The other day in Arlington, TX, armed government workers stopped an SUV over a trivial statutory violation – that is, a manufactured “offense” against the Authority of the state. The driver and passenger of the SUV weren’t bothering anyone and certainly hadn’t harmed anyone.
But they were harmed – to death – by the armed government workers.
It all began over an out-of-date registration. The SUV’s papers were not all in order, essentially. This became the pretext for everything that happened next – and which did not have to happen and almost certainly would not have happened, had the men simply been left in peace – instead of being made the victims of armed government workers.
Of course, leaving peaceful people alone is not what armed government workers do. They look for and create non-peaceful situations.
Then escalate them.
So, they pulled the SUV over – euphemism-talk for using threats of deadly violence to compel the SUV driver to interrupt his peaceful, harming-no-one travels and submit to a mulcting by armed government workers on the prowl for manufactured offenses such as papers not being in order, in order to relieve the victim of money at the least and – hopefully – find other “offenses” in the process of mulcting the victim for the first “offense.”
Which is just what happened.
The armed government workers claimed they “smelled marijuana” – the say-so pretext for more-than-just-mulcting. These magic words – along with other magic words such as “officer safety” – endow the armed government worker with the legal authority to escalate the violence meted out to people who’ve done no violence themselves.
There is a war on some drugs (but not others, such as alcohol) which has manufactured the offense of possessing or using the dried leaves of a plant, regardless of the harmlessness of either act insofar as any harm done to others. And it is enough of an offense for their to be any “smell” of the arbitrarily illegalized dried plant matter to provide legal pretext for dragooning the occupants of a vehicle out of their vehicle, subjecting their persons to the indignity of a rough physical search as well as a search of their vehicle and its contents by the armed government workers.
If, in the course of their rooting around inside the vehicle, they discover arbitrarily illegal other things, the victims – the people dragooned from their vehicle – will likely be arrested and caged as well as mulcted.
In other words, the trivial initial offense of papers not being in ordnung metastasizes into a major “bust” leading to handcuffs and jail. It’s enough to instill in the minds of the victims of such a prospect a non-compliant attitude, even thoughts of attempting to get away from their tormentors.
Which is exactly what happened.
The two men in the SUV did not “resist,” in the argot of armed government workers – unless by “resisting,” one means attempting to avoid being victimized by armed government workers.
They first rolled up their windows, which resulted in immediate gun-drawn lethal escalation by the armed government workers. At this point, things spiraled out-of-control. The panicked driver starts the engine of his SUV, attempts to drive off – and a fusillade of lead ensues, leading to the summary execution of the driver, a man named O’Shea Terry. The armed government worker pumped five rounds into him.
Hut! Hut! Hut!
It did not used to be a capital offense to attempt to get away from armed government workers – especially over trivial, manufactured offenses such as papers not being in order or even the smelling of arbitrarily illegal drugs.
It was later reported that a gun was found in the car – and news coverage implied this further exonerates exonerates the armed government workers who shot Terry to death.
But possessing a gun is – as such – no more a crime in the moral sense (as opposed to the legal sense) than possessing dried plant matter or not having one’s “papers” in order. None of these offenses create victims, the essential defining element of any truly criminal act. They are merely transgressions against the Authority of the government, which employs armed government workers to victimize peaceful people who have affronted its Authority.
Which is the most serious “crime” on the books.
Note that a scumbag on Wall Street can fleece thousands of their life savings and never face a Taser, much less a Glock. He creates legions of victims – but does not affront the Authority of the government – and so is physically safe from life-ending repercussions.
Observe what happened to VW… but not to Takata.
And god help you if you’re caught without your papers by an armed government worker.
Especially if he “smells marijuana.”
. . .
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Eightsouth, you ask how old I am. Well, I’m 69. Too old to fight, too old to run. I don’t mean to imply that we shouldn’t continue to point out and complain about the injustice, the corruption, the evil that our government/ society has become. Somebody should do that, and I know of no-one better than Eric Peters. I guess I’m just tired and frustrated. We talk and we write, but it doesn’t change. Just gets worse all the time. Maybe there are different perspectives, depending on your age and the people that you spend time with. Most of my compatriots are in their 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s. They worship the cops and the military. They figure if some cop shoots a nigger in the back while he was running away, well the nigger must have deserved it. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria? Those brown Muslim fuckers hate us “fer our freedom” and should be wiped off the earth. I’m not convinced that folks like us are really making any progress in changing the narrative, but my perspective may be skewed because of my age and my peers. I pray to God (not that I believe in him anyway) that 20, 30, 40 something year olds are beginning to see the light. But, look at this bullshit with the NFL over these guys who kneel for the “national anthem” Maybe it’s fake news, but it seems like the majority of this country is against them. Wave the flag, take your hat off and cheer for “Murica”! Nevermind all the niggers killed by cops, the TSA feeling up my wife’s titties at the airport, or any of the other crap that we put up with on a daily basis. Seems to me the majority wants it this way, they want to be safe and protected, they don’t know or care about their rights, let alone freedom or true liberty. I’m not a clover, not one of the sheeple. I’m just old, tired, and angry. Very angry. I’m sick of writing, complaining, talking to friends who think I’m a nut, and getting nowhere. I want to figure out how to DO something that might make a difference, and I’m at a loss for that. Trust me brother, I’m on your side. I just don’t know what to do that might actually make a difference, and at my age, I wonder if i should just sit on the sidelines and hope they leave me alone til I die. I pray for some kind of revolution in this country. Every cop, politician and government official in this country should be shot in the head. That ain’t gonna happen in my lifetime. So, maybe I’m wrong, but I’m kinda thinking that I just don’t care anymore. Whatever happens happens, and I’ll be dead before it matters. The USA will collapse, China will ascend, China will collapse, another country will ascend, and on and on until the end of time. There always has been and always will be fuckwads who want to control the masses, and it seems that the fuckwads always win. The masses are happy if they’re “Safe” We’re not gonna change that, we’re always gonna be a fringe minority. I’m old, I’m done. I hope there are a lot of people out there like you, and I truly hope that you can figure out a way to make a difference. As for me, to quote Mark Cuban on Shark Tank, for those reasons, I’m out.
vz, I’m about to turn 69 and I feel the same way you do. Yep, I’m mad and while they say it’s life-shortening to be mad I guess it’ll be what it’ll be. The wife told me last year I was “angry”. Well, that’s an understatement. I told her it was “mad” that got my old ass out of bed and busted ass all day in a POS truck, something I’m hoping that’s about to change.
I refuse to admit I can’t fight and I WON’T run. No matter how many there are out there that are frustrated they didn’t get their chance to give a bj to the shrub, there are plenty who don’t see it that way. I have old neighbors and they know what’s going on. They may not be on this site but probably would be if they knew of it.
Take care and keep your powder dry and your guns clean. I’ve been in jail enough to know when my environment is turning into one. peace…b
Hey, vzguy. You say I’m not convinced that folks like us are really making any progress in changing the narrative… well, maybe not, but maybe we are changing it more than we know.
About 14 years ago (I remember because I remember where I was living at the time) I got into an online discussion with a guy for a couple of days. He didn’t want to hear what I had to say, and seemed to REALLY dislike me, so after a few back-and-forths I let it drop. Never heard from him again. Then, a couple of months ago I got this message out of the blue on Facebook:
Kent, you probably don’t remember me. [….] I remember you talking politics briefly. I am a registered republican. You mentioned that if I really was a strict “constitutionalist,” that I should be a Libertarian. Back then, I thought you were a wacko. Not any longer! Ever since that conversation, (maybe 10 years ago,) I have been paying closer attention to your party. Most republican politicians are just establishment hacks these days. I have been leaning more and more libertarian every day, since that conversation. I am still registered republican. Just so I can vote in the republican primaries. Both my wife and I now consider ourselves “independents” with strong libertarian leanings. But we are still registered republican so that we can vote for true conservatives that have the same libertarian leanings. I just wanted to say thanks for truly opening our minds by inspiring us to learn more about libertarians. Maybe some day, more folks will see the light also.
Now, admittedly, he still has a ways to go. And I never claimed the LP was “my” party. But he was one person I would have never thought would budge an inch. Keep on being consistent; you never know who is absorbing what you’re saying.
Kent, that’s almost as amazing as a friend of mine from college, a dyed in the wool Republican who was against all the usual thing.
A couple years ago he got on Facebook after having spoken with me for years and hearing my libertarian rants. I couldn’t believe the change in him and he’s now “not” against some drugs or speeding or believing anything the govt. say s. Well, I guess FB is good for some folks. It won’t be anything that affects me since I see FB as the enemy as much as govt. even though some people like my friend aren’t swallowing the blue pill.
vzguy, this Stockholm Syndrome of Americans loving and defending their captors has been ingrained in the population for generations now, through the schools, media, state churches (Most churches are state churches- 501c3 -Caesar is their head), social institutions, etc. It’s not going away- it will only get worse, now with the advent of electronic technology/communications- whose use as a universal brainwashing medium far outstrips and small voices like ours, which may serve to try and contradict their evil.
The US has become so bad, that one could even lead a more peaceful and unharassed existence even in an overtly communist country. It would be easy to comply with the few major edicts that affect one personally in a commie country, compared to the literally hundreds of thousands of such edicts here whose transgression will provoke armed government goon interference here, for doing nothing more than living one’s life in an honest and peaceful manner.
What we are witnessing IS a revolution- a revolution not unlike that of the Bolsheviks- only most American stooges don’t even know who their enemies are; they think that those enemies are their protectors.
It is standard police practice in many SW states, that get a lot of winter (5-6 mo) visitors, to run out-of-state plates . The fines are unusually high (up to $700+) for expired registrations.
Ironically, they “harvest” the very people that actually contribute to the local economy.
Hi Tim,
Yup. One day, there’s going to be pushback. The mulcting and (increasingly) brutality – the hut! hut! hutting! – of these armed geeks is getting out of hand.
Hey Eric:
I think you’ll find this story interesting.
Seems that Deputy Bubba Dawg needed to to play door-kicking SWAT cop jes’ like he seen them big-city cops do on the tele-vision set. ‘Cept the man in the house thought he was gettin’ robbed, and Deputy Bubba done got hisself shot… and don’t ya know, the Grand Jury ruled it was justifiable home defense…
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/18/us/texas-no-knock-warrant-drugs.html
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Someone has to be sacrificed in order to justify those $250,000 pay packages the heroes receive. Grovel, scrape and bow. And when called upon suffer and die, your masters demand these things of you.
Excellent website and commentary. Eric however I sense a reticence on your part to as strongly condemn police actions that result in deaths of African-Americans. Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks
If anything, I think Eric ignored the fact that (1) the driver admitted to having “weed” and (2) they attempted to leave lawful detention. Now, I agree that the cops’ response was wholly unjustified and over-the-top, and there was no need to start shooting when they did! So put the ‘race card’ back in the ‘deck’, Ravster.
I was referring to the overall attitude I pick up from Eric, not this particular article. I support his views, just curious why I don’t see much condemnation from him regarding black victims, maybe I am wrong. I would like to see him respond. No race card, I’m not black if that helps
Hi Ravster,
I don’t see this as a black issue; in fact, I see that – focusing on it as a black issue – as a distraction from the real issue, which is the violence of government toward everyone. The enforcement of “offenses” that have no victim but create them by their enforcement.
I have almost been shot by an AGW – and I am a middle-aged, college-educated, articulate white guy; no criminal record, not even any traffic tickets. And yet – hut! hut! hut!
AGWs are a problem because they are AGWs. Not because they are racists.
Fair enough, keep up the good work Eric. You did make an excellent point, it is a systemic issue.
My pleasure, Ravster!
Glad to have you with us!
Eric wrote: AGWs are a problem because they are AGWs. Not because they are racists.
Translation: No “prejudice” here, cops are assholes to EVERYONE. Kinda perverse form of “equal opportunity”!
Hi Doug,
Yup; I have tried to exercise my “white privilege” several times with AGWs. They didn’t give me any discount.
I was going to link to a blog post I wrote about how “not all cops” are anything… other than they are all scum. But the blog seems to have decided that any link I include makes it spam.
“If anything, I think Eric ignored the fact that (1) the driver admitted to having “weed” and (2) they attempted to leave lawful detention. Now, I agree that the cops’ response was wholly unjustified and over-the-top, and there was no need to start shooting when they did!”
Yes. Even admitting that the suspect committed a legal violation and attempted to flee should not mean that the cops are automatically justified in shooting him to death. Unless the cops are directly threatened with deadly physical force, they should be forbidden from using it.
If the suspect flees, the cops have video of him, his face, his vehicle, his license plate… they have backup that can create a roadblock, they can use the PIT maneuver to force him off the road, and they can surround and gang-tackle him with 20 cops and arrest him eventually… probably 15-20 minutes later. There’s no need to assassinate him on the spot for trying to run away.
But that’s where we’re at in this country. As far as the suspect supposedly having a gun, we have a constitutional right to “keep and bear” one. That’s not justification for shooting the guy either… not unless he pulls it and points it at the cop. But he didn’t. They only “found” the gun after the guy was already dead. How do we know it wasn’t a “drop gun” the cops are so fond of “finding” at the scene to justify a bad shoot?
Unfortunately, the cops will probably be exonerated or acquitted… like they are 99% of the time.
Re: “drop gun” or “throw-down”…be assured, many cops themselves carry an UNREGISTERED sidearm for just such a need, and it doubles as further “backup” (no policeman or deputy would take to the streets sans at least ONE more sidearm than their department-issued weapon).
And let’s just suppose the driver decides NOT to flee: Ok, he’s got a felony rap already, so having the firearm is going to get him at least a “nickel” (five years) at Huntsville. He’s already ADMITTED using marijuana, so of itself not so bad, BUT…once he and his friend are sitting outside the SUV, on the curb, cuffed with their hands behind their backs, the cops are going to search, LEGALLY since it’s incidental to arrest, and “lo and behold”, a wee baggie of “rock”, just enough to meet Texas’ standard for possession with intent to sell, will be “Found”…so, we have dealing of narcotics with a firearm, which means, with his priors, that this 24 y.o. is going to be able to collect Social Security before he walks out those prison gates, IF he walks out…so of course he panics and tries to run for it (and perhaps dispose of the gun and anything incriminating?), at that point, he KNOWS what’s coming down and figures he has nothing to lose!
Don’t kid yourself that cops don’t plant evidence; either to cover up their own screwups (“It LOOKED like he had a gun”) or to ensure they score a great bust and make Sergeant that much quicker.
Douglas, they Don’t plant evidence? When did they quit?
Why do you think the political establishment in this country is hell-bent for gun control??? Answer: so that their outrageously-paid goon squads with shiny badges can continue to murder Americans with total impunity.
The martial law we are under today is actually far worse than what Gen. Gage did to Bostonians in 1774-1775. His British army detachments searched people without warrant and without probable cause, arrested them without charges, arrested people for possessing untaxed “contraband,” and attempted to confiscate guns. ALL of that is happening today.
But I’m not aware of any incidents in which the British army shot colonials on the street for not having their papers in order, or shot fleeing colonials or unarmed colonials in the back.
Let’s be honest, people… the Founders of this country would have been shooting back a LONG time ago.
Hi X,
Agreed on all counts – because the facts are indisputable. And from I have read, the British were generally far more civil toward the colonials than the Hut! Hut! Hut! AGWs of today are toward us. They are outright thugs, tatted up just like the unofficial gang-bangers they have become indistinguishable from.
Nailed it X, there’s no excuse for not using their training. And you’re right about the founders shooting back. In another sense that’s had me wondering why everyone’s gotta be a victim nowadays, these kind of encounters once it’s all gone compromised and you realize you’re probably not gonna make it out free or even alive, they might as well have just used the gun that they were gonna get charged for anyway. What’s the point in getting shot dead for doing no harm and fleeing. No sense going out in vain, go down with a fight and maybe live to see your day in court.. they’re gonna leverage that gun against you in the media later whether you used it or not.
Was it easier for the officer to shoot than to get a warrant issued for the escaping paper violators? When the officer unnecessarily latches himself onto the vehicle can he then claim officer safety was violated? Was it not obvious to the officer that they were going to drive away? The “I smell weed” picture Eric chose for this article perfectly captures the bloodsucking attitude of the rulers and systems we all now live under.
Roadside executions aren’t things we read about in other people’s failed countries anymore – aren’t you proud to be an American?
#CopsAreLosers but more than that #LosersBecomeCops
This is why I am NEVER the slightest bit sad when a cop dies, no matter the circumstances.
Hi Kent,
I’ve arrived at the same spot. The “good cop” argument cuts no ice with me because it is oxymoronic. The only way to be a “good cop” is to resign – or be fired, for not “doing one’s job.”
A good way to think about this is to ask: Is there such a thing as a good Nazi? A decent NKVD man?
I don’t know, Eric. I almost want to stop visiting your website. Maybe what I don’t know won’t hurt me.
I’m just so disgusted with all this bullshit, and I don’t see an end to it, nor any way out for intelligent people like us. Maybe I’d be better off if I stick my head in the sand. I can’t abide this lunacy any longer, but I honestly can’t even dream about how we could end it and put the country/world on the right track. I love this site, you are perhaps the most eloquent, succinct, and intelligent writer that I have ever read. The commenters here, for the most part, are incredibly insightful, thoughtful and articulate. But, gotdammit, for all the bitching and moaning and pontificating, we accomplish nothing. How the fuck do we actually change this shit? I would love to start a discussion here about realistic, practical things that we could actually do to start bringing down this illegitimate, overreaching, despotic government. No more bloviating, no more bullshitting about prying it out of my cold dead hands. What the fuck can we realistically, truly do, that would make a difference? If we can’t come up with a do-able plan, then we might as well just shut the fuck up and accept our fate
VZ, if you could shut up you already would have. I don’t know how old you are but consider my situation. If good old govt paid me enough in my old age I’d be more than willing to cruise around in my class A rv pulling my bass boat and fish whatever lake I’d like, hang out with like-minded people and shoot the shit and cook great food in the evenings.
Instead I do what I do best, haul oil field equipment with a big rig. I call the wife….who’s recently had a stroke and ask how things are going(I pray to get an answer when I call). Immediate relief when she answers…..and I can understand her.
Boy, these are the “golden years”. My goal in life is to run it into the ground, whatever “it” may be. I can’t imagine anything better than the wife outliving me….or not. What will she do when I’m gone? I have nightmares of what she might endure.
You won’t have to pry anything out of my cold, dead hands. I’ve seen plenty people die and they don’t have a grip for shit. I’d just like to make my gun blow up once it’s disturbed and I’m dead. Haven’t figured that one out yet.
In the meantime I’ll continue to enjoy Eric doing his thing…..which he does better than anyone I know. I’m just proud to be present for it. I’ll shut the fuck up when I’m on my way to room temperature.
You are right VZguy,
Nothing can be done to change the direction the masses have chosen come hell or high water. A great many of us have been doing our part to wake the stuuuuuupiddddddd asses up for many years.
YOU might as well STFU and accept your fate with the sheeple! Some of us have other ideas.
Hi Vz,
First, thanks for the kind words!
On the rest: I am not sure, either. But anger is a powerful fuel. Also, I think there are more of us than we imagine. Not a majority, but that doesn’t matter. The majority never matters. A lever of the right size can move the heaviest deadweight. One of the reasons the minority elite which exerts control over this country – has leverage over the deadweight – is its commitment and cohesion and, most of all, its ability to present itself as the “voice of the people.” And one means by which this is achieved is to self-marginalize people such as ourselves. To get us to think it is hopeless; that they have already won. That we are isolated Freaks and no one is listening and if they are, they disagree.
Well, I can say this about that:
Since the ’90s, Libertarian ideas have gone from being almost unknown – in terms of public discussion – and when discussed, generally ridiculed – to being part of many public discussions and often treated respectfully. There are Libertarian-anarchyst voices (print and online and otherwise) including this site, which have gained a traction inconceivable 20 years ago. I’ve been a member of the media – inside the mainstream media and out of it – to have personal knowledge of this, to have seen the changes for myself.
Just one example: Anger toward and contempt for AGWs (Armed Government Workers). Twenty years ago, it was very hard to find that among middle class white people. Today, I find it among lots of them. The Authority of the government is losing – arguably has lost – its legitimacy. It now rules by force explicitly; the illusion of consent is precisely that.
The left has become more virulent, of course. But the right is becoming more Libertarian as well as more virulent, too. This is a good thing. We can find allies among the right and even among the left; some of them can be persuaded.
I do not think for a moment that we are going to transform into a national Libertarian society. But I do think the national government is going through its Red Giant stage and that its end is near. I doubt it will last another 20 years and possibly not five. It is so ossified, so corrupt and so lacking any unifying idea that this is inevitable.
And when it does reach its end, there will be an opportunity for regional/local blocs. Some of these will be much more authoritarian and collectivist, of course. But others will be much more free.
We will have to wait for our moment – and not lose hope in the meanwhile!
It’s all in solidarity, and ranting about the hard facts of these cases to coworkers and family members, especially the ones you see in person and not just some social media thread… and hoping that they may share the news with the next people they talk to about current events, and so on..
vzguy, good point. My thoughts are: huge civic groups in every county backed up by militias of course, but this needs leadership to start one/some and then make it national… in the meantime I think everyone should focus on fraudproofing the election system because I truly believe most representatives were not truly elected but they frauded the elections. It costs nothing to fraudproof our elections and saves alot of labor & money too — simply put serial numbers on the ballots and publish all the ballots, then everyone can verify that their votes were counted and they can verify the totals too. PLUS, publish the voter reg database (sans names for confidentiality/security) and each person can lookup their neighbors’ houses and make sure the # of voters at each house seems correct. Voila, crowd sourced verification. And, use a website for voting instead of all the expensive/complicated paper ballots & voting machines. But I promise you, not one politician will EVER get this started because they are the ones frauding themselves into office.
“our election”? Ewww. No. I don’t own one of the nasty things.
EP I don’t know how you maintain composure to report on this stuff, it’s an outrage. They say it’s always been this bad and that the video footage and internet is just revealing it to the public more and more. But I feel like there was a time when it wasn’t all shoot to kill over every stupid offense. And that possessing a gun didn’t also mean one inherently poses a threat for it.
Hi Moose,
It’s outrage that fuels what I do. And I pray that one day, there will be less to be outraged over…
Moose, I don’t it has always been this way. I’ve mentioned this before. One day I saw some episodes from the first season of “COPS!”. It was a different world. And one can say ‘but they were on their best behavior for TV’. Yes, in the last few seasons of “COPS!” they were also on their best behavior for TV and it was completely different. Apples to apples. When their best behavior degraded so much how did their worst behavior fare?
Morning, Brent!
In re COPS: Imagine taking a typical current Hut! Hut! Hut! armed government worker, outfitted in his Invade Poland tacticool outfit (BDUs, armored vest, Batman magazine clip with Agonizer and high-powered Glock) his shaved head and Darth Vader sunglasses back to 1986 or so… and showing him to people as an example of the future typical cop.
It would be considered ridiculous by them; like a prop from a bad Stallone movie (Demolition Man) or some such.
Remember back then people said that was the future if it wasn’t stopped and were ridiculed for it?
And yet nobody seems to remember that yesterdays conspiracy theories keep becoming today’s facts.
BrentP,
“Remember back then people said that was the future if it wasn’t stopped and were ridiculed for it?”
Ridiculed?
Try threatened, harassed, and jailed. That was in the 80’s.
“yesterdays conspiracy theories keep becoming today’s facts
While words no longer have meaning, conspiracy simply means a couple of guys (or more) trying to achieve a specific goal.
If the theory de jour becomes a fact at sometime in the future, is it something other than a fact when it is first proffered?
Y’know Brent..I did see a lot of episodes of COPS as a kid in the early 90s, maybe that’s where I got that picture in my mind from. Those guys knew there were camera crews filming and that the footage would be out there for TV viewers to see. But that isn’t all that different from the current bastards knowing that bystanders are filming and that their bodycams are filming, and that it will end up on the internet…and yet, they insist on committing crime after crime against everybody they come into contact with.
Yup, it doesn’t matter if the guy had a gun, what matters if the guy had it in his hand and was threatening the officer. But all the media cares about is that he had a gun, period, even if it was in the trunk. Yet the cop has a gun on his hip. WHAT A JOKE.
Maybe the cops should leave their gun in their car, then they wouldn’t be scaring the people they pulled over, and they wouldn’t have to worry about their trigger happy fingers. This whole situation is basically like an arms race, the cops want to have a gun in case the driver(s) are bad ppl and going to shoot the cop, and the driver(s) want to have a gun in case the cop is a nut-case, and both parties want the other party to be disarmed. Sigh. Can’t we all just get along? I think the solution is that cops should leave their gun in their car, seriously. OR, if the cops want to have a gun on their hip (and I don’t blame them, I’d want that if I were in their shoess)… then the drivers should ALSO be allowed to have a gun on their hip too. So, EVERYONE should have a gun on their hip, because even if they made a law saying NOONE could have a gun, we all know the bad guys are STILL going to have a gun, so the ONLY LOGICAL SOLUTION is for EVERYONE to have a gun. And the cops should stop persecuting everyone for having a gun, because that is just wrong & unfair.
Hi Harry,
The solution goes deeper: End this business of having armed government geeks harassing and collecting (and killing) people over “infractions” and “offenses” that involve no harm to anyone, but merely affront the Authority of the government.
A gun in your vehicle is quite legal in Texas (and many other states). You don’t even need a permit.
A citizen shoots at a fleeing burglar and gets prosecuted.
That’s the same point I was going to make. Let’s say it’s not a traffic stop. Let’s say the occupants of the SUV just stole something very expensive from someone and that someone jumped on the running board and everything from there was the same. What would happen? Someone would be prosecuted for murder.
But here, for victimless “crimes”, violations of state edicts, the ‘what if’s’ rule. What if they were hiding something horrible. That’s good enough for the cop to take the same actions that if an ordinary person did in the light of a real observed crime would result in prison.
Deputies up here executed a doper in a stolen SUV for attempting to drive through the ditch to get around their patrol car. I saw the dash cam and they didn’t start firing until he had turned off the road, then they went all Bonnie & Clyde on him. Pretty much destroyed the stolen vehicle as well.
The deputies were forced to resign but no prosecution was made.
I have a feeling the term “doper” was one they used. Whether he was using drugs, legal or illegal, was probably never determined. It gives them a “good” excuse to off somebody. After all, if you have THC in your system, you’re probably one of those sorry people Jethro Sessions speaks of. Of course THC is illegal or legal depending on where you’re standing although not to the federal govt.
Of all the people I know who have died from a drug overdose in the last ten years or so, every one of them had a prescription for what killed them. Think about it darlin’. as Conway would say.
Nah, the kid was on meth or something IIRC, but probably that was discovered after the fact. He drove up a dead end road in the snow and would have been all right at least for a while if he had just stayed up there. The patrol car got stuck trying to “chase” him. Then the kid (~19?) came putting back down the two tracks in the snow, while the two deputies stood IN FRONT of their fokking car!
I’m not saying the young man that was executed was very smart or even a good citizen, but JEEEEZ! Would you want your 15 year old Explorer back with 50 bullet holes and full of blood????