By Doug Newman
Posted on Facebook and The Libertarian Enterprise.
It could have been me.
I live in Aurora, Colorado and drive through these intersections all the time.
On Saturday, June 2, there was a robbery at a Wells Fargo Bank here. And then the stuff of which tyranny is made began to unfold.
I give you the full article from Channel 7 News in Denver as well as a link to an article from ABC News.
“Aurora police stopped dozens of cars and pulled out their drivers at gunpoint looking for a bank robbery suspect Saturday afternoon.
“Police said an armed man robbed a Wells Fargo bank on E. Hampden Avenue and S. Chambers Road and fled.
“Police tracked the robber to the intersection of E. Iliff Avenue and S. Buckley Road.
“Responding officers barricaded the area, trapping about 25 cars near the intersection. Then police went car by car and pulled out each occupant at gunpoint and handcuffed them.
“‘Cops came in from every direction and just threw their car in front of my car,’ said Sonya Romero, who was one of the drivers handcuffed. ‘We all got cuffed until they figured out who did what.’
“Ben Barker watched the ordeal and told 7NEWS police were armed with shot guns and rifles.
“‘We didn’t know if we were in the line of fire or what the hell was happening,’ Romero said.
“Eventually police came to a white Ford Expedition and arrested the driver. Police have not released the suspect’s name.
“The other drivers were then released. The whole ordeal lasted about two hours.”
Since it is wrong for a robber to put a gun in the face of a bank teller, it is just as wrong for the police to put a gun in the face of a person whose only offense is driving too close to a suspect.
There is a God and He doesn’t play favorites. Just because someone wears a blue suit and mainlines tax dollars – and donuts – doesn’t elevate him to any special station in life.
The late British author and journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once recalled his days at The Manchester Guardian: “’The people of this country will never for an instant countenance…,’ our typewriters used to tap out … only to find a day or so later that they ad countenanced whatever it might be all too readily.”
The American people have given up an unconscionable amount of liberty in recent decades, especially since 9/11. Those on the left are at least honest about their beliefs in big government. Those on the right talk a good game about hating government when it is taxing, spending, regulating, disarming and dumbing people down. However, they look the other way when it is spying, arresting, jailing, torturing and killing.
None of the post 9/11 agenda has anything to do with protecting us from bad guys. All of it has to do with raping our brains in order to accept a totalitarian police state.
If the Aurora police can get away like outrages like they committed last Saturday, what can they not get away with? Where will people draw the line? Just read some of the comments on these stories.
Yes, they got the suspect. THAT IS NOT THE POINT!
What if they had not apprehended the suspect? What if they had been so busy terrorizing innocent people that they let the suspect get half way to Nebraska? What if the suspect robbed the Last National Bank of Fort Morgan in the process?
Why detain these innocent people for just two hours? Why not two days? Why not a whole week? Why not also strip search them publicly and give them cavity searches? I mean, like, the Supreme Court recently said this was permissible.
Why not beat them all to the point of flat lining like the Denver popo did to my homeboy James Moore back in 2008?
Why bother at all with Due Process and the “inconvenience” it entails for law enforcement? Why not just waterboard everyone to obtain a confession? If it is good enough for Gitmo, why isn’t it good enough for Aurora?
Why not drop a bomb from a predator drone? If it is good enough for “suspected militants” in Pakistan, why isn’t it good enough for robbery suspects in Aurora? So what if you “take out” a few dozen innocent people as long as you get the bad guy?
Just let the cops do their job.
And shut up.
What if those who “support the police” on their handling this incident had actually been on the business end of it? It is always easy to say that your government should do something … to somebody else.
And what if you, reader, had been one of those unfortunate drivers last Saturday, would you still “support your local police” after they had stuck a gun in your face?
I sure wouldn’t.
When the local police are allowed to run wild, why can’t every other segment of the government at whatever level run wild? Why can’t they regulate the sizes of the fountain drinks? Why can’t they impose a national health plan? Why can’t they tax us into the pavement? Why can’t they run up a debt so huge that not even Carl Sagan could comprehend its immensity?
When you let your favorite government goons run wild, don’t complain to me when other people with other priorities let their favorite government goons run wild.
The title of this article refers to some not-quite-ready-for-prime-time entertainment. I did not choose it gratuitously. When people run wild, you get the Las Vegas Strip. When governments run wild, you get Auschwitz.
The police in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia ran wild. They were totally unencumbered by constitutional restraints. And there wasn’t a lot of street crime.
Would you want to live in either of those places?
No?
Then be careful who and what you support.
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- Special thanks to Bill Anderson for alerting me of this travesty that occurred just three miles from my house.
- I am glad to see Judge Napolitano jump on this so quickly.
- From the London Daily Mail
- Free Antonio Buehler – a Facebook group that has become a clearinghouse for police brutality information in Amerika.
- Aurora Police chief defends this action
- CBS Channel 4 in Denver
- 9News in Denver
- Aurora Sentinel: Cops must respect search and seizure laws
- Limited-Scale martial law in Aurora
- Reason: Why not handcuff everyone?
- A robbery of a different kind
- An Aurora attorney weighs in with great points
- Rogue police start constitutional crisis
- NY Times: Tech-based policing versus citizens’ rights
- While I don’t believe every conspiracy theory I read, I also don’t believe everything the mainstream media tells me. There is a lot of worthwhile information here.
- ‘They Brandished Shields’ and Pointed Rifles ‘Directly at Innocent Citizens’ — and That Was Just the Start: Lawsuit Details Shock Case of Alleged Fourth Amendment Violation
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Great article; I tried to link it to Youtube, but they blocked your site as dangerous.
Is Aurora a nice place to live, otherwise? I am looking for a job within my company, and we want to move to the Denver area.
I tried to link it to “Facebook”, not “Youtube”.
@Cavelier973 South-east Aurora is the best part of Aurora to live….better schools and less expensive homes. If I had to do it all over again, though, I’d probably move to Centennial or unincorporated Arapahoe County because those areas have less political controversy. Good luck!
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