Posted on 05/07/2020 3:54:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
Don’t be such a naive dope, Kurt. Even the mere existence of a “LEO community” is totally incompatible with freedom and liberty. The founders of this country would have been repulsed by the thought of living in a country with hundreds of thousands of “law enforcement officers.”
All good points - would only add the cowardly but very well-armed cops at Columbine - and we need to keep after the swine that framed LTG Flynn and pushed the false Russian collusion lie.
> When someone tells you to fly drones around scolding citizens, we expect you to say “No.” <
I’m far, far from being pro-police. But the author of this article is aiming at the wrong target. The orders he cites are silly, but they are at least marginally lawful. Police officers are not judges. They are expected to obey lawful orders.
The real culprits here are those politicians who are issuing the orders.
The author is going overboard on this one. Yeah, I understand that now - looking back - the Covid scare is declining and society is beginning to loosen up.
BUT if you are a cop (just like a soldier), and you decide to disobey orders to enforce the law, you’d better have a damn good reason. Because you might not just be fired, you yourself might be prosecuted. Furthermore, social distancing might be a misdemeanor, but what if the accused ignores you and keeps doing it? What if they refuse despite repeated warnings? All of a sudden it goes from cop trying to be a courteous to cop stuffing you in a squad car.
Let’s be frank. This whole Covid thing is new territory. Hopefully it will NOT become the new normal for handling emerging infectious diseases, but give the cops a break this first time around. 2020 is shaping up to make the 911 event of 2001 a tiptoe through the tulips.
Great article.
Fascism or Freedom? The People or the State? Life or Death? It’s a time for choosing, LEO’s.
So said the concentration camp guards....
A hint for you and everyone else - the police are not your friends and never were.
Read the Federalist Papers, where the people who helped author the Constitution talk about the dangers that “standing armies” pose to liberty.
They were specifically thinking of heavily armed “law enforcement”.
> So said the concentration camp guards.... <
Not a valid comparison. I am talking about lawful orders, as understood by a civilized society.
As I noted earlier, I am not pro-police. But they are getting a bad rap in this article. For example, suppose a mayor orders a crackdown on illegal gambling. That’s a lawful order. Do we really want cops to debate that? “I see gambling as a victimless crime,” says a sergeant. “So I’ll pass.”
That’s not the way it’s supposed to work when it comes to lawful orders.
The author is talking about silly - and probably counter-productive - orders. But they are lawful orders, as understood by a civilized society. Heap scorn on the politicians. That’s where the blame lies here.
We need to eliminate unelected federal, state and local law enforcement. Elected county sheriffs seem to be the only sane ones left.
“..Heap scorn on the politicians...”
The politician isn’t the guy standing there with the gun pointed at your face screaming “ON THE GROUND! DO IT!”.
Agreed, but the “I was only following orders!” defense didn’t hold up before, and it can’t be held up as a defense for inexcusable actions against a peaceful population now. There comes a point where you go over the line, and it appears that line has been crossed in many of these blue states, with LEO’s following blue politicians orders without question.
Dumb and corrupt cops have never had my support in the first place.
Exactly.
Stripping the people of their Constitutional Rights are not “lawful orders.” Period. Full stop.
> The politician isn’t the guy standing there with the gun pointed at your face screaming “ON THE GROUND! DO IT!”. <
That’s an important - and valid - point! And it’s one reason I am no longer pro-police. They have gone from being “peace officers” to being “law enforcement officers”. 90% of them have ego problems.
But that’s a separate issue from deciding whether or not to obey a lawful order. You can enforce a lawful order (virus-related or not) without being a bully, or a screaming like a madman. Unfortunately too many cops today feel they must go the screaming bully route.
Lon Tomohisa Horiuchi
They are unconstitutional orders and hence unlawful orders. In many cases, there is no law behind them whatsoever. It is tyranny.
We have heavily armed, paramilitary law enforcement in this country. Besides sheriffs and constables, they are not lead by elected officials. They are a fraternity that covers each others asses instead of doing the right thing. They lost the trust of minority communities ages ago, and now they are working on deplorables.
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