Is It a Crime to Insult the Police?
by Will
Liberty Minute July 9 2014
Two years ago, police in the village of Arena, Wisconsin conducted a manhunt for two black males who were later accused of burglary. Comments posted to the department?s Facebook page complained about some of the tactics used by police to track down the suspects. Thomas Smith?s contribution to the discussion, such as it was, was replete with misspellings, foul language, and racial slurs, but appeared to criticize the police for being abusive and racist.
Whether that characterization was warranted, Smith had an unqualified right to express his opinions. He neither threatened violence nor insinuated approval for violent acts. Yet he was arrested and charged with ?disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a computerized communication system.? A jury quickly convicted him of that supposed offense.
A Wisconsin Court of Appeals Judge overturned that conviction on July 3, ruling that nothing in Smith?s admittedly uncouth statement constituted ?fighting words? or a ?true threat? that would supposedly justify an exception to First Amendment protections.
Police agencies across the country have been militarized and indoctrinated into the belief that the public is their enemy. Surely such bold and valiant heroes don?t require protection against nasty Facebook comments.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
The Road Pirates of Collinsville, Illinois
by Will
Liberty Minute July 8 2014
In December 2011, Ohio native Terrance Huff, a professional filmmaker, was waylaid near Collinsville, Illinois by a state-licensed brigand named Officer Michael Reichert. After concocting a reason to stop Huff, Reichert fell into his well-practiced routine of inventing ?probable cause? to search the vehicle for evidence of drug possession or, failing that, something he could steal through ?asset forfeiture.?
Huff was released without charges, and he filed a lawsuit against Reichert and the Collinsville City Government. In April, he was awarded a $100,000 settlement. Huff created two short films depicting his experiences with Reichert and his criminal clique ? ?Breakfast in Collinsville,? and ?Lodging in Collinsville.?
In a commendable act of public service, Huff has used a portion of his settlement to produce another short film, ?Forfeiture in Collinsville,? which describes how police and prosecutors in that small town, working with their equally corrupt and predatory comrades in California, conspired to steal the life savings of Robert Stahl, a Ohio native and pioneering computer engineer.
The system of surveillance, anonymous accusation, and utterly lawless behavior by police depicted in this video is worthy of East Germany. It does nothing to benefit anyone other than incorrigibly corrupt people on both sides of the law.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Hobby Lobby vs. Cultural Totalitarianism
by Will
Liberty Minute July 7 2014
The federal government's claimed power to compel Christian employers to underwrite the purchase of abortion pills for their female employees is the only thing preventing the imposition of a totalitarian theocracy. At least this is what hysterical leftists are pretending to believe in the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling in what has come to be known as the Hobby Lobby case.
In a 5-4 decision the Court held that the company was not required to provide insurance coverage for birth control methods that violate the owners' religious convictions. This applies to four of sixteen birth control methods, all of which involve chemically induced abortions.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissenting opinion maintained that a corporation cannot claim protection under the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment because it is an impersonal abstraction, rather than a person. However, she repeatedly insisted that the government has a ?compelling interest? in forcing companies to cover all birth control methods, including those at issue in this case.
If a corporation is an abstraction, the government must also be regarded as one ? and if a corporation can't claim rights, a government can't claim a compelling interest. And the Constitution doesn't authorize any federal bureaucracy to force anybody to buy anything.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Commerce is Civilization; Government is Barbarism
by Will
Liberty Minute July 4 2014
According to Barney Frank, a former Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, ?government is simply things we choose to do together.?
As it is used by the political class, the word ?government? tacitly encompasses every form of human cooperation ? because there is nothing they would leave outside of their sphere of control. Not only is it possible for people to cooperate without the supervision or interference of the state, such interference actually undermines peaceful and productive cooperation. This is because everything done in the name of the state involves either the exercise or threat of lethal force.
Civilization depends on self-government, by both individuals and through voluntary associations. Every expansion of political control over private life is a retreat from civilized living in the direction of barbarism, since it represents the elevation of force over mutually beneficial peaceful cooperation.
This principle was understood by the signers of the Declaration of Independence. While the American Founders didn?t apply this principle consistently ? they were, after all, noble but flawed men ? they boldly embraced the view that individual rights are non-negotiable, and that ?whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive? of them ?it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it?.?
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Yes, Obama is a Tyrant, Just Like His Predecessor
by Will
Liberty Minute July 2 2014
In the heat of a testy exchange with a hostile journalist, the White House press spokesman insisted that ?Congress ... does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House.?
This patently untrue defense of unaccountable presidential power was not offered by former Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney ? although it certainly could have been. It was actually made by the late Tony Snow while he was working as the press spokesman for George W. Bush in 2007.
Republican congressional leaders, and conservative media figures, are properly outraged over Barack Obama's persistent use of executive orders and signing statements to circumvent what he characterizes as an obstructionist Congress. They have either forgotten or chosen to ignore the fact that George W. Bush issued more than 150 signing statements dealing with both domestic and international affairs. By issuing each of those statements, Bush was announcing his intention not to execute faithfully the measure he had just signed into law.
Barack Obama's insouciant disregard for the limits of his office is well-known, and entirely contemptible. He famously said that because he has a pen and a telephone, he doesn't need congressional cooperation. This is the attitude of an impenitent tyrant ? and Obama learned it, in significant ways, from his Republican predecessor.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Police Impunity and Perverse P.C. Priorities
by Will
Liberty Minute July 1 2014
Seventeen years ago, Los Angeles resident Frank Lyga shot and killed a black man during a roadside confrontation. The incident grew out of an episode of road rage, and Lyga was not prosecuted for criminal homicide.
This act of leniency was remarkable, given that the victim in the shooting, Kevin Gaines, was an off-duty police officer with the LAPD.
In late June an audio recording surfaced of remarks made by Lyga shortly after the incident. Rather than being relieved over his narrow escape, or remorseful over the tragic shooting, Lyga said he had ?no regrets? over killing Gaines. Giving voice to racially inflammatory sentiments, Lyga said that he wished that he could ?have killed a whole truckload of them.?
There is no statute of limitations on murder, and since Lyga was not prosecuted in 1997 double jeopardy doesn?t apply. Police Chief Charlie Beck reacted to the news not by filing charges against Lyga, but by relieving him of duty: At present, Lyga is a detective with the LAPD, and Beck?s chief concern is the nature of his comments regarding Gaines and other officers.
In the current system, police enjoy expansive immunity from prosecution, and violating politically correct etiquette is considered more serious than murder.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
"No Refusal"? Our Forefathers Would have Drawn Blood Over This!
by Will
Liberty Minute June 30 2014
During the mid-1980s, a state radio broadcast in East Germany proudly announced a record-breaking national blood drive. In the audio equivalent of fine print could be found the critical, defining detail: ?Most of the donors were volunteers.?
To celebrate what used to be called Independence Day, police and in Oregon have announced a ?no refusal? initiative for the Fourth of July weekend. Motorists who refuse to take a Breathalyzer test will be subjected to an immediate involuntary blood test that will take place either at the side of the road, any nearby medical facility, or at a jail. Prosecutors and judges will be on call to rubber-stamp any police request for a blood draw warrant.
Under this totalitarian approach, ?due process? consists of immediate ratification of a police demand for self-incriminating evidence. The Breathalyzer is a notoriously unreliable technology, and police will generally admit as much when it produces test results that exonerate a driver.
In a reasonably free society, ?no refusal? traffic enforcement operations wouldn't exist. If America were to any extent a country worthy of the heritage we celebrate on Independence Day, such a proposal would provoke a righteous armed rebellion. Our colonial patriot forebears drew blood over impositions much less offensive than this.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Unless SWAT Teams Can Burn Babies, The Terrorists Will Get You!
by Will
Liberty Minute June 27 2014
As Iraq descends into sectarian civil war, familiar fright-peddlers from Dick Cheney to Lindsey Graham are depicting the Sunni insurgency, known as ISIS, as a potentially lethal threat to our sacred Homeland.
Not surprisingly, a similar view is being expressed by defenders of the militarized Homeland Security State, who pretend to believe that if ISIS can seize control of Mosul, it will soon threaten Manhattan.
In the Line of Duty, a company providing what it calls ?reality-based training for law enforcement,? eagerly anticipates a terrorist strike by ISIS as a way of changing the subject from the routine atrocities committed by militarized police ? such as the SWAT raid and flash-bang grenade attack that left 18-month-old Bou-Bou Phonesavankh fighting for his life in an intensive care unit.
?When this `militarization of [Law Enforcement Agencies] affects infants like Bou Bou, the public?s going to be righteously outraged. But, someday, when ISIS comes a calling, who will be complaining then?? sneered the company?s Facebook page, a statement growing out of the assumption that 3:00 a.m. Stormtrooper raids that leave infants with disfiguring injuries are simply the price we must pay to be protected from whatever ?threats? our rulers can conjure.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Don't Expect Police to Protect You; That's Not Their Job
by Will
Liberty Minute June 25 2014
Kuna, Idaho resident Tricia Gillaspy and her husband awoke early on June 22 to find a naked stranger in their bedroom. Mr. Gillaspy grabbed a gun and ordered him from the home while his wife dialed 911. The uninvited visitor had flooded their kitchen and defecated on the living room carpet.
When the cops arrived, they gave the trespasser two citations and a ride home.
A sergeant from the Kuna PD called Mrs. Gillaspy shortly after the incident to say that in order for the officers to take the intruder into custody, it would have been necessary for the couple to make a citizen?s arrest.
A few days earlier, a resident of Coeur d?Alene was approached by a stranger who drew a knife and demanded money. The would-be robbery victim, who was with his 2-year-old daughter, drew a gun, prompting the assailant to flee in his van. The man pursued the suspect briefly before losing him in traffic. The police never found him.
Police exist primarily to enforce the will of the government employing them. They cannot deter crime, but can monetize it for the political class?s benefit. Any actual protection they provide is incidental to that mission, and usually unintentional.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
"Public Authority," Drone Murders, and the Death of the Rule of Law
by Will
Liberty Minute June 24 2014
In America, wrote Thomas Paine, ?the law is king.? In a totalitarian state, Vladimir Lenin wrote more than a century later, rulers exercise ?power without limit, resting directly on force, restrained by no laws.?
Lenin?s formula was a blunt expression of what is known as the ?public authority justification? for government action. That doctrine, as explained by one legal scholar, holds that ?Deeds which otherwise would be criminal, such as taking or destroying property, taking hold of a person by force and against his will ? or even taking his life, are not crimes if done with proper public authority.?
In other words, government can give itself permission to break the law. This claim is central to the recently-released 2010 Justice Department memorandum defending the Obama administration?s claim that the president can order the summary execution of US citizens through drone strikes. All that is necessary is for the president to designate a targeted citizen as an unlawful combatant. Once this is done, the extra-judicial murder is sanitized by the miracle of ?public authority,? thereby becoming a supposedly lawful exercise of war powers.
This is the doctrine the permitted Barack Obama to authorize the murder of a 16-year-old US citizen ? an act, and a claim, demonstrating that the rule of law is dead.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.