A municipality that has the capacity, but not the will, to govern is not a government at all, but an anarchy, a cipher, a squalid waste of the taxpayers’ money. Such is the city of Berkeley which, yesterday, decided to do nothing to stop the anarchists from halting all construction at People’s Park.
As I blogged yesterday, the sense of entitlement of the anti-housing protesters makes them little more than toddling brats, throwing temper tantrums because Daddy won’t give them candy. After their eruption of violence yesterday, U.C. Berkeley backed off from attempts to continue building vital student housing; at least for now, the protesters have won. Today remains an unknown quantity: Will U.C. and the City of Berkeley, including its police department, restore order and sanity to People’s Park? Or will they allow themselves to be blackmailed by a handful of rowdies?
The dymanic is a familiar one in recent U.S. history, and I’m not saying it’s easy for a government to act under such circumstances. I’m sure Mayor Arreguin and the Berkeley Police Department feel they have to tread carefully to avoid spiraling violence at People’s Park. It is always wise to be cautious. But sometimes, caution can descend into pusillanimity. When is a government required to step up, to take certain risks in order to protect the public interest and safety? I would argue that yesterday was the time for Berkeley to take that step. Instead, they faltered. To quote Churchill in a different context, Berkeley government “decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.” This is, by another name, called “appeasement,” and it’s how governments fail their people.
How hard would it be to send a tactical squad of a few dozen officers to People’s Park, and, after suitable warnings, send them in to apprehend the protesters and haul them off to jail? No doubt in most cases the protesters will quickly be set free, but it will cost them—or their parents—money for lawyers, fines and so on, and their arrests will remain on the permanent record, jeopardizing their career prospects—if indeed any of them has actual career prospects. Were the protesters to return to People’s Park and repeat their riot, they would then be subject to actual hard time in jail. This is how real governments, instead of pretend governments, govern: with force reluctantly applied, but, when applied, forcefully.
Steve Heimoff