In the military – in basic training – a recruit may find himself being berated by a drill sergeant for being untidy or some other triviality, because the point of the berating is to instill discipline and obedience to authority.
Citizens just walking down the street are not supposed to be subjected to Obedience Training – because they are citizens (rather than recruits) and civilian cops are not supposed to be be drill sergeants.
Some like to think of them as peace keepers. A quaint ideal never lived up to. What they are in fact is armed government workers. It is a fair way to describe what they are because it is an accurate way to describe what they are. They are armed – and they work for the government.
This idea that they are “public servants” who “work for us” is pathetically risible. If someone works for you, they are obliged to defer to you. Because you are their boss. Do you feel like a boss when you are “pulled over” by an armed government worker?
How about when you get a beat down in the street for not using a marked crosswalk. This is styled “jaywalking” – as if the act were somehow criminal. It does not matter that there isn’t any vehicle traffic present – and that you didn’t walk in front of it. All that matters is that you “jaywalked.”
Even if that isn’t illegal.
This happened to a man – not so much for “jaywalking.” That was merely the excuse for the beatdown that he got – but rather because he failed Obedience Training 101.
The man was walking down a side street in St. Johnsbury, VT where there was no traffic – other than the vehicle driven by an armed government worker named George Johnson who identifies as a “sergeant.” The “sergeant” follows the man and begins to berate and badger him to stop and identify himself. The man insolently keeps walking, affronting the Authority of the “sergeant.” The AGW gets out of his car and pursues the man – as if he had done something criminal.
Which – in the mind (such as it is) of an AGW – it was. The “perp” walked the other way – to avoid dealing with the AGW. An entirely reasonable thing, given who AGWs work for and that they do not work for us.
But avoidance invited retaliation. You do not ignore the commands of a “sergeant.”
The AGW proceeds to Hut! Hut! Hut! the man. “You’re being detained!” “You’re gonna get Tased!”
And he does.
Why? Not because he didn’t use the crosswalk. As it turns out, that’s not even a ticketable offense in this case. Not because the AGW had any reason to suspect he’d committed a crime.
His “crime” was disobedience.
“Why are you doing this?” the man asks. We already know why. He begins to scream for help – understandable given the situation and the fact this beat-down occurred on an untraveled side street, with no witnesses other than the man and the “sergeant.”
Luckily, there was one witness. The body cam worn by the “sergeant.” If he had not been wearing it, the “sergeant” could have told a very different story about what this interaction – and whose word would be taken as gospel?
“I’m not doing anything!”
As it turns out, the man was literally not doing nothing. Illegal, that is. Not even “jaywalking” – as per the applicable laws, which only require that people walking across the street defer to vehicular traffic. There was no traffic. The man did nothing illegal. Not even the petty, confected “offense” of “jaywalking.” He had every right to try to walk away from the AGW.
But that is a violation – of Obedience Training.
A struggle ensues over the Agonizer – whoops, the Taser – that is used as part of Obedience Training; the man being Tased manages to Tase the AGW and that amps things up considerably.
A second AGW arrives to assist the beatdown.
The tatted-up thug in blue begins to beat the disobedient man with the butt of his Agonizer/Taser. Basically a pistol-whipping with the Taser/Agonizer serving as the pistol – and serving the same purpose. The man is beaten bloody. Then placed in manacles. More AGWs arrive. The AGW who administered the pistol-whipping attempts to establish that he acted in self-defense.
“He shot me with a Taser!”
Never mind who got shot first – and for what (that is, for nothing).
“Don’t you fucking move,” snarls one of the AGWs.
After lounging around gloating for awhile, the man lying in the street as they do, he is taken off to jail and arraigned for a variety of crimes associated with his disobedience. These were eventually dropped by the prosector – probably because of what was on the body can video, which showed that the disobedient man had done nothing illegal to justify the “contact” initiated by the AGW.
Astoundingly – because this sort of thing rarely happens – the AGW was eventually charged with aggravated assault and use of excessive force.
Whether he will be convicted of anything remains to be seen.
What’s certain is that even if he is, the victim of his crime will be compensated by other victims – the tax sheep of the locality – who will be shorn to settle any civil judgment that ensues.
This is why – if there is to ever be any hope of curtailing the Hut! Hut! Hutting! – AGWs must be held personally liable for any crimes they commit, including civilly. A beat-down in the street over “jaywalking” is far less likely to happen if the AGW knows he may end up walking to the poorhouse – bankrupt and his family living in a van down the river.
That’s part of what restrains us “civilians.” And also the fact that most of us aren’t steroid-addled psychopaths who are armed by and work for the government.
. . .
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