When to Kill A Cop

This seems to be the theme of a flier at the Occupy Phoenix rally found this week. In the flier it suggests that if a person believes his/her rights are being violated that the only things a person can do is submit or resist. Now resistance means that the police are going to call more members of their "gang" and you will either be subdued or killed. So the only resistance is to kill the police officer.

Do these sound like the words of peaceful protesters to you? They don't to me. I've been a police officer for right on about 15 years now and have had more than one person seriously try to kill me. Neither time did I enjoy myself much, but as you can tell I survived the encounters. This is something I take very seriously. As should anyone else, not just the police, that runs afoul of these cretins.

I know from experience that there are officer that overstep their bounds and use too much force or believe that the rule of law does not apply to them. Fortunately, the department I work for has been successful in ridding itself of these types. I believe that departments across the country do their best to do the same thing.

The problem with most people who think they "know the law" is that they get their information from movies, TV and their ex-con friends. I can't count how many times I have heard, "I know my rights" from some brain dead idiot that could not have been more wrong. Most of the time I have been able to explain why I was doing what I was doing and the person would calm down and realize that I was right and would go along. There are always a few that no matter what can't seem to grasp the situation and will struggle against the police.

The point is, what if all the "I know my rights" folks had decided to violently resist me for what they perceived as a violation of their rights? Well, for starters alot of them and maybe even myself would be dead. That's a potential outcome of a violent encounter with the police.

One of the "almost" shootings I was involved in was with a person that thought the police had illegally entered his home and he thought that he had the ability to resist such an intrusion.  For starters, we were well within our authority to enter and arrest this person and by law a person does not have the right to resist an arrest even if it is illegal. At least that's what I got out of the court proceding. During the struggle to arrest this person, he attempted to disarm the other officer I was with. Had that officer communicated that fact to me the outcome would have been different than this person just going to jail.

I don't have to worry about the "occupiers" in the city I work, but I have a few words of advice for the people that are protesting around the country. If the police tell you it's time to move on, just go. The police will not back down. They will gather in larger numbers until they have a superior force and will remove you by the means necessary. The police will not purposely violate your civil liberties and certainly have no interest in doing so. If you raise your hand against a police officer chances are that officer will defend him/herself ferociously.

And then the others will come to assist.

Comments

Each one of my conservative views that gets posted here seems to be read by a few people. Do you want to know how I know that? Okay, I'll tell. Since Blogger went to a new interface I have the ability to see from what country people are seeing my blog. That's it, just the country. I have no idea from where in the country, it only tells from what nation.

I seem to have a fairly regular reader or two in Russia. That surprises the hell out of me. But I have to tell you my Russian friends that I am grateful you take the time. The same goes for the reader in India. I never would have thought that I would have someone outside the US read this blog. But again, I thank you.

I used to have a regular reader in Finland and in South Korea. They haven't been back in a while. That's too bad. They must not have liked what they read or got tired of the same ol' theme. I hope they pop back in and give it another try.

There have been readers is Romania and Germany and Thailand and even Malaysia. Wow! I thank all of you. And I would be rude if I didn't include those from Canada and the UK. Of course the majority of the readers have been from right here in the USofA. This blog is about American politics after all. I try not to meddle in the affairs of foreign countries. That is unless there is a direct correlation between our countries.

What I'm getting at here is that I would like to hear what you think about all this. I'm not so arrogant to think that my opinion is the only one worth listening to. If you agree with me, great. If you don't, that's fine too. Tell me, let's have a conversation about this. I'm willing to listen to other opinions and we can have a great, open, honest discussion about the direction of this or any other country.

Thank you again for honoring me by reading my blog. I look forward to hearing from you.

Frank