-By Warner Todd Huston
The video of a police officer harassing a citizen for washing his own car on his own driveway is going viral proving once again that our governments have become arrogant and are acting as an enemy to freedom, liberty, and private property rights.
The video shows a Garden City police officer accosting a citizen for washing his car in his own driveway. The officer claims it is a crime in Garden City and reads from a copy of the statute that he brought to the homeowner to prove his claims. (Youtube page)
The 27-year-old owner of the car is obviously shocked that police had the temerity to tell him that he couldn’t wash his own car on his own, private property.
But a question did arise during the cop’s harangue. There was a question about how the law defined what was “public” and what was “private.”
In the video you can see the cop sauntering up to the owner of the car and telling him that it was illegal to do work on a car in the driveway. He also said it was illegal to do “detailing” such as washing the car.
The cop had the statute in his hand, obviously in anticipation that the homeowner wouldn’t believe him, but before he read from the law he very artfully said in a highly professional manner said, “I don’t make this shit up, I ain’t just driving down the street to come over here and break your balls.”
Reading from the paper he brought, this articulate cop then said that, “washing motor vehicles, rugs, furniture” is “prohibited in a public place.”
Of course the citizens noted that their home is a privately owned place and not a “public place.” To which to cop said, “yeah, that’s what you say.”
“That’s what you say?” Is this jackbooted thug telling the homeowners that their private property isn’t really their property, that HE has rule over it all?
Looks that way. Looks like this cop thinks there are NO boundaries for his exercise of power, including the Constitution of the United States of America.
The cop then went on to absurdly say that their car washing was “still in public view” so that made it illegal.
Now, it is likely that this law was made to prevent people from running a commercial business in public places (or out of a home) and avoiding licensing, zoning and tax requirements. But these young men were hardly operating an unlicensed business out of their driveway. They were just washing a car.
Naturally, the Garden City police have refused to comment on the incident.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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