The business of public car-guarding is about as legitimate as any protection racket. A recent comment on one of our articles prompted me to illustrate by means of a thought experiment: a sentry service for pedestrians.
So I start a voluntary association (like a gang) and people with any credentials can sign up. The purpose of my association is to have unarmed watchmen stand sentry on street corners to enhance neighbourhood security. The watchmen pick any spot, and can come and go as they please. Their incentive to stay is that they will ask for tips from passing pedestrians (“I keep this here pavement safe, ma’am.”) and thereby maybe score some coinage.
How do the watchmen fare? Some will fight crime admirably, most will be a neutral presence, and some will exacerbate crime by performing criminal acts under their guise of legitimacy.
What does the world look like? There are people asking for money at most corners (like glorified beggars), some areas with a high watchmen-concentration are intolerable to walk through, and some areas will be safer.
Why the mixed results? Well, systems all have sticks and carrots, but not all stick-and-carrot sacks are created equal. My local watchman wants to earn the trust of those in my neighbourhood because he has regular, recognisable clientele. If he alienates anyone, the value of his real-estate goes down – permanently. But high-traffic sidewalks attract more watchmen, and they begin to compete for tips. One says “take this route”, the other says “my pavement’s best!” and yet another goes “you got here safely so I deserve a tip. What? No tip?! Then fuck off and die!” Point is: increased competition leads to increased solicitation. Since the watchmen are obviously on prime ground and pedestrians are frequent, they don’t need to establish or preserve relationships. You can’t avoid this particular pavement easily – or at least not without a cost, like going round the block or driving – and their next fish is already swimming down the cement way, so there’s also no incentive to remain polite towards an individual after they choose not to tip.
Considering I like my local watchman but my feelings about the rest range from mild annoyance to outright hatred, how might I improve the pedestrian sentry service? Tipping should definitely be an individual’s free choice; contrariwise, placing an obligation (moral or otherwise) on someone to pay for a service which they have not elected to receive will only skew delivery. Plus perhaps a few separate complaints should result in cops clearing the street. Or maybe the local government should step in and license a few select watchmen. Or, better yet, street-side property owners should be willing to receive complaints and warn particular watchmen to watch out, and if they persist then local authorities should jump to shoo them away.
So what’s the problem with this protection racket? You don’t choose to get into it, but you’re obliged to cough up; it’s ubiquitous, so you can’t escape it even though the streets should be free; and, when things get unpleasant, you have no recourse whatsoever to correct petty offences against you. …Now just pretend I’ve been talking about car guards.