Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 4, 2011

Last December 11, a Las Vegas resident was killed during a traffic stop when police used a Taser on him. Rather than complying with new regulations governing official inquests, the police involved in that episode, on the advice of their union leadership, are simply refusing to cooperate with the investigation.

The inquest revisions were enacted following widespread outrage over recent episodes in which police killed civilians under questionable circumstances. The intent was to introduce an adversarial element into a process that was collegial to the point of being incestuous.

Since 1976, more than two hundred lethal force incidents have been examined by a seven-member jury. Only one of them was ruled "negligent" ? and that decision was overturned on appeal. This isn't a surprising result, given that under the old system the D.A.'s office literally orchestrated the questioning with the police department prior to the hearing.

Confronting the prospect of something akin to actual accountability, the police resorted to insubordination. This is the stuff of which Latin American banana republics are made.

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