Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Tasing Moms Who Refuse Masks Does Not Make the World a Healthier Place
Reason ^ | 9.28.2020 | J.D. Tuccille

Posted on 09/28/2020 2:27:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Once a desire—or even a good idea—is turned into a mandate enforceable by the cops, violence is only one disagreement away.

A much-shared video of an Ohio mom getting tased and handcuffed at a middle-school football game should be a reminder that turning everything into a legal matter is just begging for violent conflict. Once a desire—or even a good idea—is turned into a mandate enforceable by the cops, violence is only one disagreement away.

In watching the video, it's obvious that there was plenty of bad judgment going around in the open-air bleachers of Logan-Hocking School District that day. That goes for mask-resistant Alecia D. Kitts herself, rules-spewing school officials, and the Logan Police Department cops who escalated assertions of their authority over a minor dispute into a lightning ride.

Let's start with Kitts. Video of the incident starts after the cops grab her, but apparently that came after a prolonged argument over her refusal to wear a mask while watching the game. She claimed to have asthma and so be exempted, but that didn't satisfy the folks running the event who asked her to leave.

Here's the thing: while there's debate over the effectiveness of masks—the CDC is for them, while the World Health Organization remains lukewarm—that's irrelevant when you're in somebody else's domain. It's their property so they make the rules. If they want you to wear a face mask, or a propeller beanie, or to take off your shoes, you should comply or leave. That's just good manners. Throwing a hissy fit because a host asks you to do something you don't want to do in their facility isn't an option.

Second in the bad-judgment parade are the school officials, who must know that there are huge tensions over mask-wearing, which has become a point of contention and a partisan divide. Should it be that big a deal? That doesn't matter—it is. But there are constructive approaches for addressing controversial issues.

Cottonwood, Arizona—the town nearest me—settled on a workable compromise. The town has a mask mandate, which carries no enforcement provisions or penalties. Most stores post signs which are respected by the majority of patrons but ignored by a minority. There's a measure of protection for mask-wearers and a measure of independence for mask-refusers. Nobody gets hot and bothered because face masks aren't worth wrestling matches in the produce section.

Logan cops should have remembered that masks don't rate personal combat before they tased an ill-mannered mom over her refusal to wear a cloth covering in uncrowded bleachers under an open sky. There was no reason for that, aside from resentment that anybody could refuse their commands.

Admittedly, Kitts wasn't officially arrested for her mask-resistance; that was just the starting point. "It is important to note, the female was not arrested for failing to wear a mask, she was asked to leave the premises for continually violating school policy," huffs the Logan Police Department. "Once she refused to leave the premises, she was advised she was under arrest for criminal trespassing, she resisted the arrest, which led to the use of force."

But that's always the case. Selling loose cigarettes, or hanging out, or a faulty brake light easily turns into a grab-bag of charges, usually including "resisting arrest." Then we're supposed to believe that the subsequent wrestling, beating, tasing, or shooting are perfectly justified, even though it all started with some minor violation.

"Undoubtedly, lawmakers have put too many crimes and civil violations on the books that can lead to police-initiated contact, a phenomenon broadly captured by the term overcriminalization," Jonathan Blanks points out in a recent piece for Reason. "But every day, police officers routinely use personal and institutional discretion to ignore countless violations that range from jaywalking to not using a turn signal to public consumption of drugs and alcohol. Thus, the determination of how often and under what circumstances to make traffic or pedestrian stops is ultimately one of policy, not one of law."

Blanks emphasizes that the multitude of rules on the books put enforcement discretion in the hands of police officers. They invariably give some people a pass while coming down hard on vulnerable groups, such as racial minorities, as well as individuals that authorities dislike.

"The police go armed to enforce the will of the state, and if you resist, they might kill you," observed Yale Law School's Stephen L. Carter in 2014 after New York City cops killed Eric Garner in a confrontation rooted in the illegal sale of loose cigarettes. "Fewer laws would mean fewer opportunities for official violence to get out of hand," he added.

Face mask mandates are just another set of intrusions into our lives that set the ground for confrontations between armed enforcers and relatively powerless people. It's all about making the hoi polloi do what they're told.

That compliance and not health are the issue is obvious in the video of the Ohio incident in which School Resource Officer Chris Smith grapples with Kitts. That's certainly higher risk for spreading disease than is leaving an unmasked woman to sit on a bench at a distance from other attendees.

You could say the same of the unmasked psalm-singing protesters arrested last week at the city hall parking lot in Moscow, Idaho, for refusing to wear masks (and for add-on charges, of course). Putting hands on violators was riskier than letting them stand closer than social-distancing rules recommend.

It was the same in the past. During the Spanish flu pandemic, when mask mandates were as controversial as they are now, San Francisco authorities arrested 1,000 "mask slackers" in one day and jammed them into "standing room only" prisons—an environment ripe for virus transmission.

Let's emphasize here that the effectiveness of masks is irrelevant. We could find definitive evidence tomorrow that masks help to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and that still wouldn't add a gloss of brilliance to getting cops involved. Violent enforcement should be reserved for serious matters, not for failures of hygiene and good manners.

The same consideration goes for traffic rules, tax violations, loitering, and a host of other victimless or minor transgressions. The rules may involve policy preferences, or potentially helpful ideas, but making them enforceable by police action has very high costs of its own. There are remarkably few situations that are improved by introducing violent enforcement into the situation—especially when we know that some violators will get a pass and others will bear the full force of the law.

Wherever you stand on the mask debate, keep in mind that it's just one of many disputes over how people should behave. And whatever your preferences, having the police shove them down people's throats is unlikely to make the world a better place.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: 2020election; badjudgement; bloggers; election2020; landslide; mask; trumplandslide; tyranny
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

1 posted on 09/28/2020 2:27:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” —Eriv Hoffer


2 posted on 09/28/2020 2:31:17 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("Elections have consequences. We won, you lost. Get over it." --Barack Hussein Obama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I saw this video of this BLACK cop tasing a white woman.

And nobody looted, burned down buildings, tore down statues, threw molotov cocktails or shot police officers. Nope, not a eye was batted.

But it’s coming.


3 posted on 09/28/2020 2:33:35 PM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
the female was not arrested for failing to wear a mask, she was asked to leave the premises for continually violating school policy...Once she refused to leave the premises, she was advised she was under arrest for criminal trespassing, she resisted the arrest,

So, criminal trespass is a real thing, at least for private property. If a store owner asks you to leave the premises, then you can be 'trespassed' if you do not leave. What I dont know is how it works on public/county/govt property. There may be a difference or not. Sadly, probably not, which puts the attending public at the mercy of the school official.

4 posted on 09/28/2020 2:45:33 PM PDT by Magnum44 (My comprehensive terrorism plan: Hunt them down and kill them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: unixfox
And nobody looted, burned down buildings, tore down statues, threw molotov cocktails or shot police officers.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything, and then there is the conservative way. Please leave police officer's alone. Justice will be served. However, if you are so inclined, put on garb to look like a bLM/Antifa protester, grab your umbrella, gas can and matches and go to the nearest IRS office and burn it down.

5 posted on 09/28/2020 2:53:40 PM PDT by ConservativeInPA ("War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." - George Orwell, 1984)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
It's their property so they make the rules.

NO! It's NOT their property.

Throwing a hissy fit because a host asks you to do something you don't want to do in their facility isn't an option.

Alecia D. Kitts had a son playing in a football game at a school that she and her family is most likely paying for with taxes.
6 posted on 09/28/2020 3:02:06 PM PDT by Brown Deer (America First!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Maurice A Thompson, 1851center of Constitutional Law you s handling her case. She’s in good hands


7 posted on 09/28/2020 3:06:50 PM PDT by griswold3 (Democratic Socialism is Slavery by Mob Rule)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brown Deer

She drove 1.5 hrs to the game


8 posted on 09/28/2020 3:07:45 PM PDT by griswold3 (Democratic Socialism is Slavery by Mob Rule)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
"Undoubtedly, lawmakers have put too many crimes and civil violations on the books that can lead to police-initiated contact, a phenomenon broadly captured by the term overcriminalization," Jonathan Blanks points out in a recent piece for Reason.

That's why when you give an unethical prosecutor unlimited staff and budget with a target list to put under a proctological exam, they can almost always find some crime to charge. Just to pull a name out of the air, say, a guy named Mueller.

9 posted on 09/28/2020 3:09:23 PM PDT by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I would say tasing dads who dont wear masks also does not make the world a better place either.


10 posted on 09/28/2020 3:15:44 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

So it appears I correctly assessed the sequence of events, the precipitating ones as usual not part of the videos.

Separating like that should suffice as the precaution for the mask, but she was well aware of the policy and that it might not be recognized. Neither party comes out of this looking good. She was asked to leave and didn’t, so she is trespassing.


11 posted on 09/28/2020 3:38:34 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brown Deer

Alecia D. Kitts had a son playing in a football game at a school that she and her family is most likely paying for with taxes.


Most likely not, as she was on the visiting side.


12 posted on 09/28/2020 3:39:46 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
If she left, then came back and threw a lit Molotov cocktail at the school and burned it down, then no problem. If she spraypainted black lives matter all over school property, no problem. If she pranced around naked and molested kids, no problem.

But don't challenge B.S. rules stated by liberals, you will go down hard.

13 posted on 09/28/2020 3:54:54 PM PDT by roadcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lepton; griswold3

Alecia Dawn Kitts lives in Marietta, Ohio about 50 miles away from the school in Logan, Ohio. Ohio’s public schools are funded are funded by public tax dollars.

http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Finance-and-Funding/Overview-of-School-Funding

The fact remains, it’s not their property!


14 posted on 09/28/2020 4:36:34 PM PDT by Brown Deer (America First!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Brown Deer

They are responsible for the property, and schools regularly and legally control who is permitted on it and under what circumstances.


15 posted on 09/28/2020 4:42:20 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
Here's the thing: while there's debate over the effectiveness of masks—the CDC is for them, while the World Health Organization remains lukewarm—that's irrelevant when you're in somebody else's domain. It's their property so they make the rules.

Except for the complication that it was public school grounds. It's a PUBLIC school, paid for by the tax payers in the community.

If it were a privately owned property, I could agree with the argument, but not on public, community owned land.

16 posted on 09/28/2020 4:43:05 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lepton

It’s not their property. That’s a fact.

There is no excuse for the tasering of a defenseless woman by a large man, because she wasn’t wearing a stupid mask.


17 posted on 09/28/2020 4:55:26 PM PDT by Brown Deer (America First!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
that's irrelevant when you're in somebody else's domain.

I guess the school stadium belongs to the administrator just like the seat on the SCOTUS belongs to RBG eh?

18 posted on 09/28/2020 5:36:27 PM PDT by Theophilus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Brown Deer

They have been assigned control of that property by elected officals. That’s all that matters.


19 posted on 09/28/2020 5:53:46 PM PDT by Almondjoy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Almondjoy

Wrong! FACTS MATTER. It’s not their property.


20 posted on 09/28/2020 6:03:24 PM PDT by Brown Deer (America First!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson