Dangerous Precedent? Bill Would Grant Alabama Church Its Own Police Department

(Pic: ABC33|40)

America is such a police state, its churches are asking to be granted their own police departments with their own police jurisdiction.

Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama has officially requested to have its own police department, a request that is currently making its way through the state’s legislature. The church, which runs a Jefferson County campus and a Shelby County high school, claims its own police force is necessary to, “create a safer campus in a fallen world,” according to ABC33|40.

Rep. Arnold Mooney, a Republican from Shelby County, has sponsored a bill to allow the church to have its own police department. The bill has already been approved by the Alabama legislature’s Public Safety Committee.

Churches asking for their own police jurisdiction… what a slippery slope.

“What do we do when other church affiliates come and ask for the same thing?” questioned Rep. Mary Moore (D-Birmingham). “They’re not a college. They’re a church and they’re a church asking for police jurisdiction.”

On the other hand, former police chief Rep. Connie Rowe (R- Jasper) supports the bill (of course) and would be open to requests for other churches to have their own police departments as well.

“They will conduct their own investigations,” explained Rowe. “They will conduct their own security. They will make their own arrests and instead of calling on the local law enforcement agency to take over the particular situation they’re trying to control, they will do that themselves. All they will utilize from other law enforcement agencies in their lock up facilities.”

When asked who the officers would answer to, a church representative responded, “the leadership of the section of the church”.

Talk about separation of church and state.

So what next? This isn’t just security. This is official law enforcement. Should companies have their own police forces with police jurisdiction, too? Couldn’t companies like Google or Walmart make similar arguments for having their own police departments?

You think America is a police state now…