The Function Of Police Poem by David Welch

I hear a lot of shrill people these days
saying that we should ‘defund the police, '
as if these people just disappearing
would somehow make all of our troubles cease.

I could point out things would be a living hell
if law enforcement was to disappear,
but that truth is obvious to most people,
there's another one that's not quite so clear.

We seem to forget that it is not us
who the police are really there to protect,
it's actually criminals that they save,
they prevent them from getting a stretched neck.

Now I'm not saying police help these scum,
or are corrupt and chose to take their side.
No, I'm pointing out that without police
the criminals of the world all would die.

Because it's a fact of human nature
that people only tolerate so much pain,
and when it all reaches a tipping point
they will keep it from happening again.

They form up groups, be it mobs or militias,
to take out those who are preying on them,
and by the time they get pushed to this point
they are not the most merciful of men.

We've seen it before, vigilante justice,
just look back to the days of the Wild West.
Look at Muslim mobs when the law doesn't
conform to what the Qu'ran does attest.

Heck, look at the south in the days of old,
where dark folks were simply lynched for their ‘crimes.'
Now ask yourself if you think such actions
are something you want to see in our time?

Because vigilantes are not subtle
when it comes to punishing criminals.
We say the punishments should fit the crime,
but will a mob understand this in full?

Do we want to see a drug-user shot,
or a mere petty thief strung up to swing?
And this is assuming they find the right man,
with vigilantes that is no sure thing.

For every real criminal that they killed
how many innocents would they tear apart?
And how could we keep those leading these mobs
from taking these new-found powers to heart?

And given normal folks are much smarter
then the criminal scum who walk the earth,
the efficiency that they'd bring to all this
would bring to us a tidal wave of hurt.

There's reason we don't take law in our hands,
and that we heed to a strict rule of law.
It protects us from a lifetime of blood,
it keeps our children from seeing scenes raw.

If you want to change police procedures,
that's a discussion that people can have.
But if you want police to go away,
well I am sorry, but that's flipping mad.

Professional police are not perfect,
but without them shady folks would be toast.
If there's no police to enforce the law,
then soon criminals will hang from lamp posts.