Where human liberty is concerned, they are now almost invariably on the wrong side. They are servants of the State who have become the enemies, not only of the citizenry, but of human freedom:
On a mild February afternoon, Fiorino, 25, decided to walk to an AutoZone on Frankford Avenue in Northeast Philly with the .40-caliber Glock he legally owns holstered in plain view on his left hip. His stroll ended when someone called out from behind: “Yo, Junior, what are you doing?”
Fiorino wheeled and saw Sgt. Michael Dougherty aiming a handgun at him.
What happened next would be hard to believe, except that Fiorino audio-recorded all of it: a tense, profanity-laced, 40-minute encounter with cops who told him that what he was doing – openly carrying a gun on the city’s streets – was against the law.
“Do you know you can’t openly carry here in Philadelphia?” Dougherty asked, according to the YouTube clip.
“Yes, you can, if you have a license to carry firearms,” Fiorino said. “It’s Directive 137. It’s your own internal directive.”
Fiorino was right. It was perfectly legal to carry the gun. But that didn’t matter to the cop:
Fiorino offered to show Dougherty his driver’s and firearms licenses. The cop told him to get on his knees.
“Excuse me?” Fiorino said.
“Get down on your knees. Just obey what I’m saying,” Dougherty said.
“Sir,” Fiorino replied, “I’m more than happy to stand here -“
“If you make a move, I’m going to f—— shoot you,” Dougherty snapped. “I’m telling you right now, you make a move, and you’re going down!”
“Is this necessary?” Fiorino said.
It went on like that for a little while, until other officers responded to Dougherty’s calls for backup.
Fiorino was forced to the ground and shouted at as he tried to explain that he had a firearms license and was legally allowed to openly carry his weapon.
“You f—— come here looking for f—— problems? Where do you live?” yelled one officer.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen,” Fiorino said. “If I’m under arrest, I have nothing left to say.”
“F—— a——, shut the f— up!” the cop hollered.
The cops discovered his recorder as they searched his pockets, and unleashed another string of expletives.
Fiorino said he sat handcuffed in a police wagon while the officers made numerous phone calls to supervisors, trying to find out if they could lock him up.
When they learned that they were in the wrong, they let him go.
It is vital – absolutely vital – to record your EVERY interaction with the police. If possible, the recorded interactions should be live-streamed to a safe server outside the jurisdiction – this is an iPhone / Android app that I’ve been contemplating for some time now and which I believe is going to become increasingly necessary for Americans as the various levels of government get ever more paranoid and desperate for revenue.
I have to admit, I’m almost looking forward to seeing how the strutting bully boys and bravos with badges who are so violently high-handed in their dealings with everyday Americans panic when they are forced to deal with the anti-police tactics of the Mexican cartels, whose activities are gradually spilling across the border courtesy of the present bi-factional regime’s de facto open immigration policies.
Don’t get me wrong. It will be a bloody mess, a political disaster, and it won’t be fun for anyone. But it will be impossible to say that any of the parties involved don’t deserve what they’ll be getting.