Justin King November 28, 2014 (TheAntiMedia) Over the years, I’ve heard dozens and dozens of officers state that they will come to the people’s aid “when the time is right.” Until that unspecified time, the officers will just simply follow the orders of their betters. What exactly constitutes the right time?
Is it when departments are simply too busy to investigate thousands of rape cases? Is it when the bodies of unarmed men, women, and children are piling up faster than we can report on all of them? Is it when cops are arresting pastors and taking food from the mouths of the poor? Is it when law enforcement opens fire on unarmed protesters? Is it when it becomes common practice for officers to engage in blatantly unconstitutional activities? Is it when officers enforce a soft form of martial law? Is it when officers beat children in schools? Is it when American citizens are getting locked up faster than people in Stalin’s Soviet Union? Is it when every department in America is turned into a goon squad, even those at our children’s schools? In case you missed the point, now is “the right time.” Your continued compliance with this system is a betrayal of everything you repeatedly state you stand for. Your badge was once something you could be proud of, now it just makes you an enemy of the people. If you actually believe in the ideals embodied by the American Dream, you will begin cooperating with those seeking to bring about change. If not, you’ve chosen your side and you are on the wrong side of history. If you still think it just isn’t the right time, please tell me what it would take for you to realize that you are not the good guys anymore.
For those officers that are ignoring the growing resistance in this country and have decided to simply follow orders and do as they’re told another question is in order: What are you going to do when the people begin to fight back? A quick history lesson might be appropriate. In 2001 the United States launched a global campaign that sent men and women all over the world to overthrow governments. These skills weren’t forgotten when they came home. These soldiers came home to find their benefits in tatters, their government behaving exactly like the ones they overthrew, and the local cops acting like the security services of a dictatorship. The only reason you aren’t facing organized resistance is because those that know how to fight back effectively have sat on the sidelines of the altercations, or maybe they just choose to report on them.
For some of those, the straw that broke the camel’s back was watching Ferguson Police fire beanbags and tear gas into an unarmed crowd. Others are still clinging to the hope that the good cops out there saw the same thing they saw, and that they will step up to the plate and work alongside activists to end the advancing police state. In Ferguson, terrified officers in $600,000 MRAPs and wearing thousands of dollars of riot gear fired beanbags and a chemical agent banned under the Geneva Convention for use in war into a crowd of unarmed protesters. I’ve never witnessed a larger act of cowardice, and I remember seeing Iraqi troops surrendering to news teams. If those officers were scared of a group of unarmed protesters that were generally unprepared for the confrontation, what will happen when they face actual resistance?
What will happen when activists are taught how to immobilize that MRAP and turn it into a $600,000 bunker in the middle of the road? It becomes a stationary metal box that is easily turned into an oven. What will happen when protesters are taught how to roll the riot line at the flank and encircle riot police? What will happen when those with the skill set teach protesters how to make their Molotov cocktails “stick?” What happens when law enforcement is no longer choosing the time and the place of the battle? If things continue down the road they are on, this is what officers will face. If you’re a cop that chose to read this, you probably consider yourself one of the good ones. What I’m describing above is an almost inevitability without you taking a stand for what is right. If after this, you choose to not act for change within your own department, it doesn’t matter how many Oath Keeper rallies you attend, your oath means nothing. It doesn’t matter how well you personally do your job, you’ve allied with those destroying this nation. If you just follow orders, if you choose to remain silent, if you continue to protect the thin blue line, you aren’t a good cop. If you know the difference between right and wrong and don’t act to end this, not only are you not a good cop, you’re a coward. Your fellow man needs you. You are the key to peaceful change. You might look to other officers or your chief or sheriff, but at the end of the chain of command you make the decisions. This is something that has to start with the officer in the field. Somebody has to start it. If not you, who? Please share this on your local police department’s page or tweet it to them. These aren’t rhetorical questions. If you have an answer I’m sincerely interested in hearing it. You can contact me through my Facebook page. I will not disclose your identity no matter how unprofessional the response. If you don’t trust me, I set up a special email address for you to respond to its GoodCopQuestions@journalist.com . You can use an anonymous email service to contact me. This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive our latest articles.
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