more Black Panther justice like we saw from Eric Holder?  More snap decisions like Ferguson and Trayvon Martin from a biased Attorney General?

Federal takeover of the police powers of the states, powers secured by the Tenth Amendment, is now just one more attack on the balance of power between state and federal governments, constitutional guarantees, and perhaps creating a showdown between the states and feds in the Supreme Court.  Once again, the powers of the state may be adjudicated by a branch of the federal government, the Supreme Court.  What a curious and inherently unfair arrangement, one that historically has ensured a steady erosion of state powers via rulings from a federal branch.

“Police power describes the basic right of governments to make laws and regulations for the benefit of their communities. Under the system of government in the United States, the lawmaking power of the federal government is limited to the specific grants of power found in the Constitution.

The right of states to make laws governing safety, health, welfare, and morals is derived from the Tenth Amendment, which states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." State legislatures exercise their police power by enacting statutes, and they also delegate much of their police power to counties, cities, towns, villages, and large boroughs within the state. US Legal:

“The sovereign power of a state includes protection of safety, health, morals, prosperity, comfort, convenience and welfare of the public….  The basic right of governments to make laws and regulations for the benefit of their communities is police powers.  Police power is defined as the power of a governmental body to impose laws and regulations which are reasonably related to the protection or promotion of a public good such as health, safety or welfare.”

What is remaining of state sovereignty is in large part the states’ ability to police within their borders.  To surrender these powers to the federal government would be in no small way a further dismantling of our Constitutionally arranged form of government. 

This move is a calculated one, by the Left, which seems to be eternally frustrated by the remaining sovereign powers of the states.  Could there a better reason, then, to defend those state powers at all costs?