Horowitz: Idaho church singer & Ohio woman arrested for not wearing masks OUTDOORS

We've endured nearly four months of endless looting, arson, blocking of roads, violent menacing of motorists, assaults against cops, and vandalism against public property. What percentage of those people do you think have been arrested? Well, judging by the size of the riot crowds, not too many. But in case you thought law enforcement has taken a hands-off approach and is hiding under a rock, think again. They evidently find their moxie when it comes to arresting church singers and a woman who didn't wear a mask at an outdoor football game. The unfortunate message they are conveying to us is that real crime pays and that violence is the only way to get what we want.

Take a look at this video of Seattle cops being assaulted by a mob that essentially set up its own roadblock, occupying public streets.

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How many of them were arrested? There's no way to know, but we sure haven't seen a swift reaction from cops in places like Seattle and Portland. This is happening in dozens of cities every day to some degree. Because of their sheer numbers and the degree of violence they are willing to employ, they tend not to get arrested unless the assault on the cop results in bodily injury. With few exceptions, they are deterring the cops rather than the cops deterring them.

With that in mind, watch the following video of a woman being tased and wrestled to the ground for not wearing a mask at an outdoormiddle school football game in Logan, Ohio.

Woman arrested for not wearing a mask.www.youtube.com

She was not presenting a threat to others, like so many of these people beating civilians at BLM riots. Yes, she was resisting arrest, but if these cops who are cowering from BLM suddenly find their courage against small women who are just passively not wearing a mask outdoors, which is permitted when social distancing is possible, then perhaps we should abolish the police. Really, if that's all they will accomplish, then who needs them?

I've written hundreds of articles over the past decade in support of all forms of local and federal law enforcement. Most of them are terrific and brave people. I understand if they have chosen to take a hands-off approach against violent mobs out of fear of being arrested themselves for simply enforcing critical laws. But it is unforgivable for them to then become sticklers for unconstitutional royal edicts like mask-wearing and find easy targets for enforcement who are white so they can feel good about themselves without facing the backlash of the mob. We all know that had this individual been black, the tasering would not have gone over well.

There's no easier target than a church choir. We've seen police retreat several times and allow their own stations to get burned down or attacked in several cities, but if they see people gathering with social distance to sing hymns, it's a different story. We thought this could only happen in Australia, or perhaps that if it happened in America, it would only occur in a deep blue city. But local police in Moscow, Idaho, arrested Gabriel Rench, a candidate for Latah county commissioner, during a Psalm Sing service held by members of the local Christ Church. His crime? Not identifying himself to the police when they arrested or cited him and four others for either not "social distancing" or not wearing a mask … outdoors.

This might look like a scene out of Moscow, Russia, but it's really northern Idaho. Ohio and Idaho are red states. Yes, the city of Moscow is more Democrat because of the presence of the University of Idaho, but there is no reason any county in this state with GOP supermajorities in the legislature and a Republican governor should have an outdoor mask mandate. Why is it that red counties in blue states are completely obsequious to tyranny, but when the shoe is on the other foot, suddenly the Republican governor gets gun-shy?

Hocking County, Ohio, where the woman was tased for resisting arrest after not wearing a mask outdoors, was carried by Trump by a 31-point margin. How can it be that you can no longer breathe free air outdoors in red states?! As conservatives, we clearly are not focusing properly and are not doing enough to fight for liberty.

This is also why it's so important that we get answers about the constitutionality of these draconian restrictions from whoever is chosen to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Given our body of case law creating novel rights that stop governments from doing much less invasive things to us, it's very hard to see how forcing someone to cover her face to merely remain outdoors passes muster with the principle established in NFIB v. Sebelius about the Obamacare mandate to purchase insurance. The restriction of church gatherings most certainly does not pass the First Amendment smell test.

There is a very chilling and disquieting point that emerges from these troubling stories. We are seeing that the people who are most likely to support the police are getting arrested, while those who exhibit the most belligerence and violence often deter the police from enforcing the law rather than the other way around. The lesson seems clear: that when you act more antagonistically and in greater numbers, you are more likely to get your way. While proactive violence is something any patriot should abhor, perhaps we do need to stand together in greater numbers.

A blueprint for how to deter the police in these instances is what some men in Spain did when police tried to detain a female for not wearing a mask. They all threw down their masks and, without directly attacking the police, grabbed the woman back.

That is the difference between anarchy and liberty. Patriots firmly resist arbitrary and unconstitutional edicts against individual liberties while limiting their resistance to the issue at hand. Anarchists use their grievances as pretext to proactively attack others indiscriminately.