Academic

JAMES TARANTO ON POLICE SIDING WITH UNIONS: ?This is war,? Michael Moore declared last night on M?

By Glenn Reynolds

JAMES TARANTO ON POLICE SIDING WITH UNIONS:

“This is war,” Michael Moore declared last night on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show.” The porcine propagandist referred to the Wisconsin Senate’s 18-1 vote earlier in the evening in favor of legislation, supported by Gov. Scott Walker, that would strip politicians of the power to reward government employee unions for their political support by committing taxpayer money to their members’ extravagant pensions and other fringe benefits. . . . And yet it is just possible that Moore is on to something. One can imagine a situation in which attacks on the legislative process by government employee unions and Democrats escalate into something resembling civil war. We do not suggest that this is a likely outcome, merely a worst-case scenario–but one that is worth thinking about.

The key is the group of government employees on whom we depend to maintain the public order necessary for a republic to function: the police. Many cops are unionized, and although the Wisconsin bill exempts them from the ban on so-called collective bargaining, there are signs, as blogger and legal scholar William Jacobson notes, that some cops have been “taking sides in this political dispute”–and worse, that these guardians of public order are siding with those using lawless tactics to disrupt the legislative process.

Fire ‘em and replace them with contract security. Meanwhile, the more troubling factor is that this lawlessness was aided and encouraged by President Barack Obama’s own Organizing For America.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on March 11, 2011 (boomark / email).