If you aren’t exercising your rights, at least once in a while– YOU are part of the problem. Please, become part of the solution.
I do this randomly. What you ask? Exercise my rights as a citizen of the United States, that’s what.
Here’s the deal, if law enforcement normally deals with the “dregs” of society, who exercise their rights, we as law-abiding citizens must do so as well to give law enforcement a balanced assertion of rights. The availability of our rights to all people is only secured if all citizens exercise those rights and don’t do so only when in trouble. Our rights exist ALL the time, they should be used ALL the time. A part of a dynamic democracy is the ability of it’s citizens to avail themselves of the protections afforded us by our Constitution. In other words, YOUR responsibility to our Republic isn’t just to show up for jury duty and call it good, no it goes way beyond that. We are stewards, ALL OF US, of our Republic. Our rights come with responsibilities. Period.
Every society is measured by how it treats it WEAKEST members, not its strongest. Never that. How do we treat children, the mentally ill, the elderly, the accused, and so on. Do we protect them, or do we leave them out for the wolves. How many times have we turned a blind eye to injustice BECAUSE it was perpetrated against a group to which we did not belong. Here’s a poem by Niemoller that has stayed with me through civics classes and law school.
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
This. So this.
Please don’t believe the rhetoric that our society treats people equally. We don’t. We should, at least under the color of law, but we don’t. There are vast differences in how our citizens are treated based on the classification of that citizen. This isn’t me rambling, google that shit. Smarter people than me have done extensive research into this topic and come tot the same conclusion. I just happened to see it first hand in my work. It exists. It’s real. And it needs to be changed.
So when you’re stopped at a traffic stop, make them jump through ALL the hoops and do their job the way they’re supposed to be doing it. With minimal encroachment on you, your property and your rights. Give them only what they are entitled to under the law and force them to jump through other hoops– in place to protect us ALL–to make any further encroachment. Because here’s the deal, not ALL if us who deny cops every thing they want as their verbal request indicates is trying to hide something. The rational that if I didn’t have anything to hide, I wouldn’t mind if the cop did *insert your choice of action here* isn’t a correct one. It sounds good. It appears rational. But its simply not true. Many of us have taken to making cops do what their supposed to do and NOTHING more as our civic duty. A right not exercised is a right that will eventually be taken away. That’s why I do it. And don’t be putting your fucking idiotic spin on my actions. Just ask. Don’t assume. Not with me and not with anyone else.
Here’s my call to all you wanna be journalist: Find how many people are shot by cops. The DOJ used to do this. Now we have no way of obtaining this info in one report with some numbers from which we can extrapolate data. Then find out how many are justified killings and how many are not. Tell me what happened to the police officer as well. And finally, let me know how many of the people killed could’ve been proved to have committed the crime for which they were shot.
Why do I want this info you ask? Because the natural progression of a citizenry that fails to exercise their rights and allows their law enforcement officers to work unchecked eventually ends up with MANY officer related killings, officer related assaults and massive lawsuit payout in civil actions. The end result of us failing to exercise our rights ALL the time to keep our government and their law enforcement officials in check, is that they run amok. And if you think that amok-ness running isn’t what is happening right now, you are failing to piece together all of the recent reports of unarmed men of color being killed by LEOs.
Why do cops still have a union? When most other industries that were unionized have busted their unions. Why do we have a system in place that shields those who were supposed to protect us when THEY harm our citizens? Less unions would mean more accountability. No more paid leave for dirty cops. No more administrative protection from criminals in uniform.
And FYI: don’t give me the argument that not all cops are bad cops. That there are far more good cops than bad seeds. See, if the good cops were actually good cops, THEY would’ve taken care of the bad cops already. Instead, the blue shield is strong and active. The good cops shielding the bad cops. Well, guess what that makes the “good” cop? A bad cop. I am unclear as to why these “good” cops cannot see that these bad cops aren’t cops. Not really. They are criminals disguised as cops. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. These criminals have infiltrated your ranks and are destroying police from the inside out. And if “good” cops aren’t part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Why is it so hard to understand that having criminals within the ranks of law enforcement does nothing to inspire trust, public respect and any there good thing about cops.
But I digress. In the end, here’s the deal. Exercise your rights. Film police stops and post them on youtube. Encourage your community to require all police to have body cams. Stop the rights grab by our government. Again, criminals aren’t going to bring us to our knees. We are stronger than that. Our laws are better than that. It’s the people enforcing those laws that need to be retrained. Bitches who commit crimes are gonna get caught. We don’t need to trample on constitutional protections to get ’em. I promise.
