Misguided Pastor

On Saturday I posted a video about a Baptist pastor who was beaten by the Arizona State Troopers. I was a little too sensitive last week with the tea parties, the release of the DHS Right Wing Extremism Memo, and the press’ handling of it. Those are not excuses for not doing good research; I’m just telling you where I failed so others will not repeat the same mistake.

It seems that our “good” pastor likes confrontation with the police:

Look at this video where he goes after a police officer doing his job:

I believe in defending the constitutional rights of all American citizens. However, as a citizen, there are smart ways and dumb ways to do so. I’ll let you decide the way this pastor chose.

I want to end with an email response I received from a man named Larry Wolfe, who sheds some common sensical light on the Arizona incident. It has been slightly edited from the original for all eyes to read:

I have several comments after watching this video and I’m sorry for being long winded.

First, there are 3 sides to every story, his, the cops and the truth. So far, we’ve only heard his.

Secondly, I’ve been thru checkpoints like this about a dozen times and yes, they ask you a bunch of questions. And I answered them quickly and succinctly and I was off and on my way with no issues what-so-ever. And I will say, its kind’a weird living here in the US and getting stopped like that and being asked questions by Border Patrol Agents. It feels like a WWII Movie as in “Where are your papers?” But those Border Patrol Agents are supposed to ask to questions. That is what the Police do, don’t they? They are paid to find the bad guys trying to smuggle illegal’s, drugs and possibly terrorists into the U.S. correct? How do they know the guy is not a terrorist smuggler? Think about it this way, with all the gun violence going on at the border, these guys have no idea what they may come up against with every vehicle they pull over.

The answer is, they don’t and if he was a bad guy and they let him go, I don’t think any of you would be happy about it. Especially if a Bio Weapon or Nuc went off in Phoenix, AZ as an example and he was the guy bringing it in.

Notice how he doesn’t say what the questions were? He just say’s “They started asking me a bunch of questions” Well of course they did! That is what these checkpoints are for, aren’t they? They were probably as simple as “Sir, are you carrying any contraband in the vehicle or any illegal aliens”? All he had to do was to answer them “NO” while looking them in the eye and I’ll bet he’s told to go on ahead and have a nice night. But, what does he do? He just says No, I’m not answering. Well then, what does he think is going to happen with an answer like that? Did he really believe they were going to say, “Okay Sir, you look like a good Christian, you don’t have answer any questions. Go about your business” If they did, I want there behind. Why? Because they are hired to protect my butt and I want them finding these scum, before they kill innocent Americans.

If I was on duty and I had that happened to me, you better believe I’m searching this guy’s car, because if they don’t and he is a gun or drug trafficker and gets caught somewhere else, that cop just lost his job.

Next, he said he’s refused to get out of the car. Well, if they now think your hiding something because you won’t answer a few simples questions and inform you that they now want to search your vehicle and you say no and refuse to get out, there is probably only one way he is coming out. Taser. Also, why did they smash his windows? Logic would tell me it’s because he wouldn’t roll them down, otherwise just Taser the guy through the open window.

Now, do I think the cops treated him too brutally? ABSOLUTELY, assuming he’s telling the truth, which I think he is on this part. Should some of them lose their jobs over it? Probably so. There is No call for stepping on a guy’s head and tasering him a bunch of times if he’s not resisting. If he is, Taser him until he stops. But, if they just smashed his windows just to smash them, then they should be fired.

What should have been done (and it could have, but we don’t know) is that the Border Patrol Agents should have calmly told him that failure to answer these questions will constitute “Probable Cause” and he his vehicle could be forcibly searched and he be forcibly removed from it. Personally, I think the guy was trying to be a smart aleck and push their buttons. And I’m sorry, but we are all human, you NEVER become a smart aleck with a Cop, never. You just don’t do it, because if you do, you asking for trouble. You’re sticking your chin out and saying, please hit me. And, guess what, they did.

Personal Side story: I’m driving down 95 (which is the East Coast Hwy of choice for most Drugs 7 weapons) entering the Baltimore City Limits with my Cousin, (Retired Army Apache Pilot for 21 years) and he’s driving. I’m not paying attention to the speed but he was doing 87 in a 55 (it just went down from 65 about ½ mile before) and all of a sudden we see this Black Cop standing in the middle of our lane with his hand held out telling us to halt. It scared the living crap out of us and we could have run him over.

So, the Cop comes up to the window and say’s, “Where are you racing to? You were doing 87 in a 55”.

What does my cousin say very loudly and adamantly? I WAS NOT!!! Right then and there I knew we were screwed. No he couldn’t say, “Geez officer, I’m sorry, I was talking to my cousin and didn’t realize how fast I was going” or some story like that. No, he had to refuse to admit he was speeding to the point where they started to loudly argue. I could not believe my eyes and ears. And yes, he was doing 87 MPH.

I quickly jumped into the argument, introduced myself and asked to officer for 30 seconds of private time with my cousin to speak to him, which he stepped back and gave us. I then told my cousin he was being an idiot, because he was speeding, and he just called the cop a liar to his face and he should quickly lose the attitude, before we both end up in jail.

The cop came back and commonsense took over and my cousin apologized and said he was sorry for yelling at him and did not intend to impugn his integrity. With that, the cop looks at his Military ID and asks how long he was in the Army. My cousin said 21 years. Then the cop said, “Now if you had just been reasonable upfront, you would have been gone by now with a verbal warning, because I always let the military guy’s go with a verbal warning, but since you were such an ass**** and called me a liar to my face, now I have to run a check on your car… But, since your cousin seems to a good head on his shoulders, I’ll give you one chance to walk away with nothing. If, by the time I’m done running your plates, you can tell me who the new Police Commissioner is in Baltimore City, I’ll give you a warning. If not, you’ll get a speeding ticket for doing 84 in a 55. And you may use your cell phones to get the answer, but be fast because this will only take 30- 40 seconds”….

The second he started to walk away I called a reporter I knew at the Baltimore Sun Newspaper and she promptly told me the answer. When he came back about 45 seconds later he asked if we knew, my cousin said yes gave him the correct answer and he politely let us go with just a verbal warning.

The moral of the story is, I think that Pastor was my cousin, only about 40lbs lighter, 10 years younger and I wasn’t sitting there next to him to talk common sense into the man. And because of people like that, we all lose. Please don’t be so quick to believe every person with a story about how the “Gov’t denied my rights”. More often than not, these people are so stupid, they don’t deserve any. I’ll bet that 90% of Cops / Border Patrol Agents are Republicans, just as they are in the Military and while I don’t trust Obama as far as I can throw him, I find it hard to believe that in the last 3 months, the Cops / Border Patrol Agents have turned into the SS. There human just like us and just want to be treated with some respect.

Regards,
Larry Wolfe

Please don’t be so quick to believe every person with a story about how the “Gov’t denied my rights”.

That’s some advice I pray I do not soon forget.

Tags

Christian Activism, Constitution, Culture, History, Media, Morality, Politics, Republicans, Terrorism, war on terror