Do You Feel Free Anymore? By Don Cooper
(2010-03-20 at 14:21:45 )

Do You Feel Free Anymore? By Don Cooper

My entire adult life I have felt the injustices imposed upon honest, hard
-working individuals in our society: frivolous traffic tickets, lying
politicians, extorted taxes for things we neither want nor need, abusive
law enforcement and the like. I have always been passionate about these
injustices but not actively so.

After spending nearly a decade abroad living and working in Europe I
found myself returning to a country I did not recognize. I found it
difficult to acclimate and integrate into this politically correct,
socially abusive, statist society; a society that seemed to be
desensitized to police abuse of all magnitudes. The prevailing attitude
seems to be: If The Cops Have Someone In Custody Then They Must
Deserve It.

Almost immediately I was confronted with the abusive nature of the new
state order: driving to get a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning in
Syracuse, NY, I was pulled over for talking on my cell phone. Having only
been in Syracuse for 3 months I had no reason to believe that such a law
existed. Regardless the doughnut feeder pulled me from my car, patted me
down in the street, and put me in his car while he ran my license and
wrote out the citation. It was Humiliating and I felt like a Common
Criminal.

I was determined to fight the citation, but my contract ended and I left
Syracuse. Eventually I paid the $100 fine.

Just recently I moved to Princeton, NJ, to begin a new short-term
contract. This past Saturday evening I rode my bicycle to the Princeton
University campus where there are a number of pubs and restaurants. My
intent was to get Chinese takeout and go back to my room off campus.

As I rode down the sidewalk on famed Nassau Street on this clear, cool
March evening, myself and others were startled by a Mercer county patrol
car blazing its siren and lights and darting into the sidewalk ahead of
me. My first thought, of course, was: what could be going on? It was not
more than a few seconds until I got the answer to that question. The
short, well-armed female officer exited her cruiser and with a firm right
hand, outstretched arm and condescending look in her eyes, she looked
dead in my eyes as I approached her and exclaimed: -Stop!- I kid you not.

Of course, this is one of those situations where anyone still in
possession of a fully functional frontal lobe thinks to themselves: what
could I possibly have done? The responsible answer is, of course: nothing.
Reason and responsibility, unfortunately, rarely seem to figure into a
tax-feeders thought process. As it turns out, it is illegal to ride your
bicycle on the sidewalk. Even more ridiculous is the fact that it is only
illegal in a 4–5 block section of Nassau street AND only on my side of
the street. At least that is what she told me.

Given my survival training learned from LRC and other sites, I
immediately knew how to handle the situation. The first thing I said was:
I do not consent to any searches of my person. Of course, this riled her;
she immediately replied: Why, do you have something to hide? When you
say that you seem suspicious.- Of course this would be her response since
in her mind, as she sees herself as anointed by God herself, and anyone
not wanting to cooperate with a servant of the almighty must be immoral
and hiding something. Actually, I saw myself as being accosted by a total
stranger imposing on my freedom of movement, and was no more willing to
consent to an invasion of privacy by her anymore than I would any other
stranger accosting me on the street. I told her that I did not trust her
and was simply exercising my constitutional rights. That made her even
angrier. Cops hate it when mundanes say things like that.

I could not help but think that this whole situation could have been
avoided if only her father had loved her more. But I digress. Continuing
with her irresponsible and abusive activities, she called for backup.
Backup for a guy riding his bicycle. When she did that it instantly
became clear to me that we were on the other side of the looking glass
and tea was about to be served.

When her colleague arrived, he approached me and said that the law was
the law and they were just doing their job. Of course at that point my
first instinct was to pull his underwear up over his head and smack him
for being stupid. But I did not. Instead I pointed out how the German
officers at the Nuremberg trials also used the defense that they were
just doing what they were told to which he rolled his eyes as if to say:
Where Did This Nut-Job Come From?

As the female cop completed the citation, I made a point of letting all
folks passing by know that the situation was because I was riding my bike
on the sidewalk. The first baby-boomer couple to pass by commented:
that is a shame. The sidewalk is the safest place for a cyclist to ride.
Of course I agreed.

Obviously this is just another example of abusive law enforcement in an
effort to extort yet more and more money out of the productive people in
our society in these hard economic times, in order to keep the non-
working class in business.

I have a court date on March 23rd at which time I will plead not guilty
and I imagine I will receive another court date to plead my case. My
position on this issue is simple: I cannot condone this sort of socially
irresponsible behavior on the part of the state. It has been made clear
to me that I have no say in anything the state does, so I am forced into
a corner from which I shall fight my way out. I will not contend that I
am not guilty of breaking the law but rather that the law itself is
immoral and to cite me abusive, period.

I certainly cannot take the position of: let me just pay the citation and
go along to get along. By doing so I would be condoning these sorts of
reprehensible practices, which I do not. This particular issue is so
clearly unjust that I have no problem -Going To The Mattresses- in
fighting it. I can not think of anything more insulting to me as an
American as this sort of affront to my God-Given Rights Of Existence.

Those police officers ought to be ashamed of themselves, but I know they
are not. Like so many in America – myself included – they no doubt
believe in their righteousness. But one has to ask: do you really feel
free anymore? Do you find yourself in public constantly wondering if you
can cross the street here or there? Whether you can ride your bike on a
sidewalk? The shoulder of the road? When you see a cop car in your
rearview mirror, do you feel safer or do you get a short shot of
adrenaline and start wondering what he could pull you over for? What is
your speed and what is the speed limit? Did you signal when you changed
lanes? I think we all know the answer to that question.

I have already arranged for bail on the 23rd when things go badly.
Remember, always do what you know is right, even if the Government says
it is wrong. And the Government will always say it is wrong. That is how
you can know it is the right thing to do.

March 9, 2010

Don Cooper is a Florida native, Navy veteran, economist, and editor of
the daily non-partisan column Qaoss.com.

Copyright © 2010 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or
in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.