You might think the writer and commenters at Pro Libertate blog start out with a hatred for any law enforcement. You’d be wrong; they only hate what it has become. In response to an interesting look at the sheepdog metaphor for police officers, this one comment from Jim O’Connor stands out:
So, how is it that we little people aren’t justifiably in fear of our lives with every police interaction we might have given:
1) there are almost no severe penalties for police when they maim or kill us
2) they are almost always armed with multiple life threatening weapons while making it difficult for us to be similarly armed
3) they often travel in gangs and always have access to backups via radio and dispatch services
4) we’re effectively legally prohibited from trying to do even the slightest thing to defend ourselves once they attack us
5) any other place you might try to get to is occupied by a similar gang who is all too willing to take up their “brother’s” grudge so you can’t get to a neutral place to surrender yourself for impartial evaluation without risk of unaccountable reprisals for things you may not have even done
As a former policeman myself, I find this an accurate appraisal. The particular item of interest is the last. Under the Law Covenants of the Old Testament, there was always a refuge, a neutral place where you could wait until your case is reviewed. The existence of such places assumes no one is perfect, and any policing agent may be mistaken. We have no such viewpoint in evidence in our nation these days. That business of “presumed innocent until proven guilty” is nothing but words.
So let’s state the obvious: This is sin. That is, our current situation is a rank offense against God. In His Laws, this justifies a certain amount of resistance. Second-guessing may be very messy, time consuming and expensive, but without it we have no claim to a just system. You wanna be a cop? It’s not just a job, but a sacred calling with a very high standard. Bear the full burden, or count yourself among the Children of Satan.
