In simple terms, what is in common is just thug behavior, some people (they feel safer in a group of several) with power and getting their jollies and feeling more powerful and, thus, more secure, from exercising that power over others.
Many of our fathers, grand fathers, great grand fathers, etc. fought for our freedom. Let's don't let power hungry thugs, paid by taxes or otherwise, take our freedom.
E.g., some years ago I was a researcher working in artificial intelligence at the IBM Watson lab in Yorktown Heights, NY. That's in the middle of Westchester County, the first county north of NYC. I lived two counties farther north, in Dutchess county.
I liked to work late so often stayed at the office after dinner and drove home at about 10 PM. So, if look at a map, sure, I drove north on the NY Taconic State Parkway. I was driving a Buick Regal Turbo T-Type, right, a banker's hot rod of the time, in very good condition.
For someone who has driven over 500,000 miles, I have relatively few convictions of moving traffic violations. E.g, my auto insurance bill here in NYS is about $260 twice a year. Part of the reason is that I watch for cops.
One night driving home in my rear view mirror I noticed some headlights looking like they were from a car gaining rapidly on me. Driving late at night like that, I tend to drive in the left lane because I can avoid cars entering or leaving the road I am on from side roads or the shoulder. So, when that car was about 50 yards behind me, I moved to the right lane to let them pass. Fine with me if they want to go way too fast -- go ahead, pass me, and be gone.
Well, that car shifted to the right lane also. So, I had changed lanes and slowed down basically trying to force them to pass me.
Well, it was a cop car with two cops.
I'd done nothing wrong. Instead, the cops had just seen a nice car driving at night on a nearly empty road and decided to stop the car for no good reason. Likely that's illegal.
So, they stopped me.
There were two cops, one really nasty and angry. He was a thug, out to harass a citizen just for his own jollies. He looked young, like he was a rookie on the force.
So, he had his jollies: He had me standing on one leg, walking a line, touching my nose, etc. The other cop stood aside and was not happy about the obvious harassment.
The thug cop wrote out a ticket charging me with something, maybe changing a lane without using a turn signal, e.g., when I was trying to shake their car off my tail.
While they were writing out the ticket, I was sitting in my car reading a published paper in applied math. The thug asked me what I was reading, and I said he likely wouldn't like it. He got angry and asked in a loud, threatening voice,
"Are you calling me stupid?".
I answered, "No, but the paper is quite technical and advanced and assumes graduate work in pure mathematics."
He kept harassing me, looking for me to say something he would use to start a fight.
Finally I just drove away with him standing there. They didn't pursue.
For the ticket, I went to court. The cops didn't show, and the judge dismissed the case. I handed the judge a letter describing the interaction.
That cop was a thug. He was loose on the streets, carrying a gun, making illegal traffic stops, harassing citizens, trying to start fights, basically a violent criminal, paid by taxes. He was using his power to get his jollies.
Lesson: Such things happen. They happened with the Nazi Brown Shirts. They happen with some US police. Apparently they happen with the TSA, DEA, DHS, FBI, and CPS. We should not give up our freedoms easily. In our democracy, we need to vote against such stuff.
