David McElroy

When Teresa Culpepper called Atlanta police to report that someone had stolen a truck from the street in front of her home, she had no idea she was about to be victimized again — by the police officers who are paid to protect her.

In a mixup that would make the Keystone Cops proud, police decided that Culpepper was another woman also named Teresa — and that other woman was wanted for aggravated assault. Culpepper’s attorney says there’s no reasonable explanation:

“Her birth date didn’t match. Her address didn’t match. Her description didn’t match. Other than the name, Teresa, nothing matched,” said Culpepper’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant.

Culpepper was kept in jail for 53 days. She was freed only after her public defender was able to get the victim in the other case to come to court and tell a judge that the woman being held wasn’t the one who assaulted her.

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When Somali’s parliament unanimously agreed two years ago to make Islamic sharia law the basis of their country’s legal system, it was a clear demonstration of democracy in action. That’s a picture of the happy vote. At the same time, it was a serious limitation on individual freedom. So which matters? Democracy or freedom?

Most people mistakenly believe that freedom and democracy are the same things. I’ve talked about this before. The U.S. government is clearly confused about the issue, though. It uses our tax money around the world to support rebellions that will supposedly bring about democracy in more and more places. But if the vast majority of people want something other than freedom — and they want to enact laws to repress other people — why is this a good thing?

The latest example of this is in Libya. The United States spent $1.1 billion over throwing the old dictator (and other western powers spent even more), but there are worrisome signs that the new people aren’t exactly interested in individual liberty. The head of the new Libyan government said over the weekend that sharia law is going to be the foundation of the new country’s law. The same was true under the old regime, but the new regime is signaling that it’s going to go even further in forcing people to behave as their version of good Muslims — or else.

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