Here’s a spicy topic: Does a bro have to dutifully obey a park ranger enforcing the hall monitor rules about social distancing? If no, is pushing him into the drink going too far?
Moral dilemmas are interesting things. The boring and easy ones feature a choice between doing something good and something evil that has some sort of a benefit attached to it. Ho-hum.
The far more interesting ones come when two GOOD moral choices come into conflict and you have to prioritize.
For example, anyone who’s followed our site for any length of time will have noticed our respect for law enforcement in general. Most of those good men and women wearing the Blue are taking crappy shifts doing a thankless job for not-great pay. Most of them are honorable and doing the job of defending both our safety and our rights.
That doesn’t erase the fact that sometimes, a cop will get out of line and will need to be called out, like we did with the Hall Monitor heckling the mother of a seven-year-old, and (some have pointed out) shaming her for living in a trailer while she did so. Or the mom in the playground being led away in handcuffs. Or, in a more flagrant example, the dirty cops in Baltimore caught planting evidence.
This is where the question of Constitutional laws come into play. Law enforcement has the authority to enforce laws — with one condition. Those laws need to be backed by the force of the Constitution itself.
With this whole CCP Coronavirus forced shutdown, we’re going into uncharted territory. The government has never ordered healthy and innocent people to stop going about their ordinary lives before.
Park Rangers have been told to enforce social distancing guidelines. But are those orders valid? And if you answer ‘no’, what recourse does a citizen have when ordered to comply with a denial of exercising his lawful rights?
This is exactly where the bro in this video comes into play:
PARK PUSHING: Video shows a park ranger trying to get a crowd at Commons Ford Park to social distance before being pushed into Lake Austin. READ THE FULL STORY: https://t.co/JW8mzICvqD pic.twitter.com/gxiUKE20ZG
— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) May 2, 2020
A park ranger who was trying to disperse a crowd on a sunny Thursday at Lake Austin says he was pushed into the water. Police say a 25-year-old has been arrested in the case.
A video shared on social media appears to shows the ranger speaking to the crowd and asking them to keep six feet of distance between them to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The video then shows a man run up and push him, sending both men into the water. The suspect then climbs out of the lake and runs off.
That matches a description of the incident described in an arrest affidavit for Brandon James Hicks, who faces a charge of attempted assault on a public servant.
What comes next seems to be one hell of a leap in logic…
According to the arrested affidavit, police responded to the call around 4:54 p.m. Thursday and were sent to Commons Ford Park. The ranger reported he had been trying to disperse a crowd of people who were unlawfully smoking and drinking in the park, police say.
“Brandon’s intentional and reckless action could have caused the Ranger to strike his head on the dock as he was falling, and render himself unconscious in at least 3 feet of water where he could have drowned to death,” the affidavit said. — KXAN
Drowned? In three feet of water? While surrounded by witnesses?
And we can’t be the only ones questioning the wisdom of standing poised at the very edge of the wood above the lake? Did he miss that lesson from Batman about the importance of not giving up sure footing?
So bro got arrested for throwing the Park Ranger into the drink. This isn’t a red versus blue question, there are Republicans on both sides, and probably Democrats, too.
Is the young buck a renegade hero, or a world-class jerk?
Was this an act of rebellion against tyrants, or just a jerk move?
