Civil War: Is It Always A Bad Thing?

Today's 'Decline & Fall Of British Civilisation' story comes from Perthshire:

When father-of-three Peter Drummond discovered that a drug dealer had sold heroin to a member of his family he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He stormed into pusher John Nellies' home and confronted him - before flushing the dealer's heroin down the toilet.

But yesterday it was Drummond - not Nellies - who found himself in court.

And to the despair and anger of his family, Drummond, whose children are all under five years old, was jailed by a sheriff for his actions.

Of course. It gets better:

The court heard that drug addict Lesley Brown then turned up to buy heroin and was told to get out and sworn at by Drummond. She left and reported him to the police.

How's that for a perfect barometer of civilisational decadence? Smackheads phone the police to complain about their dealer getting a hard time.

Not that the bewigged fools see it that way:

But Sheriff Robert McCreadie told Drummond: 'If you were concerned about matters you should contact the police, not enter a house and threaten to kill someone. You can't take matters into your own hands the way you did.'

Yes, he should have told the police..... except both the dealer in question and a junkie customer have no qualms discussing their particular industry in court. I'm getting that the legal system is not really an hindrance to their chosen profession.

Incidentally, this is one reason why I'm sceptical of libertarianism. We keep getting told about the new Golden Age that will descend when drugs are legalised, but in what sense are they illegal right now? Aside from the purely ceremonial sense anyway.

Which is the other thing. Judges like McCreadie aren't concerned about the actual specifics of the law, so much as they are with protecting their right to use it to bully and oppress everyone else. Don't take the law into your own hands, says the sheriff? Whose hands should they be in then? Is the law the product and possession of the citizenry, or the sole property of an unelected elite of lordships?

Hmmmmm..... that rings a bell. Yes, I think we solved that one sometime in the 1640s. We're the citizens, and freaks like McCreadie are the hired help, and it's getting time to fire them all.