Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death

Do you have rights if the cops don't respect them? Will you have rights if you don't stand up for them? The Other McCain: How to Get Yourself Shot

I usually like what The Other McCain has to say, but in this instance, I think he is wrong.

Generally speaking, if a cop is going to shoot you, he’ll keep pulling the trigger until the magazine’s empty. Your “rights” don’t do you much good after you bleed to death. Your family might get a lawsuit settlement payoff, but you won’t be around to spend that money.

Now the post that Robert Stacy McCain wrote deals mostly with the actions of a private security guard, and I agree with the actions of the security guard in this particular incident, but then Robert Stacy branches out into "just do what the police tell you to do." Of course police - at least in the City of Chicago, which used to be my home - would do things like tell you to pay them bribes, or sign confessions.

During COVID Lockdowns in Canada, cops were sent to detain ministers and stop worship services. Was it right for them to resist, or should they just have bowed to Caesar and his minions? If you don't fight for your rights, how long do you think you will have them?

The Other McCain's take, seems to be, that because if you don't do exactly what the cops tell you to do - even when what they are a saying is bullshit - then if you get killed standing up for your rights it is your own damn fault. And if Robert Stacy doesn't feel that way, it is clear a lot of the commenters do.

I seem to remember that the quote which forms the title to this post was important at one point in the history of this country. It was covered in a junior high, if not elementary school, history class, and yet the folks today on the right seem to be, just obey authority. At least when they don't like the person on the receiving end of the headache. (And The Other McCain, and the commenters at that site, don't like the person who got shot.)

Other instances of where the Authorities told people to do things, that they either didn't obey, or shouldn't have obeyed. When the FBI told the Trump estate employees to turn off the security cameras. (They lawyers had other ideas.) When the British told the folks at Lexington and Concord to turn in their firearms in the name of gun-control and government control. I'm sure you can think of other instances.