Well said. I like the idea of living in a society were the rule of law is evenly and universally applied. We've never really achieved this ideal, but in the times of prosperity and plenty after WWII and the age of oil we got fairly close, at least for some people in some places. As our middle class is destroyed the ability of average people to make the legal system work for them will continue to degrade.
A fish rots from the head, and we can see how the universal rule of law has broken down at national and sate levels, but often at local levels it's still intact, and I'll enjoy those protections as long as they hold up. There are other, older systems for dealing with such issues, and you can see them at work in other places all over the world, and beginning in places in the US too. When the warlords building power in Mexico move into the US southwest then the way people deal with such disputes there will change. Maybe some look forward to this, but I don't and I suspect many will be severely disillusioned with what replaces the rule of law and their ability to get what they want out of that system. How about some private corporate armies administering justice with immunity in your region? That's now the law of the land. What is your recourse when you don't like what they do?
Change, big change, is coming whether we want it to or not, but don't be so quick to kiss way the benefits we've all enjoyed from the system we've had. The OP has a jerk neighbor who tried to use the local governmental agencies to serve his own personal interests in some power play on the OP. It didn't work. The OP had some reasonable conversations with some reasonable people, probably made some good connections and is personally in a more powerful position relative to the jerk than he was to start with. No physical force was used and no one got paid off. If the OP had been burning tires and the neighbor was reasonable the decision would have probably gone the other way, as it should. Kind of refreshing I think. Enjoy it while it lasts.
