Free Thought Project – by Jack Burns
Two Texas police officers went undercover in an elaborate sting operation to catch citizens giving salon services for money in their own home. The cops posed as regular citizens needing to get a manicure. Tipsters (also known in some neighborhoods as “rats” or “snitches”) pointed police to a woman who was advertising manicure services on social media — the horror.
Laredo police arrested Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia, 31, at the 1200 block of Harding Street after she allegedly agreed to provide an undercover officer with a manicure. Again, the horror. Castro-Garcia was arrested and charged with “Violation of Emergency Management Plan C/B” and was taken to the Webb County Jail where she was offered a $500 bond.
In a separate and unrelated case Brenda Stephany Mata, 20, was arrested at the 1100 block of Hubner Street after she allegedly offered to do an undercover cop’s lashes. Just like Castro-Garcia, she was charged with “Violation of Emergency Management Plan C/B” and was also taken to Webb County Jail for booking.
Only 11 of the nearly 300,000 residents of Laredo, Texas have reportedly died of COVID-19 complications. Had the ladies not been making money for their salon services the police would never have been tipped off by citizens ratting out their neighbors for presumably trying to feed themselves and their families.
Yes, America. Police officers in Laredo Texas presumably had nothing better to do than enforce an arbitrary decree from a politician for people not to work and earn a living during a pandemic — in their own home.
To arrest the two cosmopolitan ladies the officers pretended to be potential clients, offering money to citizens to break the rules and give them a manicure and lash treatment respectively. Placing the citizens further in harms way they then arrested them, instead of citing them, which forced the two presumably healthy women to be inside the confines of a jail cell with other individuals who themselves could have been infected with COVID-19.
The defiance of logic in these two situations is utterly absurd and speaks to the arbitrary nature of the enforcement of such laws.
The Cuban-style block monitoring will likely not stop with the arrest of the two beauticians. No, police all over the country have made a point to make examples out of people for paddle boarding by oneself in the ocean, creating satirical posts on social media, and for feeding the homeless during a social distancing mandate.
We’ve been told by cop apologists the actual beat cops do not really want to enforce the laws but are forced to do so by their higher-ups. For those apologists we have one simple question. If the government told you to stop being a police officer and to stay home without pay with your family, how would you provide a living for those you love?
Somewhere along the way the insanity needs to stop. Where is the outrage in Texas?
As TFTP reported this week, a video of a mother being arrested for bringing her kids to the park caused outrage across the internet and manifested into a massive act of police accountability. After Sara Walton Brady’s arrest, dozens of protesters went to the home of the Meridian Police Department officer who arrested Brady. The protest was reportedly spearheaded by Ammon Bundy, who as TFTP reported last week, has been planning resistance to the lockdowns.
As the crowd grew larger at the officer’s home, his fellow cops helped guard him.
“There was a woman at a park with her children and she was arrested!” Bundy screams at the four or five cops standing in the driveway. “Completely inappropriate.”
“The people will not allow you guys to do this for very long!” Bundy yells at the cops in the video. “You will not go into the park and arrest people! You will not go into parks and arrest mothers, and you will not go anywhere and arrest us for exercising what our rights are.”
The cops seemed receptive to the message and appeared to have an actual conversation with the protesters instead of simply ignoring them. We need more of these conversations, now.