Seattle police officer Greg Anderson was fired after he posted a video in which he ranted about police officers being forced to infringe upon citizens’ Constitutional rights by enforcing coronavirus stay-at-home orders.
“We don’t get to violate people’s constitutional rights because somebody in our chain of command tells us otherwise,” said officer Anderson in the video.
“I’m not sure anymore because every time I turn on the television, every time I turn – I look to the Internet, I’m seeing people arrested or cited for going to church, for traveling on the roadways, for going surfing, opening their businesses, going to the park with their families, or doing nails out of their out of their own house, using their own house as a place of business and having undercover agents go there and arrest them and charge them with, with what? With a crime? I don’t know what crime people are committing by doing nails in their own house. But we’re seeing this more and more and more. And we need to start looking at ourselves as officers and thinking, ‘Is what I’m doing right?’” he added.
Anderson slammed politicians who are using the COVID pandemic as an excuse to punish citizens who dare to conduct business and attend religious gatherings.
“I don’t care if it’s your Sergeant or your Chief of Police. We don’t get to violate people’s Constitutional rights because somebody in our chain of command tells us otherwise. That’s not how this country works.”
Anderson then read from the Declaration of Independence, “We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their power from the consent of the governed, meaning their, our power, and any government officials power is derived from the people.”
Anderson called out new disturbing procedures that require police officers to ask citizens for “papers” that prove that they are “essential”.
“4th Amendment violations, illegal traffic stops to check for papers. What are you, the Gestapo? Is this 1930s Nazi Germany? You don’t get to stop people unless you have reasonable suspicion or probable cause that they have committed a crime,” Anderson said. “And I know people that are have personally been stopped saying we want to see papers showing that you’re ‘essential.’ That is not how our job works.”
Anderson warned that lockdown arrests will lead to a widespread distrust of law enforcement officers nationwide.
“What really has been pissing me off lately is the fact that these officers that are going out here and enforcing these tyrannical orders, what they’re doing is they’re making my job and my safety or they’re putting my job and my safety at risk, because what they’re doing is you’re widening the gap between public trust and law enforcement officers. And and what that’s going to do is it’s going to I mean, look at look what’s happened to law enforcement in the last 10 years, less and less public trust.”
“I’m afraid that these actions are going to wake a sleeping giant, i.e. the American people. They are going to be put in a position where they won’t have their rights trampled anymore and us law enforcement officers won’t. We’ll have our ability to enforce the law stripped from us in about 10 minutes,” Anderson lambasted.
Anderson criticized police officers who continue to make lockdown arrests in order to follow orders and keep their jobs.
“You know, you don’t get to just say, ‘Well, I’m doing this because I was told to do so or I’m following orders or I need to keep this job.’ Guess what? I need to keep this job more than anybody. I have three young children. I have two houses. Like, I have the same sob story that the rest of you guys have. But my personal choices and my living arrangements, no matter what they are, don’t allow me to trample on people’s rights.”
Anderson continued, “Listen, you need to stand up for what’s right. You need it. If you’re if you’re part of a department or an agency that is asking people – or asking their officers or their deputies to impose on people’s rights and infringe on their freedoms, you need to step up and say, no, that’s not me. That’s not what I signed up for and that’s going against my oath…No matter what situation you’re put in, if you look inside yourself and ask yourself one question, ‘am I doing the right thing?’”
In a follow-up video, Anderson thanked everyone who shared his first video and told viewers that he was threatened for refusing to delete his original video.
“I get another phone call from my command and they said, ‘Hey, hey, Greg, the video’s up to 400,000 views. It’s time to pull the plug on this thing.’ And I said, yeah, that doesn’t really make sense to me. I think maybe we should embrace this message and we should share this with other officers. And he said, ‘Listen, you know, it’s not up to me. I have been directed to tell you to take the video down. And I need to know if you’re gonna take the video down.’ And I said No, I can’t take the video down.”
Anderson continued, “I got a call. They said, ‘Listen, the video needs to be taken down right now and you need to accept a letter of reprimand or we’re gonna take a very different approach to this if you say no again.’ Well, I’d already put myself on that hill and I had to – I’m had to be willing to die on that hill. They said they determined the video was a violation of policy and that if I wouldn’t take it down, that allegations would be made against me and so on and so on.”
“So I told them, no, I’m not going to take it down. You do what you need to do. But the principle of it is rooted in truth and it was a positive message that was received by millions and millions of people. If you want me to take it down, I have to I have to respectfully refuse…So when I look at how I feel comfortable enforcing the law and I see people exercising Constitutional rights, it doesn’t matter if there’s different executive orders, requests from mayors, request from governors…To me, the Constitution supersedes that. And I’m going to stand with the people.”
Anderson was placed on administrative leave, which included pending termination as ordered by “higher-ups” in his Seattle police agency.
“Well, unfortunately, you know, higher-ups in all agencies there’s a political game being played, and now I am on an administrative leave status pending termination. I was told by both the agency and the [police] union that I was asked to take it down and I refused. So, that’s refusing a direct order. It’s an insubordination charge and it will result in me ultimately being let go from the agency.”
A GoFundMe page on behalf of Anderson has raised over $200,000 to help him transition to a new career.
“I came to terms long ago that my convictions, my beliefs may cost me everything up and to my life. And even though it’s 15 years later and I’m a police officer in Seattle, Washington, that truth still remains for me. So, I don’t have an option to back down or feel sorry for myself or give in and say, you know what, I got kids and I think I’m just gonna take the letter. No. If they want to do me like this for standing up for liberty, they can do that.”
WATCH officer Anderson’s video here:
The post WATCH: Brave Seattle Police Officer FIRED After Posting This Anti-Lockdown Rant Video! appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
