'Neighborhood Militia'? Comments, suggestions and critique WELCOME

[Orange_Magnum]

Since you are called into a potential trouble situation, it's not your home and the castle doctrine does not apply to you. You could theoretically hand over your gun to your neighbor and have him kill the intruders. I would have to be very close with my neighbor to be his/her personal cop. After all, why should you take a bullet for him/her if he/she isn't interested in self defense? There is a faulty logic embedded in the whole concept.

I would be more inclined to help a pro-gun neighbor who called for help because of random intruders.

 

[goon]

Since you are called into a potential trouble situation, it's not your home and the castle doctrine does not apply to you. You could theoretically hand over your gun to your neighbor and have him kill the intruders. I would have to be very close with my neighbor to be his/her personal cop. After all, why should you take a bullet for him/her if he/she isn't interested in self defense? There is a faulty logic embedded in the whole concept.

I would be more inclined to help a pro-gun neighbor who called for help because of random intruders.

A good point.
Legalities aside, the only way I'd even consider it is if the person I was helping was incapable of defending himself or if it was a close family/friend who was in need.

I wouldn't give my life for some blissninny who is unwilling to defend himself.
Tough luck buddy, but you should have bought a firearm when you had the chance.

 

[TallPine]

Many/most of my neighbors would defend themselves, and come to my aid as I would for them.

 

[shdwfx]

Organizing an armed neighborhood watch doesn't seem all that different than the common militias 200 years back. Now, they didn't have shoot-house, weapons, and tactics training afforded the modern local police, but the historic militia did train and muster regularly - it was a civic duty.

I appreciate Jeff White's concerns and perspective on this. It's a great idea but one that should accompany regular training and indoctrination in the law.

However, I really take issue with the attitude of the Chief in Sans' article. The Police are there to serve, not rule. He acts like the EPDP are usurping his authority and responsibly - squatting on "police" turf as it were (turf afforded him by citizens like those in the EPDP).

The police have a duty to keep law and order, but that is not, was not, and never should be an exclusive contract. Private individuals taking a little more responsibility for the safety of their own community should be applauded, not scorned.

 

[Titan6]

I guess I would consider a watch a civic duty if I didn't pay taxes to support the various different law enforcement agencies. True only a tiny percentage of my taxes go towards law enforcement in relation to all the insane social programs and entitlement spending but they get plenty.

A reallocation of budget could make a huge difference if people were actually interested in improving police services. But do we really need more police? Some places certainly do, others maybe need less. This is up to every community to decide.

But if you are asking: Am I my brothers keeper? I lean towards no for I feel that no man should be kept. There is no social contract or otherwise between me and my current neighbors so we simply respect each others privacy. This isn't always the case. I move around a bit so different neighbors. different places, different rules. What works in Texas may not work in New Jersey.

 

[Thin Black Line]

I responded when a female neighbor in my apartment complex was attacked.
The BG skidattled immediately and was back out the window before I could
even confront him. Trust me: he was out so fast he did not even see my
weapon.

She had a fairly serious head injury and my first aid skills were of far more
use than my handgun. Police and ambulance showed up minutes later.

The rest of my neighbors in the building refused to come out of their
apartments. My neighbor recovered but didn't come back. I moved
away after reflecting on my lame neighborhood and had adventures
elsewhere which convinced me people are the same everywhere except
for isolated pockets of stalwart tribal peoples.

Not too long ago a co-worker confronted someone who was stripping off
aluminum from houses during the day. He thumpped the guy with a
baseball bat. Police responded minutes later. There was no damage to the
baseball bat.

Good luck on getting together a group large enough to even call a "militia"
a neighborhood watch, a posse or whatever. In America the scrap-booking
parties and pampered chef seem to be better attended these days.

I think there could be some interest if a first aid group was established. I
know some counties are losing their rural ambulance services not to mention
just having adequate health insurance makes it an issue for people to even
want to use it. How many times have people "refused treatment" on site
because they were afraid of getting the bill later?

Unfortunately, we will always be more reactive than proactive and I'd say
you have to stay prepared with a bottle of betadine and a box of ammo.
However, you're more likely to break the seal on the bottle than to bust
the cap be it crime in general or post-natural disaster.

 

[taprackbang]

I am developing a similar thing with my neighbors. I have 3 very good friends that live next door and we are going to develop an action plan for neighborhood defense.

 

[sendarope]

Emergency Response Team

I have had similar thoughts " already are minds are becoming one "

I call it an Emergency Response Team.

The word Militia has been too negatively propagandized of late.

Once when I was 18 I looked out the window and saw a intruder in the back yard of the next door neighbor ( small apt complex ) and called the neighbor (single mom w/13yr old.)I ran over with my stun gun ( loud sucker ) and turned it on before exiting the back door. That guy jumped a 6ft fence in less than a second. It was a sight to see. He should have been in athletics. The cops suspected PCP...Don't they always. "Yeah it's more of that wacky angle dust"

Not the brightest thing but hey I was 18 and indestructible.

I would agree that you could be walking into a hornets nest.

Still we should all be willing to defend those that request our help. IMHO

 

[buck00]

Yes, this concept has been around for a long time- its called a neighborhod watch.

It may be far less exciting than the idea of a paramilitary mall-ninja unit that you envision laying down grazing fire on perps on your sleepy suburban street, but on the other hand a neighborhood watch would be far more effective, more legally sound, and less dangerous.

 

[Thin Black Line]

Once when I was 18 I looked out the window and saw a intruder in the back yard of the next door neighbor...

True story:

Once when I was 12 my mom saw someone in black outside poking around
our detached garage in the wee hours --the person then entered the unlocked
side door of the garage. (Yes, my mom has ears and eyes like an owl).

Her response was to flip on the garage lights from the inside of our house.
Next thing you know the guy is running away down the street of our sleepy
little town. She goes back to bed. A few hours later we're all awake and
she tells us about it at breakfast. Of course, little bro and I are like "why
didn't you leave the lights off, call the police and let him get caught?" My
mom said this would have been too much excitement for a school night
and "besides, he won't come back here." Dad wasn't at all disappointed
that he didn't get to pull the shotgun from the closet. (I'll skip the full
tangental story of the time someone broke their hand on my dad's face and
he said "you had enough yet?"). We kids still felt like we missed out on the
excitement.

In any case Mom was right and no one ever came back.

I later got all the "excitement" I ever wanted on deployment.

The cops suspected PCP...Don't they always.

Adrenaline is all natural and an incredible short-term boost even for losers.
However, living long-term on adrenaline is bad for anyone including high
speed winners.

 

[sendarope]

PCP

Well the reason they suspected PCP was the guy had his shirt off and it was not a hot night. so they assumed that the PCP increased his body temp. Course he could have just been poor and had no shirt.