Used to be, cops were the good guys, and the robbers were the bad guys; now the cops and robbers are the same people. They both steal people's property--when a crook does it, it's still called robbery; when the cops do it, it's called asset forfeiture.
They are all thugs and the only way to tell them apart is the cops sometimes wear uniforms and usually get away with their thuggery. There are so many cases of police abuse and misconduct today it's almost impossible to keep up even with the ones that are reported. The "Injustice Everywhere" site is reporting more than twenty a day on average, including beatings, tasering innocent people, false arrest, false charges, even murders. Still, most people will not realize they are living in a police state--not until it happens to them.
Are all cops like these thugs that get reported? Well I live in a tiny New Hampshire town, and the cops are just like everybody else who lives here; just people living their lives, friendly, but mostly minding their own business, just trying to do what they believe is right. Not that it makes any difference, because they, and others like them, are today's exceptions. How many of America's cops have to be crooked thugs before one recognizes the policing of this country is dangerous and out-of-hand, and all of us are in more danger of being harmed or abused by the police than by any criminal.
A Capitalist Country: Too Bad America Isn't One
It used to be called Laissez-faire Capitalism. Laissez-faire means, "hands off," meaning government was to keep its grubby mitts off and its nose out of all business. The other, more accurate expression, is a free market, meaning every individual is free to produce any product or perform any service they choose, which they can freely trade with any other individuals. Whatever they gain by means of their own productive effort or free trade with others is their property. In a free society, which is the only kind in which there can be a free market, every individual's person and property is protected from threat or use of force by any other individual or individuals. That protection is the sole moral purpose of government.
Today, the biggest threat to every individual's person and property is the government. There is little individual freedom, and no free market at all. There is no business the government does not regulate, and no product the government does not forbid, or limit, or regulate through endless bureaucratic rules and restrictions. There is no aspect of business, and little of private life, the government does not have both its grubby paws and snotty nose firmly embedded in.
Until very recently, the government did not own any businesses, it only controlled them. That kind of government is called fascism. Now the government is beginning to take direct possession of businesses. That kind of government is called socialism. Both are forms of statism, which is any collectivist system that regards the state (the government and its people, formerly called citizens) as the ultimate end toward which all action, public (government) and private (individual) must be directed, and for the sake of which all individual purposes, property, even lives, may be sacrificed.
Statist Regimes Always Police States
In a free society, the role of the police is protecting individuals and their property. The purpose of the police in a free society is the preservation of individual liberty, by keeping individuals free from the only possible threat to their liberty, the use or threat of force by other individuals against themselves or their property.
But the United States is no longer a free society, it is a statist one, moving inexorably from welfare statism, to fascism, to socialism. What is the purpose of the police in a fascist or socialist state, since it is obviously not to protect individual liberty?
The purpose of the police in a statist society is not to serve the people and protect their liberty, but to serve the government and, "maintain order," which means to keep the people in line, obeying government rules and regulations, (most of which are not even laws, but bureaucratic mandates), serving the ends of the state. The police are no longer your servants, they are your masters and as their slaves, you must obey them. Most people today do not know the roles of police and citizen have been completely reversed. Most people are appalled today when I tell them, morally you never have to obey a policeman, and should not, whenever it is possible. They are not your bosses, they are your employees.
The Police--The Ninja Strategy
Practically, however, it is usually a mistake to defy a policeman's "orders." Though morally you should never have to be concerned about what a rabid dog wants, it is a mistake to ignore one that looks ready to attack you. You must treat cops like rabid dogs, which are totally unpredictable. As with any unpredictable animal, one should use whatever method they can to avoid any potential unwarranted and irrational attack.
I sometimes hear people say, "but it's the principle of the thing," as an excuse for antagonizing the police. Principles are not points to be proven, not opinions over which to brawl. Principles are truths about the nature of this world which one uses to guide their choices. This misuse of the word principle always reminds of the woman who stubbornly walked direct into the stream of oncoming traffic, because, "She had the right of way." That's what they inscribed on her tombstone.
"Rights," do not absolve you from having to use reason.
Even though some cops are not unreasonable thugs, it is not possible to tell which kind your are dealing with, if you have to deal with them. And that is the first part of the Ninja Strategy--never deal with the police if you do not have to. If you have something stolen, for example, do not call the police. They almost never do anything about small thefts anyway, it's just going to make you visible to the police.
That is the second part of the Ninja Strategy. As much as possible, you should never do anything that will attract the attention of the police. To the police you should be invisible, or at least totally uninteresting. I know speed laws are oppressive, that if there is no traffic coming there is no reason to wait for a green light, or to race through a yellow, or to make a signal when there is not another car on the road (except the cop hiding behind the bushes). I know it is your right to film what the police are doing, especially if you think they are being abusive. If you can do that clandestinely with no chance of being seen, good, but to stand a few feet away filming them is hardly being invisible, or rational.
But aren't you sacrificing your rights by doing such things. Isn't that cowardly?
If you have made it your professional business to expose police abuse and corruption and violations of rights, it might be. But if your business is something else, if you're the local grocer, or a programmer in a large company, or a father supporting a family, you have no business jeopardizing your commitment to your profession or those who count on your integrity, such as your customers, your manager, or your wife and children, by getting yourself thrown in jail or having your property confiscated.
Remember, the police are agents with the legalized right to initiate the use of force, and there is no recourse for you, if they do. They are not agents of reason, they have no intention of using or listening to reason. To flaunt your "rights" with the police is the same as flaunting your "rights" to the hiking trail in defiance of an approaching bear. You are free to do either, but the consequences will be about the same.
[Don't think we live in a police state yet? Read this, if you can stand it:
Police taser 86-year-old bedridden granny... Another version, here.
...and this:
—Reginald Firehammer (06/28/10)
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