I didn’t quite know where to begin with this piece, but I think watching the following video is as good a spot as any:

Before we get into my own take on Cop Block, let’s dissect this not so pithy smear piece by the bloviating spin-master & company.

BILL:  “In The Kelly File segment tonight, spying on the police.”

First of all, spying insinuates something ominous and maybe even treacherous.  From the outset, O’Reilly uses language that is far from being objective in the “no-spin zone.”  Characterizing copblocking as a form of spying reveals that O’Reilly not only doesn’t understand copblocking or even knows in the least of what he speaks, but the spin-meister reveals his ignorant bias.  Maybe someone needs to point out to Bill O’Reilly that it is not “spying” to film the police (who are paid by your tax-dollars) in the performance of their public job while wearing uniforms and firearms.  In fact, the courts have upheld our right to record the police under the 1st Amendment.  I guess O’Reilly doesn’t see the need for transparency or accountability from the people who enforce laws on the american people at the barrel of a gun.  This should already render O’Reilly’s comments suspect from the very beginning.

BILL:  “This (following and filming cops) is not illegal.”

Again, I’m sure an experienced propagandist like O’Reilly knows that this statement can and will be taken by some viewers as insinuating that copblocking activities should be illegal.  But, what should we expect from a goose-stepping fascist like Bill O’Reilly?  Of course this beltway boot-licker thinks the cops should never be questioned or held to the same standard as anyone else.  Oh, and btw, cops have dash-cams and many times other recording equipment with which they constantly record us.  Double standard much?

Arlington, TX Police Dept. LT. Chris Cook:  “The officers are actually being followed.  And a lot of times, the officers don’t have any idea who’s following them.  But it can certainly raise suspicion.”

So, what?  Officers follow people in the general public all the time, and we don’t know who that cop is following us.  Again, double standard much?  You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?  How do we know if that officer is or isn’t another serial killer who secretly uses his/her position as the perfect ruse to hunt for victims?  It’s happened before.  And I don’t doubt that the officers are suspicious of copblockers.  It seems to many of us that cops find suspicion everywhere, whether there’s cause or justification for it or not.  In fact, maybe O’Reilly should do a piece on all the abuses of constitutional rights and civil liberties by cops who routinely fabricate whatever suspicion they wish so as to have some excuse to rummage through and destroy people’s private belongings.  Now, THAT would be a public service.

LT. Cook:  “We want our officers to be safe.”

Yeah, because officer safety excuses anything you want to do that is questionable as to whether or not officer actions are violating people’s rights.  Isn’t that right, LT. Cook?  Never mind the safety or unabridged freedom of the American people.  As long as the police feel safe, who cares if the officers outright assault peaceful folks?  Certainly not these jack-booted thugs.

BILL:  “There’s enough stress on police before these clowns chasing them around.  It distracts them.”

Poor pitiful little gumshoes.  They’re job is just so hard.  We just can’t expect them to be accountable to the people they’re supposed to be serving and protecting.  Somehow, it’s distracting for them to conduct their ‘public service’ with transparency.  How dare we question authority or demand transparency and accountability from the people who carry guns to enforce the laws of this benevolent government.  (I hope you can sense my sarcasm).  And the only ‘clowns’ I saw in this segment were FOX News’ partisan hacks who resorted to name-calling because they didn’t actually have any substantive critique of the respectable freedom-defending activism of copblocking.

MEGYN:  “You’re riding down the road trying to do your job and suddenly it’s like, Paul Bunyan is after me!”  (Referring to a copblocker interviewed on the news)

Real mature, Megyn.  Do you know the copblocker in the video you aired, or do you just make a habit of making fun of total strangers who actually give a shit about defending people’s rights and holding our government accountable?  I guess if you don’t have anything intelligent to say, just make snide comments about people who are actually trying to defend civil liberties.  Are the talents of your tongue limited to licking boots, or do you have other uses for it as another mainstream corporate media whore?

BILL:  “There’s somebody with a camera in your face, you know.  The guy with the beard, and he looks like a biker.”

Bill, don’t you make a living in front of the camera?  Why do you seem so threatened by people using them to defend the rights and liberties of the American people?  The cops can record us all they want; why wouldn’t we have not only the same right, but also the good sense to make our own objective record of any police interactions?  Maybe some people just think it’s a smart thing to do to have your own record of interactions with police to make sure that they handle themselves professionally and courteously as well as potential evidence should someone become the victim of police misconduct.  And what’s this about one of the copblockers looking like a biker?  So what?  Do you have something against people who ride bikes?  You wouldn’t be trying to play on a stereotype to your audience by trying to conjure images of outlaw biker gangs would you?  Of course not in the ‘no-spin zone.’  Please!  I wonder how all the ‘bikers’ in your audience would appreciate that little tidbit of prejudicial ignorance?

BILL:  “Being a police officer requires a lot of patience, and I don’t think people understand that.  You have to deal with idiots, like, all day.”

Yeah, and being a peaceful citizen dealing with idiot police officers requires a lot of patience as well, as does trying to stomach a few minutes of The O’Reilly Factor.  Plenty of us understand that cops must constantly exercise a lot of patience, and that should just indicate to O’Reilly and the rest of us all the more need for copblocking.  If you truly believe that cops are dealing with idiots who try their patience all day, isn’t that just all the more reason to demand transparency and to put a watchful eye on those people who exercise authority at the barrel of a gun in their dealings with all of us idiots out here?  Btw, if I fit in to O’Reilly’s definition of an idiot, then I’m happy to be called an idiot by that uncomprehending ignoramus – all day long.

MEGYN:  “No one has hired them or really wants them to provide that service.”  (In reference to people who engage in copblocking)

I beg to differ with this ignorant blanket statement by O’Reilly’s lackey.  It shows a fundamental lack of understanding of what copblocking is or what people affiliated with Cop Block do.  While there actually may or may not be people who hire or finance copblockers, there are certainly many volunteers who take it upon themselves to take time out of their own busy lives, spend their hard-earned money on recording and other equipment, and put themselves in danger of being yet another victim of police abuse and brutality to defend the rights and liberties of ourselves and our fellow human beings from corrupt and aggressive policing.  It’s also obvious to anyone paying attention that hundreds of thousands of people have ‘liked’ Cop Block on facebook, and many purchase copblock merchandise to help support and promote the cause of non-violent and active resistance to a growing militarized police force fraught with corruption and brutish gang mentality.  The act of copblocking is grassroots activism at its’ finest, actually does something tangible to defend the freedom we say we care about, and is the cutting edge of civil liberties activism in the world today.  What Big Brother has sought to do to the American people via unconstitutional programs such as what Edward Snowden and others have helped reveal about the NSA and other runamuck government abuses of power, the little brothers and sisters of Cop Block have brilliantly and effectively turned that “1984” concept on its’ head to be an advantage to the freedom of the people.  I guess if it’s not the prepackaged, canned version of what O’Reilly & Kelly tout as freedom as it is defined by government bureaucrats and corporate cronies, then they can’t see the freedom-defending value as plain as the nose on your face that is the respectable activism of copblocking.

MEGYN:  “When you go to their website (copblock.org), it’s all anti-cop, and they have one video posted called, “When You Should Shoot A Police Officer.”

So what if everything on copblock.org could be characterized as anti-cop?  Not everybody is bound to give air to opposing viewpoints.  How many official police pages and websites provide any information critical of themselves.  Isn’t that effectively being all pro-cop?  What about where that leads?  Or, maybe you’re comfortable with people being spoon-fed a bunch of government propaganda to believe that all cops are respectable heroes with impeccable integrity for whom we should all obediently curtsy, cower, and lick boots with unquestioning submission.  Yeah, because that worked out so well for Nazi Germany……..

Btw, the video mentioned by Kelly from the copblock.org website is a great video worth the watch.  The video is actually entitled, “When Should You Shoot A Cop,” but we’ll just overlook that little oversight as an honest mistake:

MEGYN:  “Ademo Freeman says he is a two-time victim of the war on drugs.  (Lots of heavy laughter)  I’ve never heard it phrased quite that way.

Right on, Megyn; because the war on drugs is fucking hilarious.  Non-violent victimless ‘criminals’ being imprisoned and rendered virtually unemployable is a fucking hoot!  Ha, ha!  It’s so funny when SWAT serves a no-knock warrant and find nothing but a horrified family in a home where they throw a flash-bang grenade in a baby’s crib and disfigure him for life is a god-damned riot!  Ha, ha!  Or when cops police for profit and use civil asset forfeiture laws to do the exact same thing to peaceful folks that the most barbaric mafiosos do to innocent people, it’s just all shits and giggles.  Ha, ha!  Or when thousands of people afflicted with every kind of illness from cancer to combat veterans with PTSD are criminalized and denied safe access to medical cannabis, that’s just so hilarious!  Ha, ha!  Oh boy, what a great laugh this successful war on drugs can be!  I can honestly say I would much rather smoke a blunt with Ademo Freeman than to appear on The O’Reilly Factor or have a legal liquid drug (alcohol) with Bill O’Reilly or Megyn Kelly any day of the week.  Which reminds me of what a smashing success was alcohol prohibition.  That was such a great idea, there was even a few amendments to the constitution passed over that one.

BILL:  “In some municipalities, there are laws against this kind of stuff, right?”

No, Bill.  Neither should there be.  I would certainly hope there are no municipalities out there that would be so ridiculous and corrupt as to try to bar people from filming the police.  What the hell?  Are you serious?  Do you just not give one solitary fuck about freedom, civil liberties, or the rights of everyday folks?  Come on, man!  Just the fact that you would even think a law like that would even be okay just goes to show what an authoritarian fascist you really are.  People have to be able to defend themselves, especially from the corrupt and brutal enforcers of a tyrannical government.  But, I can sure as hell say that you are a master goose-stepping propagandist of which Joesph Goebbels could be very proud.

As someone who spent 15 months in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan with the 173rd Airborne and has also engaged in copblocking activism, I can say with every confidence that much of my copblocking activism has done more in real terms for defending the freedom of the American people than much of anything I ever did in Afghanistan.  I’m so convinced that Cop Block is the real front lines of defending freedom that I would find it just as appropriate to thank a copblocker for their service as to thank any veteran.  The real heroes who are putting themselves out there to defend freedom are often not who we think they are, and often find that they’re doing thankless work.  The O’Reillys & Kellys of the world sit in ivory towers and are completely out of touch with the struggles average folks face to have even a little taste of freedom.  Unfortunately, the corporate media hacks have big microphones which they use sometimes in total ignorance of what they speak, and even to the detriment of freedom and those are actually putting shoe-leather to pavement to defend it.  I can write a piece like this that won’t be seen by nearly as many people as watch The O’Reilly Factor every day, go out copblocking Nazi-esque “papers please” id checkpoints, and encourage others to educate themselves about their rights and how to exercise them; but there’s only so much one person can do.  Only the vigilant have any chance of protecting freedom, and only those of us who insist on living as free people have a shot at stopping a tyrannical government in its’ tracks.  Regardless of what the partisan idiot hacks say, we must keep standing up for ourselves and each other.  Our only chance is to keep insisting on being free people, and never quit resisting when authoritarian fascists like Bill “Goebbels” O’Reilly call us to the carpet.  The fight for freedom never ends.

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”   – Thomas Jefferson

 

A.G. “Brick” House is an Afghanistan war veteran and former licensed minister (UPCI), who has become an outspoken skeptic, peace advocate, and involved himself in many other issues which he believes affect the individual freedoms of the people whose constitutional rights he took an oath to defend.  He currently resides in the heart of Tennessee with his companion dog ‘Liberty,’ where he is recovering from PTSD, enjoys the therapeutic hobbies of gardening, creative writing  https://chaossection.com/, playing drums in the metal band Outlaw Serenade http://www.outlawserenade.com/, and other forms of artistic expression   \m/