The Dark Shapes in the Woods

Heather Mac Donald, nonfiction author of The War on Cops, on Dennis Prager's radio program, on the subject of the absence of law enforcement, June 10, 2020:

The human spirit, left to its own devices, without the correction of law and order, can be very, very dark, and very, very depraved, and there is a lust for violence. You let that free and you have no consequences, and it's going to be threatening from here on out.

J.R.R. Tolkien, fiction author of The Return of the King, on the subject of the absence of law enforcement, 1955:

You see, we’re not used to such troubles; and the Rangers have all gone away, folk tell me. I don’t think we’ve rightly understood till now what they did for us. For there’s been worse  than robbers about. Wolves were howling round the fences last winter. And there’s dark  shapes in the woods, dreadful things that it makes the blood run cold to think of. It’s been very disturbing, if you understand me.’ 

Peace and order had its time. But we have grown restless. And foolish. What are the dark, dreadful shapes in the woods, after all?

We are soon to meet them.