An Issue With Authority

The murder of a small town New Hampshire cop is a microcosm of what is happening all over America.

N.H. Town Divided Over Killing of Police
FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) -- Liko Kenney, described by friends as a free-spirited "Hippie kid," had a history of bad blood with police Cpl. Bruce McKay. So there was the potential for trouble when a traffic stop brought them together again.

Within minutes of the Friday stop, both were dead, dividing this town's 924 residents between those who see McKay as a fallen hero and those who considered him a bully with a badge.

Corporal Bruce McKay was a no nonsense law 'n order guy. His murderer was a so called free spirited "hippie" who had an issue with authority. We'll get back to that.

Authorities say McKay, 48, stopped Kenney, 24, for speeding, and Kenney asked to deal with a different officer and drove away.

By the time McKay caught up about a mile down the road, Kenney was in a frenzy, according to his friend and passenger, Caleb Macauley.

Sorry, you don't have that option. Life isn't a MacDonald's counter even though the cop can supersize your ticket. I wonder how this kid was brought up. Further on the article gives us an inkling. And also keep this in mind, Kenney was in a frenzy, not the cop.

McKay forced him off the road and pepper-sprayed him. Kenney then shot McKay four times and drove over him. Gregory Floyd, a passing motorist and ex-Marine who saw it all, grabbed McKay's gun and shot Kenney to death when he refused to put his gun down. Authorities quickly ruled the killing justified.

Even the reporter tries to make it sound as if the authorities did something inappropriate. A place like Grafton County (the county where Franconia is located; Grafton is 96% white)shouldn't have much on its plate; these are the 2000 crime stats for Grafton, they only had 31 Part I crimes in all of 2004. The DA could have moved this investigation quickly through a grand jury since there appears to have been only the two witnesses and a limited crime scene.

There are indications that Liko Kenney grew up in a atmosphere of privilege.

Liko Kenney grew up on his grandparents' rustic tennis camp in Easton, where the extended family still lives. Liko's parents own a coffee plantation in Hawaii, and he followed their seasonal migrations: the islands in winter, the White Mountains in summer.

"He was kinda just a happy, hippie kid. He'd do anything to help anyone," said Holly Hayward, 48, who said she'd known Kenney his whole life.

Except pull over for a police officer. Kenney also manifested a fierce temper when crossed.

Friends and family called Kenney a free-spirited outdoorsman who loved all-terrain vehicles and had issues with authority. Court records show he could be volatile even with his own family. In January 2003, an aunt, Larisa Kenney, sought a restraining order against her nephew, then 19. In a handwritten letter, she told the court Liko had frightened her by chainsawing trees near her cabin, sending one crashing onto her roof as she slept. When she confronted him, she said Liko exploded - shouting, grabbing her and then following her on his ATV as she ran to safety at a relative's home.

This doesn't sound like a peace loving hippie. He sounds more like nutcase with a short fuse. He was calm as long as he got his own way.

Just weeks later, Liko Kenney had a violent run-in with McKay, who had followed tire tracks into an isolated parking area. Court documents say it took three officers to subdue Kenney, who tried to escape three times, once while cuffed and shackled. One officer said Kenney grabbed McKay in the groin and that McKay reacted by punching Kenney in the face. Kenney's family and many in town say McKay broke Kenney's jaw that night, but Grafton County Attorney Rick St. Hilaire said Kenney's jaw was not broken.

So we have a young man from a very rich family who fights with police and threatens his own relatives when he doesn't get what he wants. We don't know whether or not he worked, went to school or anything else other than he liked ATV's and being outdoors. He appears to have been treated differentially by everyone he came into contact with. He does not appear to have been a disciplined individual.

We see the same kind of behavior at G8 conferences where privileged middle calls kids destroy property and threaten to turn a city upside down if they don't get their way.

We also see this in ghetto kids who go through the juvenile justice system without ever being disciplined for what they do. We have teens who have been arrested over twenty times for relatively minor offenses (always getting a ride from lenient judges) suddenly start shooting people.

I believe that the primary cause for this is piss poor parenting. It is made worse by judges who refuse to enforce the laws by imposing punishment for even minor offenses. Our City Court system is rife with this.

I do not believe in giving someone a few bites of the apple. One nibble and you get the whole apple shoved up your ass. Then you don't want another bite.

There is a whole lot more to this subject matter and I know that I am hardly skimming the surface. But it is very important to realize that an individual's perception of law is key to how that individual stays within the bounds of law. If this is not taught at an early age and reinforced by the schools and the courts, then we have the problems that light up the evening news so often. And Liko Kenney is just one example.