RESISTING AUTHORITY

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 16, 19 July 1932, Page 6

RESISTING AUTHORITY

The comments made by Mr. Justice Blair on the gravity of resisting authority in troubled times should be noted by citizens who are inclined to excuse such offences.

There is no distinction in principle (said his Honour) between interfering with a police officer and interfering with a Judge, or interfering with any other person whose duty it is to maintain and carry out the law of the land. Yet some people who would view 'with horror any organised attempt to intimidate the higher guardians of justice are inclined to think that resistance of the police, and especially of special constables, may be excused when feeling runs Irigh. It is at just such a time that those who recognise the need for law and order should be careful that authority is not flouted in even the slightest degree.

I desire to impress on everybody the very great importance and the real gravity of crimes of this nature at this particular time (his Honour added), touching as they do the very vitalß of the administration of justice.

Once it is admitted that the individual citizen may take the law into his own hands' the foundations of order are shaken. It is then only a question of degree how far the disturbance may go. Palliation of .offences leads in the same direction. Citizens' have their remedies in a democratic community. But democracy, for its own safety, has limited those remedies, and resistance to authority is not a permissible means of drawing attention to grievances. ■