Law enforcement do you know what a lawful order actually is?

Due to the fact that everyone basically has a video camera nowadays, we are seeing more and more instances of police brutality. This actually has always gone on, but now it is in the light.

We often hear in these videos officers saying “I am giving you a lawful order”, however, it seems like these officers do no truly understand the law (they need some training here).

I do not claim to be a legal scholar, but I am pretty sure there needs to be just cause for these orders the police are throwing around before they are considered lawful.

In Sandra Bland’s case, the officer said he was giving her a lawful order, and that turned out to be 100% false because she did not break any law by refusing to put out here cigarette. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpSEemvwOn4

What really bothers me is when officers treat our children as criminals and use the terms “lawful order’ and “stop resisting”, especially for something that should simply be a ticket. These officers are also not taking into account that the child might just be terrified. Case in point in this video:

 “The Stockton Police Department (SPD) is under fire for using excessive force against a black teenager. On Tuesday, a sobbing 16-year-old boy was hit with a baton by a cop and then forcefully arrested by three additional officers, after one of them saw him jaywalking”.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/09/18/3703295/jaywalking-boy-hit-with-baton-slammed-to-ground-by-california-officers/

We need four officers for a jaywalking ticket? Could they not have just talked to the kid about the dangers of jaywalking? What happened to community policing again?

United States was built upon civil disobedience and rebellion against unjust rule, so why are we expected to just sit there and take it when something unjust and unlawful is happening to us? Why are we expected to acquiesce to unreasonable and in some cases unsafe demands?

We have laws for a reason, we also have unwritten laws for a civil society, and one of them is be a good neighbor. Law enforcement’s job is to keep people safe, we should not have to fear them, and our children should not be in danger from them.

This is not a political debate; this is me stating some facts from and educator’s perspective. As an educator and public servant, if I had made this kind of mistake, I would have been fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Why are the police seemingly above the law?

Something to think about…

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam