OPINION:
A week after a grand jury in Missouri decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown, a grand jury in Staten Island decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner. A second white cop avoiding indictment for the death of a second black citizen drew even more angry demonstrations.
Garner died during an altercation with the police after they busted him for selling individual “loosie” cigarettes, to avoid paying taxes on them. This leads some critics of the grand jury decision to say that Garner was “killed for nothing” or “killed because he was selling cigarettes.”
That’s not true — he died because he got into a scuffle with the police, and while video taken of his death led to accusations that Officer Pantaleo deliberately murdered Garner with a prohibited chokehold, Garner’s obesity, asthma, and heart trouble were factors in his death. That’s the kind of evidence the grand jury would have reviewed before making its decision.
It’s important to remember that every violation of the law could conceivably result in a violent confrontation with police that gets the lawbreaker killed. If a cop approaches someone for jaywalking, and that person gets belligerent, attacks the cop, and is shot dead, then he wasn’t “killed for jaywalking.”
But it’s true that Eric Garner was approached by the police for breaking some heavy-handed regulations on cigarette sales, which were handed down by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010. Garner knew that what he was doing was wrong. He did it to deliberately avoid taxes and regulations. Prices for cigarettes in the New York City area are about $13.00 per pack with state and city taxes contributing $5.85 to the cost per pack. Even if you’re not a smoker that kind of heavy taxation should make everyone choke.
If we want fewer encounters between police and citizens that could end badly, we need fewer micromanaging laws. Lots of laws mean lots of enforcement. People sometimes get in trouble for violating complicated laws they didn’t know existed. There’s a book called “Three Felonies a Day,” by Harvey Silverglate, that talks about how no one is really “innocent” anymore — there are so many laws on the books that the government could indict just about anyone it wanted.
The nanny state is a huge bully. The government gets a lot of what it wants by intimidating people into compliance. If you’re pursued by a government agency and fight them in court, you could easily go broke “winning” your case. Uncle Sam can prosecute as many people as he pleases without worrying about going broke. Even if we made him pay the court costs for unsuccessful prosecutions, he’d just tax us to get the money he needed. We’d end up paying the fines.
Liberals are usually OK with the Nanny State being a bully, but now they’re looking at angry demonstrations over the death of a man who was selling loosie cigarettes. There probably aren’t many liberals who want to get in front of those angry crows and explain how important it is for everyone to meekly submit to a million little tax laws. They should be happy about a tax evader getting busted, but they probably won’t be celebrating while the streets of New York City are boiling with fury.
If you want a big government, you’re going to have to accept big law enforcement. If you decide to protest the enforcement of dumb laws by fighting the cops, it could be hazardous to your health. For the unyielding encroachment into all of our lives, the Nanny State is this weeks, Liberal Bully of the Week.
• Rusty Humphries, a nationally syndicated talk radio host, is a contributor to The Washington Times.
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