libertarianinstitute | Murray Rothbard pointed out in his book Anatomy of the State
how the state is far more punitive against those that threaten the
comfort and authority of government institutions and workers than they
are against crimes against citizens.
This, according to Rothbard, exposed as a myth the notion that the state exists to protect its citizens.
“We may test the hypothesis that the State is largely interested in
protecting itself rather than its subjects by asking: which category of
crimes does the State pursue and punish most intensely—those against
private citizens or those against itself?” Rothbard wrote.
“The gravest crimes in the State’s lexicon are almost invariably not
invasions of private person or property, but dangers to its own
contentment, for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy,
failure to register for the draft, subversion and subversive conspiracy,
assassination of rulers and such economic crimes against the State as
counterfeiting its money or evasion of its income tax.”
Boy how recent events have proven Rothbard right.
For weeks, we saw police aggressively pursuing and punishing peaceful people merely violating arbitrary lockdown orders to go surfing, cut hair, or host a child’s play date.
But in the first nights of the George Floyd protests, police allowed
rioters to run amok destroying property, with political leaders
dismissing the damage as unimportant.
This stark contrast in police responses dramatically underscores Rothbard’s point.
