Liberty Minute May 7 2014

The Milwaukee Police Department is among the most violent and corrupt in the country. Several years ago, a group of patrol officers created a secretive club called the ?Punishers? that was responsible for a string of unprovoked criminal assaults. Another group of officers was sentenced to prison for conducting warrantless strip-searches that involved sexual assault.

A resident of Milwaukee who faces unexpected attention from the police thus has cause for abundant concern. On April 30, a homeless man who had fallen asleep on the street awoke to find himself confronted by an officer. When he didn't immediately cooperate with a pat-down, the officer began beating him with a baton. The victim managed to seize the weapon and use it to ward off his attacker ? who drew his sidearm and shot the man to death. Chief Ed Flynn has described this as an act of self-defense on the part of the officer.

Like tasers, police batons are imbued with curious properties that make them ?non-lethal? instruments when used by cops to electrocute or beat a helpless person to death ? but that transform them into ?lethal weapons? when they wind up in the unconsecrated hands of ordinary citizens.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.