LibertyMinute January 14 2013

There was never any dispute as to the identity of the people who beat Kelly Thomas to death outside a bus station in Fullerton, California. Nor was there any reasonable doubt that this act was one of aggressive violence by armed strangers committed against an unarmed, terrified, mentally troubled, 160-pound man. Yet a jury in conservativeOrange County,California acquitted the two ringleaders of the six-member gang that beat, kicked, and suffocated Thomas on a July night in 2011, while he cried out for his father.

The victim?s father, Ron Thomas, is a retired sheriff?s deputy. He described the killing of his son as an act of gang violence. The perpetrators were members of the Fullerton Police Department. The assault was instigated by Officer Manuel Ramos, who spent several minutes taunting and baiting Thomas ? a homeless man who was not suspected of a crime ? before slapping on gloves and saying: ?You see these fists? They?re about to f**k you up.?

The defense team insisted that Thomas was to blame for his death because he had tried to fight back after the police began their unwarranted and criminal assault. A jury accepted that argument, ratifying the idea that police have an unconditional license to kill ? and citizens have a moral duty to die when targeted by them.

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