People's Convoy Now Wants To Make Citizen's Arrests Of Police For Making Them Pee Their Pants
A placard reading Mandate Freedom rests on the ground as demonstrators prepare to depart Hagerstown Speedway in Hagerstown, Maryland, on March 7, 2022, during “The People’s Convoy” event. – The convoy has called on US President Joe Biden to end vaccine and other Covid-19 pandemic mandates while modeling themselves after Canadian drivers who had occupied the center of Ottawa in a similar protest. Photo: Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images (Getty Images)
The fit-throwing antics of the People’s Convoy over generally already lifted COVID-19 mandates now includes the notion of a citizen’s arrest for D.C.’s mayor, Metro police officers and average drivers who may or may not be Antifa.
This is what happens when you piss off (on?) a patriot. Our old friend Zachary Petrizzo from the Daily Beast has the exchange:
Gotta wonder why these jokers keep talking to Petrizzo, but I’m certainly glad they do. It’s not just police the Convoy wants to arrest. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is also in their sights, along with average citizens who annoy them on the Beltway.
When it comes to citizen’s arrests, the rules are hazy and vary from state to state. CNN has a good breakdown of the practice:
Laws governing citizen’s arrests vary from state to state, and that’s the first problem in understanding what they entail. However, there are some commonalities: In general, citizen’s arrest laws let a citizen detain someone if they have committed a crime. What kind of crime, and what kind of evidence someone needs to make a citizen’s arrest, can vary.
“States let people arrest other people who are committing crimes, which promotes good law enforcement,” says Michael Moore, a former US Attorney who now practices in Georgia. “It also eliminates the possibility that someone will be held liable if something happens after the fact.”
For instance, Moore says, if a citizen stops a purse snatcher in the act and the snatcher falls down and breaks their arm, under citizen’s arrest laws, the citizen who stopped them can’t be held liable.
In every law dealing with citizen’s arrest, however, following the arrest, the citizen then turns the suspect over to the police. You can’t arrest the police. Where are you gonna book them? How are you going to try them? The questions of next steps in such an arrest becomes more uncomfortable the longer you think about it.
Honestly, this smacks of sovereign citizenship logic. If the Convoy members try this, they will almost definitely face a lot more police who will not think it is funny that you’re arresting them. Also, “making” someone pee their pants by preventing them from storming a sensitive downtown area doesn’t exactly rise to the level of a crime. It is unfortunate and uncomfortable perhaps, but so is listening to truck horns blaring for hours on end while sitting in gridlocked traffic. How many normal D.C. residents have needed to use the bathroom in the last few weeks only to be thwarted by slow moving semis? What of the cost dearly paid by normal people to car detailing shops? When you point a finger, three point right back at you, People’s Convoy.
The People’s Convoy’s efforts to enter D.C. proper has been mostly thwarted by roadblocks set up by Metro PD, though a few smaller groups from the protest have found their way into the city proper. The Convoy did submit a permit to protest directly in D.C., but it was partially denied. Organizers believe they have a constitutional right to shut down our nation’s capital until their shifting demands are met. So far police and the mayor disagree.
Just because they’re tantrum-throwing crybabies with pee pants doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take them seriously. We’ve already seen instances of road rage in traffic from drivers, with someone potentially hurt by a People’s Convoy member. There have been at least two fender benders as well, journalist Will Sommer said on the Fever Dream podcast. After January 6, I’m positive Metro PD are keeping a very close eye on what Convoy members do next.
