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."
"Are you referring to City Ordinance two hundred seventeen dash
eighty-two?"
"I see you are familiar with it... so you can hardly plead ignorance in
extenuation of your behavior."
"I am not familiar with that ordinance, just its number. It was cited to me
by a clownish thug who crushed into my bedroom. Does that ordinance say anything
about breaking into private bedrooms?"
"Ah, yes. Interfering with a safety officer in the performance of his duty.
We'll discuss that later. That ordinance you cited is the bedrock of our
freedom. Citizens, residents, and even visitors can come and go as they please,
subject only to their civic duty to cooperate with officials, elected,
appointed, or deputized, in carrying out their official duties."
"And who decides when cooperation is needed and what sort and how much?"
"Why, the official involved, of course."
"I thought so. Is there anything else you want of me?" I started to stand
up.
"Sit back down. There is indeed. And I require your cooperation. I am sorry
to have to put it that way but you don't seem to respond to polite requests."
"Such as breaking down my door?"
"You weary me. Sit down and shut up. I am about to interrogate you... as
soon as two witnesses arrive."
I sat down and shut up. I felt that I now understood the new regime:
absolute freedom... except that any official from dogcatcher to supreme
potentate could give any orders whatever to any private citizen at any time
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