PAX Centurion - November / December 2014

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • November/December 2014 • Page 3 Does enforcement of “quality of life” issues provoke attacks on police? Similarities between Boston/New York incidents? M OST OF US have heard, recently, of the grand jury’s decision in NewYork to not indict the police officers in the highly-publicized case of Eric Garner. The case has sparked numerous protests from college kids looking for a cause, former “Occupy Boston” radicals, and other anarchists.The Boston Police Department has wrongly – for reasons of political correctness – described them as “peaceful protests.” There is nothing “peaceful” about sitting down in the middle of Tremont St. at rush hour to prevent working people from simply going home. That is – (or should I say used to be?) known as disorderly conduct, subject to immediate arrest. Retired Deputy Supt. Bob Hayden would not have put up with such childish behavior for a moment. Today, in our upside-down world, the BPD media relations division “congratulates” the protesters via social media tweets on their “peaceful protest.” Tell that to people who were stuck in traffic for hours…. In NewYork, Mr. Garner, who had been arrested 31 times previ- ously for a variety of offenses, resisted arrest by the NYPD for what appears to have been the minor crime of selling “loose cigarettes.” (“loosies”: about two for a dollar, negotiable). But, regardless of what you may think of the grand jury’s verdict, the FACT (and I know that FACTS are inconvenient things, but let’s try to use them anyway…) is that liberal theology and liberalism in general set in motion the forces that precipitated this incident in NewYork and the stabbing of two Park Rangers in Boston. In NewYork, a few months ago, Mayor Bill DiBlasio himself is- sued an edict to the NYPD ordering them to crack down on the sale of “illegal cigarettes” which has become rampant in parts of NewYork. The FACT is that cigarettes have become prohibitively expense in NewYork (and Massachusetts) due to excessive taxation. The average cost of a pack of butts in NewYork is about $13.00. This has sparked a black market for cigarettes: FACT: “smugglers” (much like in the 1920’s liquor-prohibition era) drive down to North Carolina, where a pack of butts cost about $4.50 (much less by the case), bring them back North to NewYork and Boston and re-sell them on the streets without the requisite tax-stamp imposed by the state. There is a HUGE profit to be made from such illegal sales. On the one hand, “compassionate liberals” want everyone to stop smoking. On the other hand, liberals depend on the tax revenue from tobacco sales that fund their myriad of socialistic spending programs. So when people like Eric Garner start selling cigarettes without providing the State of NewYork their tax fealty… well…Mayor DiBlasio and his liberal nitwits (not criticizing NewYork, we are chock-full of liberal idiots in this city…) are outraged and demand that the police do something! We need the tax revenue from something we want to eliminate! We must protect our phony-baloney jobs! (Trivia: what famous movie was that from?) Hence, the situation is put in play: NYPD officers, (FACT) re- sponding to “quality of life” complaints from local storeowners who sell tobacco products legally, encounter Mr. Garner. They question him and then inform him that he is being placed under arrest, as he has been 31 times before. Mr. Garner resists arrest. He is taken to the ground by assisting officers, (employing not a “choke-hold,” as the liberal media likes to report, but a simple “headlock,” as most of us By James W. Carnell, Pax Editor who have been police officers and grew up in the city know the differ- ence…) as per the training by the NYPD PoliceAcademy. Mr. Garner is 300 lbs. and stands 6’4”. He far outweighs the stature of most of the officers appearing in the video. Because he is asthmatic, has diabetes, high blood pressure, and is obese, he sustains a chest compression while being handcuffed, was taken to a local hospital, but succumbed to his medical ailments. This is what the grand jury found after count- less days of testimony, including the officer himself who waived his fifth amendment protections against self-incrimination and volunteered to testify. The entire incident is overseen by a black female sergeant who is physically present during the arrest (seen in the video). Some people love to interject race into every police-involved incident, but I’ll bet that FACT has been largely ignored by the major media. Had he sim- ply complied with the officer’s commands, he would have been in and out of the court system in NewYork in a few hours. A tragedy, yes, but a self-inflicted one. In similar fashion in Boston, two Boston Park Rangers encountered a man smoking a cigarette on the Boston Common. Our astute and wonderfully liberal (former) Mayor Thomas Menino and his minions on the City Council had recently enacted an ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places, including the Boston Common. The Park Rangers, attempting to enforce the ordinance issued by the solons on City Pall Plaza, arrive and tell the man, Bodio Hutchinson, 34, to extinguish the cigarette, as it is now illegal to smoke in public on the Boston Common. (It’s OK to do a lot of other things on the Common, just not smoke a legal substance like tobacco…). Whether mentally ill or simply a career criminal and thug, Hutchinson attacks and stabs the Park Rangers, one of who was in critical condition for weeks. He was arrested at gunpoint by several valiant BPD officers. The point is this: City Councils and State Legislatures issue edicts and ordinances from on high, with total disregard for the realities of enforcing their liberal theology. Smoking pot on the Boston Common is now the equivalent of a jay-walking ticket, resulting in – at most – a $100.00 civil citation. (And try seeing if the pot-smoking offender gives the police the right name, since nobody is required to carry an ID in this country???) But if you crack a beer on the baseball diamond on a lazy Sunday afternoon on a hot August day, you are subject to arrest for drinking in public? Politicians beat their chests and appear before the TV cameras to tout their most-recent social activism program. How wonderful they are! Aren’t we socially-conscious and concerned about the planet! They never give a God-damn thought to the realities of enforcing their stupid, liberal ideology. And it results in tragedies and death, both here in Boston and in NewYork. Liberals created the conditions, the rules and the ordinances that we, the police, are left to deal with. And then they turn their video cameras and cellphones on us and tell us that we’re brutal and racist. As for me, fellowAmericans, smoke on, smoke on, whether you’re on Boston Common or in your own house. Excessive, intrusive government creates these situations and then expects us to deal with results, and criticizes us for the consequences. Go ahead and spark up a bone…! (Just don’t get caught with a legal cigarette or cold beer….)