They were like one of those little foo-foo lap dogs, with the sweater and the bows, completely humiliated by a master with a screw loose.
That’s how the troopers were yesterday, and the Rochester cops.
Humiliated by a master with a screw loose.
As they played crossing guard for a group of people who hate them, anti-cop protesters, the raised-fist people, the evening news’s new frontline heroes, as they walked up the Interstate 490 ramp and shut down the highway.
In open, advertised, proudly proclaimed violation of the law, and at the great inconvenience of thousands who thought the highway was for cars and the law was for everyone.
But it’s not. In America’s new equal, some are a hell of a lot more equal than others. And some have the corrupt system of politicians and the press wrapped around their little finger.
And so it is that roving bands of cop haters and fist shakers roam where they will, blocking ever-larger streets in disruptions reported in reverent tones each night at six. The words “peaceful protest” are spoken the same way the words “Mother Theresa” used to be spoken. In the eyes of the Democrat reporters and Democrat politicians, something great and wise and inspired is happening.
Or maybe a bunch of people are just blocking traffic.
Which is, after all, against the law.
The First Amendment applies to the sidewalk. A peaceful demonstration that takes to the streets – without a permit – is an illegal demonstration. And a demonstration that walks up onto the Interstate – where pedestrians, horses, bicycles and farm vehicles are specifically forbidden – is likewise illegal.
For you and me.
But not for whoever’s leading chants through the bullhorn today.
For them, it’s all clean and green, and afterword they can boast on TV that they knew nobody was going to get arrested.
Which gets back to the masters with the screw loose.
One is named Lovely and the other is named Andy.
She – the mayor of Rochester – had police arrest 30 people who violated her new curfew, but ordered those same police to facilitate the violation of state law and federal policy in an act that shut down an Interstate highway, disrupting traffic and screwing with the travel plans of law-abiding citizens.
She’s introduced a new yoga pose, called the RPD. You stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart, and bend over and grab your ankles.
It’s very popular these days. It usually involves spitting and profanity and painting words on Main Street.
He – the governor of New York – ordered the New York State Police to disgrace their purple ties by running interference for the violation of law. Instead of doing the duty of law-enforcement officers, they were ordered to do the bidding of politicians.
And, to top it off, it was 90 degrees out, and they got rained on.
So, all in all, unless you had a “F**K THE COPS” sign in your hands and a Biden sticker on your car, it was a pretty bad day.
Especially if you believe in rule of law. Especially if you thought the nearly week-long rollout of this demonstration was a middle finger in the face of the police and those who support them. Especially if you thought that this open, flagrant, provocative violation of law was a line the authorities would not allow to be crossed.
It wasn’t civil disobedience – that concept involves accepting consequences of violation of law, namely being arrested – and it wasn’t a peaceful protest – it disrupted the days of thousands of motorists, stealing their time and freedom of movement.
It was mob rule, where the mob gets to make the rules, and where – thanks to woke and pandering politicians – the police facilitate them.
Which is somewhere between irony and twisting the knife.
Because the demonstrations, of course, are against the police. The demonstrations are the voice of a bubbling national bigotry against those in the law-enforcement profession. The demonstrations denounce the officers in the vilest of terms, and call for their firing and impoverishment, and prosecution and jailing.
And these are the folks the police have to babysit, while smiling and pretending it’s the same thing as leading a Girl Scout field trip through the precinct house.
It’s like making Jesus carry his own cross.
Which gets back to the masters with the screw loose.
Yesterday, as the fist clenchers ambled up onto the Interstate, the mayor and the governor were making it clear they respect neither the professionalism of the officers nor the interests of the motorists. They ordered the cops and the troopers to neglect their duty and violate their oath. They doomed the truckers and the family mini-vans to backlog and delay.
The protestors created a test of dominance. They wanted to find out who was in charge.
And they did.
They are.
And everybody else is meaningless.
Everything else is meaningless.
The law could have stood up yesterday, and kept the Interstate open. But those who misadminister the law would not let it.
And so the voice of “We the People” was silenced. If law is the will of the people as expressed through elected representatives, and law is the protector of the rights of the people through its enforcement, then representative government and rule of law failed on the Freddy-Sue Bridge.
Which explains that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach this morning.