Bob Barr

Seeking Quality of Life at the Point of a Gun?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Septem 19, 2007

The elusive search for safety and improved "quality of life" in communities across America is taking disturbing, even bizarre turns.

Middle school children are being arrested, jailed and charged with sexual felonies for slapping classmates on their rear ends. High school students are being charged with felonies because Swiss Army knives are found in their cars. Armed police units are being formed to enforce local housing and yard ordinances. More often than not — at least in the Atlanta area — it appears that Republican officials are more zealous than Democrats.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, ushered in the modern trend of employing the police power of the government to enforce so-called "quality of life" behavioral norms.

In the 1990s, Giuliani cracked down on a wide range of disfavored activities in the city, including peep shows and graffiti. In fact, the significant decrease in crime in New York City during Giuliani's terms was more the result of his implementing a new system of reporting crime statistics and of policing assignments — and of heavy-handed use of the city's power of eminent domain — than it was the crackdown on subway graffiti. However, the notion that going after petty crimes deters more serious crimes has caught hold in communities across the country.

Counties and cities in Georgia, notably Gwinnett and Cobb, have formed "Quality of Life Units" staffed by armed officers.

Programs and policies like these can lead to truly bizarre results. Two middle school boys in McMinnville, Ore., were arrested and charged with sexual felonies after they were observed slapping girl students on the behinds. The charges finally were dismissed, but not before the boys and their families were forced to undergo a criminal trial.

In the Atlanta suburb of Cobb County, two teenage boys face felony charges after school authorities found knives in their vehicles. Typically school officials and police claim their hands are tied and they can't exercise judgment in deciding whether to charge students criminally.

More and more, local officials are turning to the police to handle problems rather than working to resolve the problems themselves. These moves appear based on the notion that quality of life can best or most easily be enhanced at the point of a gun. Police forces in our country were never intended to serve as society's enforcers of "quality of life."

Moreover, fundamental notions of freedom itself are clearly lost in a society in which parents must worry whether their 12-year-old will end the school day in jail for nothing more than a harmless prank or property owners must fear being visited by an armed officer and possibly jailed because a neighbor turns them in for permitting more than the legally allowed number of persons to reside in their house. Web sites for "Quality of Life" units actually encourage citizens to call in and report neighbors for all manner of infractions.

Interestingly, a recent survey on "quality of life" revealed that cities like Switzerland's Zurich, Geneva and Bern rank far higher than any U.S. cities. Swiss cities do not maintain massive police departments or armed "Quality of Life" units patrolling neighborhoods; nor do they adhere to arbitrary and unthinking "zero tolerance" knife policies. Swiss cities are deemed highly livable in large measure because they have a political system that for centuries has encouraged and thrived on good education and active political participation by citizens.

Perhaps those county commissions and city councils in our area rushing to create or expand armed police units to monitor municipal building and yard codes ought to focus instead on building civic awareness and citizen participation rather than thrusting more armed police into our homes.

Bob Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union Foundation.