In a turnabout, police are the good guys in post-quake Haiti

"The foreigners need to understand the earthquake did the same thing to the police it did to the population," said Antoine Franck, an officer on duty at the Champ du Mars park. "My house fell down. I lost everything. Everyone's house fell down. My dear brother's house fell down, and he is dead under there. Every policeman has dead family."

When will we realize that when it comes to government, at any level, there are no "good guys" or "bad guys"? There are only people, acting in their own interest, as broad or as narrow as that may be. Sometimes -- more often when we find ourselves in a national crisis -- we will act with compassion towards one another.

All other things being equal, though, give a man a uniform, a loaded gun, the security of the "blue wall of silence", and a judicial system inclined to take him at his word no matter what (or worse, no effective judicial system at all, as is the case in many countries), and you might as well just have gang rule.

It's great that the people with the "official" capacity to exercise force in Haiti have opted to look out for their countrymen, rather than loot and pillage. But let's not assume (one way or the other!) that, had there been no disaster, they would be acting so nobly.

Blah blah. http://eastdallasblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/01/dallas...