Police Brutality and Blowback

by Dr. Gerard Emershaw

On June 7, 2014 in Las Vegas, Jerad and Amanda Miller murdered two police officers in a pizza restaurant and killed a bystander in a Walmart before Jerad Miller was killed by police and Amanda Miller shot herself in the head. As usual, the zombie collectivist mainstream media looked to blame entire groups of innocents for the actions of two murderers. Progressive anti-constitutionalists blamed the NRA and sought to use these horrific crimes as yet another excuse to violate the natural right of Americans to bear arms. Others blamed the supposedly fringe political beliefs that the Millers held. The collectivist logic of such progressive totalitarians is that if one person who holds Tea Party beliefs, reveres the Constitution, listens to Alex Jones, believes in so called “conspiracy theories,” and mistrusts the federal government, then all who do so are equally guilty. Guilt by association. If one gun owner commits a murder, then all gun owners are murderers. If one person who espouses the views of the Patriot Movement commits a murder, then all Patriots do.

Of course, to be consistent, this would have to go both ways. Under this collectivist approach, if one person of any kind commits a murder, then every token of that type is guilty of murder. All Muslims are guilty of the 9/11 attacks. All Christians are guilty of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. All Jews are guilty of the King David Hotel bombing. All blacks are guilty of the crimes of the Zebra Killers. All Germans are guilty of the crimes of Hitler. All Russians are guilty of the crimes of Stalin. All Italians are guilty of the crimes of Mussolini. All Chinese are guilty of the crimes of Mao. All Japanese are guilty of the crimes of Tojo. All Cubans are guilty of the crimes of Castro. In the end, everyone should be seen as guilty. Perhaps everyone should be rounded up by the DHS under the NDAA and thrown in Gitmo. Or perhaps we should just focus on the individuals who commit crimes and hold them accountable instead.

One angle that has not received much attention is the fact that the Millers were inspired to commit their crimes because they saw their victims as oppressors. This merits attention. It is not to say that Officer Igor Soldo or Officer Alyn Beck were oppressors. By all accounts they were honest and hard-working officers. However, there is no doubt that there are constantly countless high profile examples of stories of law enforcement officers in all levels of American government who are oppressive. Whether it is Albuquerque police killing a homeless man, a Pittsburgh police officer punching a woman at a parade, or a Memphis police office stealing a Make-A-Wish Foundation gift from a terminally ill three-year-old child, there is no shortage of corrupt and oppressive law enforcement officers. Each and every time that some rogue cop commits a crime or abuses his or her power, it creates the potential for blowback that could cause honest police officers such as Officer Igor Soldo or Officer Alyn Beck or innocent civilian bystanders such as Joseph Wilcox to be put in harm’s way.

While the responsibility for crimes lies with those who perpetrate them, corrupt cops are guilty of exacerbating the risk of crimes against law enforcement. There are many disgruntled and unstable people like Jerad and Amanda Miller who may be like tinderboxes. Incidents of police corruption and police brutality create blowback that makes it much more likely that such individuals will act out in violent ways. This line of thinking differs greatly from scapegoating movies, songs, books, video games, or any other form of free speech. While human beings have a natural right to produce a violent movie, a song with provocative lyrics, a book with revolutionary ideas, a violent first person shooter video game, etc., there is no natural right for a police officer to commit crimes or abuse his or her authority.

Timothy McVeigh was set off by abuses of federal law enforcement authority at Waco and Ruby Ridge. While McVeigh and Nichols were responsible for their own actions, the federal officers involved in those incidents provided important causal links. Perhaps if Waco and Ruby Ridge were handled better and casualties were avoided, the atrocity in Oklahoma City would never have taken place. Unfortunately, in the eyes of statists, the government can never possibly be a causal factor in any negative consequences. Only private sector entities that they do not like could possibly be.