A YouTube video presents the story of the El Salvadoran dictatorship that has eradicated the criminal gangs, which, for decades, tormented families in that small nation.  A lawless nation has, for now, been tamed by a lawless government.  Will it happen here?  Must it?

In El Salvador, the problem of gangster crime had become unbearable for most of the population.  The murder rate was extremely high and growing.  The killers were unspeakably brutal.  Tortures were often gruesome beyond description.  Rapes were all too common, even in public places.  Extortion was breaking the back of private enterprise.  Children were sometimes killed for the amusement of remorseless snipers.  The government seemed helpless to control the worsening crisis.

History has shown that when such conditions exist, the political situation is ripe for the emergence of a “strong man.”  Some of the most infamous dictators have seized power in that milieu and, whether in countries large or small, have wrought misery on the population that once had clamored for them to take firm action.

The philosophy expressed during the American Revolution is that those who value peace and security more than they value freedom will soon lose both.  It is true, but in El Salvador, the situation is different, in degree and character, from the American experience of 1776.  As insufferable as was the British oppression of the Colonies, the “Tommies” were not barbaric.  Their officers were civilized gentlemen.  The Salvadoran gangsters associated with MS-13 are cruel savages.  President Trump referred to them as “animals.”

Democratic, constitutional efforts in El Salvador had previously failed to relieve the citizenry of the agony wrought by the gangs.  Moreover, the prevalence of unrestrained barbarism had posed the possibility of anarchy, a failed state, or some other existential threat.

The question then arises: which is the worse evil?  Is it the dictatorship of an establishment government or the dictatorship of an unelected, street-level thugocracy?  Clearly, both are evil, but when one’s home is being invaded, one’s family brutalized, then the enemy at hand is undoubtedly the priority, regardless of constitutions and laws.

To combat the gangs, President Nayib Bukele used the iron-fisted approach.  He ramped it up far beyond expectations — and then he kept doing more of it, without letting up.  Police broke into homes searching for any sign of gang affiliation in the house.  A weapon, a drug, even a tattoo was enough for young men to be chained and dragged off to prison.  Thousands of suspected criminals were incarcerated, thrown into hell-holes of steel and concrete, without even the semblance of humane treatment.  Some actually starved to death, not in hunger strikes, but due to deprivation.

The murder rate, as a result, declined sharply, almost to the levels found in Canada.  The public viewed this as miraculous.  People who once dreaded to venture onto the street, to shop for food, began to feel a freedom they had never known: the freedom from fear.  Children could safely play outdoors.  Girls and women no longer had to endure routine groping, not to mention the ever-present prospect of rape.  Businesses no longer had to face the choice between endless extortion and sudden death, death for both the owners and their families.

Consequently, Bukele has become the national hero, with approval ratings at eighty-five percent.

The downside is awful for the several thousand completely innocent citizens who were rounded up in the same dragnets that swept violent criminals off the streets.  Taken suddenly from their families, the law-abiding bystanders found themselves packed into cages with ruthless murderers, and also with brutal prison guards who never hesitated to inflict painful beatings.  For some, the nightmare was fatal.

Only after the gangs were almost completely removed as a factor from society has there been an effort to free the innocent, with some seven thousand (!) being released.  The situation continues.  It remains to be seen whether history will sorrowfully repeat itself or whether El Salvador will find a way to reap the benefits of its extreme measures, without the curses of a permanent dictatorship that, almost certainly, would eventually become the worse evil: the one at hand.

There is a lesson in this for the United States.  The difference here is that our federal and state governments are the ones who are enabling and subsidizing criminal behavior, along with promoting destructive perversions that are becoming an existential threat to the culture.  As government officials increase the range and intensity of their abuses, we are seeing signs that the general population is reaching the point of desperation.  A flashpoint must eventually occur.  The question of how much more of this we can take will be answered decisively.

We in America will soon run out of effective procedural remedies for an increasingly out-of-control government.  The Constitution, which normally provides those remedies, is being made into a “suicide pact.”  As that fact becomes increasingly clear to Americans, the urgency to act against the enemy at hand, whether by local sheriffs, state legislatures, or vigilantes, will result in unpredictable outcomes, none of which is likely to be tranquil.

Let’s hope that those outcomes do not empower a “strong man.”  They always have.  Will it be different this time?  Have we any choice?

Image via Pexels.