WendyMcElroy.com

The police in America are drunk with power and a danger to anyone whom they perceive to be slighting their authority. William Norman Grigg has a nice piece entitled "Contempt of Cop" on today's LewRockwell.com in which he wrote,



America is experiencing a wave of "police culture" in which the most dangerous 'crime' to commit is to disrespect -- e.g. question or doubt -- the authority of a policeman. It doesn't matter if the skeptic is acting peacefully and has committed no crime. He must obey a police order and with servility. It matters not if the police are unreasonable or acting outside the law -- e.g. an illegal search. A police order must be obeyed immediately. If not, then the 'criminal' will feel the full force of a gun-packing thug who makes the school-yard bully look like Little Nell. I do not exaggerate.

Consider a September 21st article from the Chicago Sun-Times, A head emergency room nurse at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital has sued the city and a Chicago Police officer for handcuffing her and putting her in the back of a squad car during a dispute over drawing blood from a suspected drunken driver. Lisa Hofstra insisted on following hospital policy, which was to admit the patient before performing any 'service.' The policeman's response was to handcuff Hofstra in front of co-workers and detain her in the squad car for almost an hour, thus depriving several ER patients of care. After being released, Hofstra herself required medical attention because the handcuffs had been so tight.

The story continues, A security video of the incident shows the officer smiling outside the squad car as Hofstra sat inside. “He feels comfortable about smiling when he just illegally arrested someone,” said Hofstra’s attorney Blake Horwitz. “He is enjoying his power.” Hofstra added, “If this officer is treating me the way he treated me, what is he going to do to people on the street?”

The police are getting away with open contempt for your rights and open brutality against peaceful people because of the knee-jerk approval that post-9/11Americans give to anyone in a uniform, especially one associated with 'security.' How open is their contempt and brutality?

The Merced Police Department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating a complaint alleging that an officer twice used a Taser against an unarmed man with no legs in a wheelchair.

Consider the case of Gregory Williams, a double-leg amputee, who spent six days in jail on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest before being released for lack of evidence. The Fresno Bee (September 21) reported, Williams...said he was violently manhandled and Tasered by police, even though he claims he never was physically aggressive toward the officers or resisted arrest. Williams says he was publicly humiliated after his pants fell down during the incident. The officers allegedly left him outdoors in daylight, handcuffed on the pavement, nude below the waist. Williams said the arrest also left him with an injured shoulder, limiting his mobility in his wheelchair. A handful of residents who live in Williams' apartment complex say they witnessed the incident and support Williams' charges.

There is reason to hope, however, that "the police culture" may be reversing in the direction of civil liberties. The hope lies in the common sense and decency of average people who are being brutalized by the police. Bud Grose is one such man. Breitbart reports, Two police officers who chased and Tasered a 76-year-old man driving a tractor in a Wyoming town parade have been fired. Bud Grose, who was shocked five times by Officer Michael Kavenius, welcomed the decision announced Tuesday by the Glenrock Police Department. The most heartening aspect of the story is not that the police officers were fired; they have the option to appeal and, if they do, I expect they will be reinstated. The police and legal system protect their own and don't give a damn about "the public." That's why Florida cop Adam Tavss was back on the streets 4 days after he shot and killed 29-year-old Husien Shehada, a tourist from Virginia. On his first night back on the street, he was involved in another lethal shooting; it is not clear, however, whether Tavss' bullet was the deadly one. Tavss was subsequently suspended due to an investigation into "an unrelated matter."

The heartening aspect of Bud Grose's story is that the community banded together in support of the victimized man and against the police. This is what needs to happen. Average Americans must cease to genuflect and start to question authority.