WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW, REBELLION BECOMES DUTY

“The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty.”
Ludwig Von Mises

I will preface my remarks by establishing my own law enforcement credentials. After joining the Air Force, I trained as a Law Enforcement Specialist in Security Forces. While serving in that capacity, I worked as a patrolman, a desk sergeant, and a supervisor. I well understand the demands and risks a police officer faces each day. On New Years Eve of 1985, I was dispatched to a residence in base housing knowing only that the master sergeant who lived in the house was holding his family at gunpoint and threatening to kill them and everyone else in the vicinity. My son was only a few months old at the time and I remember wondering if I would get to see him again. There were other similar experiences. The point being that I know what the work entails and I have nothing but the highest regard for the good officers who live their credo, To Protect and To Serve.

The problem is that lately it seems 90 percent of the cops out there are giving the remaining 5 percent a bad name. Here are just a few examples, all of which have been documented on videotape:

Dallas, TX: An NFL player runs a red light while driving to the hospital where his mother in law lay dying. His wife is with him. A Dallas police officer sees him run the red light and follows him to the hospital. The officer ignores the man’s desperate pleas and requests to get to his dying mother in law. In fact, the officer insists on issuing a ticket, a lecture, and even draws his service weapon on the gentleman, threatening to arrest him. A nurse comes out to verify to the officer that the man’s mom is dying. Unfazed, the officer continues detaining the man and his mom dies before he can get to her.

King County, WA: Sheriff Deputy Paul Schene, beats a 15 year old girl, kicking her in the mid section, slaming her head-first into the concrete wall of her holding cell, pinning her to the ground while beating her again, all because she kicked her shoe toward him. King County policy allows the use of force only when, "necessary to effect an arrest, to defend themselves or others from violence, or to otherwise accomplish police duties according to law." The girl presented no threat and was already in custody.

Chicago, IL: Police Officer Anthony Abate is sentenced to two years probation for beating a female bartender because she refused to serve him drinks after he became intoxicated. He continued beating her as she lay helpless on the ground.

Independence, MO: An undercover investigator asks for a police complaint form. The supervisor insists on hearing the complaint in the lobby, in violation of department policy, then refuses to give the investigator a complaint form (also in violation of department policy), and when the investigator asks again the supervisor arrests him, slamming his head against the plexi-glass partition and cutting him.

Shreveport, LA: A police officer deals with a handcuffed but mouthy drunk female by turning off the camera. When the camera is turned back on, she is lying in a pool of her own blood, beaten to a pulp. She suffers two black eyes, multiple lacerations, broken teeth, and bruises. The officer is fired but maintains through his attorney that she merely slipped and fell.

Dayton, OH: A police officer going through Wendy’s drive thru is convinced that he was short changed by the cashier, a minor. The cashier, the manager, and the store’s video verify that she did not short change the officer. He comes into the store, sprays her with mace and arrests her anyway.

Bay County, FL: In January 2006, a juvenile at the county’s boot camp detention center goes into physical distress during exercises. While the boy is limp and unconscious, Sheriff Deputies beat, kick, and place the boy in a variety of restraining holds. Unable to get the care he needed in time, the boy died.

The common thread running through all of these incidents is the sheer arrogance of people who believe that they can cut a bloody swath through society with impunity, bullying and running roughshod over the very citizens they are charged with protecting and serving. And this arrogance is tethered to that of an all-powerful government that believes it can run roughshod over the Constitution and choke the basic rights of Americans.

President Obama’s abysmal and characteristically off-target dismissal of Professor Gate’s arrest as racial profiling misses the point completely. The more power the government amasses, the more intrusive it becomes in our lives. And the more intrusive government becomes, the more intrusive, arrogant, and tyrannical its enforcement mechanism grows. The problem isn’t racial profiling. The problem is out of control cops who somehow believe that disagreeing with them is an arrestable offense. Again, I’m not making a general indictment against all police officers here, but the problem is widespread enough to warrant exploration.

Look around you. Do officers park their patrol vehicles in conspicuous locations so that they can be seen and therefore enhance traffic safety by serving as a deterrent to wreckless driving? Or do they hide behind the bushes, in the shadows, waiting to play “gotcha” and thereby raise revenue for local government? Where I live, in Bay County, FL, we have an unfortunately large percentage of officers who are better suited to appear on reruns of Dukes of Hazzard than on public streets dealing with real citizens. Of course, there are professionals in their midst,..but they haven’t risen high enough through the ranks to effectively weed out the imbeciles and bullies. One officer has even pulled someone over for failure to use a turn signal when the road curved! He used this as a pretext for issuing a citation that he has previously lost in court. Aggressively exploring the outer reaches of invincible ignorance, this officer and many like him wouldn’t recognize real Probable Cause if it stole his chewing tobacco.

It is time for police across the country to look in the mirror. Just like the elected official, a law enforcement officer holds a public trust. He is there to truly Protect and Serve, not intimidate, harass, and bully the public. The badge he wears should not be accompanied by a chip on his shoulder. He wears the uniform of a public servant, not the Gestapo. We all lament and mourn the death of a police officer. The point should not be lost, however, that when enough police officers act like thugs and violate the public trust as rampantly as they are currently doing, they dehumanize themselves and become targets for people at the fringes of society. As the police culture insulates itself and recedes from the society it is charged to protect, the situation becomes even more volatile. It’s time for law enforcement to return to the basics of its credo, To Protect and Serve, and in so doing, they can begin to earn back the trust of the community.

And it is time for citizens to insist that government stay within its lawful boundaries, which is to say its Constitutional boundaries. As the government returns to its rightful place, so too will our law enforcement agencies regain some sense of justice and moral equilibrium, enforcing the law as well as obeying it, and discarding the absurd belief that they ARE the law and therefore can do anything they wish.

I was a law enforcement officer. I am a veteran. But first and foremost, I am an American. My rights come from God, and are not bequeathed as an indulgence by an arrogant politician or a bully with a badge. I’ve fought for liberty before, and I’ll do it again. I’ll not see my country, my family, or myself abused by the excessive power of the state in any form. To my fellow citizens; stand up and assert your rights. To the good officers, the just and fair officials; stand up and help bring this country back to the ideals of the Founders. To the bullies and goons; you are on notice. Screw with us at YOUR peril.