An appeal from a cop...

I hate authority. I was raised by A-Holes my teachers were A-Holes and so are TPTB. Its this power tripping, I know its human nature and people cant help themselves but seriously cant you guys see just what it is your doing? You pull on your uniforms and go out into a society with massive problems and dont do anything at all to help. You are a part of the problem not part of the solution. Then you go on to have a cry about how alcoholism and suicide are big factors in your line of employment.. this is society for you you guys dont have it as bad as us we are at the bottom of the S pile so whenever you feel bad you can get your little fix of a power trip whenever you need and beat up on some dude that is already worse off than you. For shame, I cant believe you tried to go for a sympathy plea it makes me feel sick. Then you begin your second last paragraph with finally, but go on to try and instill fear with another paragraph, not that you didnt touch on it already. You are trained this way are you not? The biggest criminals go untouched through life because they own you and what do you do kiss their ass because they pay you. They tell you how to do your job so in saying that your profession is a joke. If any one of your superiors are brought down its usually a sacraficial lamb to protect others. Its cover up after cover up all the way to the top. So congratulations I hope you are a proud man and feel as though you make a difference if thats what keeps you going. As for the other side of your job and the revenue raising well thats just about helping to keep the rich rich right? Once again you must be proud. You want sympathy try to find real solutions to real problems and if your peers cut you down you will have it. Otherwise my opinioin of you and your occupation has just dropped another notch if that were possible.

Wow... I simply had to register and post my two cents here.

First of all, I am a professional white male 31yo. With the run ins I've had with cops, I could only imagine how much worse I'd feel about them if I were a person of color or lower class.

I was first pulled over was when I was 17 and doing 65mph in a 40mph speed zone. Cop was nice and gave me a ticket for not using a turn signal.

Next couple times were all for speeding. Everything was fine, treated with respect, got tickets every time. Even one time I went around a corner and saw him put on his lights, I pulled into the back of a convenience store before he turned the corner, basically trying to get away, and all I got was yelled at.

Then the fun started and I started meeting cops with inflated heads on power trips.

The first time started when I was 19, at a red light, making a left, and a cop was at the red light going the opposite direction. When the light turned green, I waited for him to go, and I mean I waited a solid 15 seconds, and he never went. Then I went, and he pulled me over for cutting in front of him. Then he searched my car and grilled me on where I was going and what I was doing. It was entrapment and he was rude to me.

A month later my friend got arrested for having a joint, and he was 19 and it's on his record forever. A JOINT. Now he's mowing lawns.

A year later I was in a church parking lot, waiting for a friend who lived in a house across the street. Cop pulls up and basically started grilling my friend and I in the car. He asked us if we had HAND GRENADES and then proceeded to have us get out, frisk us and search our car. We were just waiting for a friend.

Another time I got pulled over for doing 31 in a 25 and was harassed.

My friends father was an obese police chief and was corrupt/stealing.

In more recent years, my wifes friend married a cop. We went out for St Patricks day with them and were astonished to see him waving his gun around while he was drunk, he drove drunk and even pulled out his gun and aimed it at some car that was trying to back out of a driveway and did nothing wrong. Then we went to their wedding, where a bunch of cops there were laughing and guffawing about how they were all "more criminal than cop". He was later arrested for jumping on top of a car, shooting his gun in the air, and hitting a cancer patient in the face. He urinated on the floor of the jail cell, and of course, has only been delegated to desk duty. His sister in law, another cop, was recently arrested for punching her ex-boyfriend in the face at a bar, when she saw him with another woman. Neither was expelled from the force.

All in all, there were a few OK run ins with cops where they let me go with a warning for stupid things - playing music in the car too loud, missing front license plate, of course that first speeding incident, BUT these brief ok encounters are overshadowed by the terrible ones!

It's like anything else, you eat at a good restaurant, you don't tell anyone. You expect the food to be good, you expect good service. But eat at a restaurant where they burn your steak, and the service stinks, and you tell 12 people.

Everyone I know has smoked pot from time to time. Yet we all know stories of LIVES RUINED because a cop arrests someone for having a joint. Alcohol is a much more dangerous drug, yet cops ruin innocent peoples lives EVERY DAY over pot. You do something stupid with pot in college and it's on your record forever. It's insane.

Furthermore, one of the biggest potheads in highschool that I knew is now a cop, ruining other kids lives who did the same things we did.

People aren't dummies. Decent people are harassed by cops all the time. Decent people smoke joints from time to time. We all know cops cover for one another. The whole thing is UNACCEPTABLE. Like someone else said, cops are there to SERVE the community, not harass them. If someone isn't doing anything wrong, leave them alone!

Originally posted by sparrowstail
I said earlier I had a friend who taught ethics in the police academy. He showed my group of youth this video that he uses to teach with that demonstrated the degree of respect, patience and tolerance that officers should strive for. I'm sure you have seen this one before. I think its hilarious.

It was his belief that officers should just let belligerence role off their backs. Because they are trained to deal with this kind of thing professionally as one of their duties. I don't condone the guy in the truck, but rather commend the trooper for his conduct.

This video is unusual in that this cop is UNLIKE almost all other cops. If that had been virtually any other cop, that man would have had his rights violated no doubt. The cop here is professional, but when we see a cop react as he SHOULD, as any PROFESSIONAL would, then we are amazed!! Why? we should be saying " Hey, I expect that from all cops...thats professional...the cop didn't let it get to him. "

But instead we are amazed because the cop was able to keep his cool...we expect cops to react badly because of past experience. They VAST majority of cops would never keep that cool..never.

reply to post by JWH44


Are you aware of this and the ramifications of it?
www.informationliberation.com...

It is a good example of what is wrong with law enforcement in this country.

Do you know the reason that we have such an insane amount of violence in this country? Especially down here on the southern border?

It is very simple.

It is the reason you need body armor.

It is the reason you have a job.

It is the reason we are having this conversation.

It is the illegality of narcotics.

Because certain substances are verboten here, a black market has sprung up. The products sold in this black market are easily obtainable. You can grow them in your backyard.

Lets look at some of the reasons that drugs are illegal.

Weed.
-Big Pharma hates weed. It replaces a large % of their products and services.

-Big Steel hates weed. It replaces the steel industry with ultra cheap ultra strong plastcs.

-Big Oil hates weed. Hempseed oil is cheaper than crude, and cleaner and easier to refine.

-The timber and paper industry hates weed.

But since weed, and many other drugs are determined to be contraband, and entire sector of our economy has sprung up based on that little fact.

-The private prison industry depends on a large amount of prisoners, so that they can keep their huge prisons full, at the expense of the taxpayer.

-The legal industry. Lawyers need laws to be broken, or they go out of business. We have the biggest prison population on the planet. Both in numbers, and in a %age of the population. Legal fees aren't cheap. When every single thing you do is illegal, it is hard to avoid hiring a high priced lawyer at some point in your life.

-The law enforcement industry. This industry is comprised of all the various corporations that create the nuts and bolts of law enforcement. From cop cars, to guns and ammo, to body armor ect. Without a massive amount of crime, and ever increasing crime rates these companies stock price falls dramatically.


So what I am getting at is simple really. The police/law business is a racket. If you can't see that, you probably don't really understand what is going on.

So when people see countless videos of cops tazering elderly women, or beating the hell out of a cripple in a wheelchair, you need to understand that people are going to lose respect for law enforcement officers.

This country is a Republic, and it is ruled by law. This is a good system in theory, until those making the law become corrupt and pass laws that only benefit large multinational corporations, and harm the general populace.

Without the possibility of making a profit from selling black market drugs, the narco violence and gang problems we have would disappear very quickly. Also the need for law enforcement personnel and the entire industry of law enforcement/law. These corporations have lobbyists in Washington that pay big bucks to the campaigns of various senators and reps, to make sure that no law gets passed or repealed that would cripple their industry.

That is corruption at the highest levels. If you are in law enforcement and don't understand these truths, you are going to get what you deserve, for ignorance. You ignorantly serve the will of corrupt politicians and corporations, and at the same time harm the people of this country by ruining their lives with insane amounts of jail time for the offense of trying to feel a certain way. These people are forever destroyed by their prison sentences, branded with the stamp of CRIMINAL. Many non violent drug offenders are jailed, then released to actually become violent offenders as it is nearly impossible to become gainfully employed after being in prison.

I agree that we need law enforcement officers. With the rule of law people can leave their homes to go to work or do business knowing that their property and belongings will be safe at home. I agree that a society that lives by just laws is ideal. I am not an anarchist that wants to destroy the government. I just think the government needs to protect the God given rights of its people, and not use them for nefarious, and greedy purposes that lead to the destruction of a Nation.

You just better stop and think about the way things are, and why they are that way. You better know that those you serve might not have your best in mind. You will be put in harms way for the greed of a few.

The Us versus Them situation that we are in is by design. TPTB want you to think of civilians as a group of brutal drug dealing thugs hell bent on offing you. They want the people to think all Cops are brutal jack booted nazi thugs, coming to put us all in concentration camps.

The endgame of all this is not pretty if we decide to fall for the ploy. TPTB want a "NWO". They cannot achieve this goal with the American population armed to the teeth, and unwilling to surrender to their globalist plot. They need a sharp division between the people and the police so that when things get bad there is a violent civil war. They want the police forces to get wiped out, and the violent ëxtemeists"that would fight the police so that their UN backed foreign peace keeping police force will meet little resistance.

We need to stand together. I agree the extreme amount of police brutality videos constantly on here, is doing nothing more than widening the divide between civilians and cops. It needs to stop. There is room for improvement on both sides of the isle. If we can't figure out how to be on the same side, our nation is doomed.

I am guilty commenting on some of those threads. Especially before I really realized why you see them so much, and the nature of the divisiveness of such things.

One thing that a lot of cops don't realize is the amount of law abiding citizens that do support them, and would even have their back. I am one of them. If I saw a cop in trouble I would help them, even if that meant helping them in a gun fight with a bunch of heavily armed, military trained criminals. Or in the case of a foreign invasion, I would stand by your side in defense of our country.

Thanks for your service, I have got your back exactly as long as you have mine.

Originally posted by Brown Bear
//quote// blanket characterization of law enforcement officers as monsters, thugs, fascists, etc, etc… //

I agree wholeheartedly. There was a time as a youngster when I believed that "cops are our friends" but those days are long gone, not because I've changed, but because clearly cops are not your friend.

That's what I've taught my children and they have no trouble seeing the truth in that statement as so few cops we meet have any integrity at all by human standards.

Does the poster want to pretend otherwise? Then clean up your own ranks, stop bullying honest people, stop illegal searches, start being human beings, and most of all, clean the scum out of your own ranks of which I, and many others, would say its filled with.

My brother is a cop in Las Vegas. When he was a kid he pulled wings off flies and tortured small animals. Perfect cop material? No only that, he had (and has) significant psychological problems. As do most of his fellow pigs.

Name calling. You see OP. that's the mentallity you're complaining about. Just do everyone a favor and keep bash'in their heads in.

[edit on 4-3-2010 by randyvs]

Oh, its me again ^^^

I forgot about the times I was driving my ice cream truck, which I did for 3 summers.

My first day, I didn't realize how long the truck was and I scraped the fender of an undercover cop car parked outside a house. I knocked on the door of the house and it was the cop, off duty. I explained what happened and he said "Well the police chief is going to have to come down here". They made me get in the back of the car and grilled me and gave me a ticket for reckless driving, which I later fought and got reduced to something else - careless driving I think.

The next summer some cops pulled me over and made me sign a search warrant, giving them permission to search the truck for drugs.

I never did anything wrong! Everyone gets in a fender bender from time to time, but hit a cop car and you get thrown in the back of a patrol car and have to go to court.

You hate cops. Fine. I hate finger pointers. now what?

Revolution...And I will see you on the inside...in my world

were being a cop or any other government employee will be your downfall.

I may be a criminal for smoking pot and yes I admit it. But to have my door taken off the hinges and guns put to my family's head for a flower is unjust.
I hold a flower they hold a gun?
I dont like coffee but I dont make it illegal and ruin lives to control it.
Ive done 15 years for weed. There is no good cops.
And to all you cops who are currupt....Fall off the fence and your in my world.
Reason enough to never quit...so just do what comes naturally, telling people how bad they are and how you can "help" them....Ya right

The fundamental problem that most people have with police officers stems from a single multifaceted issue: police officers are protected, the citizens are not.

That is not an opinion, that is a fact, and you will not argue with it. Quite the contrary, you will not only acknowledge it, you will defend it.

EXAMPLE A, 2 citizens (presumed innocent) have an altercation that NO ONE ELSE witnesses. It is one citizen's word against the other: the only way one of those citizens gets to "win" a court battle is with EVIDENCE (documentation, video, etc.).

EXAMPLE B, 1 citizen and 1 cop have an altercation that NO ONE ELSE witnesses. Cop arrests citizen (for assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, planted drugs, etc.). It is the cop's word against the citizen's word. Who wins? The COP, every single time WITHOUT exception.

EXAMPLE B includes other less dramatic cases like, cop accuses citizen of running a stop sign. Cop has no burden of proof, just his/her word is enough for the court/judge. Citizen's refutation of the accusation has exactly ZERO weight with the court.

Now I know you are going to not only acknowledge Example B, you will DEFEND it as necessary in order for "society to function". Criminal Justice "experts" will have all kinds of legal reasons defending the institutional practice, etc.

But the fact remains, the fundamental fact remains, is that the Police are protected and given a higher "god like" authority over the citizenry. And it is because of this fact that police abuse is not only allowed to occur, but encouraged, and practiced on a daily basis (just go to traffic court any day of the work week).

Until those police are actually required to provide PROOF and EVIDENCE, not mere allegations, the public will ALWAYS and until the end of time watch the police with a suspicious eye. Anecdotal stories will circulate.

And don't even get me started on how the system protects "its own" when they are actually called out for abuse by a citizen. How many times have we heard about these murderous police officers were "found of no wrong doing" even when the EVIDENCE shows the officers were guilty of murder?

JWH44, you make a lot of good points about police brutality being isolated incidents and not representative of police officers as a whole. You might be right about this, while I have heard stories of abuses such as beatings or not giving citizens meals while in custody, I have no real idea how prevalent police brutality or abuses of power are in the respect in which you spoke of them.

What I can call police out on is their willing participation in arresting consensual criminals: namely violators of drug and prostitution laws.


There was a study called the Milgram Experiments that was designed to figure out if Germans were a special breed in their ability to become Nazi soldiers or if all humans were capable of following orders that harmed other people against their will.

The results from that study show that 2 out of 3 people will shock another human being to the highest voltage setting on a shocking machine while the victim being shocked demands to be let go all because an authority figure, a doctor, tells them to.

Police are a part of that 2 out of 3, that is a fact.


A person's body is their own, they have the right to put substances in it or sell sex for money. The state does not have a right to stop that. Arresting adults for engaging in consensual activity is wrong. The consequences of these arrests lead to fines and prison sentences. Police officers know this and yet they still arrest consensual criminals.

Police know they are harming people against their will, just like the 2 out of 3 Milgram Experiment volunteers knew they were harming the other volunteers against their will. This knowledge stops neither group.

Making these arrests is unethical, it is immoral.

(I have no kind words for the DAs or Judges involved in this either but that is for another thread.)


You can rationalize it away all you want saying "you are just doing your job", "that you don't make the laws, you just enforce them" but that is all that it is, a rationalization you tell yourself so you can have a clean conscience even though you are harming adults against their will by arresting them for engaging in consensual activity.


Either we are free men or we are slaves owned by the state, which is it? If I am a free man then I own my body and I get to decide what I put into it or how I decide to sell it.

Show me a law enforcement officer who has never and will never arrest a fellow human being for engaging in consensual adult activity and I might be able to respect that officer (depends on the rest of their career of course).

I'm going to say that 75% of cops are good.

The other 25% has some issues with anger management.


They've done some nice things for me and sometimes not so nice things.

reply to post by colt122

I may be a criminal for smoking pot and yes I admit it. But to have my door taken off the hinges and guns put to my family's head for a flower is unjust.

Wow I didn't know that. That's really horrible that happened to you.
John Wayne said, Life is tough. It's tougher, if your stupid. I'm no stranger to weed my self. I'm out here your in there. Tempt me
again with your pathetic fear tactics I might show up on your yard.

reply to post by colt122

Ive done 15 years for weed. There is no good cops.

15 years in prison for a non-violent drug crime, a consensual crime? That is a travesty of justice, you have my condolences.

How many 15 year prison sentences add up to a murder? 3? 4?

I don't know about your experience but I would likely rather have 15 years cut off the end of my life than lose 15 years during the middle of my life to a prison sentence.

Now add up three or four 15 year prison sentences and you essentially have 45-60 years taken off of human beings, in many ways it is equal to one murder, one murder by the cops making the arrests, the DAs prosecuting the cases, the judges sentencing the defendants, and the politicians making the laws.

Yet the cops are still out there, "just doing their jobs", cause hey "they don't make the laws, they just enforce them".

It is absolutely disgusting.

I remember in the 1980ts UK, the Miners strike , there was a little old Lady who was complaining about the policing of the strikers, She said something ill always remember,,,, 2 strikers ran into my garden with 4 police men chasing them in a rage with batons, there was something I noticed that made me mad was the fact that the 2 strikers had the decency to jump over my Flowers! were as the 4 Police Men Plowed right through them, they dont have respect for descent People anymore! This was on the 9 oc news...

Bobbox1980

You have the right idea that I could not put into words....Iam a Freeman and until my sovereign rights are protected, the Police are a scam institute run by killers. The government has ruled with a iron fist and is a force to be reckoned with not something you want to bring home to the family.

Iam Canadian so im just a dirtball waiting for your government to make a move, then Candy assed Canadians will follow suite.

I have a right to say

"what were you people thinking letting Bush and Obama get this far?"

reply to post by Anthony1138

Maybe, just maybe we would police ourselves. What a novel idea that is. Think about it, if everyone I mean everyone with the exception of the criminal element were open carry, that might solve he problem. Suppose we all had a rotational stint with appropriate training in citizen policing? Say a week off from our typical 9 to 5 and with pay, then back to our day jobs. Those with an inability to police could be citizen court personel/judge/jury for a week instead.
If there were a sensible set of guidelines and rules for each violation for citizens to follow then perhaps a just result might follow. Also a society might have commonsense punishments that fit any given infraction.
Maybe a lottery system for choosing each position. If a week is'nt workable then whatever length of time is workable. Perhaps the lottery would be held in a timely manner in advance of the role change an education period could be implemented.
I know, this might seem unworkable but then again how could we know? You see I don't buy into the chaos and anarchy theory, I tend to think we're mature enough and concerned enough to step up to the plate. I would certainly be willing to do my part, what about you? I guess my only real concern would be wether this could be done within the framework of the constitution.

YouSir

Originally posted by Edrick
reply to post by JWH44

 

Welcome to the lion's den...

I don't think it could be summed up any better. Great references! If I could give you a billion stars on this one I would

Good Post, and thank you for writing it, and for your service to the people of your county.

I hate when people just throw a huge blanket over any group, organization, race, or even religion.

It's basically organization racism.

When you have a run in with one bad cop some people then belive well ALL cops must be like that one. I just don't understand that kind of thinking.

There are good cops and bad cops. Just like there are good ...take any job for instance, plumbers. There's good ones, then there's ones that will try to screw you over for every cent they can.

I understand if someone has issues with Laws, or the ideals of certain organizatiosn or religions, or a companies policies.

But to say everyone that works for them, or follows a religion or what have you is a liar, a thief , a muderer ect is just outright proposterous. It's one of the things that really gets under my skin more than anything. Just like Racism.

Of course there are certain groups and cults and companies and organizations that every member is bad through and through. Like say the KKK or other corrupt organization and groups that require you to be a racists muderer with no morals to even be a part of. That's a different story. You can go ahead and say every one of them is basically a person who has gone down the wrong path in life or has been brought up this way, and they are all just plain bad.

But for the most part you can't just throw a huge Blanket over groups just beause you had a bad experience with one of it's members.

//quote// blanket characterization of law enforcement officers as monsters, thugs, fascists, etc, etc… //

I agree wholeheartedly and could add more adjectives. There was a time as a youngster when I believed that "cops are our friends" but those days are long gone, not because I've changed, but because clearly cops are not our friends and never will be again.

I've taught my children to value truth, and they have no trouble seeing the truth of that so few cops we meet have any integrity at all by human standards. How many times have we all seen them lie in court and abuse their authority? Hundreds, thousands, more?

Does the poster want to pretend otherwise? Then clean up your own act, stop bullying honest people, stop illegal searches, start being human beings, and most of all, clean the scum out of the cop ranks of which I, and many others, would say its filled with them. STAND FOR INTEGRITY for a welcome change..

My brother is a cop in Las Vegas. When he was a kid he pulled wings off flies and tortured small animals. Perfect cop material by current standards. Not only that, as a child he had significant psychological problems including bed wetting and still has major problems.

Through him I have personal knowledge of dozens and dozens of police abuses and know that my brother and his friends care nothing about Constitutional rights AND would never turn in (or even confront) a fellow pig about misconduct. They're proud of it in their arrogance and ignorance.

I wouldn't trust him, or them; and I don't, and I suggest that none of you do either. But anybody with open eyes knows that already and that there are many good reasons why cops are called "pigs."


[edit on 4-3-2010 by Brown Bear]

[edit on 4-3-2010 by Brown Bear]

[edit on 4-3-2010 by Brown Bear]

"Finally, I would like to address one sentiment that I have seen over and over. Those that openly call for cops to just go away and stop being cops. Do you really want that? I will fill you in a few harsh realities that you may not have a full understanding of. I hear comments all the time about us and our badges and our guns that are outward symbols to you of our oppressive nature. But what about the other tools of our trade? The body armor we wear? That is a defensive measure, not an aggressive one. On that note, there is also the understanding that our body armor probably won’t help us when we deal with the increasingly violent and sophisticated criminals who no longer confront us with handguns or shotguns, but high-powered rifles that completely negate the body armor we wear. So what if we just stopped? What if we all quit and walked away? Who is going to protect us? I ask you; who here is going to step up to that plate? In case you haven’t heard, there are some evil people in this world to whom life is a cheap commodity. You have all heard of the violence in Mexico, but what you probably haven’t seen is the harsh, cruel ugly reality.

I had considered posting some photos from intel reports that I have on my computer that would catch many of you cop-haters at a loss for words. And words don’t do these images justice. I can’t post them because I would be banned from this site. But this is the part to understand; these images are from YOUR backyard. These are not images from backwards countries half a world away; they are from your friendly neighbors to the south, and in some cases are actually from this side of the river. Images of executions on a massive scale; shootouts in the streets between rival criminal enterprises, an outnumbered and UNSUPPORTED police force. And in all of these photos, you will see a few common characteristics. Weapons befitting an army, violence and wanton disregard for innocent bystanders, and U.S. DOLLARS. Lots of them. You have no idea what is being help at bay by the thin blue line that you hate so much."

My words are going to seem harsh...But..hey...You said it cops are people who make their choice to go into law enforcement. So my words are boo F'n whoo. Look are all cops bad? No. But my stand is a little different from most on here because a great deal are so anti-any thing. You see since I have been in my field I have yet to see taxes go down. And to that I do not see a problem with dis-banning our local law enfocement agencies and putting our federal government on the streets i.e. army to defend our society.
I mean I see so much tax money go into all sorts of special SWAT teams and crap. We have that already! The military...why pay a second military to do the job of one that is already armed to do that job. Our cash strapped civil municipals are growing every day, I see a way to save millions many be even billions. Yea it's not a popular view but it makes dollars and cents. Technology is going to replace LEO's very soon so why pay 2 people when 1 can get the job done.
You choose your profession...? So you choose to take what comes with it. And with technology moving so fast the days of back road instant kick your teeth in before you haul them off to jail justice that does go on is shrinking. People stopped respecting LEO when they started seperating them selves from society and reinventing them selves after the military. We have that already. I don't see the need from a financial stand point. If your going to act like the military and dress like the military and train with the military. I say do away with it and let the military handle it and save billions in tax dollars. After all if were not doing any thing wrong we have nothing to fear...right

So, you are the exception to the rule? Glad to finally meet you! I always believed there was one good cop. I am really surprised that you have not been harrassed and driven out by the 'bad' cops. They would say 'you just don't get it'.
It is exactly like what is going on in churches today, the actual Christians are now fleeing, or being driven out by Satan's congregation or staff.
If I were carrying, I would be really quick to jump in to support an officer, or a regular citizen, like that girl that was assaulted while non-LEOs watched. It is always good to have people around who are armed, and would cause problems for potential robbers, so I can see where the free coffee makes sense.
I understand their desire to disarm the public, but they ~ you~ must realize that only the law abiding citizens would follow the laws and be disarmed. The very exact opposite of the desired outcome. Even if there are some cops who are occasionally nice, and occasionally do the right thing- follow the laws, it is like a politician who is your enemy. I respect the office, but not the current holder of the office. In Baraq's case, he is illegally pretending to hold the office, so it does not apply.
We are not 'allowed' or 'given' the right by our owners, it is a God given right. If you don't believe in God, perhaps you, like Oprah, believe that means justify ends, and there is a difference between 'rape-rape and just rape'. Or 'murder-murder and just plain regular murder'.