It's been nearly twenty years ago now that the police shot and killed my eye-doctor in a similar raid for a local-bar-oriented offense, in his case alleged gambling at Applebees on sporting events with friends (and a fake friend who was a police detective). He never hurt nor even threatened anyone, and the 'crime' was both nonviolent and mutually consensual. Prosecuting such a crime -- even legislating such a crime -- is already morally dubious; but arresting such a person violently at gunpoint is immoral even if you don't negligently shoot and kill them. Their overconfidence with their weapons killed a good man. He was a husband and father, and kind to my son when my son was a boisterous child in his office.
The bar raided in this week's instance is not (in spite of the axes) a violent or dangerous establishment. This was not a biker bar where the patrons might be expected to be armed, not that police should be raiding those either. Mostly this joint is a local college bar. That apparently was the source of concern as ALE also raided another college bar in town and did the same things there. Both bars also employ mostly college students. None of the students needed to be raided by armed agents of the state in body armor, putting the students' lives at risk for... what? Not checking IDs with sufficient fervor? Possibly being drunk on duty -- at a bar?
The presence of these agents came to my attention before the raid because they were acting so suspiciously. They arrived in town in unmarked cars with civilian plates rather than government ones, but concealed police lights in their undercarriage. In this way they were acting exactly like the ICE agents, backed by other Federal agents and local police, that I saw in DC running raids on communities with large immigrant populations. They too were raiding parties to stop people from having fun at gunpoint. The jackbootery is spreading, apparently, even to state police with Democratic governors; it is a bad trend. The only purpose of such a raid on a bar full of college students is to teach them that the government is allowed to treat them that way, and that submission to such agents is expected of them as American citizens.
I dissent. I deeply resent not merely the actions but the existence of agencies like this. They endanger us all for no good reason. All such agencies should be abolished outright, as should the laws that support their existence and function.
7 comments:
You support underage drinking?
Seems to me that you could do the Thomistic "distinguish, distinguish" thing here. Kids are notoriously stupid when it comes to alcohol consumption and that can result in death or incapacitation.
Over them being shot “by accident”? Absolutely.
But, to take the question more seriously, I can’t imagine that Thomas Aquinas would object to 18 year olds drinking. It would have been universal in his world.
Seems like there was a lot of violations of constitutional rights.
Let's start with "Raid, General Purpose, Fishing, one each".
Yeah, NC law seems to think it's fine to make people waive their rights in return for having a job -- much like 'implied consent' laws on the highway, but without actually putting anyone at risk.
The whole thing is even more foolish because ALE only has 111 agents statewide. It's not like this risky display is introducing 'a new sheriff in town' with robust enforcement etc; it's obviously a one-off thing they can't afford to repeat because they need to send those agents back to their districts.
Meanwhile, this is bootlegger country. Those poor kids were probably the only ones in the county who didn't know that alcohol agents were in town.
The real problem here, and I surprised it escaped mention from you, is that place that serve alcohol (and way too many other things) require licensure- and with that comes regulations and permissible infringements on civil rights. Without addressing that, the rest of this is moot.
grim said
"I dissent. I deeply resent not merely the actions but the existence of agencies like this. They endanger us all for no good reason. All such agencies should be abolished outright, as should the laws that support their existence and function."
It comes to mind you have have just described a significant number of agencies, Local, State, and Federal.
And I concur.
How I long for the days of Peace Officers, instead of Law Enforcement Officers. The first implies discretion, judgement, the second a merciless unthinking force of the state.
With today's "zero thought" policies, I would have been in prison as a young man. Nothing malicious, just a lot of carousing/normal young man behavior.
We drove sans belts. rode fast motorcycles no helmets. With a case of beer on board. And girls! and rock and roll and beach parties and unsanctioned bonfires and seafood ripped from the loving arms of Mother Gaia. We shot tincan's with pistols and ran small boats through the breakers out past the mile marker at midnight . Every once in while somebody drowned or got hurt, (actually the only one who drowned was as a result of a military hazing incident) I would not trade any of it for today's sanitized existence.
Things were real, not on a screen. Including consequences.
This concludes ravens one beer rant.
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