Free Republic

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has issued a statement after Greenville police issued tickets to church members who had gathered in their cars to worship during a COVID-19 shelter-in-place order. … Religion and religious worship continue to be central to the lives of millions of Americans. This is true more so than ever during this difficult time. The pandemic has changed the ways Americans live their lives. Religious communities have rallied to the critical need to protect the community from the spread of this disease by making services available online and in ways that otherwise comply with social distancing guidelines....

The city council of Greenville, Miss. and Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons issued an executive order that banned all in-person church services, effective from April 7 until Missouri Gov. Tate Reeves lifts the state’s stay-at-home order. Fox News reported many churches planned to drive-in services as a means of negotiating the need for social distancing with in-person services, especially during Easter week.

"We are seeing the most draconian measures enforced at all levels of government that we've ever seen in our lifetimes, and yet rather than being alarmed by the things going on, so many of you applaud. People are being arrested for spending too much time outside, and you applaud. Pastors are being arrested for daring to hold church services, and you applaud. A child's birthday party is raided by police, and you applaud. A young woman is ticketed for going on a leisurely drive alone because it's deemed 'non-essential travel', and you applaud. A parade of school teachers and administrators...

Whether law enforcement officers realize it or not, politicians are using them for tyrannical deeds for the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the country, news articles are coming out reporting police officers are being used to enforce edicts of social distancing, mask-wearing, and dispersing “over-sized” groups. Police departments have policies that protect officers if he or she is commanded to take unconstitutional, illegal, or unethical action. Right now, it is time for law enforcement officials to remember those guidelines and how to use officer discretion. When law enforcement officers swear into a position to enforce laws, part of his or her oath...

Many — including the defiant pastor, Rev. Jack Roberts — arrived with their plates covered, with officers instead recording their VIN numbers, the paper said. Even more desperate measures appeared to have been taken to keep the faithful away — with “piles of nails” blocking each entrance, according to photos shared by the Courier Journal. It was not clear who had left the nails, which were eventually cleared by church volunteers in time for the main arrivals, the paper said. Kentucky State Police troopers then left large signs on every car left in the church lot, the paper said —...

A man was forcibly removed from a Philadelphia public bus on Friday for not wearing a face mask, according to WHYY. A Philadelphia Police official told WYYY that the incident began when a bus driver told the man to “leave the bus several times and the passenger repeatedly refused.” Police reportedly received 911 calls about the disturbance on a bus near the city's downtown. Once the officers arrived they also “ordered the male to leave the bus several times. The male refused, at which point he was physically removed by the officers,” police said, according to WHYY.

A federal judge in Waco has dismissed 13 civil rights lawsuits filed by 45 bikers arrested after the May 2015 shootout at Twin Peaks in Waco, a ruling that suggests more dismissals will be coming. U.S. Judge Alan Albright, in a 13-page order issued Monday, dismissed civil rights claims against the city of Waco, McLennan County, former District Attorney Abel Reyna, former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman and a handful of other Waco and Texas Department of Public Safety officers. The 45 plaintiffs were among 192 bikers who were arrested and among 155 who were indicted in the Sunday noon-hour...

In an incident caught on video, a former Colorado State Patrol trooper said he was handcuffed in front of his 6-year old daughter on a near-empty softball field Sunday by Brighton police officers enforcing social distancing rules. The department apologized Tuesday afternoon, calling the incident an "overreach by our police officers." Matt Mooney, 33, told ABC News he walked with his wife and daughter from their home to a nearby park Sunday to play softball. "We're just having a good time, not near anybody else. The next closest person is at least 15 feet away from me and my daughter...

The criminals are being released from prison and being replaced with peaceful, law-abiding citizens who dare go outside. A 33-year-old Colorado man was handcuffed in front of his wife and 6-year-old daughter for allegedly violating a social distancing order. 33-year-old Matt Mooney said his young daughter was terrified the police were going to arrest him after the cops swarmed his family. The father reassured his daughter they were doing nothing wrong by playing tee-ball in the park, however the police cuffed him in front of the little girl. The incident was recorded by former Brighton City Councilman Kirby Wallin. “He’s...

A group of North Carolina Christians filed a lawsuit against Greensboro authorities this week after being threatened with arrest while praying outside a city abortion clinic. The Triad City Beat reports the lawsuit accuses Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and police Lt. Dan Knott of violating the pro-lifersÂ’ constitutional rights through their enforcement of a Guilford County stay-at-home order. The plaintiffs, Pastor David Troyer, Jolene Troyer, Paul Nisley and Josiah Chavez are represented by the Thomas More Society. All of the individuals are involved in Love Life, a pro-life ministry that encourages peaceful, prayerful, law-abiding outreach outside abortion facilities. On March...

While COVID-19 is taking up much of the news cycle, there are other things that must be attended to as well. This week's report by the FBI Office of the Inspector General gives the FBI a zero for its performance in reviewing 29 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications. The bottom line is that the FBI is not following procedures for FISA applications, which allow the bureau to surveil U.S. citizens. As U.S. citizens, we should demand that the procedures be followed completely. The sad part is that this is not the first time such failures have been revealed --...

A Virginia store clerk heard a crash that sounded like a car had crashed into the place at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday. He grabbed a gun and shot at three masked men he found stealing merchandise and cash from the shop. When it was over, the clerk was the one in handcuffs. He now sits in jail on no bail, charged with crimes for which he could be locked up for 20 years. Those charges include: "Malicious Wounding, Reckless Handling of a Firearm and Violation of a Protective Order." Police say they'll get around to charging the robbers later. What's...

Two U.S. states — Alabama and Massachusetts — have begun providing the addresses of those known to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to police in a bid to contain the spread and protect first responders who might answer a call where a coronavirus sufferer is involved. Alabama began providing the addresses — but not names — to police and other emergency responders starting more than a week ago. The information is being distributed to 85 emergency communications districts in the state, and is then relayed to police officers and other first responders when they go out on calls. “It’s only...

This is the shocking moment a huge line of police officers were forced to disperse a little girl's birthday party in Los Angeles on Saturday. Footage from the incident taken in the Hyde Park area shows the group of around 40 revelers refusing to comply with social distancing rules. Law enforcement were forced to call for back up as the crowd became 'agitated', a source said. The LAPD said no arrests were made.

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. - More than a fifth of Detroit’s police force is quarantined; two officers have died from coronavirus and at least 39 have tested positive, including the chief of police. For the 2,200-person department, that has meant officers working doubles and swapping between units to fill patrols. And everyone has their temperature checked before they start work. An increasing number of police departments around the country are watching their ranks get sick as the number of coronavirus cases explodes across the U.S. The growing tally raises questions about how laws can and should be enforced during the pandemic,...

Although the coronavirus has caused large-scale pro-life gatherings to stop for the time being, pro-life advocates are still praying and helping women outside of abortion centers. They are doing so in part because abortion businesses continue to kill babies — sometimes in defiance of orders to stop doing abortions to conservative medical resources to fight the virus. Yesterday, as pro-life advocates helped women at the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Columbus, Ohio — one of the abortion businesses operating outside a state mandate to stop non-essential medical procedures, a police offer told the pro-life people they were not allowed to...

Back in the nineties, on an early episode of ABC’s short-lived series My So-Called Life, high school students were stunned when a handgun was brought into the school and it accidentally discharged in the hallway. By the end of the week, when they arrived at the school in the morning, there were metal detectors at the entrances and police were searching lockers and patting down some of the students in the halls. Everyone was walking around with dazed looks on their faces, but they quickly adapted to what had become “the new normal.”I was reminded of that this week while...

The sheriff's department previously suspended enforcement of its decision after the county counsel's office declared gun stores essential businesses. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is closing gun stores Thursday in unincorporated areas of the county and the 42 cities where it provides law enforcement, after suspending efforts earlier this week following the county counsel's office declaring gun stores essential businesses during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The coronavirus pandemic may be fueling a buying frenzy of guns and ammunition nationwide, but a sheriff in California is ordering all gun stores in his county closed, calling them non-essential businesses. Gun stores nationwide have had long lines this month of customers worried about possible social unrest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "There’s a lot of unknown. Family first and friends," Brian Thompson told FOX11 earlier this month in a line outside of LAX Ammunition in Los Angeles. "I know what I have in my house and somebody might want to take that. I’ve been robbed before and who says...

… One clear message that [Sheriff] Villanueva is sending, is on gun stores. “We will be closing them, they are not an essential function,” Villanueva said. “I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment, I’m a gun owner myself, but now you have the mixture of people that are not formerly gun owners and you have a lot more people at home and anytime you introduce a firearm in a home, from what I understand from CDC studies, it increases fourfold the chance that someone is gonna get shot.”