Resisting Arrest is a Contrived Charge

This article is not about Justin Bieber but it is titled The Persecution of Justin Bieber. I just had to post this because I think it’s a simple and straightforward explanation of something I’ve long believed: that resisting arrest is a contrived charge, used by the police to persecute anyone who has normal human instincts. You should probably read that article first before this one, since I think it does a better job than I did here.

I have twice in my life had a police officer point a gun in my face. The first time I was being arrested for selling marijuana, but the police did not look like police. There were no lights or sirens or police cars and no uniformed officers or even anyone holding a badge. They simply looked like thugs in nice clothes, leaping out of the bushes and speeding their car in front of me to cut me off, running at me, screaming and pointing their guns at me. I had no idea what was going on. I thought I was being robbed by a rival drug dealer like I was in some gangster movie or something. Every instinct I had told me to fight back, but I knew I was outnumbered and outgunned. It wasn’t until after I was handcuffed that I had any idea that these were police. If I had followed my instincts and struggled, I would possibly be dead right now or would have faced the additional charge of resisting arrest, which would have made my situation a whole lot worse.

The second time a police officer pointed a gun at me, I had committed no crime and was merely walking home from a party. The officer stalked me for a couple blocks, focusing his spotlight on me, but ignoring my friendly waves. I personally believe this was a deliberate intimidation tactic. He jumped out, pointed a gun in my face and again, every human instinct I had told me I should fight back in any way I could. But my logical brain somehow stopped me from doing what every fiber of my being told me was the right thing to do.

People tell me that I have mild aspergers. That’s probably why I’m a web developer now, and why I seem to have this ability to separate my logical mind from my emotional so that I can usually make rational decisions in highly emotional situations. People often think that I don’t have emotions because of this, but in reality I have many very powerful emotions; I just don’t let them control my decisions, even in the short term.

If someone like me has such a difficult time resisting that basic, reptilian-brain instinct to protect yourself and submit to the men who you know are trying to destroy your life, then how can a normal person possibly resist the urge to pull their arm away from a cop when they are violently grabbed? The answer is, they can’t. It’s basic human psychology, a knee-jerk reaction, and the police bank on this to trump up charges and to help them destroy people’s lives more efficiently.

Originally published at kalinbooks.com.

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