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April 27, 2020

Conservatives are beginning to note that many police are acting like leftists

By Andrea Widburg

In ordinary times, there tends to be a commonality between conservatives and law enforcement.  Both are hostile to leftist efforts to decriminalize criminal activity, such as lifestyle crimes (urinating and defecating on the streets or public drug use) and low-level criminal activity (in California, any crimes resulting in less than $950 in damage).

For that reason, conservatives are finding shocking the fact that, thanks to the orders leftist governors and mayors are issuing, law enforcement officers across America are engaging in bullying tactics more often seen in communist countries than in a constitutional America.  Conservatives probably shouldn't be so surprised.

As with all professions other than those that are leftist by definition, such as being an "activist," whether to promote community, sex, race, sexuality, etc., police and sheriff departments attract a broad range of people.  Fortunately, most American police and sheriffs want to serve the community by helping people in times of need and making the community a safe place for everyone through enforcing legitimate laws.  They really are the good guys.

However, law enforcement can attract people with an authoritarian streak.  I've certainly met police officers who enjoy the raw power that comes with the job.  In addition, to the extent that law enforcement is a heavily unionized government job, many people working in the field have been drifting left because that's where their economic interests lie.

Also, sadly, there simply are corrupt law enforcement personnel and entire departments.  There always have been.  One of the most shocking books I've read in the past few years was License to Kill: The Murder of Erik Scott, by SENTINEL and Mike McDaniel.  It describes the pattern of incompetence and corruption in the Las Vegas police department that led to Erik Scott's death.  Scott was an upstanding West Point grad, former Army officer, and respected businessman who was licensed to carry.  The officer who shot him outside a Costco was an irresponsible, unstable bully — and was the norm for the department.

Knowing this, I am probably less surprised than others when I read recent reports about law enforcement agencies rounding up or ticketing ordinary citizens who are safely exercising their First Amendment rights in the face of highly suspect government orders to close down everything from churches to seed stores even while keeping open liquor stores, abortion facilities, and other businesses that fund the government or placate leftists.  These stories are disturbing, as these examples show:

Dan Bongino, a former New York police officer, has tweeted out a plea to his former brothers and sisters in blue to remember who they are and what they represent:

Thankfully, not all police officers are falling into the tyrant's trap.  I wrote the other day about the Houston Police Officers' Union's stand against an order to arrest people not wearing masks.  CNN has also written (disapprovingly, of course) about law enforcement officers refusing to enforce government mandates they believe are unconstitutional, draconian, or unreasonable.

CNN, as usual, is wrong.  The Constitution is the highest and best law in the land.  Those law enforcement officers who refuse to enforce ukases that directly and unsubtly violate the First Amendment are in the right.  Long may these men and women serve!

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