(Unsplash)
A foundation that specializes in fighting for civil and religious rights across America has come out with a warning that police now have been given the go-ahead to use force against suspects who already have surrendered.
"The old police motto to 'protect and serve' has become 'comply or die,'" said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of "Battlefield America: The War on the American People."
"This is how we have gone from a nation of laws—where the least among us had just as much right to be treated with dignity and respect as the next person (in principle, at least)—to a nation of law enforcers (revenue collectors with weapons) who treat 'we the people' like suspects and criminals."
The situation is a result of a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to accept a case that could have been used to hold police accountable for using force on unarmed individuals who already have surrendered or complied with police orders.
"Despite a series of high-profile incidents involving the use of unnecessary and excessive force by police against unarmed individuals, the court declined to narrow the scope of qualified immunity granted to officers who assault non-violent suspects who have ceased to resist arrest," the institute reported.
WND is now on Trump's Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews
Its lawyers, joined by those from the Cato Institute, had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Salazar v. Molina, which challenged a lower court ruling "that essentially gives police a green light to punish and harm suspects solely based upon their initial nonviolent resistance or flight."
That ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gave immunity to a police officer who tased a non-violent suspect in the back after he lay down to surrender.
The case developed in 2014 when a sheriff’s deputy in Zapata County, Texas, tried to pull over Juan Carlos Salazar for speeding. However, Salazar accelerated and led police on a high-speed chase for approximately five minutes.
He stopped when two vehicles pulled out in front of him, got out of his car, raised his hands and lay flat on the ground with his arms above his head.
Within seconds, the deputy charged up and fired his taser.
His subsequent lawsuit for excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment was dismissed by the appeals court because of the deputy's "immunity."
In weighing in before the U.S. Supreme Court in Salazar, The Rutherford Institute and Cato argued that police should be held accountable for using unnecessary and unreasonable violence against surrendering suspects.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Although millions of American parents send their precious children off to public school every day, imagining their kids’ days will be filled with reading, writing, arithmetic, science, history, sports and music, they’re not only in for a shock – but for total BETRAYAL. Today’s “public” (government) schools have become far-left ideological, political and religious indoctrination centers aimed at reprogramming and transforming America’s children.
Kids are being taught to HATE their own country and to see themselves and their parents as racists – or victims of racists. They are sexualized and corrupted, and many are groomed into the dark LGBT world, with almost 6,000 schools prohibiting parents from even hearing about their child’s transgender “transition.” In between all the far-left indoctrination and sexual corruption, teachers take time to scare children to death about the near-term end of life on earth due to “catastrophic climate change.” Another lie. But it’s all classic Marxism/communism, with even the “3 R’s” – reading, writing and arithmetic – now being corrupted with “woke,” “1984”-style madness.
Perhaps never has the true threat of today’s U.S. public school system been exposed as in the sensational April issue of WND’s critically acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “THE GREATEST BETRAYAL: How Marxism and madness have taken over America’s public school system.” Whistleblower is available in both the popular print edition and a state-of-the-art digital version, either single issues or discounted annual subscriptions.
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
The post Police given go-ahead to use force against those who have surrendered appeared first on WND.
