A Washington cop’s been placed on leave, and the reason involves all of you.
On May 5th, Port of Seattle Police Officer Greg Anderson posted a video on law enforcement’s recent role in punishing Americans for enjoying their (former) liberties.
And man — did he say a mouthful.
The way Greg sees it, “officers nationwide” are “enforcing tyrannical orders against the people.”
He hopes it’s “the minority of officers.” Sadly, he’s “not sure anymore.”
The man in blue had a stunning message for his colleagues.
Please read or watch:
In Greg’s view, we’re losing what makes us America:
“[E]very time I turn on the television, every time I look to the internet, I’m seeing people arrested or cited for going to church, for traveling on the roadways, for going surfing, opening their businesses, going to the park with their families, or doing nails out of their own house — using their house as a place of business. And having undercover agents go there and arrest them. And charge ’em with — with what? With a crime? I don’t know what crime people are committing by doing nails in their own house. But we’re seeing this more, and more and more. And we need to start looking at ourselves as officers and thinking, ‘Is what I’m doing right?’ I wanna remind you that regardless of where you stand on the coronavirus, we don’t have the authority to do those things to people just because a mayor or a governor tells you otherwise. I don’t care if it’s your sergeant of your chief of police, we don’t get to violate people’s constitutional rights because somebody in our chain of command tells us otherwise. It’s not how this country works.”
Citizens are even being wrongfully jailed:
“Those are de facto arrests. We are violating people’s rights and taking money from them, or — even worse — arresting them and depriving them of their freedom when they are exercising their constitutional rights.”
Eventually, patriot turned to the Declaration of Independence:
“‘[A]ll men are created equal.’ … Among these, we have ‘the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their power from the consent of the governed.'”
He even offered a translation:
“Meaning their — our — power, and any government official’s power is derived from the people… We don’t hold power over our citizens. That’s…contradictory to everything that our country stands for. And this is what I’m seeing.”
Greg gave examples from the news, corresponding to which freedoms they violate.
And it was glorious.
We could use many more in positions of power seeing things his way.
“Fourth Amendment violations — illegal traffic stops to check for papers? What are you, the Gestapo? Is this 1930’s Nazi Germany? You don’t get to stop people unless you have reasonable suspicion or probable cause that they have committed a crime. And I know people that have personally been stopped, saying, ‘We wanna see papers showing that you are essential.’ That is not how our job works…”
He’s angry — because the actions of others are making his job more difficult. And dangerous:
“What really has been pissing me off lately is the fact that these officers that are going out here and enforcing these tyrannical orders, what they’re doing is they’re…putting my job and my safety at risk. Because…you’re widening the gap between public trust and law enforcement officers.”
Officer Anderson believes we’ve turned a curve:
“And what that’s gonna do is it’s gonna, I mean — look at what’s happened to law enforcement in the last 10 years. Less and less public trust. And more often than not, that is the result of isolated incidents that get blown out of proportion. They’re not isolated anymore. They’re happening every single day.”
The special ops vet culled from his experiences oversees in order to lay down a lesson on law:
“[T]he thing that I want you guys to realize is that our power that we hold as law enforcement officers, it’s nothing more than a facade. It’s a badge and a gun. And…you don’t realize if you haven’t lived in anarchy, if you haven’t seen combat, things can be stripped from people in a heartbeat. And that’s what I’m afraid of.”
The man knows the American spirit:
“I’m afraid these actions are going to wake a sleeping giant, i.e. the American people… They’re going to be put in a position where they won’t have their rights trampled anymore. And us as law enforcement officers, we’ll have our ability to enforce the law stripped from us in about 10 minutes.”
In his opinion, we may be headed for a heartache:
“I think what is gonna happen, if this continues, is we’re gonna see bloodshed in the streets… I don’t wanna see bloodshed in the streets. On either side of the coin.”
“And I promise you,” he went on, “most of you out there doing these tyrannical acts against our citizens, you’re not ready for combat. You’re not mentally or physically ready for combat in the first place. I promise you, you don’t want to go through that, and I hope I never have to go through that again.
Greg asserted his fellow officers “don’t get to just say, ‘Well I’m doing this because I was told to do so.'”
And money’s no reason to stay in a job which forces you to violate folks’ liberty — he has 3 young children and two houses of his own. But, to his way of thinking, his “personal choices and…personal living arrangements, no matter what they are, don’t allow [him] to trample on people’s rights.”
So he’s challenging all who serve:
“You need to stand up for what’s right. If you’re part of a department or an agency that is…asking their officers or their deputies to impose on people’s rights and infringe on their freedoms, you need to step up and say, ‘No, that’s not me. That’s not what I signed up for, and that’s going against my oath.’ And if that costs you your job, so be it. At least you’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror at night. I’ve already expressed this to my department. And luckily, for me, I come from a department that, I feel like, my chain of command shares my view. But I don’t care what department you’re part of, or what your chain of command thinks. You don’t get to trample on people’s liberty.”
Greg’s seen fighting in Iraq, but he thinks it’s nothing compared to the fight in the hearts of those who’ve lived in the world’s most free society:
“[Americans] are gonna fight 10 times harder for their freedom on their soil than anything you’ve ever seen before. And if that’s something you’re willing to face, then keep trampling on people’s rights. But I promise you, the American spirit of defiance is going to rise again, and it’s going to be a big problem for our country.”
“Ask yourself,” he insisted, “Am I doing the right thing?”
Is this guy running for office? Would he like to? Would he be willing to?
His Instagram insight garnered 600,000 views.
But in a Monday update, as per The Daily Wire, Greg posted to the social networking site that he’s now been placed on leave.
The department’s confirmed as much on their website:
Officer Greg Anderson is on paid administrative leave while we look into allegations that he violated our policy on the use of social media.
The man himself explained:
“I have been placed on administrative leave (still being paid) pending investigation. I was told by both the agency and my union that this will result in termination due to it being an insubordination charge for refusing to take down the video. I’m not sure what the timeline looks like. I walk un-intimidated into the fray. Thank you for all the support.”
This — all of it — is profound. All Greg said. And what has happened in light of it.
What more can I say here? I believe Greg Anderson was right. And is.
And I hope all of you sound off in the Comments section.
A lot of people are letting their voices be heard: A “Support Officer Anderson” GoFundMe created Monday, with the goal of raising $50,000 in support of Greg, has at the time of this writing garnered donations from over 10,000 people — who gave a total of $342,325.
-Alex
See 3 more pieces from me:
Joy Behar Has a Complete Come-Apart, Tells Lara Trump to Wipe ‘That Smug Smile’ Right Off Her Face
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Find all my RedState work here.
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