You know, I’m as sympathetic as the next guy if someone gets bullied by a rogue cop.  I can’t stand the idea of random checkpoints, unless a bandit is on the loose.  I think that militarization of the police is a real thing.  I’ve seen terrifying video of cops hassling gun owners, kids, blacks, and others.  There are truly cops out of control.

I also have complete respect for the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble, and freedom of speech for the purpose of protesting government action.  There are legitimate reasons for many people to protest police brutality and worse.

But what I see today, and what I’ve seen for a long time, is not protest, but kidnapping. 

When a “protestor” shuts down a highway, and does not permit a citizen to travel, causing traffic to be snarled, and there is no exit, that is at the very least malicious mischief, and at worse kidnapping. 

Think deeper. 

First, doesn’t every citizen have the right to the pursuit of happiness under the law?  How can I pursue if I’m impeded from natural movement?  And if the police are aiding and abetting this kidnapping, by permitting angry people to block highways, that is violating my civil rights!

Second, what about those people who are deathly ill and on the way to the hospital?  Emergency trips to help loved ones in trouble?  Literally, the blockage of highways puts lives on the line.  The angry people who block highways are guilty of causing irreparable harm to others, and the police, aiding and abetting, are parties to deaths and raging illnesses.  Real damage is occurring.  If I were caught in traffic that day, and had such as a case, whether it was myself or a loved one, I would sue the police, mayor, town council, and governor for not clearing the highway as fast as possible.

But not only did the police in Chicago, New York, Washington, and Miami fail to clear, they actually herded these angry people to a spot where traffic was sure to be impeded!

Whenever a person who is able to travel is deliberately blocked from travel, when travel might otherwise be swiftly unimpeded, that is kidnapping.

And if it is not kidnapping, it is negligence to harm.

Is someone going to tell me that snarled traffic for hours does not cause lives to be lost, the sick to get sicker, the endangered to become more endangered?

When there is an auto accident on the highway, the cops are there swiftly, the tow trucks are called, and the wreck is moved immediately.  People are not punished to sit and meditate on the frailty of life for hours on end.

When a fire is blazing, the fire trucks are dispatched, and traffic is slowed or blocked only for as long as it takes an alternate route to be established.  People are not punished to sit and watch the entire scene, in order to meditate on their own good fortune.

But in the case of angry people blocking the highway, not only was the purpose to interrupt the happiness of people, their peace, but also the pursuit of happiness, their movement.  And the police permitted this for hours, did not set up an alternate route, and did not remove the angry people as quickly as possible.  Instead, motorists were subject to their own anger.  Many motorists were not meditating on life, but rather (I guarantee you) were meditating on death and harm to those blocking the road.

It doesn’t matter if some motorists were sympathetic.  It doesn’t matter if the cops were trying to be safe or keep the peace.  It doesn’t matter if the mayor wanted to look good for the next election, or for public relations.  The fact is, people with lives of their own were kept beyond the time reasonably necessary to clear the road, and this is deliberate mischief, harm, and kidnapping.

We do not have the right to step on the rights of others.

There is no implicit right to protest even someone’s business establishment.  It causes harm and it blocks traffic.  Why would there be a right to block a highway?  There is no priority of judgment in law.  The right to peaceably protest does not include the right to block the movement of others, except if there is a prior permit to do so.  There is no priority of societal mindfulness which supersedes the right of people to travel without molestation.

It wouldn’t surprise me if angry motorists came out of their cars and rushed the people blocking traffic, to clear them.  But I suppose the police would bully the angry motorists, overriding their concerns and rights, perhaps even beating innocent motorists who just want to go where they’re going.  That is unlawful use of police force.

Did these people have a license to parade?  Was the route marked?  Was there a time to start and stop?  No!

These people, having only their anger, claimed whatever claim they liked, blocked roads, caused people’s lives harm and inconvenience, and got police protection at the same time!

Why can’t any group therefore stop traffic if they like?  Tea Party?  KKK?  Black Panthers?  Homicidal maniacs?  Your rights to unmolested movement between locations is apparently not as important as the rights of angry people to vent by blocking your way.

Oh, I’m being irrational, you say?

No, actually, I’m the only rational voice in the room.  Everyone else is arguing the facts of the cases, whether cops should have done this or that, and “what is your message, o angry person on the street?”  I’m telling you straight up, that when ordinary citizens block ordinary citizens from traveling on roads which are blocked without permits, that is kidnapping.  And when the police fail to clear these roads in a very timely manner, or provide an alternate route in a very timely manner, these police have violated the civil rights of those blocked, by protecting a certain class of citizen (angry) over another.  And these police, the commissioner, the mayor, and even the governor are liable for (1) criminal negligence in aiding and abetting, (2) civil suit for causing damage, harm, and suffering, and (3) civil rights suit for protecting one class over another.

It’s not surprising that the communist mayors of New York, Chicago, and DC permit these travesties on ordinary citizens.  I’m surprised Mayor Bill DeBlasio wasn’t out taunting the New York cops with chants of “NYPD KKK!”  And yes, I heard those chants myself, just not from DeBlasio.

If we want these so-called “protests” on highways and roads to stop, we will have to sue the cities.

It won’t help to sympathize.  It will just lead to further anarchy.

It won’t help to complain.  The cops are under orders, the mayors are commies, and the rest of them are cowards.

It won’t help to get violent.  You will go to jail, not the angry people in the road.

The only thing which will help is mass lawsuits against the city, viz.,

(1) “Your inactivity to clear the road when you had opportunity and means caused my _______________ to die (or suffer irreparable harm) when I was blocked from travel to the hospital (or other facility or location).  I am therefore suing the responsible parties (authorities, not “protestors”) for $_____________”

(2) “The police force’s inactivity to clear the road caused one group of citizens to be assisted by government, to the detriment of another group of citizens, namely, those traveling the road that night (or day).  This deliberate act by citizens to block the road was done so without permit or notice, which is a clear inequity of law. By deliberately doing nothing, the pursuit of happiness was impeded, and I lost x amount of dollars on a very important business deal (or the loss of some other important thing).  I am therefore suing for $____________________ harm, and $_______________ pain and suffering for the violation of my civil rights.”

(3) “By violating my civil rights, per point (2), I was placed in a strait-jacket of travel unnecessarily for a prolonged period of time.  Since the police were capable to clear the road but did not do so by order of the mayor (or other authority), this was a deliberate way to hold motorists hostage, which amounts to kidnapping.  I am therefore asking the District Attorney to file charges against the authorities who ordered my kidnapping.”

Don’t scoff.  Use the law, and force their hand.

Take these real grievances and run with them.  Let me know the results, and we will continue to push back against unlawful imprisonment on highways, and other harms.