Removal from the streets --to a jail or a camp or a deserted island or some other place where good citizens need not know they exist except for taxes they'll pay to keep them away, unless by removal you mean permanent removal from the Earth which would incur less of a longterm financial burden I suspect--of all citizens who break laws, would make driving to work a lot easier. Almost everyone on the road would be removed since so few actually follow posted speed laws or basic traffic laws (how hard is it to put a blinker on when changing lanes? Jeez.)

And all those people who drive without car insurance, park illegally, don't pay their taxes or don't pay them on time, who throw cigarette butts and other trash out car windows or on streets, who smoke in no smoking areas, break local building laws, who don't put their trash cans in designated places, who don't...etc.

So many people to remove, so little time.

"Maybe there is a beast. Maybe it's only us."

The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

That pretty much covers it…so yes, in the U.S. the government is fundamentally charged with taking on those activities for justice, tranquility, and common defense…I believe this charge includes taking measures - removal might be considered an extreme measure - to address criminal activity.