Justice & Law Quote by Chris Chocola

“Without the right tools” is Washington-speak that does two jobs at once: it sounds practical and value-neutral, while quietly expanding the universe of acceptable state power. Chris Chocola frames “police our markets” as a technical necessity, not a political choice. The verb matters. We don’t “regulate” or “oversee” here; we “police,” a word that imports urgency, threat, and enforcement into the economic realm. Markets aren’t just arenas of competition in this telling; they’re territory that can be infiltrated and must be defended.

The line’s specific intent is to justify new authorities, budgets, or surveillance capacities under the banner of fighting “illegal trade.” That phrase is broad enough to be elastic: it can mean counterfeit goods, smuggling, money laundering, sanction evasion, pirated media, even regulatory violations that get rhetorically recast as criminal. By keeping the enemy amorphous, the solution stays flexible. “Tools” can be anything from customs staffing to data-sharing, expanded search powers, financial tracking, or tighter supply-chain controls.

The subtext is a familiar political bargain: if you want clean capitalism, you have to tolerate tougher enforcement. It also shifts responsibility away from policy design and toward enforcement capacity. If illegal trade persists, the implication isn’t that the rules are misaligned or that demand incentives remain intact; it’s that officials were under-equipped.

Contextually, this kind of language thrives in moments when trade debates blur into security debates. It invites bipartisan nods (who’s pro-illegal trade?) while teeing up contentious questions about civil liberties, corporate compliance costs, and who gets scrutinized when “policing” becomes the organizing metaphor for commerce.