Do Not Enforce Unjust Laws

Police have a moral duty. Do Not Enforce Unjust Laws.

It was ruled at the Nuremberg trials after World War 2 that “just following orders” is no excuse to carry out immoral actions on innocent people. This ruling was related to the horror that Nazi soldiers inflicted on people who they were ordered to hurt. Despite the fact that they were following orders, it was ruled that these soldiers were morally responsible for the actions that they took while in uniform.

The Nazi regime is one of the most extreme examples of this dynamic in human history. However, this dynamic has existed in every government that has thrust immoral orders on their populations, which is basically every government.

In the examples of the Nazis, those soldiers had the power to change the world by refusing unjust orders from a madman who was unapproachable and removed from the population he ruled over. Sadly, the order followers did not take that opportunity to be the final barrier between a tyrant and his subjects. However, it is not too late for police in America, they still have time to change the world by refusing to follow orders that bring pain and oppression to nonviolent people.

What this means is that police who have a moral compass of any sort should be only concerned with dealing with real criminals, people who are guilty of theft, murder, assault, rape, fraud and crimes where there is an actual victim. When it comes to the drug war and other revenue generating schemes, police who have a sense of moral duty should begin refusing to enforce unjust laws and become the change we all want to see in the world.

A man after my own heart.

From the comments at the link:

IceTrey

“Force always attracts men of low morality…” – Albert Einstein

These are the type of men who are hired by police forces. The highly moral are weeded out.

I’d say that we have been seeing some evidence of that for a while.