Recently by Becky Akers: In-State Tuition and a Banquet of RedHerring

Hard to keep track of what's illegal these days. The most innocuous deeds can land a serf behind bars even as crimes worthy of a sociopath earn rulers the Nobel Prize.

And so the Feds order some drones to kill American citizens and others to sexually assault them. You might think cops who pretend they joined "the force" to protect rather than lord it over us would hie themselves to DC and collar the criminals preying on us.

But no. Instead, they waddle about our neighborhoods, arresting us for "crimes" that aren't, as they've done for decades — a reign of terror so long that few Americans even notice anymore.

Yet those who do contend that we've descended further into the police-state. Why? Because victims used to have to smoke weed in public or drag-race down Main Street to draw cops' attention. Yes, laws banning marijuana are tyrannical, and the State has no authority, moral or Constitutional, to own, build, or patrol roads — but at least the peons knew where they stood: get caught flouting Leviathan's silly rules, and you'd pay for it. The prudent pothead toked up at home, the speed-demon floored it on deserted highways.

But now, not only do increasingly large numbers of harmless actions violate specific, incredibly petty regulations, but cops and courts stretch such vague terms as "disorderly conduct" or "child abuse" to cover behavior they — or anyone else –dislike.

Consider the case of Lawrence Massey, 37. You might assume that Connecticut's taxpayers would be grateful to him: when he "found the carcass [of a deer] on the side of Route 9 southbound," he "loaded it into his minivan, and brought it home…," saving them the cost of removal.

It seems Mr. Massey is separated from his wife; he pulled into a parking lot across from the apartment where she and their children live, unloaded his discovery, and proceeded to "show his sons the classic hunting technique of u2018how to field strip a deer after it had been killed.'”

Until recently, Americans greatly admired such skill; indeed, it fed a good many of our grandparents. And note that Mr. Massey isn't guilty of our wimpy times' ultimate no-no: he didn't kill the deer. "It was all bloated," one witness relates, "and it doesn’t get like that unless it’s been there three or four days.”

Mr. Massey was also courteous to the owner of the property he was visiting: he "had put down plastic tarps in the parking lot" and, later, "without being asked Massey cleaned up the mess by loading it into the rear of his minivan to take it home…"

Even so, I wouldn't want a guy hunkering down on my asphalt butchering road-kill. So I can understand the manager's asking him to move on.

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But that's not what happened. Actually, thanks to the passive voice that so often cloaks the State's evil, we don't know how events transpired: both reports describing Mr. Massey's travails only tell us "Police were called" without divulging the snitch's identity. If there was one: cops materialize everywhere anymore, at schools, private residences, in hospitals and airports. The only time we're safe from them is when someone commits an actual crime. So perhaps pigs cruising by the parking lot decided to have some fun.

Whatever. They arrested Mr. Massey. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. His only possible wrong is trespassing, but if the lot's owner hasn't complained, what business is it of the cops?

Or perhaps the owner is our unnamed snitch. If so, whatever happened to warning Mr. Massey first and resorting to stronger measures only if he refuses to leave?

No, our hero's mistake was surprising those around him with a pastime they deem disgusting. "[S]everal mothers and their young children were walking around," though "a very strong smell emanat[ed] from the carcass. … Police found Massey holding a folding knife in his right hand with both arms covered in blood beyond his elbows … Several citizens … u2018found this behavior shocking and frightening and not an appropriate area [sic].'" I guess departing for pleasanter climes and minding their own affairs never occurred to these meddlers.

The manly Mr. Massey goes to court in a few weeks. I'd like to think the judge will throw the book at his persecutors while highly commending the defendant, but somehow I expect the opposite.

Next we head to North Platte, Nebraska, for another totalitarian tale. Reports conflict as to whether a busybody (whom the UK's Daily Mail dignified as "a concerned member of the public") sicced cops on parents there, or whether our public servants simply took it on themselves to interfere. But in the end, the State busted up two families and kidnapped their children — ostensibly because one mother tried to safeguard her sons at night.

I assume that the victims in this story are heartbreakingly poor: why else would four adults  a married couple, a single mother named Ashly Clark, and another woman  share a double-wide trailer with the couple's two daughters and Ms. Clark's boys, ages 3 and 5?

Those boys sound like lovable little Huck Finns, so mischievous and adventurous they tried to crawl through the trailer's windows at night — "escaping," as the Daily Mail would have it. Their mother resolved this by putting them to bed in a "dog kennel" measuring 30" X 42"; "Clark fastened its gate closed with a wire tie. Its inside contained a small, decrepit mattress." Yep: most of a poor woman's possessions are "small" and "decrepit."

Again, I'm trying to fathom the "crime" here. Were Ms. Clark wealthy, she might have hired a nanny to watch her boys while she slept. Instead, as a single mother with limited options, she devised a cheap but effective solution to protect her sons overnight.

Alas, her ingenuity displeased Our Rulers. They also condemn her housekeeping: the trailer was "filthy… When officers went inside, they were met with the stench of urine and found trash and animal feces throughout the home…"

And so they stole not only Ms. Clark's sons but her roommates' 8-year-old and 8-month-old daughters as well — though they frankly admit that "While the children were living in filthy conditions, there was no evidence to suggest they had been physically abused or were malnourished…" Those pitiable tykes now suffer "in the care of the state."

Satanic, Leviathan's priorities. I've never yet met the child who complained that his house was too dirty, but I've met and read about hundreds who pined to the point of depression for absent parents. Likewise, a "filthy" home seldom kills a kid, but the "state's custody" often does.

The cops weren't content with kidnapping minors: they kidnapped every adult in the trailer, too, even the childless friend. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time! "’All of the adults were aware of the situation and were aware of the kids were being housed in the animal kennel and did nothing to stop it or report it,’ said Lt. Hoaglund. …[They're] each charged with two counts of first-degree false imprisonment" — that's rich, coming from tyrants who cage more people than any other country on earth — "two counts of felony child abuse and misdemeanor child abuse, based on the condition of the house." Shall we discuss the condition of the average airport, where goons force us to walk barefoot while their grimy paws grope us?

Take a lesson, thralls: if you want to gut a deer or keep a messy house, win an election first. Then you can not only slaughter animals in your house if you like, you can also graduate to actual atrocities like theft, rape and murder — all with utter impunity.

October 29, 2011

The Best of Becky Akers