This Billy Beck post is exactly why I didn’t mention the “swatting” that Frey got. (Yes, my post was short, but I avoided writing about the swatting intentionally.) I might not go as far as Beck does in saying it was deserved. But I do hope it has changed his outlook, or will at least make him think. I don’t know of the case to which Beck refers where Frey initially defended the SWAT raid, but I do hope that if it is as he says it is (which I don’t doubt) that maybe Frey will have second thoughts about this standing army that we now call the police that Jefferson warned about.

Often when some of us complain about the police, there is the obligatory, “but there are some good cops” or even worse, in my opinion, “the vast majority of cops are good guys.” Don’t expect that here. Even the one cop I know who wants to do the right thing and joined up partly because he saw so many doing the wrong thing, isn’t doing what needs to be done. There was a time not too long ago that he wanted to give a homeless man a ride (where, I’m not sure, probably to a shelter). But instead, the department made him arrest the guy, for breaking no laws.

For anyone thinking of joining this threat to liberty, this standing army, for noble reasons, I do hope you have a backup plan. Because, in situations like that, freedom loving people expect you to quit. Publicly. Loudly.

This cop liked his job. If this nation keeps barreling towards socialism, for the sake of the potential victims of state violence, I do hope you will quit. State actors with guns are the tyrant’s only means of enforcing his edicts. Remove that, and he is powerless.

No matter how much good you think you do, or that you’ve really done, nothing makes up for the many innocent people killed by cops, and many cops and entire departments that will defend and stand side-by-side with fellow cops who do so. Cross that Thin Blue Line. You are not brothers. You have a job, and that’s it. If you must do it, follow Sir Robert Peel’s principles or you set yourself up as the enemy of the people. You should be ready to stand side by side with Regina Tasca rather than the unnamed tackling duo (and their complicit bosses) who beat down Kyle Sharp. “I don’t have all facts,” is a (pardon the pun) cop-out. For the sake of argument, assume that you do, and decide who you would side with.

Because if you cannot answer that you honestly will stand with the David Olofsons and the Davidians and the Vicky Weavers of the world and not with the BATFE, the Lon Horiuchis *spit*, the TSA gropers, and VIPR and other 4th amendment violators, then you are setting yourself up as an enemy of liberty. Choose this day whom you will serve.