TYRANNY OF THE SNITCHES: If ‘Karens’ will snitch on you for playing in a park, they’ll definitely do it over your guns

America has edged closer to tyranny this year. We’ve seen, first hand, how far too many of our governors, state officials and even local law enforcement stand ready, willing and able to trample Americans’ fundamental constitutional protections. And they’ve used the coronavirus as an excuse to do it.

Regrettably, we’ve also seen nosy neighbors call authorities over others’ obviously Constitutionally-protected actions. The worst of our political leaders have actually encouraged “informants” to lodge these complaints.

(As an aside, it’s fun to read some of the unredacted complaints uncovered under Freedom of Information Act requests from St. Louis County authorities.)

For example, who would think that someone would call the local police to complain about a family of three playing ball in a park? The fact that a call like that merited an actual police response at all, much less one from three officers, should shock us all.

But wait, there’s more.

Brighton, Colorado officers actually arrested and handcuffed a dad — a former Colorado State Trooper — in front of his 6-year-old daughter because he didn’t snap to attention and salute the officers when they ordered him out of the park with his wife and daughter because of “social distancing” rules.

The department later apologized as the story gained national attention.

Or how about another busybody neighbor with her nose to the window in Wisconsin who called to complain about a woman who allowed her daughter to play at a friend’s house. Watch how assertively the officers acted in trampling the woman’s constitutional right to peaceably assemble.

WATCH: Police officers in Wisconsin show up at a mother’s home because she “violated a state order” by letting her daughter play at a neighbor’s house.

The defiant mother knows her rights and stands her ground! pic.twitter.com/AL3yMbJ3CU

— Young Americans for Liberty (@YALiberty) April 29, 2020

Then there’s the response of Kentucky State Police to an Easter church service at the Maryville Baptist Church in Hillview. They mandated that those attending remain at home under virtual house arrest with criminal penalties for leaving their homes.

It seems people can’t remember the First Amendment to the Constitution when it comes to orders against the free exercise of religion or the right to peaceably assemble.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  [Emphasis added.]

Note a lack of any Chinese flu exception.

The snitches of the world have certainly helped more authoritarian government officials enforce these Draconian orders. So much so that The American Spectator’s Scott McKay wrote about “The Tyranny of the Karens.”

…A “Karen” is a meme that has taken off in recent months, because the “Karen” attitude has become ubiquitous across the country, and with the ChiCom virus surfacing as the dominant event in American life it’s turned quite toxic.

What are we talking about here? The mostly, but certainly not all, white, middle-class, middle-aged woman who before the virus came along was best known for the “let me talk to your manager” haircut and the air of entitlement while spouting pieties and pop psychology she saw on daytime talk TV. The internet has decided this is a “Karen,” though it goes without saying all women named Karen don’t fit the archetype, and it certainly doesn’t stop with women named Karen.

The problem is that the Karens, in the age of the ChiCom virus, have gone from obnoxious to dangerous. The Karens are the ones calling the police because someone took their kid to the park, and the Karens are on social media demanding that pastors be arrested for holding church services.

In the past week it seems there is a rash of people ratting on their neighbors for holding Easter gatherings, jogging in the neighborhood, and engaging in other perfectly normal activities that, thanks to the virus frenzy, are now somehow sinister.

The personality type that was jokingly referred to as the Karens, the one that takes upon itself the responsibility to enforce whatever new directive from cultural, political, or other authorities has been mostly recently ingested, is in its heyday.

It’s not really necessary to outline how corrosive all this is. Suffice it to say the breakdown in trust and cooperation among neighbors and members of the community that comes from busybodies playing petty tyrant as we all chafe against the national shutdown will easily outlast the ChiCom virus. It won’t be forgotten, and we’re all worse off for it…

He shared some words of wisdom for would-be Karens of the world.

If you’re a Karen, now would be a good time to ratchet back your enthusiasm for enforcing the New Normal on your neighbors. People have long memories, and they’re coming to their wits’ ends. We should all be mindful not to make unnecessary enemies amid the difficulties still to come.

However, if you have a Karen or three in your neck of the woods, that is a good thing to know now.  Because you can count on her (or him) to snitch again in the future.

If Karen will rat you out for jogging or tossing a ball around with your kids in a park, she’ll surely drop a dime on you as a gun owner in a heartbeat. Does she think you have a banned gun?  Heck, she may not even care if it’s a banned gun.  She might call just because she thinks you have any gun.

And it’s not just guns. Karen may think you’re hoarding food if she sees (or smells) you cooking steaks on the grill while her family ate their last batch of Ramen noodles the day before.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, as a gun owner we should work to build relationships with our neighbors and communities. At the same time, while doing that, you can assess people’s potential as either an asset or a liability in a crisis.

Prudent people will put the Karens of the world into the appropriate category. Because authoritarian government officials will rely on them to turn America into a true police state.