Will Grigg’s recent post about the beating of Pastor Steven Anderson, as well as the numerous cases of police misconduct that have been documented on this blog, show that the time has long since past when we can support our local police as a group. Yet, I noticed in my local paper (The Pensacola News Journal) last week (it was an accident–I never read the paper) that a Baptist church in Pensacola had their 16th annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. One officer rode his motorcycle through the church while others rappelled from the ceiling on a rope. There were flags everywhere. These are the same churches that usually have special military appreciation days and go crazy over the military on every national holiday.
Now, I appreciate as much as anyone the police arresting people that commit actual crimes (without being entrapped by the police). But besides the misconduct of police officers that has been heavily documented on this blog, I don’t appreciate police officers participating in the war on drugs and hiding off the side of the road to give out their quota of speeding tickets. How much more real “crime fighting” could the police do if these two things were eliminated? Can a believer in liberty and freedom be a police officer and arrest people for smoking a plant? I don’t see how.
For the record, I know a few police officers who seem to be decent guys. I am not condemning all police officers.
8:59 pm on May 13, 2009
