OH Nat’l Guard drill envisions pro-Second Amendment domestic terrorists

Joe Newby

February 10, 2014

examiner.com

A training drill conducted by the 52nd Civil Support Team of the Ohio National Guard positioned supporters of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms who expressed “anti-government” opinions as domestic terrorists, Media Trackers reported Monday.

The scenario of the drill conducted last year envisioned a plot from local school district employees to use biological weapons in order to advance their beliefs about “protecting Gun Rights and Second Amendment rights.”

At the time, Portsmouth Chief of Police Bill Raisin told NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Huntington, W.V., that the drill accurately represented “the reality of the world we live in,” telling the station that such training “helps us all be prepared.”

Documents acquired by Media Trackers indicates that two Portsmouth Junior High School employees poisoned school lunches with mustard gas, acting on orders from a fictional white-nationalist leader named William Pierce.

Media Trackers added:

The ONG team discovered biological weapons being produced in the school, requiring activation of containment and decontamination procedures.

Participants in the disaster drill located documents expressing the school employees’ “anti-government” sentiments, as well as a note identifying Pierce as the fictional right-wing terrorists’ leader.

Media Trackers said a similar drill involved a fictional attack by left wing activists. Officials apologized for that scenario after a backlash from local environmentalists, but the ONG did not apologize for assuming supporters of the Constitution and the Second Amendment would engage in acts of domestic terrorism.

Worse yet, Media Tracker said ONG Communications Director James Sims II dismissed concerns conservatives would have about the scenario.

“After excerpts of the report were read to him, Sims said it was ‘not relevant’ to understand why conservatives may feel unduly targeted by ONG’s training scenario,” Media Tracker said.

“Okay, I’m gonna stop ya there. I’m going to quit this conversation,” Sims reportedly said. “You have a good day.”

According to Media Tracker, local lawmakers refused to respond to questions about the drill, which Jesse Hathaway said was just “one of many instances” where officials have assumed those who support a limited government and the right to keep and bear arms as potential threats.

Buckeye Firearms Association spokesman Chad Baus called it a “scary day indeed when law enforcement are being trained that Second Amendment advocates are the enemy.”

“The revelation of this information is appalling to me, and to all citizens of Ohio who are true conservatives and patriots, who don’t have guns for any other reason than that the Second Amendment gives them that right,” added Tom Zawistowski, executive director of the Portage County Tea Party.

Hathaway reminded readers of a 2009 Homeland Security report warning local law enforcement that “right-wing extremism” would be fueled by “proposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans” and “the election of the first African American president.”

Hathaway also said history shows acts of domestic terrorism are far more likely to come from the left.

“Throughout modern history, groups and individuals associated with left-wing causes have proven far more likely to commit acts of domestic terror,” he said.

“In 2012, members of the anarcho-socialist Occupy Cleveland movement were arrested and prosecuted for attempting to destroy the Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge with explosives, to commemorate International Workers’ Day,” he added.

Violent gun crime has dropped dramatically in the past two decades

Paul Overberg and Meghan Hoyer

December 3, 2013

usatoday.com

Violent gun crime has dropped dramatically in the past two decades, but the majority of Americans think it’s more of a problem now than ever, according to a Pew Research Center study released Tuesday.

According to the survey, done in March, 56% of Americans believe gun crime is worse today than it was 20 years ago. And 84% believe in recent years, gun crime has either gone up or stayed the same — when the reality is that it has dropped significantly.

The rate of non-fatal violent gun crime victimization dropped 75% in the past 20 years; The gun homicide rate dropped 49% in the same period, according to numbers Pew researchers obtained from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The public doesn’t get its feelings out of crime statistics,” said Alfred Blumstein, an urban systems professor at Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University. “The public gets its feelings from particularly notorious events, and what the press talks about.”

The recent attention on the massacre in Newtown, Conn., other mass shootings and even the spate of shootings in Chicago have fueled a perception that crime is up, even though in most cities it has dropped overall, he said.

Poughkeepsie NY mayor: Nationwide Gun Confiscation Is Goal of Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Poughkeepsie, N.Y. mayor says he left the group over confiscation plans

Kit Daniels
infowars.com

February 7, 2014

A current New York mayor has publicly announced his decision to leave Mayors Against Illegal Guns because the gun control group demands an all-out “confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens.”

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns in 2006 to promote gun control.

In an announcement published by his city’s newspaper, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Mayor John C. Tkazyik said he quit the group after realizing it was simply a vehicle for Michael Bloomberg to “promote his personal gun-control agenda.”

“It did not take long to realize that MAIG’s agenda was much more than ridding felons of illegal guns,” he stated. “Under the guise of helping mayors facing a crime and drug epidemic, MAIG intended to promote confiscation of guns from law-abiding citizens.”

“I don’t believe, never have believed and never will believe that public safety is enhanced by encroaching on our right to bear arms and I will not be a part of any organization that does.”

Tkazyik also pointed out that Chicago’s extremely high crime rates are undeterred by the city’s highly restrictive gun laws.

“Depriving law-abiding citizens of their right to own firearms only makes them more vulnerable,” he added.

Tkazyik’s announcement is a stark contrast to the rhetoric of other politicians who want to grossly violate human rights.

At a gun control event earlier this year, Austin, Texas City Council Member Mike Martinez admitted that gun control is simply a step-by-step process to completely eliminate the Second Amendment.

While pointing at a sign held by a protestor which read “Stop Gun Ban,” Martinez said that “someone needs to inform him that there is no gun ban currently, but because of the work we’re doing today, we will make [his] sign legitimate shortly.”

“So you hang on to that [sign],” he said to a cheering crowd of gun control advocates.

And in a flashback to 1995, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) told 60 Minutes that she wanted to outright ban all firearms owned by Americans.

“If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them … ‘Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in,’ I would have done it,” she said.

This is the true intent of gun control, even though many of its advocates whitewash the truth with a variety of propaganda techniques or by just simply being ignorant.

For example, the organizers for the event at which Martinez spoke told reporters that they didn’t want to ban guns even though that is exactly what Martinez demanded in his speech.

Gun control advocates constantly parrot deceptive phrases such as “common sense solutions” and “we don’t want to ban guns” when selling their agenda which will only lead to the complete disarmament of the population by authoritarians.

Fortunately, on the other hand, Mayor Tkazyik is joining an ever-increasing list of public officials who have denounced gun control.

Last month, Detroit’s Police Chief James Craig told reporters that legal gun owners deter crime.

“Coming from California, where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of Carrying Concealed Weapon [permits], and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation,” he said. “I changed my orientation real quick; Maine is one of the safest places in America.”

“Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”

And last year, Erie Co., N.Y. Sheriff Timothy B. Howard publicly announced that his department would not enforce New York’s latest gun control law, the SAFE Act.

“It’s an unenforceable law and I believe it will ultimately be declared unconstitutional,” he said to reporters. “Do you want law enforcement people that will say ‘I will do this because I’m told to do this, even if I know it’s wrong?’”

It is refreshing to see elected officials serving their constituents while also respecting the Bill of Rights.

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Mayors Against Illegal Guns Merges With Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense In America

Reuters  |  Posted: 12/19/2013 11:59 am EST  |  Updated: 01/23/2014 1:38 am EST

huffingtonpost.com

NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a gun control group founded and financed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, announced on Thursday it will merge with another gun control group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

The mayors’ group will unite its grassroots, policy and field forces with the mothers’ group “to enact common-sense policies that respect the rights of gun owners while keeping firearms out of dangerous hands,” the groups said in a statement.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns was formed in 2006 as the brainchild of Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, both of whom will leave office at the end of the year. They argued that mayors were uniquely sensitive to gun violence as it often falls to them to comfort the families of slain police officers.

The group now includes more than 1,000 mayors.

Moms Demand Action launched a year ago, following the shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school that resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults. The group says it had 130,000 members.

“Gun violence used to be something that happened only in other cities, other communities. But now, every mother and every American knows the fear of ‘What if?’ – What if it were my community or my child’s school?” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. (Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Gunna Dickson)

TSA Harasses Police Chief – Placed On Administrative Leave – Told To Disband Entire Police Department

www.usaprepares.com

Vincent Finelli

28 January 2014, 23:21 CST

Updated 29 January 2014 at 221:54 CST

By Vincent Finelli

Police Chief Shane Harger of the Jemez Springs, NM Police Department was placed on administrative leave and ordered to disband his police department today.

Harger returned from the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association Convention on Monday, January 27, 2014 with a sense of knowing that, he as well as 38 other peace officers, shared the commitment to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from enemies both foreign and domestic. He and the other 38 men and women signed the Resolution of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (see below).

The following morning, Harger was informed by Sheriff Douglas C. Wood of Sandoval County, New Mexico, that Harger was to dismantle the Jamez Springs Police Department.

Jemez Springs, NM is a tourist destination. With a population of 252, the police department enjoys ten part-time officers and volunteers with many working about 8 hours per month.

The story unfolds: Traveling by commercial airlines from Albuquerque, NM to LasVegas,NV, Harger was asked by TSA to show his credentials. Minutes later a man flashed a badge claiming to be a federal agent (agency unknown) also demanding to see Harger’s credentials.

Harger was told that he was a person of interest, and the federal agent wanted to know where he was going and why. Bear in mind, no one is required to provide this information under these circumstances.

Harger said that the federal agent told him that the he, the federal agent, was paid to be suspicious of everyone.

Harger informed the federal agent that he was traveling to attend the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association Convention in LasVegas.

Harger was detained for thirty-five minutes – his detention was video recorded but not made available to Harger.

Link to Vincent Finelli’s radio broadcast of January 29, 2014 describing the event: http://archives2014.gcnlive.com/Archives2014/jan14/USAPrepares/0129141.mp3 

Link to Sam Bushman’s radio broadcast of January 29, 2014 describing the event:

lnrlive.com/lrt/lrt20140129b.mp3

Harger was eventually released from detention and was allowed to board the airplane.

No charges were filed against Harger.

I met Chief Harger at the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association Convention and was interested in the events of his travel. He agreed to be on the air with me on www.USAPrepares.com to tell the story of his detention as a person of interest who was attending a Constitutional Sheriffs convention. But before going live on global radio, Harger was fired as well as the rest of the police department.

Despite having received a meritorious commendation from the Mayor of Jemez Springs on January 22, 2014, it seems that no one in the village government is willing to come to the assistance of Harger. It appears that Harger’s stance to defend and uphold the Constitution has put him and his entire department of ten part-time and volunteers out of business.

Harger has received no reprimands, no correspondence of wrong doing, and nothing indicating that any of his actions were not in accordance with the law.

Harger stated to me that his department was ordered by Sandoval County, NM, Sheriff Douglas C. Wood to disband because of Harger’s political affiliations, specifically the CSPOA headed by founder Sheriff Richard Mack. I called the Sheriff’s Office to discuss this with Sheriff Wood, but was directed to his secretary’s voice mail. Here is the public number that I called – 505-867-7526.

I was at the convention and I never saw nor heard anyone say nor do anything that was a violation of any law. The CSPOA convention was an assembly of peace-loving Americans who just wanted to uphold their oath of office, that being to support and defend the US Constitution and Bill of Rights for all of us, We The People.

Chief of Police, Shane Harger is standing up to defend We The People, I trust that you will stand up to defend and support him. Anything less is unacceptable.

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CSPOA Jan 2014 Resolution

cspoa.org

The following was drafted at a meeting of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) on Jan 24, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada and approved by the members present.  We encourage all sheriffs, peace officers and those in public office to sign with us. We also welcome the signatures of all other U.S. citizens.

To add your name, download a printable version, print it, sign it, scan it and submit it here.

Resolution
Of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association
Pursuant to the powers and duties bestowed upon us by our citizens, the undersigned do hereby resolve that any Federal officer, agent, or employee, regardless of supposed congressional authorization, is required to obey and observe limitations consisting of the enumerated powers as detailed within Article 1 Section 8 of the U S Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.

The people of these united States are, and have a right to be, free and independent, and these rights are derived from the “Law of Nature and nature’s God.” As such, they must be free from infringements on the right to keep and bear arms, unreasonable searches and seizures, capricious detainments and every other natural right whether enumerated or not, pursuant to the 9th amendment.

We further reaffirm that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” (10th amendment)

Furthermore, we maintain that no agency established by the U S Congress can develop its own policies or regulations which supersede the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, nor does the executive branch have the power to make law, overturn law or set aside law.

Therefore, in order to protect the American people, BE IT RESOLVED THAT,

The following abuses will not be allowed or tolerated:

1) Registration of personal firearms under any circumstances.

2) Confiscation of firearms without probable cause, due process, and constitutionally compliant warrants issued by a local or state jurisdiction.

3) Audits or searches of a citizen’s personal affairs or finances without probable cause, and due process, and constitutionally compliant warrants issued by a local or state jurisdiction.

4) Inspections of person or property without probable cause and constitutionally compliant warrants as required by the 4th Amendment and issued by a local or state jurisdiction.

5) The detainment or search of citizens without probable cause and proper due process compliance, or the informed consent of the citizen.

6) Arrests with continued incarcerations without charges and complete due process, including, but not limited to public and speedy jury trials, in a court of state or local jurisdiction.

7) Domestic utilization of our nation’s military or federal agencies operating under power granted under the laws of war against American citizens.

8) Arrest of citizens or seizure of persons or property without first notifying and obtaining the express consent of the local sheriff.

AND, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
that the undersigned Sheriffs, Peace Officers, and other Public Servants, do hereby denounce any acts or agencies which promote the aforementioned practices. All actions by the Federal Government and its agents will conform strictly and implicitly with the principles expressed within the United States Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights.

There is no greater obligation or responsibility of any government officer than to protect the rights of the people. Thus, any conduct contrary to the United States Constitution, Declaration of Independence, or the Bill of Rights will be dealt with as criminal activity.

Join us now! download a printable version, print it, sign it, scan it and submit it here.

Top Constitutional Experts: Obama Is Worse than Nixon

Originally posted on May 15, 2013

washingtonsblog.com

Objective Analysis: Obama Versus Nixon

In the wake of the twin scandals of the IRS targeting conservative groups and the Department of Justice spying on AP reporters, the comparisons between Obama and Nixon are everywhere.

But what do experts say?

Former New York Times general counsel James Goodale – who represented the paper during its Pentagon Papers fight with the Nixon administration – said in an interview yesterday that Obama is worse than Nixon when it comes to press freedoms. And see this.

Former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald noted last year:

We supposedly learned important lessons from the abuses of power of the Nixon administration, and then of the Bush administration: namely, that we don’t trust government officials to exercise power in the dark, with no judicial oversight, with no obligation to prove their accusations. Yet now we hear exactly this same mentality issuing from Obama, his officials and defenders to justify a  far more extreme power than either Nixon or Bush dreamed of asserting: he’s only killing The Bad Citizens, so there’s no reason to object!

Jonathan Turley – perhaps the top constitutional law expert in the United States (and a liberal) – writes:

The painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an “imperial presidency” with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition. The success of Obama in acquiring the long-denied powers of Nixon is one of his most remarkable, if ignoble, accomplishments. Consider a few examples:

Warrantless surveillance

Nixon’s use of warrantless surveillance led to the creation of a special court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). But the reform turned out to be more form than substance. The secret court turned “probable cause” into a meaningless standard, virtually guaranteeing any surveillance the government wanted. After hundreds of thousands of applications over decades, only a couple have ever been denied.

Last month, the Supreme Court crushed any remaining illusions regarding FISA when it sided with the Obama administration in ruling that potential targets of such spying had to have proof they were spied upon before filing lawsuits, even if the government has declared such evidence to be secret. That’s only the latest among dozens of lawsuits the administration has blocked while surveillance expands exponentially.

Unilateral military action

Nixon’s impeachment included the charge that he evaded Congress’ sole authority to declare war by invading Cambodia. In the Libyan “mission,” Obama announced that only he had the inherent authority to decide what is a “war” and that so long as he called it something different, no congressional approval or even consultation was necessary. He proceeded to bomb a nation’s capital, destroy military units and spend more than a billion dollars in support of one side in a civil war.

Kill lists

Nixon ordered a burglary to find evidence to use against Daniel Ellsberg, who gave the famed Pentagon Papers to the press, and later tried to imprison him. Ellsberg was later told of a secret plot by the White House “plumbers” to “incapacitate” him in a physical attack. It was a shocking revelation. That’s nothing compared with Obama’s assertion of the right to kill any U.S. citizen without a charge, let alone conviction, based on his sole authority. A recently leaked memo argues that the president has a right to kill a citizen even when he lacks “clear evidence (of) a specific attack” being planned.

Attacking whistle-blowers

Nixon was known for his attacks on whistle-blowers. He used the Espionage Act of 1917 to bring a rare criminal case against Ellsberg. Nixon was vilified for the abuse of the law. Obama has brought twice as many such prosecutions as all prior presidents combined [and see this]. While refusing to prosecute anyone for actual torture, the Obama administration has prosecuted former CIA employee John Kiriakou for disclosing the torture program.

Other Nixonesque areas include Obama’s overuse of classification laws and withholding material from Congress. There are even missing tapes. In the torture scandal, CIA officials admitted to destroying tapes that they feared could be used against them in criminal cases. Of course, Nixon had missing tapes, but Rose Mary Woods claimed to have erased them by mistake, as opposed to current officials who openly admit to intentional destruction.

Obama has not only openly asserted powers that were the grounds for Nixon’s impeachment, but he has made many love him for it. More than any figure in history, Obama has been a disaster for the U.S. civil liberties movement. By coming out of the Democratic Party and assuming an iconic position, Obama has ripped the movement in half. Many Democrats and progressive activists find themselves unable to oppose Obama for the authoritarian powers he has assumed. It is not simply a case of personality trumping principle; it is a cult of personality.

Long after Watergate, not only has the presidency changed. We have changed. We have become accustomed to elements of a security state such as massive surveillance and executive authority without judicial oversight. We have finally answered a question left by Benjamin Franklin in 1787, when a Mrs. Powel confronted him after the Constitutional Convention and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a republic or a monarchy?” His chilling response: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We appear to have grown weary of the republic and traded it for promises of security from a shining political personality. Somewhere, Nixon must be wondering how it could have been this easy.

Nixon’s “Enemies List” is famous, and the former head of the National Security Agency’s global digital data gathering program says that Obama also has an enemies list … which has been used to take down a wide variety of people, including the head of the CIA. The Washington Post’s Ed Rogers notes:

Obama doesn’t need a traditional Nixonian enemies list. In the digital age, with the Obama machine’s much-celebrated technological capabilities, the president can sort his enemies by keywords.

You’ve heard about the AP spying scandal, and the head of the Department of Justice implies that the government has spied on many other reporters.

Reporters who criticize those in power are being smeared by the government and targeted for arrest (and see this).

Indeed, the Obama administration is treating real reporters as potential terrorists.

After Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and others sued the government to enjoin the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans – the judge asked the government attorneys 5 times whether journalists like Hedges could be indefinitely detained simply for interviewing and then writing about bad guys. The government refused to promise that journalists like Hedges won’t be thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their lives without any right to talk to a judge.

Wikileaks’ head Julian Assange could face the death penalty for his heinous crime of leaking whistleblower information which make those in power uncomfortable … i.e. being a reporter.

Daniel Ellsberg notes that Obama’s claimed power to indefinitely detain people without charges or access to a lawyer or the courts is a power that even King George didn’t claim.  Former judge and adjunct professor of constitutional law Andrew Napolitano points out that Obama’s claim that he can indefinitely detain prisoners even after they are acquitted of their crimes is a power that even Hitler and Stalin didn’t claim.

Indeed, Obama has turned America into the most spied upon nation in world history, and has rolled back liberties to the time of the enactment of the Magna Carta in 1215.