The standard response by government and do-gooders of all types to people who express outrage at: Red Light Cameras, FBI bugging without warrant, FBI putting GPS tracker on your car, indefinite detention, cops asking to search your car, etc. is "If you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear." Now in Indiana that is exactly what the legislature has said to the police.
Every time police Sergeant Joseph Hubbard stops a speeder or serves a search warrant, he says he worries suspects assume they can open fire -- without breaking the law.
Hubbard, a 17-year veteran of the police department in Jeffersonville, Indiana, says his apprehension stems from a state law approved this year that allows residents to use deadly force in response to the "unlawful intrusion" by a "public servant" to protect themselves and others, or their property.
It is clear that the "public servant" has nothing to fear so long as they are not intruding on the private property of others illegally. If a cop does a no-knock entry into the wrong house, he is committing a armed felony, breaking and entering and the people have the right of self defense, even if it means the cop gets shot dead. But if they are not doing anything wrong, cops have nothing to fear.
It is now being found that citizens have the right to film cops and other public servants when they are doing their jobs in public places. They tend to get feisty and uptight when mere citizens film them violating citizens rights. But of course if they aren't doing anything wrong they have nothing to fear from citizen journalists and youtube.
It is good that, at least in Indiana, a police breaking the law is exactly the same as that of any armed criminal. That is called equality under the law, and applying the rule of law equally to everybody, including those in government, is the hallmark of a free people and the difference between a free country and tyranny.
The sad fact is that because of the blue line, and the deference prosecutors and the courts pay to fellow government employees. Cops can and do get to break the law without the same consequences as the mere public. "Professional Courtesy" is paid from cops to each other, cops can and do get away with speeding, DUI, and a variety of other crimes without notice, as their comrades in the "public service." The vast majority of internal investigations result in officers being cleard of wrong doing, even when they shoot innocent people raiding the wrong house. Since the reality is that most in the public have no recourse against the criminal actions of the government, Indiana's law protecting the rights of individuals from the government is necessary and proper. Unfortunately, if the armed criminal illegally invading your home is cop, your only true recourse is immediate self defense, as the government has proven to be unwilling and unable to protect individuals from the illegal actions of the police. At least in Indiana the people fought for and have chased off the governments infringement upon the oldest right of all men, self defense.
Hopefully this will result in individual officers thinking twice about no-knock raids, double checking to make sure they have the right place, and limit such actions to legitimate circumstances. As they are no longer immune from people exercising their natural, pre-existing, right to self defense. The hope is that all public servants, including armed police, remember their actions and authority is limited, and that they realize that their power is granted by the people, and the people retain power for themselves, including the right to shoot armed government agents when those armed government agents are unlawfully using their power.
To Sergeant Joseph Hubbard and any other "public servant" worried about having their actions recorded, or being shot if they "accidently" raid the wrong house, don't worry "If you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear."
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