Reason Writers Around Town

At The American Spectator, Brian Doherty laments the Hiibel decision.

Comments

[Dave]

Not sure what i think about this one. On the one hand, it looks like this guy is going in for absolutely nothing besides being crochety. On the other hand, if you're a cop going to investigate a domestic violence call, how the hell are you supposed to do your job if you aren't allowed to find out if you even have the right people? If you want to argue that nobody should have to give their name, fine, but then keep your mouth shut the next time the cops bring the wrong guy in on a case of mistaken ID. There may be a whole side of this argument that I'm not understanding, but this seems like a typical case of libertarians bashing the government just for being the government and doing its job (and i think even most of us who support limited govt. agree that law enforcement is a proper role for government). I feel sorry for the police officer. Here he is thinking he's going to stop a man from beating on his wife, and some guy starts shouting "arrest me" the second he tries to talk to him. He tries to reason with the guy and find out what's going on, but there's obviously no logical discussion to be had. And now we're going to paint the officer as the bad guy? I don't know if Mr Hiibel deserved to be arrested, but he sure as hell got what he set out to get.

[Andy D.]

I think the problem with the police officer demanding a name in this case was that Hiibel's name was not relevant to the investigation. The cop got word that some man in a truck had been seen hitting a woman... so it was reasonable to investigate; but he didn't need Hiibel's identity to do it.

Sure, this is complicated by the fact that Hiibel was acting irrationally, but it seems likely that things would have gone a whole lot more smoothly if the officer just didn't bother with the ID and went ahead with questioning Hiibel and his daughter.

[TWC]

Nice Piece Brian.

Dave, the officer didn't even investigate to see if the girl was hurt. His sole concern was forcing the Cowboy to divulge his identity. And he certainly was unconcerned when the Highway Patrolman threw the alleged victim face first in the dirt and arrested her for, uh, well, trying to get out of the truck.

Having had a few of those kinds of experiences with John Law in my yoot, I don't find it difficult to believe (and I think the video bears out the story).

OTOH, 100 years ago the cop might have just shot the cowboy (or vice versa).

[P.Steiner]

Of course, that was long ago, but at the time it seemed like the present.

[Douglas Fletcher]

WWWND

What would Willie Nelson do?