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Police State: Police Officers, a Privileged Class
By Al Lorentz
Have you ever noticed that, when a police officer is killed, every police officer in the city goes on a massive manhunt? The killer is usually apprehended within 24 hours and is of course given a much more severe punishment than if a “regular†citizen had been killed. While I applaud the police officers efforts at capturing a murderer, the fact is, the average citizen doesn’t get the same sort of attention when they are murdered.
When questioned about this disparity in the handling of a murder case involving a police officer as a victim as well as the much stiffer penalty (mandated by law) for killing a cop, the usual answer is “anybody who would kill a cop is a dangerous individualâ€. To that I say, obviously but isn’t every murderer a danger? I have never seen or heard a valid defense of this obvious preferential treatment given to police officers.
Shouldn’t we treat all murders with the same alarm, disgust and issue the same punishments? We should if we are a society that values equality, justice and the law but obviously we are not. As I have long asserted, we are becoming a two class society, privileged aristocrats and victimized and abused peasants.
I am told that police officers have a dangerous job and this is true but the job is not nearly as dangerous as some make out. Last year, nationally there were less police officers killed in the line of duty than were freeway construction workers. Both were performing vital public service, both losses were tragedies but only one loss is valued, the other is treated as routine, a non-event.
Some other problems I have with the privileged attitude of police officers is the unprofessional practice of extending “professional courtesyâ€. Basically, if a cop is driving like a jerk, a maniac or just a speeding reckless lunatic and is pulled over, he simply shows his badge and the other cop gives him a wink and a nod and he gets off without so much as a warning. It’s not like this is a secret practice, it is widely known and yet the general public just smiles and continues to grovel.
Before I go on, let me applaud and thank the police officers out there who understand that they are public servants and act accordingly. The most memorable thing I ever saw a cop do was, after a crazed madman attacked a citizen in Houston and ripped the wiring out of his vans engine, a Houston Police Officer in uniform no less, re-wired the van. When he discovered the man was out of a job and on his way to Florida for a new one, he even gave him some money. While that is an extreme case of public service, it is no doubt not the only one.
I knew another cop who, when confronted with a doped up lunatic waving a knife, put a beanbag round in his shotgun, shot the man in the chest and then cuffed him. He could have simply blown him away but he didn’t have to. That’s the kind of man you want to be police chief, somebody who thinks coolly under pressure. Sadly, for every one of these stories of police acting as public servants I can give you three where they act like thugs, assassins or goose stepping toy soldiers.
There exists a gross misconception in our society today that is fueling and adding to the growing police state’s power. I speak of the prevailing attitude by those in law enforcement that they are somehow a special class of people, above the rest of us. To be blunt, they are in fact not above us, they are below us, the term is public servant.
As public servants, law enforcement officers are sworn to uphold and defend the law, but why and more importantly who decided they would have this authority?
The authority was granted initially on a limited basis (the colonists were all too familiar with divine right of kings, autocratic rule and aristocracy and would have no more of that tyranny) for specific purposes. Police officers were hired by town and city councils at the behest of the citizens to protect them from lawless brigands.
When city and town councils began to feel that they were no longer accountable to the people but in fact an autocratic ruling class, it follows that the police departments and law enforcement officers would soon adopt this un-American attitude. Police officers, like any other public servants are not a special and privileged class as they quite obviously believe they are. All public servants are subject to the will of the people so long as that will conforms to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the specific state they work in respectively.
One method that public servants are using to rid themselves of the limitations of Constitutional authority and the restrictions placed on public servants is to illegally change the Constitutions. There are States which have subverted the God Given rights of the citizens as listed and guaranteed by the United States Constitution under the color of law, not to mention a veritable tidal wave of Federal laws and regulations.
By color of law, I mean of course that they have written rules, regulations, codes and other restrictions that sound like laws but are contrary to and often in defiance of existing law, specifically Constitutional law and The Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights by the way is not a list of permissions granted by the government but a list of God Given and inalienable rights that government rightly is supposed to guarantee. Given these two facts, a government that has discarded the original law and adopted illegally its own as well as a government that believes our God given rights can be rescinded by a stroke of the pen, we have a situation of lawlessness, chaos and tyranny that exist within the very halls of the government that was supposed to prevent such conditions!
We must stop allowing our public servants to conduct themselves as if they are our lords and masters. When I say this, I also issue a caution because if you should call a police officer a “public servant†you are as likely to get a nightstick across the teeth as you are to get arrested for “suspicionâ€. Remember, a police officer need have no reason whatsoever to arrest you, impound your car and have you locked in the county jail until you appear before the magistrate.
Start referring to, thinking of, and treating all your public servants as just what they are, servants. When we stop thinking of ourselves as subjects and start thinking as free men and women we will be one step closer to our freedom.
Al Lorentz is a Fundamentalist Christian, father and devoted husband, state chairman of the Constitution Party of Texas. Al has served as a Marine Sniper and later as an Airborne Ranger in the Texas National Guard. He welcomes your comments at [email protected]
http://www.lrpworldnews.com/news/in...es&task=viewarticle&artid=30&topid=5&Itemid=3
Police State: Police Officers, a Privileged Class
By Al Lorentz
Have you ever noticed that, when a police officer is killed, every police officer in the city goes on a massive manhunt? The killer is usually apprehended within 24 hours and is of course given a much more severe punishment than if a “regular†citizen had been killed. While I applaud the police officers efforts at capturing a murderer, the fact is, the average citizen doesn’t get the same sort of attention when they are murdered.
When questioned about this disparity in the handling of a murder case involving a police officer as a victim as well as the much stiffer penalty (mandated by law) for killing a cop, the usual answer is “anybody who would kill a cop is a dangerous individualâ€. To that I say, obviously but isn’t every murderer a danger? I have never seen or heard a valid defense of this obvious preferential treatment given to police officers.
Shouldn’t we treat all murders with the same alarm, disgust and issue the same punishments? We should if we are a society that values equality, justice and the law but obviously we are not. As I have long asserted, we are becoming a two class society, privileged aristocrats and victimized and abused peasants.
I am told that police officers have a dangerous job and this is true but the job is not nearly as dangerous as some make out. Last year, nationally there were less police officers killed in the line of duty than were freeway construction workers. Both were performing vital public service, both losses were tragedies but only one loss is valued, the other is treated as routine, a non-event.
Some other problems I have with the privileged attitude of police officers is the unprofessional practice of extending “professional courtesyâ€. Basically, if a cop is driving like a jerk, a maniac or just a speeding reckless lunatic and is pulled over, he simply shows his badge and the other cop gives him a wink and a nod and he gets off without so much as a warning. It’s not like this is a secret practice, it is widely known and yet the general public just smiles and continues to grovel.
Before I go on, let me applaud and thank the police officers out there who understand that they are public servants and act accordingly. The most memorable thing I ever saw a cop do was, after a crazed madman attacked a citizen in Houston and ripped the wiring out of his vans engine, a Houston Police Officer in uniform no less, re-wired the van. When he discovered the man was out of a job and on his way to Florida for a new one, he even gave him some money. While that is an extreme case of public service, it is no doubt not the only one.
I knew another cop who, when confronted with a doped up lunatic waving a knife, put a beanbag round in his shotgun, shot the man in the chest and then cuffed him. He could have simply blown him away but he didn’t have to. That’s the kind of man you want to be police chief, somebody who thinks coolly under pressure. Sadly, for every one of these stories of police acting as public servants I can give you three where they act like thugs, assassins or goose stepping toy soldiers.
There exists a gross misconception in our society today that is fueling and adding to the growing police state’s power. I speak of the prevailing attitude by those in law enforcement that they are somehow a special class of people, above the rest of us. To be blunt, they are in fact not above us, they are below us, the term is public servant.
As public servants, law enforcement officers are sworn to uphold and defend the law, but why and more importantly who decided they would have this authority?
The authority was granted initially on a limited basis (the colonists were all too familiar with divine right of kings, autocratic rule and aristocracy and would have no more of that tyranny) for specific purposes. Police officers were hired by town and city councils at the behest of the citizens to protect them from lawless brigands.
When city and town councils began to feel that they were no longer accountable to the people but in fact an autocratic ruling class, it follows that the police departments and law enforcement officers would soon adopt this un-American attitude. Police officers, like any other public servants are not a special and privileged class as they quite obviously believe they are. All public servants are subject to the will of the people so long as that will conforms to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the specific state they work in respectively.
One method that public servants are using to rid themselves of the limitations of Constitutional authority and the restrictions placed on public servants is to illegally change the Constitutions. There are States which have subverted the God Given rights of the citizens as listed and guaranteed by the United States Constitution under the color of law, not to mention a veritable tidal wave of Federal laws and regulations.
By color of law, I mean of course that they have written rules, regulations, codes and other restrictions that sound like laws but are contrary to and often in defiance of existing law, specifically Constitutional law and The Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights by the way is not a list of permissions granted by the government but a list of God Given and inalienable rights that government rightly is supposed to guarantee. Given these two facts, a government that has discarded the original law and adopted illegally its own as well as a government that believes our God given rights can be rescinded by a stroke of the pen, we have a situation of lawlessness, chaos and tyranny that exist within the very halls of the government that was supposed to prevent such conditions!
We must stop allowing our public servants to conduct themselves as if they are our lords and masters. When I say this, I also issue a caution because if you should call a police officer a “public servant†you are as likely to get a nightstick across the teeth as you are to get arrested for “suspicionâ€. Remember, a police officer need have no reason whatsoever to arrest you, impound your car and have you locked in the county jail until you appear before the magistrate.
Start referring to, thinking of, and treating all your public servants as just what they are, servants. When we stop thinking of ourselves as subjects and start thinking as free men and women we will be one step closer to our freedom.
Al Lorentz is a Fundamentalist Christian, father and devoted husband, state chairman of the Constitution Party of Texas. Al has served as a Marine Sniper and later as an Airborne Ranger in the Texas National Guard. He welcomes your comments at [email protected]
http://www.lrpworldnews.com/news/in...es&task=viewarticle&artid=30&topid=5&Itemid=3
