Violence in Oakland forces residents to seek private security

[Wesley]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57599011/violence-in-oakland-forces-residents-to-seek-private-security/

 

 

There have been 61 murders so far in Oakland, Calif., and with crime on the rise, some neighbors are taking extraordinary steps.

Gunfire has become so common on the streets of Oakland, that even in neighborhoods that once seemed immune to the city's violence, residents are no longer shocked.

...

With budget cuts forcing Oakland to trim its police force by a third, residents decided to pay themselves for private security patrols, which is understandable when you hear Hetherington's story.

"A car came down the street, three guys got out with a gun. There was a gun battle three blocks over. And I did hear actually a bullet went through somebody's house."

That routine gunfire turned tragic last month.

"Our neighbor Judy, who lived in the next block to me, was shot and killed," said Hetherington.

Judy Salamon, a 66-year-old dog walker, was murdered as she drove home. Who did it and why is unknown. Neighbors gathering at the spot where she died fear that if it could happen to Salamon, it could happen to anyone.

...

Other residents hope that when the private security patrols begin in a couple of weeks, it will bring a sense of security to a neighborhood most love too much to leave.

 

 

[Alan C.]

The amusing irony here is that we were taught that crime, gangs, and shootings were commonplace during the so-called "Wild West" because of a lack of government, even though there is no evidence for it in the historical record. The so-called "Wild West" exists only in movies and TV.

 

We're told that crime, gangs, and shootings will ensue without the State, yet they run amok in places where the State has become an overgrown weed and extinguished any semblance of the market.