Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. House nominee Chris Rabb put a curious spin on police reform proposals this week. When confronted by Sean Hannity on Fox News, Rabb explained matter-of-factly that the Founders did not have a clue about what “policing” was, suggesting that policing was a later-developed concept. It appears that not just our Constitution, but our history must be rewritten to meet contemporary political demands on the left. Rabb’s claim is historically unfounded. Just ask John Morton, signatory to the Declaration of Independence and local county sheriff.
In the interview, Rabb reaffirmed his alliance with socialists and categorically rejected the notion that undocumented people entering this country are “illegals.” Hannity asked, “Would you like to abolish prisons and abolish the police?”
Rabb responded:
“Well, what’s interesting about that statement is, long before there was any notion of policing, we had founders that did not even understand that term. Policing has evolved. Ultimately, we want communities that are safe. And 99% of what police do [is] not going after the bad guys, all of that can be done in different ways by professionals who are trained to do so.”
It is a gross over-statement. Signatory to the Declaration of Independence, Morton would likely beg to differ after serving as a local sheriff. He would probably note that in the 1600s, colonies organized “night watch” forces that were precursors to formal police departments. The British governors also enforced criminal laws through their own forces. Constables were prevalent.
The suggestion is that the colonies and early American states had no notion of policing for crime. In fact, the first constable was appointed in the Plymouth Colony in 1632.
Likewise, the first prisons stretch back to 1720 in York, Maine. There was also the establishment of the larger Newgate State Prison in Greenwich Village in 1796 and a similar prison in New Jersey in 1797.
It is not clear what Rabb is suggesting. He is certainly correct that, like other aspects of modern life, policing evolved with technology and conditions. The use of private prosecutions was initially carried over to the colonies. However, public safety was a concern in the colonies as it is in early states. It is simply not true that the Founders lacked “any notion of policing.” Constitutional amendments from the Fourth (on searches and seizures) to the Fifth (on the right to remain silent and due process) to the Eighth (on cruel and unusual punishment) all limit the police and the courts in criminal cases. American grand juries were used to investigate and charge crimes.
The punishments in colonial and early American cases tended to be swift and final, viewed as needed deterrents of crime. That included floggings, pillories, branding, and, of course, capital punishment. Many of these traditions came from Great Britain, which protected public safety through a mix of constables, sheriffs, attorneys general, and private prosecutions.
This historical account appears to be an attempt to justify the common mantra to “reimagine” policing and prisons. Such changes are clearly choices for the public to make in the democratic process. However, suggesting that there was no conception of policing is untrue.
“And 99% of what police do [is] not going after the bad guys, all of that can be done in different ways by professionals who are trained to do so.””
I would argue the police are NOT trained in public safety or even going after bad guys. they are trained in all manner of things and directed to do little to nothing for public safety.
a local sheriff at the time of the founding was more inv9lved int he community than our average police force today with all its bells a whistles. They would regularly run people out of town who were undesirable.
Possibly our elected officials should know something about our history and the constitution(s) they are pledged to uphold and defend.
Ironically, socialism will require a massive and powerful secret and open police presence to force collectivism and equality. Further, socialism requires capitalist money to fund its utopian entitlements.
Technically, he is right. Police departments didn’t start appearing until the early 1800s, with Memphis, Tennessee setting up the first one. Previously, sheriffs used local militias to form possess. There were “night watches” but they had no authority to arrest. The role of sheriffs was to pursue and arrest lawbreakers. Modern police departments are more involved with “preventing” crime, an impossible task. This guy is a socialist but what he is referring to is the making of a police state.
Are you his lawyer?
The reason why the internet supports vast daily cybercrime waged on Americans by overseas criminals is illustrative.
The Silicon Valley techies and their VC investors in the 1990s imagined creating a new world order without policing.
Also, adding law enforcement to the design would have caused a huge headache and years of time-to-market delay.
Beware. The same irresponsible technocracy is now doing the same thing with AI — pushing out powerful new tools useful to criminal “cartels, and tempting the merely unethical to cross the line into frauds. As was demonstrated by the OpenAI “jailbreak” last week, there is no legal foundation and accountability attached to these new beings. AI is rapidly upsetting hundreds of years of legal infrastructure — while its techie creators pat themselves on the back for “being disruptors”.
This crackpot notion of terminating policing was accomplished with ease in the online world. It didn’t take any effort, only laziness and irresponsible wealth-chasing. This model, where brand new infrastructures are slapped together without law enforcement hooks, is well established and pervasive. The WTO wrote down trade rules that lacked any effective means of enforcement. Mail-in voting created opportunities to cajole and badger voters outside the purview of election officials. Polymarket and Kalshi are havens for insider-information betting scams.
We’re 40 years into de-policing via turnover of infrastructure. Stop talking like the idea is new.
You are litterally doing exactly what Turley objected too.
Our founders did have policing-what they did not have and what they rebelled against was government outside its legitimate domain.
The Internet and AI are outside that legitimate domain.
You can not have any of your rights infringed upon by force in the domain of AI or the internet
You are far to worried about mythical oligarchy and blind to the constant real threat posed by government
The less government is involved in the internet and AI the better.
The big businesses you fear are harmless without the ability to engaged in rent seeking which requires government
Cyber crime is mind boggling. No need to ever work and it’s perfected.
So asserts the blog’s Deceivers:
“’Keeping the peace’ is law enforcement, not ‘policing.’”
Rabb is distinguishing the two. You should understand the difference.”
It’s the same con game over and over. Manipulate the meaning of words, concoct phony distinctions (“socialism” “versus” “democratic socialism”). All as a means to an end: Rescue a reprobate (Rabb). Smear JT. Gain political power.
Still waiting for Rabb’s answers to the questions.
It’s depending on what the meaning of IS, IS…
Should these Commie Democrats gain any control, mark my words, it will be the impetus for the bloody phase in the war for our nation.
Ask Robin Hood if there were policemen in the olden days. He was relentlessly pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Robin Hood is English folklore. Also, the character was based in England not the USA ca. 1775.
Your dementia is showing.
Ano
Do you understand what a joke is?
That is what Ed was posting,
Go outside and breath some fresh air.
What a joke, sure. You’re a joke.
Hey ano.
At lease, I can tell what a joke is.
You not so much and you just proved it
TDS infected brain rotted MORON ANON!!
FY K
Federal Attorney Fired For Prosecuting Frauds
One day last September, a right-wing influencer named Natalie Winters posted what she billed as an “EXCLUSIVE” on social media: A federal prosecutor in Miami overseeing a fraud case against “MAGA patriots” had once written a blog with comments critical of President Trump.
Ms. Winters, who has hundreds of thousands of followers, addressed her message to the accounts of senior officials at the Justice Department. Her demands for the prosecutor, Will Rosenzweig, could not have been clearer: “Fire him,” her message said.
Less than three hours later, the department did exactly that. Mr. Rosenzweig, who during his career had consistently earned praise for his work, received an emailed letter signed by Pam Bondi, then the attorney general, dismissing him from his position at the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami, effective immediately. No reason was provided.
It remains unclear why Ms. Winters referred to the defendants in the fraud case that Mr. Rosenzweig was overseeing as “MAGA patriots.” The three men — Marcelo Kochen, Michael Kochen and Sandro Herek — do not appear to have any obvious public connection to Mr. Trump. They were charged with cheating Medicare out of millions of dollars in false and fraudulent claims.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/07/us/politics/prosecutor-fired-lawsuit-justice-department.html?smid=nytcore-
………………………………….
Donald Trump is a convicted fraud who openly sympathizes with fellow frauds. Yet the Trump administration pretends its getting tough on fraud. It’s all a sick joke!
Do you EVER post anything on-topic? Man, you are tiresome!
Allen, we’ve never seen you before. Just popped out of nowhere? That’s common for puppets.
Who are you MORON ANON?? Are you more than one person “We’ve”? PSYCHO ANON calls everyone Dustoff or Estovir!
So is Allen right about you.
Sure looks like it.
FY Dustoff. Opps, I mean K.
Proved my point again. Thanks ano.
We ALL wish we could never see you and your terminal case of TDS again.
What are you aspiring to be like Robert DeNiro or George Conway?
Allen is posting under a name you are not. That is more crediblity from the start.
You want more credibility than a brand new poster use a name?
Yeah the NY slime never lies, now do they
If these people actually defrauded medicare the states as well as the federal government can prosecute.
As to the rest – Federal employees serve at the pleasure of the president.
As to YOUR claims – why should anyone anywhere take you as credible?
There is such a long list of complete nonsense you have beleived and in many cases still beleive.
Your not even worth the trouble of fact checking.
If you post it outside other far left loonies everyone KNOWS it is false or misrepresentated.
Liberals today have no.idea of policing until one of their own is harmed. See Savannah Guthrie’s sudden support of law enforcement.
For onceI agree with the professor.
Donald Trump is the only living U.S. president whose ancestors did not own slaves.
What’s the source on that?? The Trump Library??
Trumps ancestors came over after abolition.
Estovir, you’re claiming that every other president had slave-owning ancestors?? I doubt that very much.
(Estovir)
Still talking to a person who is not posting. You have real issues ano.
Not only that, the commenter’s reading comprehension is poor. The only LIVING presidents are: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama, and Donald Trump.
Google it and the AI bot says it is true that Trump is the only LIVING president whose ancestors did not own slaves.
Google it? You mean use the communist manipulation machine?
I do not know if the claim is correct.
But most people – including blacks who have any ancestors that arrivedin the US before 1865 likely have an ancestor that owned slaves.
Further the past pervasiveness of slavery means that we all are descendants of past slaves and slave owners
Seriously: just *bleep* these spoiled children. They live in communities and grew up in families that don’t necessitate ever needing to call the police, and the irony couldn’t be cut with a chainsaw. I will not be as kind as the Professor. It is obvious what this is, it is absurd and insulting to even indulge it – enough. Just, enough. The ‘regular’ dnc are no flipping better.
Why would you expect a socialist of this generation to understand policing in the 18th century. They don’t study that history any more so it didn’t exist.
Good point. The only thing American leftists know about history is WWII, and even with that, they only know Hitler was bad. That is the extent of their historical education, which becomes clear when you listen to them speak.
It is not clear what Rabb is suggesting.
If you watch the video interview with Sean Hannity and play it backwards, you can hear Rabb utter the phrase that stops all violence:
Klaatu barada nikto
🤖
If only we had a Gort to save us from ourselves
Excellent
Enes Kanter Freedom has officially declared himself a prospect for the 2027 WNBA draft. Hahahaha! Now it’s time for the crazies who think men belong in women’s sports to reap what they sow.
I watched the interview, what a douche bag this low life is. Could not answer a direct question, without a complete obfuscation from the question. These people are insane, I can’t believe this is what we have become.
8 Ball, Trump lowered the bar of sanity in politics. So now leftists want to go even crazier than Trumpers.
But Muh! Trump. Can’t you lunatics come up with anything else? Sheesh!
Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers are the stupidest, least creative people on the face of the Earth. They are so stupid they have nothing to say but “But Trump” to anyone or anything. What complete morons!
Estovir is burned out from the utterly hopeless task of defending Trump.
The comments here are not about defending Trump.
They are about rejecting left wing idiocy.
trump gets discussed because YOU bring him up and then lie.
I think Obama holds that award hands down!
Trump did not inventanything – he merely Read Alynsky and has followed YOUR playbook – better than you
That is a sign of sanity and intelligence – beating people at their own game
That is why you hate him and his supporters love him.
You made him