Making war on America?

 In 1971 I was working for the Waffle House in Tampa. I was cooking the 11 PM to 7 AM shift. One day, our district manager, Fred Hether, visited us at the 11:00 PM shift change. Fred was telling me things that he thought that I needed to know about working the night shift. He emphasized that if we had problem customers causing an issue, we were to call the police. He said, "There is always someone who is bigger, badder, crazier and even better armed than we are. Call the police and let them handle it." While I have a library of stories about things that happened at the Waffle House, they all started with us calling the police.

Yesterday in Charlotte, they buried the first of the four law enforcement officers killed earlier this week. If you missed this, and it was even on the national news, they were killed by a career criminal who they were trying to arrest. The man they were trying to arrest was killed in the shootout. Another four officers were wounded in the shootout. I think that it was a horrible tragedy.

What I am going to write next may stun some, but it's just what I think. I think that this terrible incident and many others like it, are almost entirely preventable. It's not just the criminals that are at fault, it is also the direct results of decisions made by law enforcement and the government.

Local, state and federal agencies have all "militarized" their police forces. It's no longer a law enforcement role, it's a military role. 

A couple of weeks ago in Arkansas, a man was killed by ATF agents as they used a "no knock" warrant to charge into his home at 6:00 AM. They say that he fired at them. What would you do if your home was invaded at 6:00 AM and you were awakened by people screaming that they are the ATF? Just for the record, anyone can yell "ATF". I can't accept that anyone who has read the Constitution can believe that "No knock" warrants are constitutional. Don't waste your time telling me about Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court is the home of Dred Scott and Roe V Wade. 

Mike Huckabee had a guy on his show who was arrested at his home for violating a law about protesting at an abortion clinic. The FBI sent a SWAT team to arrest an unarmed man with a clean criminal record. Why? Because we have militarized the federal police agencies. Their job is not enforcement, but intimidation. In this case, the FBI agents refused to show their IDs to the man arrested. He asked for an ID and one agent pointed to the "FBI" on his vest and said, "This is all of the ID you need." Yeah, like that shit's not for sale at every gun show or store. He is in the process of an appeal. 

The ATF and the FBI have a horrible record on killing innocent people. At Ruby Ridge, Randy Weaver's wife was shot and killed as she held her baby standing in the front door of their home. She is dead, but the FBI agent who killed her walked free. At the end of the day, Vicki Weaver died because her husband refused to become an informant for the government. Gerry Spence defended Weaver and he was acquitted on all of the charges resulting from the standoff. Spence didn't even present a defense witness. He just tore apart the irregularities and lies in the federal case. Read Spence's book on the trial for enlightenment.

The ATF instigated the whole slaughter at Waco by attacking the Branch Davidian compound. Then the FBI used a tank to attack the buildings where people lived filling them with gas. That was a gas that we have agreed not to use in war against other countries, but the FBI used it on our own citizens. The FBI blames the Branch Davidians for their own deaths. I don't recall any pictures of the Branch Davidians showing off their tank.

The FBI sent a SWAT team to arrest a guy in Pennsylvania last year for a charge of interfering with an abortion clinic that a jury took less than an hour to decide was bullshit. His attorney had already offered to have him turn himself in, but that wasn't good enough for the Feds. Turning yourself in does not give them the opportunity to make war on American citizens. Not to mention the chance to demonstrate their need for more funding to buy more war-making equipment.

The real problem is that law enforcement wants to make a big splash on the news so that they can intimidate citizens and secure more funding for their ever-growing war machine. If the choice is between picking up a guy at a lawyer's office and staging a "No Knock" raid in the middle of the night, they are calling out the SWAT team. David Koresh used to meet with the sheriff in Waco on a regular basis. Did they get the sheriff involved? No, they just filled the trucks and horse trailers with ATF agents and attacked innocent people. These are bad decisions that affect how Americans feel about law enforcement.

The guy in Charlotte had a lengthy criminal record. Let's ask some judges and legislators why he was still on the street. I doubt that he spent all of his time hanging around the house. Why not watch him and try to apprehend him when he left his house?  Because that won't intimidate the neighbors like a task force of heavily armed officers going to his house. You can't justify armored vehicles if the guy is just going to run and die in his car. Why would you risk a gunfight in the middle of the afternoon in a residential neighborhood? How obsessed with power do you have to be to think that is a good idea? They are lucky that no one else was injured. 

I feel sorry for all of the families involved in this. The law enforcement officers, the guy they sought to arrest and the families of all of those who died are all suffering. Why did they die?

All of them, the police officers and the criminal they sought, died because they didn't know what I learned fifty-three years ago from Fred Hether. "There is always somebody who is bigger, badder, crazier and even better armed than we are." Let's make law enforcement a DMZ!!