That is, if you run into Austin Police Officer Cpl. Thomas O’Connor. He tasered a motorist he pulled over for going 5 mph over the speed limit on a Thanksgiving day’ 45 seconds after he demanded the motorist’s driver’s license. The officer noted in his statement that he didn’t like the fact that the motorist objected to the officer’s rude and brusque manner:

He said he pulled his Taser “because he was argumentative, and I thought I might have a problem” and that he fired the weapon, which delivers a shock of up to 50,000 volts, when Snelling appeared to “reach his hand up toward me.” He said he was concerned that he could have been hurled into traffic.

Look at the video and see what a liar this officer was. He was rude, abusive and there is nothing in the video suggesting that the motorist was a threat to him. The cop just didn’t like the motorist objecting to the officer’s rudeness.

Fortunately, the new Austin Police Chief disagreed with the fact that internal affairs and the cop’s supervisor cleared the officer and has posted the video on the department website asking if the other officers would like their family members treated this way. Of course they wouldn’t like it–but that doesn’t mean that they will agree with the Chief’s suggestion that this incident should embarrass them. See this website where cops criticize officers who ticket other officers. They expect “professional courtesy” when it comes to their own.

It appears to me that we have lost the right to protest rude, abusive behavior by those who are supposed to “serve and protect” us. Our Founders would be shocked. They didn’t fight the War of Independence in order to have a country where the police can torture people in to immediate compliance. Do you think that for one minute they would countenance a police officer physically abusing a man for arguing about the fairness of receiving a traffic ticket for going 5 miles over the limit as he passed a police car and not showing his license in less than 45 seconds after asked? Do you think that they would agree that we should have to cower before the police like subordinate members of a pack in the presence of the Alpha dog?

This demonstrates a “them against us” mentality on the part of police officers. If they perceive the slightest bit of verbal resistance against their “authority”, they believe that they are entitled to use physical force against us. What is happening in this country?

Ilana Mercer and Paul Craig Roberts are right.

UPDATE:

Here is the statement given by the officer. Apparently, the officer hit Mr. Snelling with the door of the car as the officer was shutting it. The investigator tries to make the officer see that Mr. Snelling’s response to being hit with the door of the car by pushing it away from him was reasonable. Given the verbal wrestling she has to do with the officer, I would say that Mr. Snelling was lucky that he wasn’t charged with assualting the officer.

I wrote about the radio show I hosted in response to the Values Voter Debate. You can hear it by clicking here.

I am hosting a special edition of the show today, beginning at 3 PM ET at Right Talk Radio. Here’s the scoop:

On September 17, the Republican candidates participated in the first Values Voters Debate moderated by Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily. Paul Weyrich, founder and President of the Free Congress Foundation, Phyllis Schlafly, founder and President of Eagle Forum, Don Wildmon, founder and Chairman of the American Family Association, Judge Roy Moore, with the Foundation for Moral Law, Rick Scarborough, Vision America, and Mat Staver of Liberty Council and others asked questions of the candidates.

The question is, which candidates, in their answers, remained true to both Biblical and Constitutional law? Find out this coming Thursday, September 27 at 3 PM ET when Miss Ward hosts two knowledgeable guests; the lawyer and the preacher.

"Herb Titus holds the J.D. degree (cum laude) from Harvard. After graduation, he was initially active in a number of left-wing causes, including opposition to the war in Vietnam and in support of abortion and homosexual rights. As a cooperating attorney with the ACLU, Herb was engaged in a number of constitutional cases, including an effort to remove a cross from a hill in Eugene, Oregon. In 1975 Herb and his wife, Marilyn, were dramatically converted to Christ in a Sunday School class after which he spent a year of study under Dr. Francis Schaeffer.

Mr. Titus has taught constitutional law, common law, and other subjects for nearly thirty years at five different law schools. Recently, he served as a Deputy Attorney General on the defense team for Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore in the law suit brought by the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama. He also served as the founding dean of the College of Law and Government at Regent University in Virginia. Titus has also worked as a trial attorney and counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Titus and his wife, Marilyn, reside in Chesapeake, Virginia. They have four children and twelve grandchildren."

Rev. Chris Ortiz is the Director of Communications for the Chalcedon Foundation, an Christian educational organization dedicated to applying the authority of God’s Word to every area of life and thought. He is also the editor of the two flagship periodicals for Chalcedon: Faith for All of Life and the Chalcedon Report; and has written dozens of articles and commentary. For over a year now, he has hosted the Faith for All of Life Podcast which features in-depth interviews with relevant Christian leaders applying the faith to the marketplace of ideas. For twenty years, Chris has served in numerous capacities as both an ordained minister and as a Christian businessman. For fifteen years, he has advised countless Christian ministries, organizations, and publishers in how to most effectively reach their audiences with his own philosophy: Communication Without Compromise. He and his wife, Regina, have been married for twenty years and have three children. They reside in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Please tune in by clicking here.

Monthly at 3 PM E.T.

Toll- free line during show:

1-866-884-8255

Each show is replayed for 24 hours!

with free PODcasting

A couple of months ago, some Barney Fife clones were called out to a rural neighborhood in Oklahoma because of a snake in a birdhouse. One of the fools shot at the snake without knowing what was beyond and killed a 5 year old boy who was fishing with his grandfather.

Two of the officers have now been charged with second-degree manslaughter. They should get a worse sentence than a regular citizen because of their training. People given responsibility like this should be held to a higher standard.

Luke 12:48:

From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, 4 and from the one who has been entrusted with much, 5 even more will be asked. 6

From LRC, comes this story:

UNION CITY, Ga. – A McDonald’s employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer’s burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who “tried to thump the salt off.

Can’t this cop just call an attorney like everyone else?

For over a month, I have been following the case of Monica Montoya after finding it at Will Grigg’s blog. It is the story of a young working mother who lives in Roselle, New Jersey.

Ms. Montoya works at a Dunkin Donuts in Roselle. One day in July 2007, she was walking to the bus stop near her job in order to go pick up her 6 year old daughter from school. It was her daughter’s first day of summer school at a new school.

As she walked toward the bus stop, she came upon an accident involving a van and a pedestrian. All parties to the accident were still present. The pedestrian was bleeding from her head and Ms. Montoya approached her with a kleenex to wipe her head.

At that point, one of the officers who recognized her from the Dunkin Donuts asked her to interpret because the pedestrian could only speak Spanish. She interpreted for quite a while and also borrowed another officer’s cell phone in order to call the pedestrian’s family.

She then noticed that she had missed her bus and she became concerned about her daughter. She expressed her concern and the officers asked her to stay longer. She asked the officers for the use of a cell phone to call her own mother to ask her to pick up her daughter. At that point, the officer whose telephone she borrowed before told her that the battery was dead.

She walked toward the crowd to ask for a cell phone. Suddenly Officer Harold Breuninger grabbed her from behind and threw her down, causing a huge and lasting bruise to the side of her forehead. He arrested her for “obstruction” and “resisting arrest”, despite the fact that these charges are questionable in light of the 20 minute video of the event–although the seconds of the arrest are off camera. Below is an edited version:

Despite the video, the prosecution of Ms. Montoya continues. In fact, things have worsened. The case has been moved from the municipal prosecutor to the Union County prosecuter’s office–the very same office which is investigating the arresting officer’s conduct. The prosecutor denies that there is a conflict of interest, but will not agree that any interview of Ms. Montoya regarding her complaint will not be used in her prosecution. In other words, the prosecutors would have the option of twisting her words in an interview about the officer’s conduct in order to further their obscene prosecution. Her attorney, understandably will not agree to the interview.

Thus, the investigation of the office is at a stalemate and the prosecution continues to trial. This is a farce.

In my opinion, there is no way that probable cause exists to prosecute Ms. Montoya. The elements of the crime are absent.

She did not obstruct the investigation in any way, shape or form–whether purposely or unintentionally. The police had the option of calling an official interpreter retained by the police department to finish up the investigation–one who is actually paid for their service. Moreover, what legal duty did she have to stay to continue interpreting?

Here is the statute under which she is being prosecuted:

2C:29-1. Obstructing Administration of Law or Other Governmental Function. a. A person commits an offense if he purposely obstructs, impairs or perverts the administration of law or other governmental function or prevents or attempts to prevent a public servant from lawfully performing an official function by means of flight, intimidation, force, violence, or physical interference or obstacle, or by means of any independently unlawful act. This section does not apply to failure to perform a legal duty other than an official duty, or any other means of avoiding compliance with law without affirmative interference with governmental functions

There is simply no evidence that she PURPOSELY impaired, perverted, or prevented the investigation. Thus, that element is absent. Second, as I stated above, the police had the option of getting an official interpreter–so the investigation could have continued–while she made arrangements for her daughter, or went to pick her up so that the daughter wasn’t whisked away by government functionaries because of abandonment.

In one of the earlier articles, there was a suggestion that this is a case of first impression and that no one knows how the courts will rule on a situation where “obstruction” has not been charged against a person that was ceasing his or her volunteerism in such a situation. If this is true, such a case should never be filed because the public is not on notice that ceasing to help the police in a non-emergency situation where they are not a witness or party to the accident is a crime.

The ethical use of prosecutorial discretion does not allow for criminally prosecuting people under novel and untried theories and interpretations of statutes. Thus, the argument that because a court has never encountered such a case, the prosecution should continue to determine if the courts will rule that these facts constitute violation of this law simply does not hold water–and takes us down the path to totalitarianism. The prosecutor knows that Ms. Montoya did nothing to hinder the investigation–much less purposely. He is engaging in nothing less than CYA behavior.

The longer the Union County prosecutor continues down this road, the more he transforms himself into a clone of disgraced Durham, N.C. D.A., Michael Nifong–complete with Nifong’s bird-brains and shameful lack of decency.

If he continues the prosecution–he should suffer the consequences–just like Michael Nifong.

Here is a character reference by one of her daughter’s teachers.

Here are links to other articles regarding this story:

1.

2.

3.

Please tell me which of these groups we must beat in order to declare victory.

Then tell me which is going to get on their flying carpets to come “over here” if we don’t beat them “over there”?

I just got back from Fort Worth where I attended the Texas GOP Straw Poll to campaign for Ron Paul. I arrived Thursday night and went to the beginning of registration on Friday morning. I got in as a guest and spent a lot of time handing out invitations for the party held for Ron Paul that night and Ron Paul stickers to delegates.

That night, I attended the party for Ron Paul where a fund raising auction was held. Dr. Paul spoke and gave an electrifying speech. I was gratified to see several of my pro-life colleagues who had exhibit tables at the Straw Poll attend his speech. Jimmy Lee Vaughn provided the music.

On Saturday, we gathered at the Worthington Hotel for a parade to the Convention Center where the Poll was being held. I was asked to skip the parade to go help Ron Paul supporters stake out seats in room where the candidates were going to speak and to hand out literature to the delegates. One of the members of my meetup group filmed the following video.

You will see two very interesting things in this video. First, you will see a replica of the Liberty Bell mounted on a wagon with the Ten Commandments. This same replica of the Liberty Bell was in Crawford two years ago at the Support the Troops event that I attended. Here, it is in the march for Ron Paul with Ron Paul signs on it–though the owner isn’t endorsing a candidate, I’ve heard.

The second thing you will see is the Granny Warriors Van. They too, were in Crawford to protest Cindy Sheehan–though they made it clear that they didn’t particularly support the Iraq War either. Now, they tour the country campaigning for Ron Paul.

I went to Crawford two years ago to protest Cindy Sheehan. I, too, support Ron Paul and his views on the Iraq War. He believes that an undeclared war is unconstitutional.

Finally, here is better video of the march:

Towards the end, he rings the Liberty Bell.