Liberty Minute December 12 2013

In Iceland, police are mourning the unprecedented shooting death of a suspect. The fatal police shooting of a 59-year-old Icelandic man on December 2 was the first to take place in that country since it achieved independence in 1944. The head of the country?s police force expressed regrets and sent condolences to the family of the slain suspect.

Police attitudes are somewhat different here in the United States. Witness the reaction to a recent incident in which an officer used non-lethal means to subdue an emotionally unstable man.

Charles Remsberg, a columnist for PoliceOne.com news, describes how the training officer and a recruit took the armed and potentially violent suspect into custody by using pepper spray, rather than shooting him.

Rather than giving the officer a medal of valor ? as his colleagues recommended ? the chief originally intended to discipline him and demote him for setting a supposedly dangerous example. The chief?s complaint was that the officer had failed to send an appropriate message by subduing the suspect, rather than killing him.

The police chief told Remsberg that ?We have to be willing to critique non-shootings as well as shootings.? That chief would find the humane decency displayed by Icelandic police to be incomprehensible.

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

Liberty Minute December 11 2013

Many years ago, Lt. Col. Robert Bateman took an oath of enlistment in which he swore to ?support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?..? Bateman has also taught at West Point, where cadets embrace an honor code dictating that ?A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.?

In a recent essay in Esquire, Bateman proposed a comprehensive program of civilian disarmament in which the military would confiscate privately owned guns, and the government would nationalize all gun manufacturing. He outlines a studiously dishonest constitutional theory in which the Second Amendment supposedly has nothing to do with protecting an individual right to firearms ownership. And while posing as a defender of the Framers? original intent, he describes the nationalization of the militia in 1903 as necessary to correct what he regarded as a ?problem? ? that is, decentralization of the military and rejection of a standing army.

Mr. Bateman refers to his profession as ?the deliberate management of violence.? Whatever title he claims, he is no patriot. He is a traitor to the Constitution, a liar, and someone who seeks to steal the rights of Americans he seeks to rule, rather than to serve.

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

Liberty Minute December 10 2013

While researching a story dealing with abuse of power by a sheriff?s office in Oregon, this commentator contacted the FBI field office in Portland. I asked the public affairs officer to confirm that a civil rights complaint against the department had been filed and was being investigated by the Bureau.

After making the appropriate inquiries, the FBI official called me back and offered a studiously vague answer that neither confirmed nor denied the information I had been given. When I asked her name, the FBI employee replied that she did not make her name publicly available.

The fact that a public affairs official with the FBI wouldn?t provide her name demonstrates that the Bureau is quite literally a secret police agency. Their dealings are kept opaque to the public even as they seek to make our dealings entirely transparent to their scrutiny. For example, the Washington Post recently described how an ?elite hacker team? with the FBI has developed the capacity to activate cameras on laptop computers remotely and use them to spy on their owners ? without activating the indicator light.

This is a literal realization of the ?Telescreen? technology from Orwell?s 1984, which the FBI clearly sees as an instructional manual, rather than a precautionary tale.

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

Liberty Minute December 9 2013

The image of a predatory creature menacing the globe is a standard feature in both spy fiction ? such as the James Bond novels and films ? and political propaganda. James Bond did battle with a sinister global syndicate called SPECTRE, whose logo was an Octopus, which symbolized the extent of its reach and the diversity of its operations. Many lurid political exposes  have used a similar icon, depicting the enemy as an octopus enveloping the globe in its tentacles.

There is no sense in which that symbol could be considered benign or noble. Thus it is significant that the Office of National Intelligence ? which coordinates both foreign espionage and domestic surveillance operations ? used that familiar image of an octopus devouring the globe as the official mission patch for its December 5 launch of a spy satellite. More ominous still is the motto of that mission: ?Nothing is beyond our reach.?

Karen Furgerson of the National Reconnaissance Office said the symbol and motto demonstrate that ?enemies of the United States can be reached no matter where they choose to hide.? A proper understanding of the significance of that statement is found in the fact that most government surveillance programs target the American public.

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

Liberty Minute December 6 2013

 It is difficult to imagine anything more cruel or depraved than forcibly sedating a pregnant woman, ripping her child from the womb, and then abducting the baby. Such incomprehensible sadism is well within the ability of child protection bureaucrats.

Social workers in Essex, England obtained a court order allowing them to sedate an Italian immigrant worker who reportedly suffered an emotional breakdown, and then remove the child through an involuntary c-section. The infant, who is now 15 months old, remains in the possession of the social services bureaucracy, despite the fact that the mother has recovered and is understandably anxious to be reunited with the baby she has never seen. The officials who abducted that child made no effort to identify and contact family members in Italy.

The woman?s problems began when she panicked after failing to find passports for her two other daughters. She called the police for help. When they arrived, the police took her to a hospital, assuring the frantic woman they were making sure ?the baby is OK.? Only then did she learn that the facility was a mental ward ? and when she awoke, her baby was gone.

Never forget that all government intervention is pregnant with totalitarian possibilities.

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

Liberty Minute December 5 2013

Lawrence, Kansas resident Debbie Nall lives in a city suffering from one of the most severe economic slumps in the country. The Milken Institute ranked Lawrence second-to-last in its 2012 economic survey of U.S. cities. Significantly, Lawrence dropped 79 spots on that list over the course of one year ? a fact that illustrates the severity of its plight.

For the past several years, Nall has opened her home to many people who have been left without jobs or homes. Some of them were abused women; others were people simply needing a place to stay while getting on their feet. Nall has six bedrooms and is eager to help when contacted by churches or local shelters.

The Lawrence City Council, however, is punishing Nall for her charity and seeking to profit from doing so. Citing a zoning ordinance forbidding homeowners to have more than three unrelated guests over a 90-day period, the municipal clique is threatening Nall with huge fines that could eventually leave her without a home of her own.

A passage in the Book of Galatians lists several virtues, including kindness, and observes? Against such things there is no law.? Any government edict that punishes charity is a crime against God?s law.

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

Liberty Minute December 4 2013

In our supposedly free country, a police officer on patrol can stop and question a driver for practically any reason he can devise. Police officers, eager to find evidence of narcotics offenses or other illegal activity, are taught to ?build every stop? by looking for a pretext to search the vehicle. This can include what is described as suspicious body language ? which, according to some cops, includes excessive politeness.

About a year ago, Ohio Highway Patrolman Jared Haslar stopped a motorist named Joshua Fontane for supposedly driving 45 miles per hour in a 35 MPH zone. Fontane readily provided his license and other information. Haslar found Fontane?s ?body language and behavior? to be ?a little bit unusual? because it was ?overly polite.? On this basis, he called for backup from an officer with a drug-detecting dog. He then detained Fontane in his patrol car while the citizen?s vehicle was searched. A handgun and a small amount of marijuana were found in the car.

A trial court granted Fontane?s motion to suppress the evidence as the product of an invalid search. The Ohio Court of Appeals has upheld that ruling, but this probably won?t be enough to stop police from treating citizen courtesy as if it were suspicious.

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

Liberty Minute December 3 2013

On the same day that Boise property owner Skinner Anderson was arrested and charged with gambling-related felonies, the state?s largest gambling syndicate began its largest buy-in to date. The state government of Idaho ? which is collaborating in the prosecution of Anderson and the seizure of his property ? announced its Mega Millions lottery jackpot. Tickets cost one dollar apiece, and will be sold at retail outlets state-wide, thereby directly implicating hundreds of business owners ? as well as the entire taxpaying population -- in an activity that would be regarded as criminal if conducted privately.

Anderson has been charged with an obscure and little-prosecuted offense called ?misprision of felony? because he failed to notify authorities that a home he had rented was being used for what are described as illegal poker games and tournaments. Earlier this year, police raided two houses in which poker games were conducted, one of which belonged to Anderson. 

When the FBI became involved in order to facilitate seizure of the property, Kings Santy, who organized the games, became a cooperating witness, implicating Anderson.

Mr. Anderson, who had no direct involvement in a penny-ante poker tournament, may be sent to prison by the same government that operates a multi-billion-dollar gambling operation.

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

Liberty Minute December 2 2013

Joe Arpaio unabashedly claims to be the world?s toughest sheriff. While his claim to that title is implausible, he is incontestably the country?s most expensive law enforcement officer:  His twenty-year reign as sheriff of Arizona?s Maricopa County has cost taxpayers more than $50 million in lawsuits and settlements arising from abuses committed by his deputies -- including deaths of non-violent offenders incarcerated in his jail.

Arpaio has been indifferent to those abuses and the costs they have inflicted on his constituents. Thus it?s reasonable to believe that something other than austerity prompted him to cut back on meal service within his jail by feeding inmates only twice a day, and going to an exclusively vegetarian menu. He proudly reports the average inmate meal costs between 15 and 40 cents.

On Thanksgiving, Arpaio issued a public statement inviting inmates to thank him for splurging on a special holiday meal ? the main course for which was something called turkey soy casserole ? that cost 56 cents per inmate.

While cultivating his media image and indulging his sadistic whims, Arpaio left tens of thousands of felony warrants go un-served, and ignored hundreds of cases involving child sex abuse. He has been a burden on the law-abiding, and a blessing for the lawless.

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

Liberty Minute November 29 2013

Twice within the space of twenty-four hours, women in Texas were handcuffed and sexually assaulted by armed strangers in official-looking costumes.

The first incident took place on a highway near Carrollton, Texas on November 21. An unidentified man wearing what appeared to be a police uniform stopped a woman, handcuffed her, and assaulted her in the back seat of his car.

On the following day, San Antonio Police Officer Jackie Len Neal allegedly stopped a 19-year-old girl, handcuffed her, and assaulted her in the back seat of his police cruiser. This was not the first time he has been accused of assaulting women during traffic stops.

Following the incident with a police impersonator, police officials warned female drivers that if they are suspicious of the individual pulling them over, they should call 911 and then drive to a well-lit area before stopping. This might deter a police impersonator. However, if the individual is a police officer, the result might be a potentially fatal pursuit and criminal charges. Dibor Roberts, a nurse from Arizona, was severely beaten and then charged with ? and convicted on ? two felony counts when she followed that advice during a late-night traffic stop.

To a lonely female driver at night, a cop may pose a greater danger than a police impersonator.

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