Laws are originally written to protect persons and property (e.g. Murder is illegal). As time moves forward and more legislation is passed, laws become more preemptive (e.g. gun control laws). Just as in the case of preemptive war, government is increasingly using violence to prevent the possibility of violence - only in domestic society rather than in foreign affairs. Of course, this simply guarantees that society will suffer from institutionalized violence via the state or the threat thereof.
Arresting someone is an act of violence. Arresting someone for making a dry ice bomb when no person or property is hurt or damaged is premptive violence and is in my opinion unjustified. The use of preemptive violence by the authorities is a clear sign that society has been distorted well beyond what is natural or what the market would have allocated. If police services were bought and sold on the open market, I doubt that innocent dry ice bombs would receive such a harsh response. But that is what you get with socialism - even if it is only socialism of law enforcement.
The think-of-the-kids mentality is part of the problem but only because people don't have to pay each time they want to act on it. Only the free market can help society approximate a rational allocation of resources. Ludwig von Mises proved this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem
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Laws are originally written to protect persons and property (e.g. Murder is illegal). As time moves forward and more legislation is passed, laws become more preemptive (e.g. gun control laws). Just as in the case of preemptive war, government is increasingly using violence to prevent the possibility of violence - only in domestic society rather than in foreign affairs. Of course, this simply guarantees that society will suffer from institutionalized violence via the state or the threat thereof. Arresting someone is an act of violence. Arresting someone for making a dry ice bomb when no person or property is hurt or damaged is premptive violence and is in my opinion unjustified. The use of preemptive violence by the authorities is a clear sign that society has been distorted well beyond what is natural or what the market would have allocated. If police services were bought and sold on the open market, I doubt that innocent dry ice bombs would receive such a harsh response. But that is what you get with socialism - even if it is only socialism of law enforcement. The think-of-the-kids mentality is part of the problem but only because people don't have to pay each time they want to act on it. Only the free market can help society approximate a rational allocation of resources. Ludwig von Mises proved this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem