In addition to “officer safety,” another de facto capital offense in this country is “failure to comply.”
This past fall, a Northern Virginia man named Bijan Ghaisar was executed by armed government workers after a brief car chase. Apparently, the man had been involved in a minor accident – no injuries and he wasn’t the driver who caused the accident – but he left the scene regardless. It’s possible he had an expired license or some other thing on his mind and feared (rightly) what the “heroes” might do to him if he stuck around. Given the run-amokness of “heroes” these days, avoiding them is reasonable self-preservation.
We have good reason to fear for our safety.
This resulted in a car chase. Not a “high speed” or “reckless” one. The guy was simply not complying. He stops a couple of times and then thinks better of it as armed government workers begin to approach – and takes off. This of course really annoys the armed government workers – who end up surrounding the guy’s car and ending his life in a hail of bullets.
Their victim was not armed. He posed no “threat” to the “safety” of the “heroes.”
He was, however, non-compliant.
Somehow, the law has transmogrified to justify – legally permit – armed government workers to aim lethal weapons at unarmed people and shoot them to death for this offense.
Which makes sense, from a certain point of view – i.e., theirs.
No challenge to their Authority can be tolerated. This is the fulcrum of things. To allow any disrespect is intolerable, a crime worse than any on the books . . . from the point of view of armed government workers and, of course, the government they work for.
It’s been pointed out that police – armed government workers – have become functionally indistinguishable from occupying soldiers. Redcoats with body armor and automatic-fire weapons.
One of the characteristics of such is the countenancing of no “resistance” to their commands. A POW who attempts to get away is shot as a matter of course. This is exactly how this man was treated.
He was not an armed and dangerous criminal. Just a guy who got into a minor traffic scrape and then – for fully understandable reasons – failed to comply. For this, he was murdered.
A strong word – but the right word.
