Another fascinating thread.
The big problem is that most of us are deferential to authority, because that's the way we've been brought up. You only need to look at the way most encounters with LEOs by CHL holders are recounted.
I take a zero tolerance (and probably quite radical) view of abuse of power by those in authority. I'm always amazed that the advice to those wrongfully arrested is: don't resist. Why should I not resist? Why should I allow someone who has no legal right to imprison me, to do so? I believe that if I'm being wrongfully deprived of my liberty, I have the G-d-given right to resist, even if it involves the use of lethal force. Whether the person trying to imprison me is wearing a badge or not, should make no difference.
The law gives elected officials and police officers enormous power, and everyone seems to have forgotten that old axiom that with power, comes responsibility. If the authority given by the badge or the office is abused, then it should be known that there will be violent resistance.
A good twenty years ago in Britain, a police officer in civilian clothing scaled a wall and entered someone's garden. Now it should be pointed out that the guy whose garden he entered was a bit of a skuz, but the fact was that the officer was not wearing a uniform, and he did not identify himself. The suspect stabbed him to death, was charged with murder, but was subsequently aquitted.
I agree with the verdict.
I'm not advocating the murder of police officers, let's be clear on that. My father (may he rest in peace) was one, and 99.99% of them do a fantastic job. If it weren't for them, the barbarians would rule over us.
I live in a police state. A Bordeaux appeal court ruling of (IIRC) 1997 ruled that even when police officers are acting outwith their lawful authority, 'rebellion' (no I'm not kidding: that's the word the law uses) is an offence. In other words, you can be walking along the street with your wife and children and a policeman starts beating up on you, and you cannot resist.
There is a law here in France (Article 78-2 of the Code of Penal Procedure) which defines the four situations in which an officer can ask you for your identity. Tellingly, the word is 'contrôle d'identité'. Appropriate, isn't it? 'Contrôle'. Anyway, that law is disregarded on a daily basis, and if a cop asks you for your ID, even if he has no legal right to do so, you'd better comply or you're going downtown for a kickin'.
Two nights ago, three officers came out of a bar here in Paris, too drunk to stand. One of them sat down on the pavement ('sidewalk'), unholstered his service weapon and started waving it around, before firing off six or seven shots. Three teenagers were hit, one of them in the lower back. He's in intensive care. In another story from maybe last weekend, a gendarme fired nine shots at a fleeing (and handcuffed) suspect. The suspect died.
To be fair, both officers have been charged, but I believe that they were only charged because they used their weapons. The police regularly beat suspects with their fists and boots, but because that leaves less of a trace than a bullet, any charges that the victim makes, are almost automatically dropped, because the police charge him with 'rebellion', and thus courts take the view that the violence was 'necessary to effect an arrest'.
The whole thing stinks.
You'll tell me things are different in the US and I believe you, and every day that passes, my impatience to get over there, grows. But we're sheep. All of us. If the day comes when the federal government starts to confiscate guns, then most of us will acquiesce, because of that deference to authority. And that's wrong, in my humble opinion.
What should happen, is that the state should be relegated to its rightful position, i.e. as the servant of the people and not the reverse. The state should be left in no doubt that if it seeks to violate the rights of law-abiding citizens by any means, then its agents will be met with deadly force. And when the shooting stops, the agents of the state still alive who tried to violate our rights, will be spending a long, very long time behind bars.
Sorry, I get very worked up when my rights are trampled upon.
