In Oakland, according to a report, people are giving up on the police. They are trying to prevent crime themselves. In East Oakland’s Arcadia Park, residents have even taken to hanging wanted signs.

A local television station spoke to one woman, who wished to be identified only as L.E., patrolling her neighborhood in her car. She had recently chased down some robbers after hearing a call for help.

Arcadia Park may do what other Oakland neighborhoods have started to do: hire private guards. As one resident put it, “We don’t have a choice. Either die or we hire some security ourselves, because we can’t depend on the police department.”

UPDATE: In the comments, a resident of southern Oregon writes:

In my rural area in Southern Oregon, some of the citizens have formed a civilian “first responders” group headed by a laid-off Sheriff’s Office detective sergeant.

My area was supposedly cut off from all Sheriff patrols due to budget cuts. I say “supposedly” because I have NEVER SEEN a Sheriff patrol on our street in the 10+ years I have lived here, even when the County’s coffers were flush with real estate dollars.

If the new civilian “first responders” system results in ONE person patrolling our street EVER, it will be an infinite improvement over the system I have been paying taxes for over the last 10+ years.

All the government systems are badly broken and you wonder how long it can go on? We all kept paying taxes when the services were anywhere from pathetic to outright hostile (schools, DMV, police, etc.)

Will we keep paying taxes when we get NOTHING from the government and have to do it ourselves or pay someone else?