Allen West: Real ‘Red Flag’ in America Is Red Flag of Progressive Socialism By Allen West | August 12, 2019 | 12:52 PM EDT
Retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Allen West (Screenshot)
[size] It has been one week since the tragic shootings in El Paso, Dayton, and Chicago. Yes, let us not forget that the same weekend as El Paso and Dayton there were seven killed and fifty-five shot in Chicago. In the wake of said tragedies there is a demand for action, and we can all agree on such. However, there are those who fail to believe in our rule of law, at least when it does not suit their ideological agenda. And therefore, we have voices speaking in a stentorian manner, demanding that the immediate solution is to violate the rights of law-abiding, legal American firearm owners. There are those who say this must end. They say that we cannot allow this moment to pass and not act. I agree. We must act, but we must act within our established law. We need not create new laws that are unconstitutional. It is very disturbing for me, and should be to us all, to hear recommendations of nationally instituting “red flag laws.” These laws are in total violation of our Second and Fourth Amendment individual rights enshrined in our Bill of Rights, found in our U.S. Constitution. I have been hearing the rhetoric of those seeking to be our president stating that they will use executive orders, in other words, tyrannical edict, to achieve their goals of undermining our right to keep and bear arms – one that “shall not be infringed.”
When I hear about red flag laws, I ask: why don’t we just enforce the laws we already have? The Parkland, Florida shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was well known to local Broward County law enforcement. The FBI was also tipped off to Cruz’s potentially dangerous behavior, but, as reported by NBC News, proper “protocols were not followed.” According to CNN, records show the local law enforcement agency received at least 45 call outs to his home. Cruz had also reportedly been referred to the Obama-era PROMISE programfor his threatening behavior. Florida has an established law called the Baker Act that deals with mental health. The Baker Act prohibits “firearms or deadly weapon[s]” from being on the grounds of hospitals providing mental health services and allows for a physician to make a determination concerning whether an “individual transferring from involuntary to voluntary status” under the Act “is of imminent danger to self or others” and could prohibit the purchase of a weapon or ability of that individual to obtain a concealed weapon permit. If Runcie and company had reported Cruz’s behavior to law enforcement, perhaps Cruz could have received some help via the Baker Act, and then it could have been in his records, preventing any purchase of firearms. So, why do we need new “Red Flag Laws” when it appears that we have a problem with law enforcement enforcing the law? Simple, because it gets progressive socialists closer to their ultimate goal – gun confiscation, and ultimately disarming the American people. I have heard in this past week those who speak that nothing can go wrong with red flag laws. That has already been proven wrong, in a fatal way last November 2018 in Maryland. [/size]
Quote :
“Two police officers ordered to remove firearms from a house on a ‘red flag’ protective order fatally shot an armed man Monday morning in Ferndale, Maryland, police said. Anne Arundel County Police arrived at the house at 5:17 a.m. to remove guns from the home under a new law that temporarily allows for the seizure of firearms if a person shows ‘red flags’ that they are a danger to themselves or others, CBS Baltimore reports. “A man, later identified by police as 61-year-old Gary Willis, answered his door with a gun in his hand, Anne Arundel County Police Sgt. Jacklyn Davis said. “Sgt. Davis said the man put the gun down. But then, according to a police press release, Willis ‘became irate’ when officers attempted to serve the order. Willis picked the weapon up again, ‘a fight ensued over the gun,’ and a shot was fired, Davis said. The first shot didn't strike anyone, but the officers then fatally shot the man, Sgt. Davis said. “Neither of the officers were injured. Their names weren't released. “It wasn't clear why the ‘red flag’ order was issued. A spokeswoman for the Maryland Judiciary denied a request from the Baltimore Sun to release protection order requests associated with the home, citing the law which states the orders are confidential unless a court rules otherwise.”
[size] To my knowledge, an otherwise innocent man, Gary Willis, lost his life, his first inalienable right, and for seemingly no reason. Sadly, we did not hear about Gary Willis on the mainstream media, and to this day it has not been explained why he lost his life. I can tell you why he did – incompetent politicians rushing to implement their ideological agenda violated our individual rights.
See, the real “red flag” in America is the red flag of progressive socialism. It is the flag that fans the flames of coercion, intimidation, threats and violence. It is the red flag that has created our second domestic terrorist gang, Antifa. The first was the Ku Klux Klan. And both have been defended by the same Democratic [Socialist] Party. No one said anything about these red flags when they attacked our ICE facilities in Aurora, Colorado and Seattle, Washington. These red flags showed themselves when a young Asian conservative journalist was attacked. These red flags spoke loudly outside of the residence of the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, where at least one protester expressed, according to Fox News, that someone should “stab the mother---er in the heart.” These red flags wave proudly when a leftist congressman makes a list of Americans to publicly shame and intimidate them just because they support President Trump. The progressive, socialist red flag flies when a leftist is on MSNBC and vehemently asserts that “pitchforks and torches” should come out to protest someone holding a fundraiser for President Trump. And this is all not even mentioning the businesses being targeted. It is the red flag of progressive socialism that seeks to undermine the constitutional right that enables us to be protected from their tyranny. And sadly, there are Republicans who are rallying to the left’s red flag. This is how it always begins with tyranny, never letting a good crisis go to waste. Hugo Chavez claimed that he had to ban private gun ownership in order to curtail gun violence … the same as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Castro. Our Founding Fathers knew one thing for certain: an armed individual is a citizen, while an unarmed one is a subject. In honor of Mr. Gary Willis, a man just three years older than I am, I will not allow the red flag of progressive socialism to fly in our America. Allen West is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. Mr. West is a Senior Fellow at the Media Research Center to support its mission to expose and neutralize liberal media bias. Mr. West also writes daily commentary on his personal website theoldschoolpatriot.com. [/size]
Guest Guest
Subject: Will 'Red Flag Laws' Become 'Red List Executions'? All The Know Nothings Will Exclaim, 'But It's The Law' Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:39 pm
Will 'Red Flag Laws' Become 'Red List Executions'? All The Know Nothings Will Exclaim, 'But It's The Law'
- Remember! Courageous Police Officer Warned Of The Globalists 'Final Solution' For America
By Stefan Stanford - All News Pipeline - Live Free Or Die
Last November, 61-year-old Gary Willis was shot dead while police were attempting to carry out a 'red flag' gun confiscation order after they arrived at his house at 5 a.m. and Willis was holding a gun, a very sad situation that this Gateway Pundit story reported upon with this opening sentence: "Coming soon to a neighborhood near you."
With even Republicans in Congress now caving in to considering enacting 'red flag gun laws' after what very well could have been 'orchestrated shooting events' just over a week ago, and warnings going out to President Trump from the NRA that any such laws will not be the least bit popular with his voting base and could easily cost him the 2020 election, we have to take a look within this ANP story at a theory that 'red flag laws' could become 'red list executions' with the very real possibility that Democrats could use such laws against their 'political enemies' and history providing absolute proof that, in 'death by government Communism-style, disarmament of a population always precedes genocide'.
As this story over at Wilder Wealthy Wise titled "Red Flag Laws, or, How To Repeal The Second Amendment Soviet-Style Without A Pesky Vote" that Steve Quayle had linked to on his website Monday morning reported, "the history of psychiatry is tied directly to the political" and "psychiatry is still the most politically abused medical profession" in the world today so there is the very real potential of 'red flag laws' being used by people such as deranged neighbors who hate the 2nd Amendment, angry spouses and insane leftists with a political agenda to attempt to take the guns away from law-abiding Americans.
And as Susan Duclos had reported on ANP in this August 4th story titled "The Powder Keg We Are Sitting On Is About To Blow: The Mainstream Media And Mental Health Professionals Treating Trump Derangement Syndrome Are All Suffering From It - America Has Become A Nation Of Crazy People", despite the fact that almost half of America now suffers from 'Trump derangment syndrome', the psychiatrists who are treating those mentally ill people are suffering from it, too! Really think that 'Trump derangement syndrome inflicted psychiatrists' are going to be able to make accurate decisions about who should be able to have guns and who shouldn't?
With many liberals believing that all guns should be outlawed and many psychiatrists being liberals, anybody who doesn't see the massive potential problems with 'red flag laws' isn't paying attention or has a leftist political agenda. Really think that those who have been reporting your 'offensive' posts to facebook and twitter won't also call in to the 'red flag gun law' tip lines to have your guns confiscated, too? As we'll see in the next section below, law enforcement officers are also concerned about 'red flag gun laws'.
(If you appreciate stories like this, please consider donating to ANP to help keep us in this battle for the future of America.)
As this August 9th story over at NBC Bay Area titled "Friends, Teachers, Coworkers, Could Soon Have Authority to Remove Gun Owners’ Weapons: A Look at California’s Red Flag Law" reported, currently only police and family members can request to have someone’s gun taken away. But state lawmakers are debating whether to extend that right to friends, teachers, and coworkers.
And their story reports that others are also very concerned about the possible unintended consequences of red flag gun laws, including gun owners who might be suffering from depression refusing to see a medical doctor about it for fear that they'd have their own guns taken away, leaving them defenseless. From the NBC story.
Matthew Larosiere with the Firearms Policy Coalition believes red flag laws may discourage gun owners from seeking mental health treatment and potentially cause even more deaths.
He points to an incident in Maryland when Anne Arundel police killed a 61-year-old man while attempting to serve a gun restraining order.
Larosiere points out that in some instance, the court can grant a gun restraining order without the gun owner’s knowledge until police come knocking at the door.
“They don't even know that there has been a hearing. What is that going to do, when we’ve already see how tense relationships are with police. You think it’s going to make it better? I don't think so,” Larosiere said.
"If you're a gun owner experiencing a tough time and you know that if you go to a therapist there's a chance that you'll have your rights removed, does that increase or decrease the chance that you'll see a therapist and get medication?"
And as this August 9th story over at Steamboat Pilot & Today in Colorado reports, many in Colorado, including Routt County law enforcement officials, are skeptical such legislation can actually accomplish what supporters claim it will. As their story reports, many in the law enforcement field are very concerned.
“I’m unaware of any of the recent mass shootings where a red flag law would be impactful,” said Steamboat Police Chief Cory Christensen.
[size=16]He and other officials worry extreme risk protection orders do not allow for due process and pose threats to the safety of officers tasked with taking guns away from people suspected to be a threat.
Routt County Sheriff Garrett Wiggins, a Republican, has supported Trump in some areas and disagreed with him in others. When it comes to taking away people’s guns, at least according to the Colorado red flag law, he sees the potential for abuse.
“I agree there are people out there, mentally ill people who should not have access to firearms,” he said. “But how you determine that is the big question.”
According to the state’s law, which takes effect in January 2020, family members and roommates can petition a judge to revoke a person’s firearms for up to 14 days. It does not provide explicit criteria for what kind of behavior constitutes a threat and tasks law enforcement officials, not mental health professionals, with handling such cases.
During a public forum in May sponsored by Routt County Republicans, just days after Colorado passed its red flag law, Wiggins told a crowd of about 50 people that he sees a lot of problems with the legislation. Chief among them was the safety of his deputies who would have to issue an extreme risk protection order and take away guns from a reportedly dangerous person.
Despite his reservations, Wiggins is not surprised by the President’s support for red flag laws, even though many Republicans reject gun control efforts.
“I think everyone, regardless of political affiliation, is looking for answers,” he said.
But as he added, “You can’t legislate evil.”
[/size]
According to Wikipedia, as of August 2019, 17 states and the District of Columbia have passed some form of red-flag law. The specifics of the laws, and the degree to which they are enforced, vary from state to state.
And interestingly, while Connecticut was the first state to enact a red flag law in 1999 following a rampage shooting at the Connecticut Lottery, their 'red flag law' failed to prevent the 'Sandy Hook event' in 2012.
And not surprisingly, while prior to 2018, only five states had some version of red flag laws, following the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018, that number more than doubled as more states used that shooting to enact such laws including Florida, Vermont, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, Illinois, and the District of Columbia.
In fact, while the states of Maryland and Illinois are both 'red flag' states, this latest mass shooting in Chicago that left 6 wounded and the fact that Baltimore has a homicide rate 10X higher than the US are further signs that if someone wants to cause havoc, they're going to find a way to do it whether laws are in effect or not. A long held argument against 'gun control' is the fact that should guns suddenly become illegal, do you really think criminals will voluntarily hand over their unregistered weapons?
And while Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw recently angered Republicans by coming out in support of red flag laws, with his argument that "everything turns on due process and how due process would be protected under the type of Red Flag Laws", Crenshaw didn't take into account the very real possibility that those diagnosing 'mental illness' in gun owners may themselves believe that guns should be illegal, while also suffering mental illness, 'Trump derangement syndrome', as well.
And as we see in the tweet above in response to Crenshaw's tweeting “Red Flag Law” emotionally trigger a lot of people, the concerns of gun owners becoming 'victims' due to their political beliefs, or just because they are gun owners, are very real. Gary Willis was not mentally ill nor a criminal but he was targeted simply for being a gun owner. How many more 'Gary Willis's' will there be in America due to 'red flag laws'?
As this story over at Fox News from just days ago reported, should 'red flag gun laws' be done without 'due process' it could lead to a massive government 'gun grab' with far too many judges willing to impose such orders in bad faith. And their story also warned such measures allow adversaries to institute gun seizures against individuals they simply dislike with far too many people who would use that in bad faith.
As this new story over at Liberty Unyielding titled "After this last week, some serious concerns MUST be addressed regarding ‘red flag’ laws" reported, if ever there were a week in history designed to flag for us in pulsating neon the dangers of making mental health a routine basis for public policy, it’s the one we just went through.
Then pointing out several different tweets by the 'four horsewomen of the apocalypse' and other leftist lunatics in Congress who've totally lost touch with reality while pushing their leftist agenda, their story then asked some very good questions. From their story.:
The most basic question the past week leaves any sensible person with is this one.
Do you seriously expect me to sit still for a government in which these seemingly deranged — at the very least obsessed — people can exert influence, craft law or regulations, and judge my mental fitness for exercising a constitutional right?
Then there’s this one. Am I supposed to let my rights be outvoted by these people, and let them elect officials to craft new vetoes over my state of “mental health?”
And this: If my right to self-defense is overridden by administrative actions, and I’m at the mercy of whatever the government will do for (or to) me, am I supposed to be content with a government whose effective standard is this?
And then their story pointed out what we all can see coming; 'red flag gun laws' are just the start of what the leftists want for America and they'll happily use their insane 'mobs' to push their agenda through.
Red flag laws won’t stop at being remedial. They will transmute into being prophylactic.
This prediction is a no-brainer. It’s 100% guaranteed to happen as laid out here. Instead of regarding mental health as a potential showstopper, if it happens to come up, activists will immediately begin arguing that everyone who wants to own a gun should have to undergo a mental health evaluation as a condition of gun ownership.
The consequences of this would reach far beyond gun ownership. Once the foot of mental health activism was in the door, everything people need a government license or permission for could be held at risk through mental health screenings. The very nature of the people’s relationship with government would shift, probably irrecoverably outside of literal revolution.
Remember, I’m not talking about the attitude of the whole mental health profession today. I’m talking about activists with agendas. Activists are usually a very small part of the communities they come from. The great majority of mental health professionals are people of high ethics and good character who have no interest in leveraging their profession to weaponize government against portions of the population.
But activists have a different profile. We’ve seen that with the media onslaught of a group of activists against Donald Trump, depicting his mental health in a garish light and demanding for many months now that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation (or simply be removed from office based on negative assessments they purport to have made from a distance). Democrats in the House are actually working with them.
Trump is the president, and in that office he can withstand such an onslaught without his life being altered. We the people are his employer; the activists may tell us his mental state is disqualifying, and we can decide not to accept their judgment. But no one else is the president of the United States. Most of us could find our lives materially altered, even ruined, under an onslaught like this one.
We already know activists will do this. Activists of various stripes demonstrated to us further this past week (as they have for months recently) the lengths to which they will go in service of their agendas.
It would be intolerable to see new gun laws made without acknowledging the certainty that they will (a) be abused and (b) become a slippery slope to preemptive “mental health” prophylaxis that puts too much arbitrary power in the hands of government agencies and the activists who ply revolving doors with them.
And with some on the left recently putting out 'death camps for Trump supporters' flyers while Hollywood shows their hatred of Christians and Conservatives by actually creating a 'human hunting' movie where Conservatives were hunted down (though that has now been canned after the outrage) while 'antifa' puts out flyers showing dead ICE agents and radical feminists rage "we need to kill all men", are Americans to simply hand over their rights to defend themselves and their families and loved ones with that kind of rhetoric being spewed and innocent Conservatives already being attacked nationwide by antifa terrorists?
And while it has long been called a 'conspiracy theory', we must remember that almost two decades ago, former Phoenix, Arizona police officer [url=https://books.google.com/books?id=52KrmiA9EdoC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=jack+mclamb,+red+list&source=bl&ots=lcsDdMWPtd&sig=ACfU3U2Sxe3QNcf5QyZ9xr5uz84yCJWrug&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjH3Ija-_3jAhVBMt8KHa-7AcAQ6AEwEHoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=jack mclamb%2C red list&f=false]Jack McLamb warned of 'red lists' and 'blue lists'[/url] that had been created by members of the emerging global government in America, lists of people who the globalists thought would be a threat to their final implementation of the 'NWO' with Officer McLamb warning that people on the 'red list' would be executed while the 'blue list' folks would have a chance to be 're-educated'.
Officer McLamb was in a 2001 documentary movie titled "The Secret Rulers Of The World" as well as a 2009 documentary simply titled "New World Order" within which he had shared his warnings of huge trouble ahead for America with the globalists long pushing to take away the rights of Americans to defend themselves as heard directly from McLamb in the 2nd video below.
When listening to Officer McLamb in that video, please keep in mind that it was created while George Bush was in office and just as McLamb warned way back then, 'terrorism would be used to take away the rights of Americans', just as we've seen in the 'Patriot Act' and the unfolding 'police state' here in America.
In the first video below, we hear from Paul Joseph Watson who talks about America's mass shooting nightmare while in the 3rd and final video below from 'Health Ranger' Mike Adams titled "Leftists can't wait to MURDER all conservatives", Adams gives us the "raw truth about how deranged Leftists are planning to mass MURDER conservatives. But first, they have to take away your guns".
So with America in great pain due to the recent horrific events in El Paso and Dayton and our nation seemingly never more divided than it is today, please join us in prayer for the healing of our nation while hoping that it's not already too late.
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Guest Guest
Subject: Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:41 pm
Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces
By John W. Whitehead August 12, 2019
Quote :
“It is often the case that police shootings, incidents where law enforcement officers pull the trigger on civilians, are left out of the conversation on gun violence. But a police officer shooting a civilian counts as gun violence. Every time an officer uses a gun against an innocent or an unarmed person contributes to the culture of gun violence in this country.”—Journalist Celisa Calacal
Yes, gun violence is a problem in America, although violent crime generally remains at an all-time low. Yes, mass shootings are a problem in America, although while they are getting deadlier, they are not getting more frequent. Yes, mentally ill individuals embarking on mass shooting sprees are a problem in America. However, tighter gun control laws and so-called “intelligent” background checks fail to protect the public from the most egregious perpetrator of gun violence in America: the U.S. government. Consider that five years after police shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old man in Ferguson, Missouri, there has been no relief from the government’s gun violence. Here’s what we’ve learned about the government’s gun violence since Ferguson, according to The Washington Post: If you’re a black American, you’ve got a greater chance of being shot by police. If you’re an unarmed black man, you’re four times more likely to be killed by police than an unarmed white man. Most people killed by police are young men. Since 2015, police have shot and killed an average of 3 people per day. More than 2,500 police departments have shot and killed at least one person since 2015. And while the vast majority of people shot and killed by police are armed, their weapons ranged from guns to knives to toyguns. Clearly, the U.S. government is not making America any safer. Indeed, the government’s gun violence—inflicted on unarmed individuals by battlefield-trained SWAT teams, militarized police, and bureaucratic government agents trained to shoot first and ask questions later—poses a greater threat to the safety and security of the nation than any mass shooter. According to journalist Matt Agorist, “mass shootings … have claimed the lives of 339 people since 2015… [D]uring this same time frame, police in America have claimed the lives of 4,355 citizens.” That’s 1200% more people killed by police than mass shooters since 2015. For example, in Texas, a police officer sent to do a welfare check on a 30-year-old woman seen lying on the grass near a shopping center, took aim at the woman’s dog as it ran towards him barking, fired multiple times, and killed the woman instead. In Chicago, a SWAT team—wearing “army fatigues with black cloth covering their faces and wearing goggles,” armed with automatic rifles, and throwing flash-bang grenades—crashed through the doors of a suburban home and proceeded to storm into bedrooms, holding the children of the household at gunpoint. One child, 13-year-old Amir, was “accidentally” shot in the knee by police while sitting on his bed. In St. Louis, Missouri, a SWAT team on a mission to deliver an administrative warrant carried out a no-knock raid that ended with police kicking in the homeowner’s front door, and shooting and killing her dog—all over an unpaid gas bill. Taxpayers will have to find $750,000 to settle the lawsuit arising over the cops’ overzealous tactics. In South Carolina, a 62-year-old homeowner was shot four times through his front door by police who were investigating a medical-assist alarm call that originated from a cell phone inside the home. Dick Tench, believing his house was being broken into, was standing in the foyer of his home armed with a handgun when police, peering through the front door, fired several shots through the door, hitting Tench in the pelvis and the aortic artery. Tench survived, but the bullet lodged in his pelvis will stay there for life. In Kansas, a SWAT team, attempting to carry out a routine search warrant (the suspect had already been arrested), showed up at a residence around dinnertime, dressed in tactical gear with weapons drawn, and hurled a flash-bang grenade into the house past the 68-year-old woman who was in the process of opening the door to them and in the general direction of a 2-year-old child. These are just a few recent examples among hundreds this year alone. Curiously enough, in the midst of the finger-pointing over the latest round of mass shootings, Americans have been so focused on debating who or what is responsible for gun violence—the guns, the gun owners, the Second Amendment, the politicians, or our violent culture—that they have overlooked the fact that the systemic violence being perpetrated by agents of the government has done more collective harm to the American people and their liberties than any single act of terror or mass shooting. Violence has become our government’s calling card, starting at the top and trickling down, from the more than 80,000 SWAT team raids carried out every year on unsuspecting Americans by heavily armed, black-garbed commandos and the increasingly rapid militarization of local police forces across the country to the drone killings used to target insurgents. The government even exports violence worldwide, with one of this country’s most profitable exports being weapons. Indeed, the United States, the world’s largest exporter of arms, has been selling violence to the world for too long now. Controlling more than 50 percent of the global weaponry market, the U.S. has sold or donated weapons to at least 96 countries in the past five years, including the Middle East. The U.S. also provides countries such as Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Iraq with grants and loans through the Foreign Military Financing program to purchase military weapons. At the same time that the U.S. is equipping nearly half the world with deadly weapons, profiting to the tune of $36.2 billion, its leaders have also been lecturing American citizens on the dangers of gun violence and working to enact measures that would make it more difficult for Americans to acquire certain weapons. Talk about an absurd double standard. If we’re truly going to get serious about gun violence, why not start by scaling back the American police state’s weapons of war? I’ll tell you why: because the government has no intention of scaling back on its weapons. In fact, all the while gun critics continue to clamor for bans on military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and armor-piercing bullets, the U.S. military is passing them out to domestic police forces. Under the auspices of a military “recycling” program, which allows local police agencies to acquire military-grade weaponry and equipment, more than $4.2 billion worth of equipment has been transferred from the Defense Department to domestic police agencies since 1990. Included among these “gifts” are tank-like, 20-ton Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, tactical gear, and assault rifles. There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government agents armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines. While Americans have to jump through an increasing number of hoops in order to own a gun, the government is arming its own civilian employees to the hilt with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment, authorizing them to make arrests, and training them in military tactics. Among the agencies being supplied with night-vision equipment, body armor, hollow-point bullets, shotguns, drones, assault rifles and LP gas cannons are the Smithsonian, U.S. Mint, Health and Human Services, IRS, FDA, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Education Department, Energy Department, Bureau of Engraving and Printing and an assortment of public universities. Seriously, why do IRS agents need AR-15 rifles? For that matter, why do police need armored personnel carriers with gun ports, compact submachine guns with 30-round magazines, precision battlefield sniper rifles, and military-grade assault-style rifles and carbines? Short answer: they don’t. In the hands of government agents, whether they are members of the military, law enforcement or some other government agency, these weapons have become routine parts of America’s day-to-day life, a byproduct of the rapid militarization of law enforcement over the past several decades. Over the course of 30 years, police officers in jack boots holding assault rifles have become fairly common in small town communities across the country. As investigative journalists Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz reveal, “Many police, including beat cops, now routinely carry assault rifles. Combined with body armor and other apparel, many officers look more and more like combat troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Does this sound like a country under martial law? You want to talk about gun violence? While it still technically remains legal for the average citizen to own a firearm in America, possessing one can now get you pulled over, searched, arrested, subjected to all manner of surveillance, treated as a suspect without ever having committed a crime, shot at and killed by police. You don’t even have to have a gun or a look-alike gun, such as a BB gun, in your possession to be singled out and killed by police. There are countless incidents that happen every day in which Americans are shot, stripped, searched, choked, beaten and tasered by police for little more than daring to frown, smile, question, or challenge an order. Growing numbers of unarmed people are being shot and killed for just standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety. With alarming regularity, unarmed men, women, children and even pets are being gunned down by twitchy, hyper-sensitive, easily-spooked police officers who shoot first and ask questions later, and all the government does is shrug, and promise to do better, all the while the cops are granted qualified immunity. Killed for standing in a “shooting stance.” In California, police opened fire on and killed a mentally challenged—unarmed—black man within minutes of arriving on the scene, allegedly because he removed a vape smoking device from his pocket and took a “shooting stance.” Killed for holding a cell phone. Police in Arizona shot a man who was running away from U.S. Marshals after he refused to drop an object that turned out to be a cellphone. Similarly, police in Sacramento fired 20 shots at an unarmed, 22-year-old black man who was standing in his grandparents’ backyard after mistaking his cellphone for a gun. Killed for carrying a baseball bat. Responding to a domestic disturbance call, Chicago police shot and killed 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier who had reportedly been experiencing mental health problems and was carrying a baseball bat around the apartment where he and his father lived. Killed for opening the front door. Bettie Jones, who lived on the floor below LeGrier, was also fatally shot—this time, accidentally—when she attempted to open the front door for police. Killed for running towards police with a metal spoon. In Alabama, police shot and killed a 50-year-old man who reportedly charged a police officer while holding “a large metal spoon in a threatening manner.” Killed for running while holding a tree branch. Georgia police shot and killed a 47-year-old man wearing only shorts and tennis shoes who, when first encountered, was sitting in the woods against a tree, only to start running towards police holding a stick in an “aggressive manner.” Killed for crawling around naked. Atlanta police shot and killed an unarmed man who was reported to have been “acting deranged, knocking on doors, crawling around on the ground naked.” Police fired two shots at the man after he reportedly started running towards them. Killed for wearing dark pants and a basketball jersey. Donnell Thompson, a mentally disabled 27-year-old described as gentle and shy, was shot and killed after police—searching for a carjacking suspect reportedly wearing similar clothing—encountered him lying motionless in a neighborhood yard. Police “only” opened fire with an M4 rifle after Thompson first failed to respond to their flash bang grenades and then started running after being hit by foam bullets. Killed for driving while deaf. In North Carolina, a state trooper shot and killed 29-year-old Daniel K. Harris—who was deaf—after Harris initially failed to pull over during a traffic stop. Killed for being homeless. Los Angeles police shot an unarmed homeless man after he failed to stop riding his bicycle and then proceeded to run from police. Killed for brandishing a shoehorn. John Wrana, a 95-year-old World War II veteran, lived in an assisted living center, used a walker to get around, and was shot and killed by police who mistook the shoehorn in his hand for a 2-foot-long machete and fired multiple beanbag rounds from a shotgun at close range. Killed for having your car break down on the road. Terence Crutcher, unarmed and black, was shot and killed by Oklahoma police after his car broke down on the side of the road. Crutcher was shot in the back while walking towards his car with his hands up. Killed for holding a garden hose. California police were ordered to pay $6.5 million after they opened fire on a man holding a garden hose, believing it to be a gun. Douglas Zerby was shot 12 times and pronounced dead on the scene. Killed for calling 911. Justine Damond, a 40-year-old yoga instructor, was shot and killed by Minneapolis police, allegedly because they were startled by a loud noise in the vicinity just as she approached their patrol car. Damond, clad in pajamas, had called 911 to report a possible assault in her neighborhood. Killed for looking for a parking spot. Richard Ferretti, a 52-year-old chef, was shot and killed by Philadelphia police who had been alerted to investigate a purple Dodge Caravan that was driving “suspiciously” through the neighborhood. Shot seven times for peeing outdoors. Eighteen-year-old Keivon Young was shot seven times by police from behind while urinating outdoors. Young was just zipping up his pants when he heard a commotion behind him and then found himself struck by a hail of bullets from two undercover cops. Allegedly officers mistook Young—5’4,” 135 lbs., and guilty of nothing more than taking a leak outdoors—for a 6’ tall, 200 lb. murder suspect whom they later apprehended. Young was charged with felony resisting arrest and two counts of assaulting a peace officer. This is what passes for policing in America today, folks, and it’s only getting worse. In every one of these scenarios, police could have resorted to less lethal tactics. They could have acted with reason and calculation instead of reacting with a killer instinct. They could have attempted to de-escalate and defuse whatever perceived “threat” caused them to fear for their lives enough to react with lethal force. That police instead chose to fatally resolve these encounters by using their guns on fellow citizens speaks volumes about what is wrong with policing in America today, where police officers are being dressed in the trappings of war, drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon “every individual they interact with as an armed threat and every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making.” Remember, to a hammer, all the world looks like a nail. Yet as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, “we the people” are not just getting hammered. We’re getting killed, execution-style. Violence begets violence: until we start addressing the U.S. government’s part in creating, cultivating and abetting a culture of violence, we will continue to be a nation plagued by violence in our homes, in our schools, on our streets and in our affairs of state, both foreign and domestic. WC: 2623
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Subject: Re: Allen West: Real ‘Red Flag’ in America Is Red Flag of Progressive Socialism
Allen West: Real ‘Red Flag’ in America Is Red Flag of Progressive Socialism
Subject: Allen West: Real ‘Red Flag’ in America Is Red Flag of Progressive Socialism 
Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:10 pm
