Homo sapiens are different, "exceptional" if you like. We alone have "consciousness". But as Harvard's Stephen Jay Gould noted, if "consciousness" is such an evolutionary advantage why hasn't any other species developed it? Study of the human species reveals great cleverness but a blood soaked history - a UNESCO study reported that over the past 5,000 years humans have fought 15,000 wars - three per year - killing several billion people. The technology and weapons change and the killing is perpetual. The human species is an aberration - a self destructive branch on the evolutionary bush that should and will disappear - it was a mistake that nature will not repeat. In the mean while to function at all we require rules, laws and rigorous political authority to enforce them.
To follow this dismal assessment of the species with a history of my criminal behavior will be to the reader a crashing disappointment. On occasion I have broken the law and freely admit to the following: three speeding tickets and three warnings received; twice suspicious officials of state power have frisked me - once a NYS Trooper and another time two heavily armed German soldiers in Frankfurt am Main International Airport. Navy Shore Patrol once removed my two inebriated friends and me from a street in old San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were driven around in the back of a jeep for a half hour and then released - near the ship. As a callow faced child I ate a Twinkie that my friend "Fred" stole from Kowalski's Grocery Store. A mortal sin - I could hardly wait to get to confession - that cake is still partially stuck in my craw. That is pretty much it - my life has been excruciatingly boring from a brigand's point of view. Clearly I have no potential to be characterized in a Cormac McCarthy or Elmore Leonard novel.
Acutely aware of its necessity I have admired the glimpses of law enforcement witnessed through the years. Sitting by a window in a Greenwich Village restaurant I was sipping a bowl of Wonton soup. A NYPD patrol car slammed on its brakes in the middle of the street. Two officers jump from the vehicle and rush into a neighborhood bank. Twice I dipped into my soup - the officers reappeared each holding the arm of a young man - I dip again - the police drape the individual over the hood of their car - snap on handcuffs - push him into the back of the patrol car and speed away. NYPD cool - excellent hot soup.
In the early morning darkness of a Stockholm metro station, a train slowly approaches and jerks to a halt short of the platform. A problem on board - a few people drift toward the train and stop, anticipating further developments. Within minutes a Metropolitan Police Officer jogs past me on the way to the train. She was exceptionally beautiful - curvaceous in her tight, dark uniform, long pony tail waving at me and a 9 millimeter on her hip - everything a man could desire. A tad sexist at the time I feared for her safety. But then limping along her partner arrived. With no disrespect intended he was the ugliest man I have ever seen - and huge - with disheveled hair hanging out from under his hat. The knuckles of his right hand seemed to drag on the cement far beneath his weapon. She was in no danger. My train going in the opposite direction arrived and I departed.
The mere presence of police can of course have a potent stabilizing effect. Stepping down a staircase connecting the door of a Tupolov 134 to the runway in Volgograd I finally stood in snow. To my right in a swirling white cloud a KGB Security Officer in black fur hat, great gray coat and black boots. He was back lit by flood lights. About ten meters behind him another dark silhouette - a noncom in gray, black and a Sam Browne belt. Neither showed a weapon. But their demeanor led one to conclude that nothing untoward could possibly happen here - a silent, peaceful night.
Costa Rica has not had an army since 1949 and the end of it's 44 day civil war. December 1st is celebrated as Military Abolition Day. The nation of 4.3 million takes pride in being one of the few nations on earth without a standing army. But Ticos are not perfect. Costa Rica has a national police, the Fuerza Publica - the Public Force - that deals with general law enforcement and counter-narcotics. It has SWAT units. Since the border clashes with Nicaragua in 2010, Fuerza Publica has reestablished a Border Police. Under the Ministry of the President, Costa Rica also has an Intelligence and Security Directorate that contains Unidad Especial de Intervencion - the Special Operations Unit. UEI trains with the special ops forces of Israel, the US and others. A guesstimate of the total employed in the nation's police function is 14,000. *
On February 12, 2000, the US Senate voted on whether to convict or acquit President Bill Clinton of two articles of impeachment. For reasons that remain unclear, Costa Rica went to a high state of defensive readiness. I stepped out of San Jose's Grand View Hotel onto sunny Segunda Avenue around 10:00 AM. Pedestrians crowded the street, shops were busy. The Park near the Theatro National was filled with visitors, dogs and hawkers. Fuerza Publica was everywhere - perhaps every 100 yards up and down the boulevard policemen dressed for war - body armor, assault rifles, sometimes helmets, sometimes motorcycles. There were different uniforms, shoulder patches, equipment suggesting that the Agency had simply issued an "all hands on deck". President Clinton was not impeached and Costa Rica experienced no challenge to national security. But the display of teeth by FP was visually impressive - for a country with no army.
*World Military and Police Forces; Costa Rica, May 2013. Wikipedia. Costa Rica Star, July 2nd, 2012. Special Operations.com.
