Viral video of cops harassing kids riding bikes without a license reveals the root of America’s policing problem

Yet another policing video has gone viral this week, although you’ll be forgiven if you missed it in the midst of its more headline-grabbing counterparts. The cellphone video, which has received more than 5 million views on Twitter, shows no less than six police confronting a group of teenagers in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Their crime? Riding bicycles without a license.

Article by Hannah Cox from FEE.

The boys were incredulous at the encounter and pushed back on the officers’ demands that they dismount their “vehicles” and, ultimately, allow their bikes to be confiscated. The verbal exchange eventually led to one child being placed in handcuffs and taken to the station (where he was soon released).

We can’t even ride bikes now… I’m not surprised. I’m just angry. pic.twitter.com/xcAR8zmnuP

— ⁶Kid (@deep_dab) April 19, 2021

After having their bikes seized, the teens were left to walk through the streets of the town to police headquarters where they then reclaimed their property. A video shows a female cop telling them, “You think I want to be here taking bikes away? Like, this is so asinine. Like, we have so much better stuff to do with our time.”

Data certainly show that the officers in this town have better things they could be doing with their time. Perth Amboy ranks in the bottom half of cities when it comes to public safety, and in 2019 the county cleared a mere 28 percent of its rape cases, 35 percent of its robberies, and 10 percent of its auto theft. That’s a lot of unsolved crime.

Throughout the video, multiple police officers tell the kids that they don’t make the law, they just have to enforce it. While we know this isn’t exactly the case (police and their unions spend a great deal of time and money lobbying state legislatures on public policy), we do know that individual police members are often tasked with enforcing petty offenses that needlessly endanger both the public and themselves and detract from time that could be spent on actually making communities safer.

Fortunately, this arrest over biking without a license did not lead to yet another loss of life at the hands of the state. But history shows that the enforcement of such petty laws often can result in death.

Eric Garner was infamously killed by police in 2014 after being apprehended for illegally selling cigarettes on the streets of New York. More recently, Daunte Wright was killed after initially being pulled over for driving with expired license tags.

Americans die in extrajudicial killings by police every year. The New York Times reports that police have killed more than three people a day since testimony began in the Derek Chauvin trial on March 29th. Other studies indicate more than 1000 Americans lose their lives to law enforcement each year. While not all of these incidents are a result of bad policing, we do know that each time law enforcement encounters a citizen there is a potential for violence.

While Black Lives Matter has ignited a global movement against police brutality and these extrajudicial killings, its priorities show it is gravely missing the mark on the policy reforms that would actually make Americans safer and lessen the loss of life. Key to reducing police killings would be to reduce the number of laws and reasons for police to interact with citizens in the first place.

Economist Ludwig von Mises said, “It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. (…) Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.”

Every time we allow the government to create a new law, we authorize it to enforce that law—the ultimate consequence of which can always be death.

Every law should end with "or we will kill you" so that when we make it illegal to hang air fresheners from your rear view mirrors people might think the laws are getting little out of hand.

— Austin Petersen 🇺🇲 (@AP4Liberty) April 21, 2021

If we want to limit death at the hands of the state, we therefore must limit the number and scope of laws it is authorized to enforce. The expansion of government is the root cause of the problems with policing, and until reformers tackle that underlying issue, they will merely be treating the symptoms and not the disease.

‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us

Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.

For the last few months, NOQ Report and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.

It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.

The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.

There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ Report and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are on track to be short by about $4100 per month in order to maintain operations.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.

During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.

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