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No, Karen
When the seatbelt law was passed in the mid-’80s, my police sergeant told us to go out and cite as many people as we could for that violation. I immediately stopped a woman for not wearing a seatbelt. I never issued another seatbelt ticket in my career, and, if I could, I would find that driver and apologize.
Every Friday night, an anonymous noise complaint would come in about a jazz club near a major thoroughfare in my beat. I would stand outside the business; the sound from inside was less than the ambient street noise. I never talked to the manager, and made a notation “no crime observed” on the incident remarks. After a couple of weeks of this, I informed the dispatcher I would not respond unless there was an actual complainant. I never got dispatched there again.
There was a park near a large hospital where taxi drivers would gather waiting to pick up the fares, usually Medicare patients, that they had dropped off for appointments. I got an anonymous dispatch to a disturbance involving the drivers. I drove by and saw that they were just standing outside their cars smoking and talking. I made a notation “no crime observed” on the incident remarks and went back in service. After three days of this, I informed the dispatcher I would not respond unless there was an actual complainant. I never got dispatched there again.
This week, the mayor of Austin, TX, ordered that everyone wear a mask in public. He also recommended that the general public report anyone not following his diktat.
I haven’t been a cop for 16 years, but there are three things I know I wouldn’t do if I were. I wouldn’t cite someone for listening to a service in their car in a church parking lot. I wouldn’t tell a husband and wife not to sit together on a park bench. And I wouldn’t respond to a complaint from a junior Stasi about someone not following the rules set down by a pétit fascist.
Published in Policing
On this one, the Democrat men are Karens too. They’ve made Karen gender-neutral.
Species neutral, too.
I’m reading more and more opinions like this. I’m fine in my comparatively laissez faire bit of Alabama, but the mood that I see is not tenable. We are going to see folks, from a favored movie, “Aim to misbehave.” I don’t think we are long for it.
You can measure the stature of someone in authority by the level of authority they are able to handle without becoming authoritarian. For too many their actions, such as those cited above, show their limit has been exceeded. Voters should take note.
You sound to me as though you were a wise and thinking cop, Jose. I’ve met more of your type along the way, I’m glad to say, than the other kind.
In Kentucky, LEO will place ankle bracelet on you to make sure you stay home with your sick family even though you yourself are not sick. This seems to be both well reported and well supported.
Exactly. In any population – including cops and their higher ups – there will inevitably be a small percentage of <insert non COC version of “excretory orifices”>. I am happy to report that in my town that percentage is at or near zero, and I’m grateful for the way they have handled this situation.
This is an inspiring article. Thanks, @JosePluma!
It warms my heart every time someone on Ricochet speaks up in protest against the depredations of the politicians and bureaucrats, the media, and the academics who are using this epidemic, as they use every crisis, to permanently erode the spiritual, moral, intellectual, institutional, political, and economic capacity of Americans to live and thrive as a self-governing free people.
= = = = = = = =
In a democracy, when the politicians and bureaucrats and their armed enforcers try to ratchet up their power too suddenly or too soon, they begin to create a spirit of resistance, rather than a spirit of submission.
The defiant see what is happening to their way of life, and see who is doing it. When they hear the soothing nonsensical words of compassionate-sounding politicians they recognize them as lies. “Oh, the pandemic has deprived people of their livelihoods–the Corona Virus has Closed the Economy! The people are helpless. After all, they are just entrepreneurs, workers, inventors, buyers and sellers, savers, and investors. All they know how to do is produce ever-growing real incomes for every segment of the population. They don’t have the knowledge and the power to Re-open the Economy. They don’t know how to Create Jobs. They don’t know how to create money and low-interest loans, and distribute them to all those who deserve them and truly need them. Only the State can Re-open the Economy–it is too big for any one unarmed person to Re-open!”
Last night I took my dog for a walk without wearing a mask. I did not receive a citation. Like most nights lately there were no other humans out and just one car drove by. I find it spooky and I have not seen a cop car in my neighborhood for over a month.
Sadly, there are police out there who enthusiastically arrest preachers, joggers, or kids on the beach for violating quarantine “laws”. Let’s hope citizens get their names and badge numbers for future reference (like when run for Police Chief or Sheriff).
Austin. That pretty much explains the lunacy right there.
I was at the auto parts store today, and a cop was ahead of me in line at the register. He said that it was really, really quiet, but that the small amount of traffic is letting people drive like maniacs when they do go out.
Good post. There are mayors and governors that see police officers and deputies as their private armies. The Portland Police Bureau is not issuing cites for “violating stay at home” edicts. The current police chief worked her way up the ranks in Portland. She refers to this as an educational moment. She is well aware of real problems that need attention, and those that don’t.
A police officer should use some discretion. I stopped someone one night who was driving her intoxicated husband home. Her license was suspended but the vehicle was insured. I told her to just drive home and park the car. I could have cited her but she chose the lesser of two evils. She didn’t let her husband drive, she was sober. I didn’t cite her. I just sent them home. Problem solved.
Great comment, Stad. This is something we ordinary citizens can do. Take down names at the local level and remember them, come election time.
We have no power over the administrative state which operates at the Federal level and to a large extent at the State level, but we do still have some power at the local level.
We have been gradually ceding our freedoms since I can remember and I am 75. It’s like the frog dropped in hot water that will jump out of the pot but if put in a pot of cold water and the heat turned up gradually he is dead before he noticed.
The good news is we humans aren’t frogs. We may let the water get a little too hot, but we eventually do act, and with a fury . . .
I’d rather take down names, get their photos, and make them famous NOW.
The ones who do the most damage are never going to run for office – they’re relying on anonymity. Better to get them out in the public eye so they can go home and have their five year old kid ask “what’s a fascist, Daddy, and why are you one?” after reading about it on social media…
Eventually is in time if we still have our guns. If not could be problematic.
Maybe we should start doxxing these people?
Well, we shall see who gets the promotions . . .
I had a client that had a court order giving him the right to refuse a mom’s limited, supervised possession if “for any reason” he thought the visits were not in the best interests of the child. This is because the mother was a major drug user, prostitute, thief, and had recently kidnapped the child . . . I could go on listing her transgressions, but you get the idea.
The local police, for some reason, would get a call from the mother and the police would harass and bang on the man’s door, yelling for him to surrender the child, threatening to arrest him, demanding that he deliver the child to the mother. This is not at all in the rule book for police behavior. Even though no crime was committed, no violence was expected by my client, and it was an entirely civil issue, not a criminal issue, these cops deemed it necessary to terrify my client at least once a month.
I would get on the phone with the policeman and tell him what the order says, time after time, but he never stopped. I would call the police station and they would time and again promise it wouldn’t happen again.
My client finally moved. Not a problem since.
I’m glad you’re one of the sensible cops. There are too many that are not, and they can make life miserable. You might not bother people, but there are far too many who are eager to do so.
The examples from my post are just a small portion of the times I had to tell someone:
“That’s not a crime.”
or
“This is a civil dispute.”
or
“I didn’t see the offense so you need to file a complaint yourself. Here, I’ll show you. First, I’ll file a report on the incident. Once you get a copy of the report, go to the Metropolitan court and . . .hey! Where are you going?”
I haven’t seen any maniacal driving where I live. I haven’t even done any myself! Yet.
It’s the Apocalypse, man. You can drive as fast as you want.
Yes, they should, in normal times, when they are front-line servants and protectors of the people against the undisciplined, the disorderly, anti-social, and the criminal.
And yes they should, even more in times like these, when they are more and more being forced to choose between
If America stays on this ratcheting, step-wise, protracted, well-worn path of descent into authoritarianism, every cop and soldier will at some point have to make a choice between obeying his conscience, and obeying his orders to do what is unconscionable: to violate his sacred duty to serve and protect the people.
Spot on.
It’s very much a test of leadership. If you’re a leader, you can explain to folks in clear, honest language what should be done and, by and large, they will follow your leadership because you’ve shown them what the best path is and why they should follow it. If you’re not a true leader, you’ll give half-hearted explanations of what actions should be taken (by other people, no doubt) and then immediately fall back on authoritarian edicts when the people you were tasked to lead sniff out your hypocrisy.
When we understand this tenet to be true, we can truly see that authoritarianism is just a crutch the for man that wasn’t up to leadership opportunity that was put in front of him.
That’s rather oversimplified. It also supposes that the people understand, and don’t have contradictory or ulterior motives.
Someone else could write this better, but I’ll just get a short version:
Leader: You shouldn’t buy stuff from China. They employ slave labor and child labor, in horrific conditions.
People: But stuff from China costs less!
Leader: You shouldn’t buy stuff from China. They have awful environmental conditions which you say you hate.
People: But stuff from China costs less!
Leader: You shouldn’t buy stuff from China. Shipping jobs to China puts your fellow citizens out of work, and makes them dependent on government payment which means YOUR money.
People: But stuff from China costs less!
Leader: You shouldn’t buy stuff from China. We know they’ve brought about at least two dangerous virus plagues because of their sloppiness and lack of regulation.
People: But stuff from China costs less!
And so forth…
Finally…
Leader: Okay, whatever. Buying stuff from China is now illegal.
People: AUTHORITARIAN!!!
Negative. This is completely wrong. The leader should say NOTHING. The leader should implement policies that make it so businesses in the United States can make stuff inexpensive enough to overcome the “But stuff from China costs less!” We are a use it, use it up, and buy it again society. So cheap always wins.
Talk is cheap. All that matters is actually policy implemented and enforced. For decades our betters in government have been implementing policies that have forced much fly over businesses out of the country so that government cronies benefit. Lately in our area a barge company has closed because it was cheaper with regulation for them to make it in China and ship a river barge over than to have it made in this country. Something is wrong with this equation.
How does a leader in a free, capitalist society, overcome the economic advantages of slave/child labor, etc? At some point, especially at the start when prices might not be optimized yet, people need to understand that buying everything from “The Enemy” is bad for THEM. But if they DON’T/WON’T understand that… then what?
I don’t know what country you live in, but in the United States we don’t have a leader who can do this, by design.