It's been terribly disappointing, both inside and outside of America, to see police forces rally to enforce tyrannical, unprincipled, and often illegal or unconstitutional government responses to COVID.  Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised — the various governments pay their salaries — but, given that the governments are made up of the same leftist elitists who five decades ago called police "pigs," many of us expected more from our police.  I can tell you, though, that one thing that none of us expected, and that's to see police marching peacefully alongside Parisians who were protesting COVID restrictions and vaccine passports.

Once the COVID vaccine appeared on the scene and President Trump decamped the White House, governments across the West used vaccines as a means to solidify the control they achieved over people during Year One of the COVID Plague.  And the fact is that, in Year One, COVID was enough of a mystery that people played along.

By Year Two, though, not only were people tired of the restrictions on a disease that proved to have an average mortality of something less than 1%, they were deeply concerned that the so-called vaccines were as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than, COVID itself.  As time went on, they pointed out that the vaccines didn't vaccinate, that people were dying or becoming terribly ill in reaction to the jabs, and that the various governments were hiding data.

The world's Western governments, however, including Biden's administration and most Democrat governors, have seen the vaccines as the perfect way to separate good, obedient leftist citizens from bad, disobedient, independent-minded citizens.  The vaccine mandates were especially useful with police forces because all the independent-minded officers got fired.  The ones who remained were happy to do anything for their paychecks and were even actively on board with the whole mandate regime.

Image: Police at a Paris protest.  Twitter screen grab.

In France, the government instituted vaccine passports and mandates in July 2021.  A CNN commentator was thrilled by how obediently the French followed these laws.  However, not all Frenchmen were pleased with a rule that saw police checking their papers as diligently as the Gestapo did when they occupied France during WWII or with people losing their jobs for opposing the vaccine regime.

And so, the French did what they always did — they took to the streets.  In Paris, for over half a year, people have turned out every Saturday to protest.  And sadly, for the most part, the police are perfectly willing to attack ordinary people who dare to say there is something legally and morally wrong when their government forces them to take experimental shots that do not protect against COVID, that have serious short-term side-effects, and that have unknown long-term consequences.

But this past weekend in Paris, something strange happened.  The police, rather than attacking the protesters with tear gas and making arrests, marched along with the protesters:

For the 32nd Saturday in a row, Parisians took to the streets to demand the end of COVID restrictions & vaccine passports. Except, this time, the police joined the protesters. Take a look. pic.twitter.com/GTRXzGUjBo

— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) February 20, 2022

A French commentator said the police were not so much joining in as they were drifting along with a peaceful crowd to ensure that the protest remained orderly.  That may be true, but the effect was that the police swelled the ranks of those French men and women who were taking a stand against their government's tyranny:

Manifestation à Paris pour le 32eme samedi consécutif contre le pass vaccinal et Emmanuel Macron. Le cortège est très encadré par les forces de l'ordre. (@TaoualitAmar) #GiletsJaunes #Manifs19févrierpic.twitter.com/vn484hPMGQ

— Anonyme Citoyen (@AnonymeCitoyen) February 19, 2022

Most police forces in the West (including America) would do well to follow this model — ensuring peace while allowing the people to exercise their inherent right to confront their governments.