William Penn to the white courtesy phone

[avram]

Libertarians like to remind people how every law passed by state authority, no matter how minor, is ultimately backed up by brutal force. I’m not a libertarian, but here’s some evidence backing them up:

An SVSU student who made headlines for being tasered during a struggle at a Saginaw City Council meeting after refusing to remove his hat is telling his side of an unusual series of events that has left him facing criminal charges that could result in several years in prison.

(via BoingBoing)

Comments

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Well, as tnh pointed out on rasff years ago, what is actually backed by force is the concept of the rule of law. What the student is facing charges for is not "wearing a hat", but getting in a fight with a police officer which ended up breaking the officer's finger. Now, competent police won't get to the point where a request to remove one's hat in obedience of the law results in a fight, a broken finger, and a taser, but that's what judges and juries are for--to check the incompetence of the police.