One of my friends, a lovely, smart woman, moved from Connecticut to South Dakota in the 90s.  She remained convinced Connecticut was a bastion of civilization, particularly compared to backward, provincial South Dakotans. Now, easterners are increasingly fleeing those former bastions of civilization, and with good reason.

Hartford [CT] had 40 murders in 2022 and 36 in 2023, which may not seem like a lot but it equates to roughly 2,456 murders a year in New York City. The Big Apple hasn't seen redrum like that since the early 1990s.

Archbishop Dexter Burke saw woke politicians gut his city with Marxist nonsense. He also saw two men get murdered near his church one night. He decided to do something. 

Burke decided to help form a legally armed "self-defense brigade" to patrol the streets of Hartford's northern neighborhood. It consists of about 40 legally armed citizens who carry guns, wear body cameras, and have drone support in the air.

The self-defense brigade is a liberal Marxist's nightmare. Ordinary Americans -- in this case, black folks -- have had enough crime and violence and have decided they need to protect themselves. It is their American right to do so, but Democrats hate people who stand up for themselves.

Why would black citizens willingly protecting themselves and their community at no public expense be “a liberal Marxist’s nightmare?” Aren’t they eternal, favored victims? Don’t they deserve protection? 

Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) demand total control over everyone. They reserve to themselves a monopoly on the application of violence, which is why they constantly try to disarm everyone, except of course, the people they hire at public expense as bodyguards. They rely on keeping black people subservient, completely dependent on the Marxist state for every aspect of their existence. Black people taking it upon themselves to do what D/s/cs won’t allow the police to do is a direct threat to their rule. Why, those uppity black people are acting white! Don’t they know their place? Don’t they know everything we’ve done for—to—them?

Hartford's Democrat cuck mayor, Arunan Arulampalam, dutifully attacked the brigade.

“Our community has seen so much pain and trauma, and what we need is for those who love this city to do the hard work of healing that pain, not walk around our streets with guns trying to take the law into their own hands,” Arulampalam detailed in a response to Fox News.

Ah. So “healing” Hartford’s “pain and trauma” consists of ignoring the incompetence and malice of D/S/C city officials, and doing nothing but becoming additional victims?  When the police are unable or unwilling to act, the citizens who hire and empower them aren’t allowed to protect themselves?

There is no question it’s preferable in a civilized society to hire and empower guardians to handle police duties. That’s orderly and helps minimize tragic mistakes. However, that preference is viable only in a functioning society with a fully functioning judicial system. When there are too few police, or they are not allowed to arrest criminals, particularly minority criminals who commit most crimes, the system has failed and the lives of the innocent are forfeit. The same is true when prosecutors won’t prosecute and Judges require no bail and won’t convict.

Graphic: Batman and Robin 1966. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

It is from citizens--the public; so-called vigilantes--that all public servants, elected and appointed, get their authority. Every jot and tittle of the power they wield is on loan from the public on condition of competence and good behavior. The police are allowed to make arrests and use force because the public allows them those authorities. They rightly belong to the public, so how can it be illegitimate for citizens, particularly when their hired hands cannot or will not exercise police powers, to themselves exercise the police powers they’ve loaned their malfunctioning employees?

“[T]rying to take the law into their own hands?” It is from those hands the law, and the authorization to enforce it, comes. It is long past time entitled functionaries like Arulampalam are made to remember they are employees, not rulers.

Archbishop Burke is acting in the best traditions of America’s Founders. He’s almost certainly also a model for why more and more black Americans are coming to realize the D/s/c Party has taken them for granted and betrayed them. Is it any wonder Donald Trump may win a historic portion of black votes in November?

Is it any wonder an ever-increasing number of Americans, including black Americans, are fleeing the “civilization” of eastern blue states for the liberty and safety of red America?

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.