Monday, March 29, 2010

Advice We Shouldn’t Have to Give When Dealing with Cops

Flex Your Rights will soon be releasing an instructional video titled 10 Rules for Dealing with Police.

Here are the 10 rules, in short form.

1. Always be calm and cool.

2. You have the right to remain silent.

3. You have the right to refuse searches.

4. Don’t get tricked into waiving your rights.

5. Determine if you’re free to go.

6. Don’t do anything illegal.

7. Don’t run.

8. Never touch a cop.

9. Report misconduct: Be a good witness.

10. You don’t have to let them in.

In a post titled 10 Rules For Dealing With Police: Prudence and Subservience, Ken at the Popehat blog astutely comments on rule number 1.

See, if your goal is not to be abused, wrongfully arrested, falsely accused, searched without probable cause, or proned out on the pavement because you irritated someone with a gun and a badge, then “don’t be mouthy to a cop” is excellent practical advice. But dammit, we shouldn’t have to give that advice. The concept that you should expect to be abused if you aren’t meek (or, to be more realistic, subservient) in dealing with public servants ought to be abhorrent to a society of free people. Courtesy is admirable, and unnecessary rudeness is not, but rudeness ought not be seen as inviting government employees to break the law. But the reality is that our society largely issues apologias for, not denunciations of, police abuse. The prevailing belief is that claims of abuse are about lawyers or crooks trying to game the system, that people accused of crimes generally committed them, and that cops are heroes of the sort who deserve the benefit of the doubt when their account of a roadside encounter differs from that of a citizen. Our society, for the most part, indulges cops in their expectation that citizens will be subservient. As a result, “don’t talk back to a cop” remains tragically apt practical advice.

Moreover, the truth of it is that many cops will interpret an assertion of your constitutional rights, however politely delivered, as a rude challenge. They are supported in that view by four decades of “law and order” talk that classifies constitutional rights as mere instrumentalities of crime, not as the rules by which we have chosen to live.

Shame on us if we put up with that.

Well said.

Linked via Radley Balko who titles his post on the subject On Flexing Your Rights. Or at Least Meagerly Trying to Hold on to Them.

Links to clips from the instructional video can by accessed at Popehat, Radley’s site, and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Posted by John Venlet on 03/29 at 02:43 PM
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Submarine Escape Training Is Not New

Reynolds links to a Wired Magazine article titlted Navy’s New Escape Trainer Helps Submariners Avoid a Watery Grave.

Wired’s short piece reads as follows.

Getting out of a plunging Navy jet is simple: Pull the eject lever. Escaping from a disabled nuclear sub? A bit trickier. You first have to climb into a full-body buoyancy suit (which later transforms into a one-man life raft), then scramble into an escape chamber, seal the door, inflate the suit, and hold on tight as the lock is flooded with icy water. Then open the hatch and try not to panic during that long float to the surface. Luckily, the US Naval School in New London, Connecticut, now has a facility that lets sailors perform not-so-dry runs. The 37-foot-deep, 84,000-gallon tank — the first of its kind in the US — offers exact replicas of the escape chambers in Virginia— and Los Angeles-class submarines. Perfect for teaching sailors how to rise to the top.

What may be “first of its kind” about this facility would only be; to my knowledge as a former submariner who served on the first Los Angeles class sub (SSN688); that the escape chambers at the facility are “exact replicas” of the escape chambers within both the Los Angeles class and Virginia class subs.  There is nothing new about the dive chamber facility itself.

Submarine escape training has been going on for decades.  Pearl Harbor, where I participated in sub escape training, had a dive tower where hundreds of bubbleheads went through sub escape training, while wearing only a Steinke hood, rather than the new MK-10 Submarine Escape and Immersion Equipment (SEIE).

Wired should have done a bit more fact checking.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/29 at 01:01 PM
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Lessons From A Flat Roof

I’ve been working on a flat roof which covers my back porch.  The roof leaked a bit as Winter was passing into Spring, something which has occurred in the past, and I thought that this year I would fix this leak once and for all.

The first step, of course, was to tear up the old rolled roofing and tar paper to reveal the wooden decking.  Not an exceptionally pleasant task, but a definite must to do the job right.  Roofing nails in the hundreds needed to be pulled, decades of accumulations of roof patch cement and stubbornly clinging rolled roofing needed to be chiseled clean, hammer blow by hammer blow.

Once all the accumulations were removed, even an untrained eye such as my own could ascertain that larger issues than simply a leaking roof needed to be contended with.  Sections of the decking, and the supporting joists, were dry rotted, barely bearing the weight they were designed to support.

The offending tongue and groove decking needed to be removed, board by board, and as each piece was removed, it revealed that another, and another needed to removed in order to get back to sections of the joists which were unspoiled wood, and could be depended upon to actually support the roof decking and be structurally sound.

Once these preparations had been completed, I was fortunate that I could sister in new 2 X 8 treated lumber to the existing joists, rather than having to resort to a complete demolition.

As I was working on this project, I considered how it related to the current state of affairs within these United States.

As Americans, we believe that the foundations of our freedom are sound, as the covering for our freedoms appear intact.  The Constitution of the United States, and The Bill of Rights, still protect us from the government, and yet there are leaks.  Americans are advised that the leaks in these protections are minor, that Congress is laboring mightily to ensure that the leaks are addressed, patched over and monitored for future problems, but there are larger problems than the leaks in these protections which Americans must turn their minds to.

I thought I was contending just with poor rolled roofing on my leaking porch roof, yet when I removed the rolled roofing and tar paper, I noted that a more insidious problem assailed me.  Rotting decking and rotting joists.  So it is with America.  Rotting decking and rotting joists are holding Americans’ freedoms in place, and unless the rotting decking and joists are repaired or removed, the illusion of Americans’ freedoms being protected is going to come crashing down on Americans’ heads.

At this point in American politics, a repair such as I am undertaking, sistering in new wooden joist lumber to support the whole, could still be accomplished, if Americans acted now.  The rot in American politics must be removed or buttressed with principled, uncompromising adherence to freedom.  If Americans do not act now, in all likelihood a complete demolition will have to occur, and the cost associated with such a demolition is not easily borne.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/29 at 11:35 AM
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“Do I Surrender My Rights”

What follows, is a letter written by a young lady who is a junior in high-school, who has been considering an education path which would result in her becoming a doctor.  She is not so sure, now.

“Do I Surrender My Rights?”

Dear Society,

I am writing you today to express my deep concern. I am but one of the many silent casualties of healthcare reform. Currently I am a high school junior who is considering my future. One path I am pondering is becoming a doctor. I am an honor student, active in sports, and am taking advanced placement college classes. The fact that I enjoy biology, chemistry, and helping others made me consider the long, arduous journey towards a medical degree.

Recently though, I heard a new phrase in the healthcare debate that gave me cause for concern, “healthcare is a right”. My understanding of a right has always been that we were born with it, and it can never come at the expense of others’ rights. How can you now lay claim to my hard work and future talents? I now feel that if I choose the medical profession I would become a second class citizen.

My dear American friend, after eight years of intense study, many more years of internship and residency, not to mention the hundreds of thousands in debt, I feel the price I am being asked to pay not just in dollars, but in my freedom is more than I can bear. I ask how many more silent voices in classrooms, from my fellow students with an equal passion for healing the sick, will never be heard in clinics and hospitals across this great country?

Alyssa Z

Linked via Paul Hsieh who titles his opening to the young lady’s letter Another Silent Casualty of Health Care Reform.

UPDATE:  Chuck, at From my position on the way, provides A simple definition of a right.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/29 at 09:58 AM
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On Female Suicide Bombers

News is just now reaching us in regards to the suicide bombing attack on the Russian subway.  A suicide bombing carried out by female suicide bombers.

Talking heads will be scratching their scalps attempting to explain why females would do such a thing, citing patriarchal society, chauvinism, lack of access to Estee Lauder products, or some such nonsense, when in reality, the use of females as suicide bombers is much more simple.

What simple genius it was to make a bomb team of young pretty women.  The world will do their bidding.  They ask and receive.  Doors open.  Guards go down.  It’s done, like that.

Quote from Martin McPhillips’ Corpse in Armor, Ch. 56, pg. 310, 2010.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/29 at 07:31 AM
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A Sleeping Giant or a Comatose Pygmy?

Arnold Kling pens a opinion piece, in regards ObamaCare (DeathCare), titled Health care bill woke a sleeping giant.  Kling opens his piece stating the following.

For many Americans, March 21, 2010, is a date that will live in infamy.

Though I would like to believe that Kling is correct about March 21 living in “infamy,” I think most Americans, even those opposed to ObamaCare (DeathCare), if queried about the significance of March 21st, 2010 would state, “Uh, that was the first day of Spring, right?”

Kling then ends his piece this way.

The point here is that health care legislation was just one battle. The overall war is larger. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Admiral Yamomoto is reported to have said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” So it should be with us today.

Kling is correct in noting that the ObamaCare (DeathCare) battle was “just one battle,” but it just one of many battles that Americans have lost and failed to learn from when having to turn and fight again and again.

Kling is also correct that the overall war is larger, but I fear that the resolve Kling desires would be infused into the American people is not a resolve to win even one battle against the State, but rather a resolve to adjust their chains for a more comfortable fit.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/29 at 07:06 AM
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