Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

November 6, 2012

For weeks, a police officer had been lurking down the street from Ashley Ward?s rural home outsidePiedmont,Oklahoma. The streets are cracked and usually vacant. With little traffic to supervise and no property crime to investigate, the officer simply idled in his car, at taxpayer expense, waiting for an opportunity to collect revenue.

That occasion arose when Ward?s three-year-old son, Dillan, decided to relieve himself outdoors in the family?s front yard. Seconds after the toddler pulled down his pants, the officer pulled up in the front yard and demanded that Ward hand over her driver?s license. When Dillan?s grandmother objected that the incident took place on the family?s private property, the officer snottily replied that it didn?t matter, because it occurred in public view.

The ticket, assuming it is upheld in court, would cost the family $2,500 ? an amount more than the monthly average income for the community.

Piedmontis a town of about 3600 people. Its crime rate is immeasurably small, which explains why the police department can spare one-tenth of its ten-officer force to loiter in the Ward family?s neighborhood in search of revenue. If only such behavior were atypical of law enforcement officers.

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