And These Are the People Charged with Protecting the People

When you have scumbags like this "protecting" people who needs criminals:

Any residents of St. Helena Parish caught riding around the parish with assault weapons will be arrested, Sheriff Nat Williams warned Tuesday.

“As far as them riding around with an assault rifle, it will not be tolerated,” he said. “Somebody with an assault weapon is no different from a criminal and will be treated the same way.”

Did you get that? If you carry an "assault" weapon you're no better than a person who breaks into somebody's home and steals all of their stuff. See Sheriff Douche Bag is a bit peeved because he's facing competition in the intimidation field:

Some residents of the parish’s 6th Ward, angered by a rash of recent break-ins, have conducted informal patrols, sometimes while armed with AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, the civilian version of the U.S. military’s M-16.

Since the police haven't been capable of reducing crime to the satisfaction of the people a different solution was enacted. Namely a group of people have decided to perform their own patrols and smartly decide to arm themselves. Of course the government likes to maintain its monopoly on violence and are none to happy with the idea of little serfs walking around trying to keep their neighborhood safe:

Williams and other officials met with leaders of the ward’s newly formed Community Watch on Tuesday morning to let them know that those doing the patrolling did not need to be heavily armed.

If that's the case then why do the police need to be heavily armed? These people aren't walking around because they wish to enjoy the fine evening air, they're walking around because the crime has increased to a point that they believe something needs to be done. As these people are performing the duty of police officers (because it seems the police can't do it) they could potentially face the same situations as police officers, that is some criminal scumbags attacking during the patrols.

The police always claim they need better weaponry because they're outgunned by the criminals. The people patrolling the afflicted area are simply taking what the police have learned over the years and making sure the same mistakes aren't repeated.

Sheriff Williams is nothing but incompetent authoritarian scum. The inadequacies of his department lead private individuals to work together in common defense (a great thing). Being an authoritarian though Mr. Williams is angry that somebody else is walking the streets in an attempt to reduce crime. I'm sure Mr. Williams sees the very act of people outside of his department trying to reduce crime as a lack of respect for his authority and feels it must be stopped at all costs. Well fuck that guy.

If people are attempting to correct the department's inadequacies then they should be allowed to protect themselves equipment equal to what the police have. Hell since the people paid for the polices' weapons those going out on patrol should be able to checkout defensive weapons from the police station itself.

I'd also like to throw out some major dibs to the author of this story for the following paragraphs:

Both the M-16 and the AK-47 rifles are capable of full automatic and semiautomatic fire, but special licenses are required to possess fully automatic firearms in the U.S.

True assault rifles are capable of being operated in fully automatic and semiautomatic modes, at the user’s option. They are designed for, and used by, military forces, but they also are used by some law enforcement agencies.

Thank you for being a moral author instead of one that makes false claims that people are walking around with machine guns. You are a good man Faimon A. Roberts, author of this article. I hope others can learn to follow your example when writing firearm related stories.