To Protect & Serve ?

 (To Protect & Serve ?)

Ancient Rome was more than Emperors, Senators, and famous Roman military leaders. Rome was the millions of Citizens that actually made the system work. In the acronym SPQR, "Senate and People of Rome," it had been the people, though ignored by Roman elites, just like today, were the reason for the Empire's being. Until it wasn't.

Those so-called Roman elites could not prevent the Fall of the Roman Empire, so, what became of the people when there was no longer an Emperor at Rome ? Take a town that had been established in the Province of Gaul that would eventually become known as Paris. When it was under Roman control, "Parisii," functioned as a normal collection of people who were engaged in commerce, civil activity, and more mundane operations like sanitation and so on. And, to a point, these local jurisdictions also had law enforcement.

When Rome fell, all these functions went away. There was a loss in commerce, civil activity, and, nobody was there to pick up the trash. There was also a loss of population and Western Europe began what has been referred to as the Dark Ages. Now, those who lived in "Parisii," had no say in that chain of events. No sense of stability was restored until the Franks under Clovis took over what had been one of the wealthiest of Roman Provinces.

Like the hapless denizens of Parisii, there are now American citizens who are finding themselves without a police department. There is a town in Minnesota whose entire police force resigned. There have also been instances in Ohio where the local authority has decided that police need not be funded to the level required for retention these trained officers.

It goes without sating that nationwide morale for police personnel is flirting with all time lows. There is a feeling that the force is under-appreciated and law enforcement is being considered a social ill and there is no difference between police preventing crime or causing crime. The test will come when in one area that has discarded its police force, one has to get a cat out of a tree.