A Review of Luke Von Trapp’s Thin Blue Lies

In his short book Thin Blue Lies, the author Luke Von Trapp gives us a very colorful and at times very dark depiction of a corrupt system and its effects on the individuals at large, claiming that all parts of the state operate with sole concern for the body government and not for those to whom they are said to protect and serve–the very same people who are obligated to fund them under threat of violence. He charges that the evidence simply does not match the civic myth that the protection of individuals is the priority of law enforcement. Because of this, according to Von Trapp, the people who insist that an individual should not be allowed to protect themselves with the same tools utilized by law enforcement are committing a grave mistake.

However, he wants to make clear he is not just sitting on the premise that the system is corrupt because it is undertaken entirely by bad people but rather that the corrupt system itself takes a toll on the good ones:

“[Am I] saying that all law enforcement personnel are bad people? Of course not. I am saying that the current model is not only flawed but corrupt to the point where the image they portray is the exact opposite of the reality of the current situation. […] In the current state of law enforcement, there is very little room for honest and upright people to maintain moral integrity AND work long enough to collect a pension.”

Continuing his introduction to Thin Blue Lies, Von Trapp touches on the idea of “selective enforcement” which reveals a certain level of culpability on the part of law enforcement despite the fact they do not make the rules. He insists they have some level of control over how these rules are expressed. One only need consider anecdotes of racial discrimination in drug law enforcement or favoritism toward warning-only issuances toward attractive females. Von Trapp punctuates this with case-specific evidence of discrimination with regard to sodomy laws at one time declared constitutional (Bowers v. Hardwick) and later ruled unconstitutional (Lawrence v. Texas) once a sufficient discrimination case had been made.

Von Trapp sets out to make the case in Thin Blue Lies that the moral and ethical standards for law enforcement are much lower than for the citizen and the risks can be much higher to particular citizens should they be the wrong person in the wrong place at the right time. Not only that, but the courts have ruled time and time again that law enforcement has no actionable responsibility for the safety and security of the population. It is because of this that he insists we make ourselves aware of these truths and seek more decentralized alternatives “to ensure a broader scope of protection while standing up against the vast overreach of government in our personal lives[.]”

Moving on into the book proper, Von Trapp makes his way from case to case (a total of fifteen) demonstrating where law enforcement, from direct abuse of authority to just pure negligence, not only failed to protect and serve but were excused time and time again by courts who ruled they were not responsible for what any rational person might consider examples of dereliction of duty.

Thin Blue Lies makes a strong case against the inadequacies of a security monopoly bringing to light the absence of accountability that comes with the conflict of interest of a state apparatus ruling on the liability of another state apparatus. My only complaints with this book are a number of editorial oversights and an abrupt ending. I would very much like to see a second edition making corrections in these areas.

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