Gangsters With Badges

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Here’s a CNN news story about a Prince George’s County (MD) Hero who pointed a loaded gun, gangster-style, at the head of a man stopped over a traffic violation:

The man was threatened with summary execution for the high crime of exiting his vehicle and what amounts to “contempt of cop.” The Hero initially lost his taxpayer-subsidized employment, but until the video got loose, was not charged criminally with anything. It is only because a third party managed to video the incident that the Hero ended up facing charges.

Which is exactly why these incidents continue to occur.

We – that is, the non-badged – are reminded often that we must obey the law because if not there will be consequences. This rule does not apply to those who enforce said laws.

To unholster a weapon for the purpose of intimidating another person is criminal brandishing, a felony.

To point a loaded gun at someone who is unarmed, not attacking you with clearly lethal intent, who is trying to retreat, is (minimally) aggravated assault: “An attempt to cause serious bodily injury to another or to cause serious bodily injury purposely, knowingly or recklessly, with an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

A very serious felony. 

This Hero is obviously guilty of both these offenses. Yet he will not even be charged with either. Indeed, he will not even be issued a ticket.

He will merely turn in his costume – and probably within six months, have secured employment as a Hero with another department. Where he will almost certainly do the same kinds of things to other people – like a pedophile priest who moves from one diocese to another.

Cops are hated because they are thugs – legally protected thugs.  And they are thugs precisely because they are legally protected.

You get what you encourage.

In market economics terms, this is called an incentive.

What is the incentive for cops to exercise restraint? To resort to violence as a last resort? To ask the question is to answer it. Cops have every incentive to escalate; to resort to force first. It ought to be the opposite – for exactly the same reason the cops and cop apologists trot out in defense of the very laws they demand be applied to us but which they very clearly do not wish applied to themselves:

To give them pause.

To make them reluctant to unholster that gun – much less point it at another human being – unless they are facing a clearly aggressive person obviously intent on doing them grave harm. That is the standard applied to us. Why should this standard not apply to everyone?

To them?

The fact that it does not is only one facet of the problem. Another is that if we do unto them what they do unto us, we face an even more severe standard than we would had we assaulted another Mundane.

Heroes – and other state functionaries, such as judges, correctional officers (prison guards) and so on – also enjoy special status under the law as Protected Employees (see here) under the terms of which extra-harsh penalties are imposed upon Mundanes who violate their sacred persons.

Our persons, meanwhile, are not sacred.

Which is why ordinary people are routinely treated with contempt – and far worse – by the state’s “officers.” It is not exaggeration to state that we are in the relative position of slaves to masters. Masters were legally able to treat their property however they wished, with little if any legal consequences for even the most grotesque abuse. Slaves were considered property – and the definition of property is an item that you may do with as you like. That you control.

When a Hero pulls you over – as in the video above – you are under his control and he may do (more or less) as he likes with you, even to the extent of grotesquely abusing you (under laws that would apply, if the roles were reversed) without much if any fear of serious legal repercussions.

This is not about “bad cops” or incidents out-of-the-ordinary that give the “good cops” a bad name. This is about routine – and policy.

And double standards.

Until there is at the very least an equal standard that serves to restrain these bullies-with-badges, the whirlwind that is building will continue to pick up speed. You can feel it.

And they have sown it.