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#1 Asserting your rights makes you a liberal???

Posted: Sun, 23 Jul 17, 05:21 am
by bernomatic
I suppose I should amend the title seeing as asserting your second amendment right is definitively seen as a conservative position, but I'll keep the heading as is. To add to the misery, I guess I am a closet liberal since I believe that one should stand up for your rights anytime they are being squashed. I suppose I should be clear here, When I speak of rights, I am speaking specifically of those rights protected by the first ten amendments to the constitution, commonly known as the bill of rights. To go down the path of all the god given rights we have and what some people claim as a right (a right to health care? :shock: ) could end up being a thirty thousand page thesis the likes of which a college professor would run from.

A little side note here. The Bill of Rights was meant to limit government, not you and I. It was put in place to keep government in check, not we the people. Some how over the years it has come to mean these are the rights we have been granted by the government. Totally not true. The second amendment does not proclaim that the people have the right to bear arms, it states that are right to do so shall not be lessened by the government. It is imposing restrictions on the government and shouldn't impede you and I.

So, back to the story. I did something I have been trying not to do now for a while and went on Facebook. The place hasn't gotten any better in the weeks I have been gone. Fake news has sprung up all over the place (did you know Trey Gowdy was dead?) and click bait is just as prevalent as ever.

One click bait I did click on and shouldn't was a video about a young black woman pulled over by a Florida police officer. I m going to preface the rest of this by stating that I am not a lawyer and know even less about Florida legalities. I'm not going to get into the specifics of the stop even. Suffice it to say that the young black woman made a stupid statement regarding Obama (proving that she was a libtard) and ended up being arrested and hauled away for a tail light out.

All of the comments were basically that she got what she deserved and she should have complied with the officers demands and you know the rest. I added a comment that she was within her rights (at least at the beginning) and that the officer came on heavy handed. You would have thought I hand told people that Karl Marx was a genius and that we should turn the US of A into some form of Socialist Communistic State.

Commenters were stating that you have to comply with an officers order and that she should have done so. I stated that you only have to comply with a legal order, and all of a sudden I'm an idiot (and being threatened??) I mentioned that if an officer told you to strip down and dance naked on the side of the road would you do it? One responder said he would and then argue it out in court. I have a feeling I would more likely read an article about a nut case found naked and dead on the side of the road than read about an officer being sued over it.

What would you do if the officer told you to confess and ordered you to sign a confession, would you? What would you do if the officer ordered you to pick up a handgun and shot someone? There are other things, more innocuous that you could be asked to do which you may be tempted to comply with that could get you deeper in trouble. Just answering the question where have you been. Some officers have little respect for the law or your rights themselves. Myself personally, I was being detained by an officer. He asked a question and I refused to answer. I hadn't done anything wrong. I told him I was remaining silent. He responded that if Ii wanted to act like a criminal he would treat me that way and went on to frisk me and start to put me cuffs. A co-worker who was with me explained the situation and I was released, but we can see that by evoking my rights, somehow I had become a criminal.

I'm not upset by the officer, they lie and do what they can get away with because they think they can. I am upset with the other posters in the comment section who just see that young lady as some sort liberal and that therefore justifies whatever happens to her. That's insane.

Let me end this with I respect police officers, they have a hard job to do. Some do it better than others and some just know how to use the heavy hand. I will obey lawful commands of an officer, but treat me as a citizen that has done no wrong till proven otherwise in a court of law.

#2 Re: Asserting your rights makes you a liberal???

Posted: Sun, 23 Jul 17, 21:12 pm
by tmacklin
Whenever I am detained by a policeman (or woman...Ooou, La La), they always ask me "do you know why I stopped you?"

My response is always the same, "because you want to present me with the Citizen of the Year award?" :?

That's when they unbuckle their holster.

#3 Re: Asserting your rights makes you a liberal???

Posted: Mon, 24 Jul 17, 01:15 am
by luke strawwalker
Yeah, I'm with you...

As we've moved closer and closer to a police state, the rights of the individual the police have "contacted" become more and more "out the window"... IOW, guilty until proven innocent.

Now, I'm all about obeying LAWFUL orders of a peace officer. You don't get to pick and choose whether to obey LAWFUL orders of a peace officer or not... refusing to obey the LAWFUL order of a peace officer is considered by the officer as at best uncooperative and at worst threatening, and IS grounds for "lawful escalation" in their enforcement tactics. Unfortunately, in this day and age, a LOT of cops go straight from "zero" to "100" on the escalation scale, often on the most flimsy of causes... and the idea that even the most trivial infraction of the law which would have, in decades past, at most garnered a lecture or warning from the officer now is often treated like a life and death affair that would have INEVITABLY ended in tragedy had the officer not intervened... It's just crazy, but that's the world we live in now...

Of course the person "contacted" never has to give up their right to remain silent... they must truthfully identify themselves to the officer, and it's almost always better to divulge their recent circumstances to the officer making contact with them, but they don't HAVE to divulge ANYTHING beyond their correct identification. Of course that doesn't stop a lot of cops from using the "heavy hand" as you put it and taking their power to the limits of its legal imposition, or beyond in some cases.

The main thing I see (and saw when I was in the police academy and did my ride alongs and training, and have seen from various incidents that have gained notoriety since then) is the SHOCKING lack of GOOD JUDGMENT on the part of many law enforcement officers. I guess part of it can be linked to the general loss of common sense in our society-- and given that law enforcement officers are enlisted from the members of our nonsensical society, I guess that is only to be expected... sadly, that doesn't bode well for the future, either. Problem is, LE officers aren't allowed the same luxury of stupidity that is common in society-- the stakes are too high (life and death in some situations) and the time is too pressing (sometimes fractions of a second to make life or death decisions) and as representatives of the power of the state, AND THE LIMITATIONS THEREOF AS MENTIONED IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS, (which unfortunately many officers tend to forget, since like most people, once they get a taste of power, they like it and want more).

I don't know really what the solution is. Officers have a very important and EXTREMELY difficult job, and are often underpaid, overworked, and pulled in various directions by the job, politics within departments or city/county/state gubmint, etc, and have enormous difficulties balancing the demands of the job with their personal lives and families. BUT, that doesn't excuse bad behavior on an officers part... EVER. They MUST be better than that; they don't get to "have a bad day" on the job, unlike most of the people they contact, who pretty much are ensured of having a bad day by virtue of being contacted by an officer...

Later! OL J R :)