Imprisoned Over a Hat

February 4, 2009 by Dale Everett
Filed under: Anarchy in Your Head, Personal Freedom, Rant, Thuggery

Two of my friends were arrested yesterday. One was arrested for refusing to comply with a rule to remove his hat. The other was arrested for asking questions about the rule. They both failed The Slave Test.

I’m already anticipating the apoligists for the tyrants, those who will defend the violent enforcement of this arguably trivial matter. It’s silly, right? I ask, which is sillier? Refusing to obey a rule about trivial items of clothing on your own body or putting someone in a cell for said trivial item of personal clothing? When the judge asked for Jesse’s specific religious reason, he said he refused on moral grounds and that morality and religion are one and the same to him.

(Read on…)

Zeus

You're Jesse's friend, so of course, you want to defend him right or wrong. You're perception is tainted by your closeness to the situation.

I, on the other hand, am neutral. I judge Jesse by his actions and my understanding of the Philosophy of Liberty.

Jesse was not arrested over a hat. He was arrested for being belligerent. This has been his modus operandi since I first heard of him.

Jesse was on someone else's property. Now we can get into semantics and technicalities on who really owns that property but the end result is going to be this: Regardless of their moral right to claim ownership, they do indeed claim it, maintain it and have both the power of violence and illusion of authority to back up their claims.

Most people do not step on land mines even if they believe it to be a dud because the possibilities of making that choice and it turning out to be a bad decision could be fatal.

Jesse still had free will in that courtroom. He could have chosen to leave and keep his hat on or he could have chosen to abide by their stupid rules and stayed. He chose to be belligerent by neither removing the hat nor leaving.

Sometimes, it's more difficult to walk away from a confrontation than it is to enter one. At all times I have been aware of Jesse's form of activism, he has chosen to be confrontational, right or wrong.

While I believe Jesse's heart is in the right place, I do not support activism that does not adhere to the logic of the Philosophy of Liberty. I will not bend on this.

When he begins doing activism that is just, moral and squarely within the logic of liberty, I will support him wholeheartedly.

Until then, I will continue to disagree with any of his actions that do not.

In this case, Jesse was in the wrong for wanting to provoke a violent reaction and the courtroom cops were in the wrong to arrest him when they could have simply removed him from the premises. They are also in the wrong for wanting to steal money from him in the form of a fine.

Charlie is another story. All reports indicate he asked a simple question and the cops jumped on him, roughed him up and threw him in a cage. That is immoral, unjust and downright evil behavior on the part of the cops.