Saturday, November 26, 2011

Law Enforcement Excess and Danny Shine's Megaphone

by Mike Czech
"Isn't it amazing that when people are in a uniform they completely lose their minds." Danny Shine
Ladies and gentlemen, The true thing is I know we are creating a scene but creating a scene is not illegal. You are born free, you will live free and you will die free. You are allowed to make a scene, you are allowed to scream for joy. You are allowed to complain. You are allowed to cry.You're allowed to love people. You're allowed to hug people. and we are starting to live in a world where we are staring to feel scared, starting to forget how divine and special we are as human beings. Every single one of you is the only example of you that will ever exist and there's not a single authority in this world- especially private security men- who can tell you how to behave at any time, at any place and anywhere. You are free. You will live free. You will die free. The only chains that exist are in your mind. You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it.
There seems to be a trend I've noticed these days that law enforcement officers seem to make up rules as they go along. I was watching the NYPD earlier telling demonstrators they were not allowed to be in the park making noise, despite the fact that judges had given them that right (between certain hours). The gang of police came en masse and confiscated all the drums and music instruments and refused to return them. When it was pointed out to them they had no legal right to do this, they suddenly switched to another made up law that they weren't allowed to bang their drums on Thanksgiving. Lawyers were on hand to communicate with the police but it didn't really seem to matter at all. And this is happening all over the country on a daily basis.

Unlike the British police in the video above, the American versions seem positively eager to use pepper-spray or batons to any resistance. Not as a last resort. Not when all else has failed. It appears to have suddenly become the first option.


It is really astonishing and disturbing to watch brute force in action, law enforcement acting lawlessly. Here's an example. I don't know the full details about why the police are arresting this girl - and that's part of the problem too- but, just looking at what the video shows us we need to ask: is this really the proper conduct for a public servant? Is this really what we expect from the people we have chosen to uphold the law?

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."- William O. Douglas


Hats off to Mr. Danny Shine for his courage in speaking up. However I am not sure if that type of sarcastic intelligence and those kinds of pleas for the respect for the law would really work in the USA anymore.



"What you need is sustained outrage..there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority." Molly Ivins
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it." - Edward R. Murrow
But there's one point these policemen have failed to consider, for every act of brutality and excess they commit (especially in front of the thousand virtual eyes of cameras) they are giving birth to countless new radicals.

Open disregard for justice and human dignity generally has that effect. The court justices, who should be there to prevent this sort of thing from happening, are either strangely silent or siding inexplicably with authorities. For example, in May of 2011, Indiana's Supreme Court declared in a 3-2 decision that citizens have "no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry [to their homes] by police officers." Say what? That's right. look at this news report:
..Justice Steven David, writing for the court, said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry."We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David said. "We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."
So, in effect, when being violated by authority, citizens must simply lay back and enjoy it. It's a problem only if you resist. There's really no legal justification for the decision. The Constitution is absolutely clear about this issue. It require no judicial interpretation at all. Wikipedia states:
The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonablesearches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, in the American Revolution. Search and arrest should be limited in scope according to specific information supplied to the issuing court, usually by a law enforcement officer, who has sworn by it.
The dissenting judges in the Indiana court wrote this scathing rebuke :
In my view it is breathtaking that the majority deems it appropriate or even necessary to erode this constitutional protection based on a rationale addressing much different policy considerations. There is simply no reason to abrogate the common law right of a citizen to resist the unlawful police entry into his or her home.
It's really nothing short of an overthrow of the American Republic and all it has stood for. Every American should be outraged by these assaults on the foundations of liberty.
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