Without legitimacy, we can have no notion of abuse of authority, and thus the implicit critique of police uses of force loses much of its vigor.

Without these ideas, there can be no basis for critique of authority, no objective definition of tyranny, and thus no possibility of building a better political order. Politics is reduced to Lenin’s “who, whom.”

Right authority and just laws are not unlimited, either: they must be guided by well-informed reason and oriented to the common good.

…that there can be people responsible for the common good of a community and authorized to act in its defense, including by force, and that violence outside that authority is, in most circumstances, wrong.

Hence, we are all caught in a big swirl of undifferentiated violence by various political actors. Such a view ignores the idea of legitimacy (or right authority, in the Just War tradition), namely…