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Kids Held at Gunpoint as Cop Kicks Kneeling Mom in the Face—Over Vehicle Registration

If you ever have any doubt about how the state forces compliance with arbitrary dictates like vehicle registration, it is the promise of violence. If you do not obey every single arbitrary traffic code, you will be issued a promise of extortion via a citation. If you refuse to pay those who are doing the extorting, they will kidnap and cage you. If you refuse to be kidnapped and caged, they can and will initiate violence against you.

Over the years, the Free Thought Project has reported on countless instances in which people have been beaten or even killed over things as trivial as a burned out light bulb on their license plate. As the following case illustrates, the state is willing to hold children at gunpoint while beating and arresting their mother for failing to pay the state for a vehicle registration sticker.

The video, recorded by San Jose resident Josh Gil, shows police stop a family in a McDonald’s parking lot. When the video begins, the mother is outside of the car and on her knees. She is not resisting and not posing a threat when all of the sudden one of the officers appears to kick her in the face.

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When It Comes To Masks, There Is No “Settled Science”

The literature on masks broadly looks at the efficacy of different types of masks and their efficacy at preventing particle penetration (controlled studies) and the likelihood of infectious spread (case studies of healthcare workers). Other studies question the detrimental effects of masks, particularly with prolonged use. Cloth masks, which have become the norm for public use, have been shown to have penetration rates as high as 97% according to a BMJ study (which used to stand for the British Medical Journal, but is now titled by its acronym). A study of the use of cloth masks during the far more serious 1918 influenza pandemic showed no beneficial results, and another study demonstrates that cloth masks are particularly ineffective compared with medical masks. Surgical and cotton medical masks fared better, but still with discouraging results overall (see here, here, here, here, and here).

As masks-for-all advocates are quick to point out, N95 respirators do show beneficial results in containing viral infections, but these are virtually unworn by the public (and they have only recently become available to those outside of the healthcare profession).

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