{"id":11490,"date":"2018-11-02T14:10:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T21:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11490"},"modified":"2018-11-02T14:10:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T21:10:07","slug":"when-laws-are-not-enforced-anarchy-follows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/when-laws-are-not-enforced-anarchy-follows\/","title":{"rendered":"When Laws Are Not Enforced, Anarchy Follows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hat makes citizens obey the law is not always their sterling character. Instead, fear of punishment\u2014the shame of arrest, fines or imprisonment\u2014more often makes us comply with laws. Law enforcement is not just a way to deal with individual violators but also a way to remind society at large that there can be no civilization without legality.<\/p>\n

Or, as 17th-century British statesman George Savile famously put it: \u201cMen are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the modern world, we call such prompt, uniform and guaranteed law enforcement \u201cdeterrence,\u201d from the Latin verb meaning \u201cto frighten away.\u201d One protester who disrupts a speech is not the problem. But if unpunished, he green-lights hundreds more like him.<\/p>\n

Worse still, when one law is left unenforced, then all sorts of other laws are weakened.<\/p>\n

The result of hundreds of \u201csanctuary cities\u201d is not just to forbid full immigration enforcement in particular jurisdictions. They also signal that U.S. immigration law, and other laws by extension, can be ignored.<\/p>\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness What makes citizens obey the law is not always their sterling character. Instead, fear of punishment\u2014the shame of arrest, fines or imprisonment\u2014more often makes us comply with laws. Law enforcement is not just a way to deal with individual violators but also a way to remind society at large […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[111,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Zk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9281,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-nihilism-of-sanctuary-cities\/","url_meta":{"origin":11490,"position":0},"title":"The Nihilism of Sanctuary Cities","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Works and Days by PJ Media There are an estimated 300 or so jurisdictions -- entire states, counties, cities, and municipalities -- that since the early 1980s have enacted \u201csanctuary city\u201d laws, forbidding full enforcement of federal immigration law within their jurisdictions. Most of these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"juan-francisco-lopez-sanchez-kate-steinle-7-19-15-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pajamasmed.hs.llnwd.net\/e1\/victordavishanson\/user-content\/2\/files\/2015\/07\/juan-francisco-lopez-sanchez-kate-steinle-7-19-15-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8394,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-politicized-tax-enforcement-is-a-harbinger-of-decline\/","url_meta":{"origin":11490,"position":1},"title":"America\u2019s Politicized Tax Enforcement Is a Harbinger of Decline","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Why did Rome and Byzantium fall apart after centuries of success? What causes civilizations to collapse, from a dysfunctional fourth-century-B.C. Athens to contemporary bankrupt Greece? The answer is usually not enemies at the gates, but the pathologies inside them. What ruins societies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "America's Future"","block_context":{"text":"America's Future","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/americas-future\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Everett Collection\/Dreamstime)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/pic_related_050715_SM_Hiding-Money-DT-500x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1589,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-chief-confessor\/","url_meta":{"origin":11490,"position":2},"title":"Our Chief Confessor","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The first duty of national leaders is to worry about the self-interest of their own countries; utopian internationalism can come later. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite her soaring European Union rhetoric, is relearning that lesson. German voters in a recent parliamentary election rebuked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10005,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/law-takes-a-holiday\/","url_meta":{"origin":11490,"position":3},"title":"Law Takes a Holiday","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And anarchy follows. by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/National Review In the 1934 romantic movie Death Takes a Holiday, Death assumes human form for three days, and the world turns chaotic. The same thing happens when the law goes on a vacation. Rules are unenforced or politicized. Citizens quickly lose faith in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9947,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/deterrence-and-human-nature\/","url_meta":{"origin":11490,"position":4},"title":"Deterrence and Human Nature","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review The dream of a therapeutic utopia without punishment for wrongdoing fails in practice. Deterrence is the strategy of persuading someone in advance not to do something, often by raising the likelihood of punishment. But in the 21st century, we apparently think deterrence is Neanderthal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "North Korea"","block_context":{"text":"North Korea","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/north-korea\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6754,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-rule-of-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":11490,"position":5},"title":"The Rule of Law?","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner\u00a0 When his pet businesses did not like elements of the Affordable Care Act, Obama simply exempted them. When employers objected that their mandate would unduly hamper job creation, the president simply ignored the settled law and exempted them. Now, when millions have lost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Healthcare"","block_context":{"text":"Healthcare","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/healthcare\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11493,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11490\/revisions\/11493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}