Cop Free Zones

Since Uncle Ken was unable to post today, I took the time to do some research on what I have been calling the "Seattle experiment".  Turns out I didn't know what I was talking about but, of course, that's never stopped me before.  This was not a case of a neighborhood declaring its independence from the city, more like those "Occupy" movements that afflicted the country some years ago.  I don't think most of the protestors actually lived in that neighborhood, they came in from elsewhere, shouldered the local residents aside, and took over.  Now I understand that similar efforts are being launched in other parts of the country.  No good can come of that.

I think what they need is something like the Indian reservations that we have in Northern Michigan.  I remember reading somewhere that one of the biggest reservations east of the Mississippi is located in Harbor Springs, Michigan.  This puzzled me because I had been through the area many times and had never seen a fence or a sign that identified any of it as reservation land.  I later found out that the reservation is not all in one place, it's a patchwork thing that is scattered all over Emmet County.  With the earnings from their casinos, the tribe buys private land from time to time and gives it to the federal government to hold "in trust" for them.  This parcel is then removed from state jurisdiction and becomes part of the reservation system.  To pacify the locals, the casinos kick back some of their profits to the local governments.  Everybody must be happy with this arrangement because it doesn't get a lot of news coverage, which is probably why I didn't know about it.  There was a bit of an uproar a few years back when the tribe wanted to build a new casino near Mackinaw City and some of the locals said "Not in my neighborhood!"  I believe they worked out some sort of compromise, building a smaller facility than was originally planned, and I haven't heard anything about it in a long time.

Nobody is forced to live on the reservation but, if they leave, they are subject to the White Man's law like everybody else.  The tribe has its own laws and its own police force but, for serious crimes like murder, the feds usually get involved.  When a 911 call goes out, state, municipal, county, and tribal police all respond.  If a DNR officer is in the neighborhood, he also might drop by to see if he can be of some assistance.  They somehow quickly determine who has jurisdiction and the other agencies frequently hang around and help with traffic control or something.  I have never heard of any kind of conflict between the various agencies, they all seem to cooperate and support each other.