More Presumption, Liberty and Law
By Henry Nicolle
Exclusive first publishing granted to The Seattle Sinner January, 2008
 

Presumption - Our view of the fairness of life is colored by our presumptions. If our presumptions are wrong, our view of fairness and many other aspects of our lives will be skewed, maybe even warped beyond recognition by our passionate self-deluded vision.

The arrest, jailing, naked persecution, prosecution and punishment of Henry Nicolle's crime of a burned out license plate light is an absurdity, the product of common but wrong, presumptions.

Rebellious, criminal acts by government are today perfectly acceptable, honorable conduct in the pursuit of social control and tax collection policies. Government is presumed to act lawfully. An absurdity. Allowing presumptions to feed these petty absurdities is criminal, because once begun, there is no end to them. They all lead to the same, fatal end. Unopposed power breeds presumption which breeds contempt for the law. Contempt for the law means the end of the civilized road for you and me.

Lawless California traffic arrest, prosecution and punishment demonstrate a principle which may be extended to the death penalty and to foreign adventurism. The principle is simple. The effects are enormous. "If you have power, do as you will. If you have no power, do as you are told."

We killed the last people who ruled with this truism.

Cindy Rudas stopped Nicolle for a burned out license plate light. Her authority to interfere with a traveler is defined by our law, expressed in the California Penal Code and the Motor Vehicle Code. No authority exists for a California Peace Officer to stop, detain or arrest a private Citizen, absent an actual crime, an existing warrant or the circumstances defined in section 40300 of the California Vehicle Code. Little Cindy was the only criminal attending that arrest.

Huneber and Dickie, associates of Cindy, and later, Fenwick aided and encouraged Cindy's criminal conduct. Their deeds are rewarded and their Crusader's wake unnecessarily sows deadly anger and discontent. Little Cindy and her friends presume they can disregard our law, because if they obey the law, they have no license to fish for crimes where there is not already present, a recognized crime or a warrant. There is no gain waiting for a crime, so they must create crime. Their presumptions in their roles as our governing class are false. For them, the falsity is both inherent and necessary. This is, of course, intolerable to the members of a free society.

It may seem that a dissection of a minor traffic confrontation and criticism of the attitudes and conduct of our so-called "public servants" is excessive reaction to acceptable government conduct. The observer would be correct if in practice, our laws are meaningless. Then it is true that we should just do as we're told and save ourselves the beatings, the inconvenience, the time and expense of public trial, and all the other tailings of going against the flow of power exercised as usual.

But, if our law is clearly demonstrated to be meaningless on the street, in our administrative hearings, our prosecutors' offices and in our lower courts, why would anyone presume that our law can be relied upon for any purpose or that our public servants to be trusted at any level of our institutions? The point of this dissection is to illuminate the processes and perspectives of the people who would rule us with the pretense of our own laws and to warn how we are deceived.

Presumption, Liberty and Law - bad presumptions precede unwise conduct and produce unacceptable results.

For an ordinary Citizen within our Republic, there are protected rights and liberties inherent in our existence. Among those essential rights are property and travel. Our car is property, our right to travel freely is both right and property. They must be respected and protected by our government. That is the purpose for our government. If we allow these rights to be denied by false presumption, other rights are lost with them. If we cannot trust our armed peace officers to obey our law in small things, we cannot expect them to restrain their violence in larger challenges of law and conduct. We can no longer trust our police. If we cannot trust our prosecutors to obey our law in the initiation and prosecution of law, and if our judges cooperate in the charade to void our law in small offenses (which by law should not even appear in a criminal venue), how can we trust these same people and institutions with our disputes, rights or our very lives?

We cannot trust our police, prosecutors or judges. We dare not. Their interests are no longer our interests. If the rebels in government hold the field in our imminent confrontation, our Declaration and our Constitution for a self-governed free-society of free men and women will be simple memories.