Police Arrogance and Brutality -- Distinctly Un-English

One anomaly of the Anglerealm is the trust we traditionally have for our law enforcement officials. Consider cultural stereotypes such as Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry (the Andy Griffith Show), or the classical Bobby on the Beat in London. These are generally nice, polite, helpful people who can be counted on when there's trouble.

Sadly, we are moving away from this stereotype. I myself, despite being acquainted with some law enforcement officers (LEOs), distrust the police to a very high degree.

The reason for my distrust comes from the types of un-English laws that are creeping into the United States Code. Traditionally, we only had to worry about being arrested if we had done something inherently wrong or created a public disturbance. These days, we never know when a LEO might arrest us -- or otherwise assault us.

A blog I just discovered called Sovereign Commentary recently posted a story about a school worker being assaulted by two homeland security officers, who apparently had no fear of reprisal because they did it in front of a parking lot full of eye-witnesses. The school worker's crime for which he was brutally assaulted was to ask them to move. Apparently, they were blocking a school bus loading zone, which is a violation of the law.

The English response to a request to vacate the premises when one has no authorization to be there is "oh, I'm terribly sorry, I'll move at once," not "I'm with DHS, now get your hands behind your back." These officers behaved as if they were working for Mexico or some other civil law country, not for the United States, which is, last time I checked, a common law country.