Click Here to Read the Commentary
I have admired the “Duke” for decades. He is my favorite actor by far. My favorite movie of all times is “The Shootist”. The philosophy within, the dialogue, the acting – wonderful. In almost every real life situation, something he said in that movie applies! Another one of his greatest movies is “The Cowboys”. Turning boys into men in the Old West! Very evil against good!
I am a 68 year old woman who is a Libertarian, and follower of Objectivism (Ayn Rand) since the 1960’s.
Sincerely,
Hercy
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
U.S. Supreme Court Declares California Law Restricting Sales of Violent Video Games to Minors an Unconstitutional Violation of Free Speech
Click Here to Read the Press Release
Using the same logic, laws restricting the sale of pornogrphy, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, etc are also unconstitutional. Sorry, I don't buy it. This is just another step in the continuing spiritual degradation of this once great nation. The story of the boiling frog......
Keith
Using the same logic, laws restricting the sale of pornogrphy, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, etc are also unconstitutional. Sorry, I don't buy it. This is just another step in the continuing spiritual degradation of this once great nation. The story of the boiling frog......
Keith
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Rutherford Institute Assists Iraq War Veteran Charged With Disorderly Conduct for Exercising Free Speech Rights
Click Here to Read the Press Release
Go get em. Down with fascism anywhere it manifests it's evil self.
Brew
Go get em. Down with fascism anywhere it manifests it's evil self.
Brew
The New FBI Powers: Cointelpro on Steroids
Click Here to Read the Commentary
Mr. Whitehead:
As author of Lincoln Uber Alles: Dictatorship Comes to America, I share your views on the death of the Bill of Rights. I try to warn people too, but it's not looking good for the home team, is it? I hope you see something in society right now that I don't.
Kindest regards,
John
Hello;
I, too, am perplexed, actually saddened to know America has gone the way of the worst grade B movie from the 1950's depicting tyranny in Germany, "your papers, PLEASE!" It is so much worse in America today.
But your solution? Political? Marching in the streets? Sir, America is one of the few countries with citizenry that is armed and able to stop the tyranny face-to-face, one at a time, and with, if necessary, prejudice. Accepting even the current road blocks, man handling of spouses, the very TSA dispicable actions at an airport, on our open roads, done under the guise of WHAT? Terrorism? NOT. It is an assault on the very essence of the individual freedom and rights to: live, travel, prosper and exist.
No, I suggest the time has come to make it personal, again. Now is the time to say NO, openly against such shameful behavior by any and all those guys/gals in uniform that dare to touch, prod or even suggest any course of action.
We must not be afraid of government. Jefferson had it right, THAT is tyranny. there is no 1/2 pregnant; there is only tyranny and true tyranny. Like Colorado, like Florida, if I feel threatrened, with a needle for blood analysis or body search, you touch me, whether in uniform or not, and you will KNOW the consequences.
Having said that, my point to you, as a legal counsel, why have you and your colleagues NOT stood up for the right of the individual to defend themselves, to be treated as the sovereignts they are, versus being the puppets of the FEDERAL power? When did your dignity as individuals get usurped by the titles and offerings of the Washington DC crowd and no longer defend the individual against the obvious intrusiveness of the FEDS, especially after 9/11?
WHAT happened?
I agree with Edwin Vieira, another constitutional lawyer, return money and militia back to the states before the collapse. But more so, take back the individual right to sound money and self protection against kings, DC and now SWAT police, as an individual. Do not allow any man, any woman, to touch you, invade your space in any way while traveling this great country, while walking the streets in your neighborhood. You touch me without my permission and you will suffer the consequences, right then and there.
Now, can you stand tall and say "Enough is enough?"
Can you see the wrong of this political process that has boiled the frog to death? Can you feel it?
America was once the leading country for freedom in the world. It now ranks 9th or 12th on scales of freedom and FALLING each year in surveys conducted annually. WOW. Now that is a crime. TSA is but the tip of the iceberg here, and taking blood samples on the road? Not from me.
And lastly, reiterating the underlying point here, or one of them. How come NOT one legal suit has been filed against TSA or any of these thuggish government groups, cops or any of them, by lawyers associations to defend the rights of America here? WHAT is the problem?!
I strongly suggest it is time to establish Freedom Networks across America where individuals can Twitter others as to any such abuse, anytime, anywhere, to video, take a stand against, whatever they want to do, at that time with any usurper of America liberties, right there, right now. I am not afraid of another Rodney King, I am afraid we will have SWAT/tyranny in America so self evident that, anyone with the eyes to see knows, as most of the world now says openly, the USA has become a rogue police state now know for what it is around the world.
Oh, and given the government now monitors our e-mails, our phones, our presence in the streets, this e-mail will probably be used to ID me as some kind of terrorist by some automaton, even an actual human monitoring such communications, in the countless rooms around the USA, or the underground NSA endless acres of computers outside DC or down South or wherever.
Something went wrong in DC and it has made us into an ever darkening tyranny of injustice. I am very disappointed and do not see a political solution. I see a people wronged and the French Revolution model as eminent.
Personal opinion...
If you made it this far, thanks for reading the felts and thoughts of one who knows tyranny, have seen it around the world and hate that it reared its ugly head here, has nested here and become the mother of all dark entities right before our eyes...
--
Freedom always, Family and friends before all
Noël
funny everything you say I agree with totally
same things that RON PAUL has been saying for years
but who the frick are we?
you think people care they dont
they have their job just over broke
they have their huge tv made in china
and they dont care about anything or anyone
drink my beer watch my tv work my job
and to hell with anything else
we are a slave country and NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE
911weknow com
I knew the day it happened it was a inside job
and the american people bough the war on terror
and weapons of mass destruction trama 911
mk ultra mind control of the masses bullshit
hook line and stupidity
Robert
REMEMBER COINTELPRO GREW OUT OF THE ANTI WAR MOVEMENT AND CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. DID WE ACTUALLY KNOW WHO WAS BEHIND THE ANTI WAR MOVEMENT? FOREIGN POWERS? COMMUNISTS? WHO WOULD GAIN FROM COMMUNISTS TAKING OVER VIETNAM? OR THE CIVIL UNREST – THE RACE RIOTS THAT CONVULSED THE NATION DURING THAT PERIOD IN OUR HISTORY.
J.J.
Your article "The New FBI Powers: Cointelpro on Steroids" is will written; and fairly presented the civil liberty and Fourth Amendment abuses by the FBI during the COINTELPRO PERIOD. Your article clearly explained why it is problematice the FBI will use its new Powers and intrusive technologies to investigate law-abiding Citizens in a manner, that may expectantly dwarf the FBI's prior COINTELPRO operation. I recall during the Church hearings, targeted anti-Vietnam War activists referred to the FBI as "Frames, Bribery, and Intimidation.
Under your subparagraph titled, "So what's to be done?" you first mentioned that Americans need to get their heads out of the sand and their butts off the couches and act like real Americans for a change, e.g., take to the streets and protest the deplorable state of our nation; and Second, that once Americans have Congress' attention, push for legislation to mitigate FBI Fourth Amendment and other abuses, especially no warrant searches of Citizens and property. While I totally agree passing legislation is necessary to protect law-abiding Americans from intrusive FBI investigation Fishing abuses not limited to warrant-less wiretapping, reading private mail, sneak & peak searches of one's home and office and Citizen spying, I believe passing legislation is not possible when the government constantly perpetuates fear of terrorism while concurrently stating the "The War Against Terrorism" is a war that will never end. And if that doesn't keep the encroaching police state on Steroids, the U.S. Government has already demonstrated, perhaps coincidently, it can inspire homegrown terrorists to act prior to anti-FBI, NSA or CIA legislation coming up for a vote in congress.
You may recall Republican Senator Hatch failed to get passed The Crime Control Act of 1993 three months before the first bombing of the NY Trade Center before terrorism was a problem in America. U.S. Citizens right and left protested successfully stopped the Hatch bill "S8" despite the first Trade Center bombing. Rep. Hatch' legislation S8 attempted to add: Section 3509 Admissibility of Evidence Obtained By Search or Seizure (a) Evidence Obtained By Objectively Reasonable Search or Seizure (b) Evidence Not Excludable By Statute or Rule:" That provision would have laid the groundwork for Government/police to conduct illegal searches of Americans, their homes and offices with little or no probable cause as follows: Government need only assert that "a search and seizure was carried out in circumstances justifying an objectively reasonable belief that it was in conformity with the Fourth Amendment." Had the Hatch bill passed it would have opened the door for government/police to conduct mass civil asset forfeiture using (illegally obtained evidence) because police would only have to assert, "A search and seizure was carried out in circumstances justifying an objectively reasonable belief that it was in conformity with the Fourth Amendment."
It should be noted in 2010, the GOP proposed a new "Contract With America" that would "make it much easier" for police to succeed with false arrests allowing illegally seized evidence into courts.
Thanks to former Rep. Henry Hyde, Chicago, Ill there were over 200 U.S. laws and violations included in his Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 that allow the U.S. Government and local police to civilly forfeit property from Citizens without a conviction; those forfeiture provisions just months later, were included in the Patriot Act. Under federal civil asset forfeiture laws, a person or business need not be charged with a crime for government to forfeit their property. US private contractors since 2001, now work so closely with the U.S. Justice Dept. and local police, exchanging information to arrest Americans and or to share in forfeited assets, private government contractors appear to have merged with police, similar to Hitler's private Gestapo with the German police, spying on, arresting and confiscating Citizen's property. When former Rep. Henry Hyde's bill HR 1658 passed, the "Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000" effectively eliminated the "statue of limitations" for Government Civil Asset Forfeiture. The statute now runs five years from when police allege they "learned" that an asset became subject to forfeiture. Obviously if Congress in 2012 or after approves the GOP's (proposal to admit illegally seized evidence into court) that abuse together with Rep. Hyde's passed HR 1658 asset forfeiture bill that requires only "A preponderance of Evidence", will allow police and government contractors to utilize government warrant-less wiretaps, searches of Citizens' Internet activity, ground and email and other warrant-less sources to forfeit Citizens' homes, businesses and other assets.
Most property and business owners that defend their assets against Government Civil Forfeiture claim an "innocent owner defense." This defense can become a criminal prosecution trap for both guilty and innocent property owners. Any fresh denial of guilt to the government when questioned about committing a crime "even when you did not do it" may "involuntarily waive" your right to assert in your defense-the "Criminal Statute of Limitations" past for prosecution: immediately assert your right to first have an attorney present before answering a single question-any fresh denial of guild, even 30 years after a crime was committed may allow Government prosecutors to use old and new evidence, including information discovered during a Civil Asset Forfeiture Proceeding to launch a criminal prosecution. For that reason many innocent property and business owners are reluctant to defend their property and businesses against Government Civil Asset Forfeiture. Additionally providing a federal agent a wrong or misleading answer to a question can subject you to imprisonment under USC sec. 1001, Internet search James Brogan V. United States. N0.96-1579. Also see in that decision Justice Ginsburg opinion on involuntarily waving your right to assert in your defense-the "Criminal Statute of Limitations" past for prosecution.
No doubt government is sitting on a ton of illegally obtained evidence. The GOP's proposal to allow government to use illegally seized evidence against Citizens could be used to selectively target citizens in a flood of prosecutions and forfeitures. One can envision police and government contractors drooling over the prospect the GOP might succeed getting Congress to pass legislation allowing prosecutors to use illegally obtained evidence resulting from false arrests: only a mere preponderance of evidence, little more than hearsay gleaned from no warrant searches and false arrests, could be introduced in civil asset forfeiture proceedings to seize Citizens' assets.
The U.S. Supreme Court increasingly is leaning toward allowing police to use in prosecutions illegally seized evidence, if it was obtained by police "allegedly making an honest mistake" which appears to mirror "Section 3509 Admissibility of Evidence Obtained By Search or Seizure" introduced in Rep. Hatch' Crime Control Act of 1993.
Ross
Mr. Whitehead:
As author of Lincoln Uber Alles: Dictatorship Comes to America, I share your views on the death of the Bill of Rights. I try to warn people too, but it's not looking good for the home team, is it? I hope you see something in society right now that I don't.
Kindest regards,
John
Hello;
I, too, am perplexed, actually saddened to know America has gone the way of the worst grade B movie from the 1950's depicting tyranny in Germany, "your papers, PLEASE!" It is so much worse in America today.
But your solution? Political? Marching in the streets? Sir, America is one of the few countries with citizenry that is armed and able to stop the tyranny face-to-face, one at a time, and with, if necessary, prejudice. Accepting even the current road blocks, man handling of spouses, the very TSA dispicable actions at an airport, on our open roads, done under the guise of WHAT? Terrorism? NOT. It is an assault on the very essence of the individual freedom and rights to: live, travel, prosper and exist.
No, I suggest the time has come to make it personal, again. Now is the time to say NO, openly against such shameful behavior by any and all those guys/gals in uniform that dare to touch, prod or even suggest any course of action.
We must not be afraid of government. Jefferson had it right, THAT is tyranny. there is no 1/2 pregnant; there is only tyranny and true tyranny. Like Colorado, like Florida, if I feel threatrened, with a needle for blood analysis or body search, you touch me, whether in uniform or not, and you will KNOW the consequences.
Having said that, my point to you, as a legal counsel, why have you and your colleagues NOT stood up for the right of the individual to defend themselves, to be treated as the sovereignts they are, versus being the puppets of the FEDERAL power? When did your dignity as individuals get usurped by the titles and offerings of the Washington DC crowd and no longer defend the individual against the obvious intrusiveness of the FEDS, especially after 9/11?
WHAT happened?
I agree with Edwin Vieira, another constitutional lawyer, return money and militia back to the states before the collapse. But more so, take back the individual right to sound money and self protection against kings, DC and now SWAT police, as an individual. Do not allow any man, any woman, to touch you, invade your space in any way while traveling this great country, while walking the streets in your neighborhood. You touch me without my permission and you will suffer the consequences, right then and there.
Now, can you stand tall and say "Enough is enough?"
Can you see the wrong of this political process that has boiled the frog to death? Can you feel it?
America was once the leading country for freedom in the world. It now ranks 9th or 12th on scales of freedom and FALLING each year in surveys conducted annually. WOW. Now that is a crime. TSA is but the tip of the iceberg here, and taking blood samples on the road? Not from me.
And lastly, reiterating the underlying point here, or one of them. How come NOT one legal suit has been filed against TSA or any of these thuggish government groups, cops or any of them, by lawyers associations to defend the rights of America here? WHAT is the problem?!
I strongly suggest it is time to establish Freedom Networks across America where individuals can Twitter others as to any such abuse, anytime, anywhere, to video, take a stand against, whatever they want to do, at that time with any usurper of America liberties, right there, right now. I am not afraid of another Rodney King, I am afraid we will have SWAT/tyranny in America so self evident that, anyone with the eyes to see knows, as most of the world now says openly, the USA has become a rogue police state now know for what it is around the world.
Oh, and given the government now monitors our e-mails, our phones, our presence in the streets, this e-mail will probably be used to ID me as some kind of terrorist by some automaton, even an actual human monitoring such communications, in the countless rooms around the USA, or the underground NSA endless acres of computers outside DC or down South or wherever.
Something went wrong in DC and it has made us into an ever darkening tyranny of injustice. I am very disappointed and do not see a political solution. I see a people wronged and the French Revolution model as eminent.
Personal opinion...
If you made it this far, thanks for reading the felts and thoughts of one who knows tyranny, have seen it around the world and hate that it reared its ugly head here, has nested here and become the mother of all dark entities right before our eyes...
--
Freedom always, Family and friends before all
Noël
funny everything you say I agree with totally
same things that RON PAUL has been saying for years
but who the frick are we?
you think people care they dont
they have their job just over broke
they have their huge tv made in china
and they dont care about anything or anyone
drink my beer watch my tv work my job
and to hell with anything else
we are a slave country and NOTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE
911weknow com
I knew the day it happened it was a inside job
and the american people bough the war on terror
and weapons of mass destruction trama 911
mk ultra mind control of the masses bullshit
hook line and stupidity
Robert
REMEMBER COINTELPRO GREW OUT OF THE ANTI WAR MOVEMENT AND CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. DID WE ACTUALLY KNOW WHO WAS BEHIND THE ANTI WAR MOVEMENT? FOREIGN POWERS? COMMUNISTS? WHO WOULD GAIN FROM COMMUNISTS TAKING OVER VIETNAM? OR THE CIVIL UNREST – THE RACE RIOTS THAT CONVULSED THE NATION DURING THAT PERIOD IN OUR HISTORY.
J.J.
Your article "The New FBI Powers: Cointelpro on Steroids" is will written; and fairly presented the civil liberty and Fourth Amendment abuses by the FBI during the COINTELPRO PERIOD. Your article clearly explained why it is problematice the FBI will use its new Powers and intrusive technologies to investigate law-abiding Citizens in a manner, that may expectantly dwarf the FBI's prior COINTELPRO operation. I recall during the Church hearings, targeted anti-Vietnam War activists referred to the FBI as "Frames, Bribery, and Intimidation.
Under your subparagraph titled, "So what's to be done?" you first mentioned that Americans need to get their heads out of the sand and their butts off the couches and act like real Americans for a change, e.g., take to the streets and protest the deplorable state of our nation; and Second, that once Americans have Congress' attention, push for legislation to mitigate FBI Fourth Amendment and other abuses, especially no warrant searches of Citizens and property. While I totally agree passing legislation is necessary to protect law-abiding Americans from intrusive FBI investigation Fishing abuses not limited to warrant-less wiretapping, reading private mail, sneak & peak searches of one's home and office and Citizen spying, I believe passing legislation is not possible when the government constantly perpetuates fear of terrorism while concurrently stating the "The War Against Terrorism" is a war that will never end. And if that doesn't keep the encroaching police state on Steroids, the U.S. Government has already demonstrated, perhaps coincidently, it can inspire homegrown terrorists to act prior to anti-FBI, NSA or CIA legislation coming up for a vote in congress.
You may recall Republican Senator Hatch failed to get passed The Crime Control Act of 1993 three months before the first bombing of the NY Trade Center before terrorism was a problem in America. U.S. Citizens right and left protested successfully stopped the Hatch bill "S8" despite the first Trade Center bombing. Rep. Hatch' legislation S8 attempted to add: Section 3509 Admissibility of Evidence Obtained By Search or Seizure (a) Evidence Obtained By Objectively Reasonable Search or Seizure (b) Evidence Not Excludable By Statute or Rule:" That provision would have laid the groundwork for Government/police to conduct illegal searches of Americans, their homes and offices with little or no probable cause as follows: Government need only assert that "a search and seizure was carried out in circumstances justifying an objectively reasonable belief that it was in conformity with the Fourth Amendment." Had the Hatch bill passed it would have opened the door for government/police to conduct mass civil asset forfeiture using (illegally obtained evidence) because police would only have to assert, "A search and seizure was carried out in circumstances justifying an objectively reasonable belief that it was in conformity with the Fourth Amendment."
It should be noted in 2010, the GOP proposed a new "Contract With America" that would "make it much easier" for police to succeed with false arrests allowing illegally seized evidence into courts.
Thanks to former Rep. Henry Hyde, Chicago, Ill there were over 200 U.S. laws and violations included in his Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 that allow the U.S. Government and local police to civilly forfeit property from Citizens without a conviction; those forfeiture provisions just months later, were included in the Patriot Act. Under federal civil asset forfeiture laws, a person or business need not be charged with a crime for government to forfeit their property. US private contractors since 2001, now work so closely with the U.S. Justice Dept. and local police, exchanging information to arrest Americans and or to share in forfeited assets, private government contractors appear to have merged with police, similar to Hitler's private Gestapo with the German police, spying on, arresting and confiscating Citizen's property. When former Rep. Henry Hyde's bill HR 1658 passed, the "Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000" effectively eliminated the "statue of limitations" for Government Civil Asset Forfeiture. The statute now runs five years from when police allege they "learned" that an asset became subject to forfeiture. Obviously if Congress in 2012 or after approves the GOP's (proposal to admit illegally seized evidence into court) that abuse together with Rep. Hyde's passed HR 1658 asset forfeiture bill that requires only "A preponderance of Evidence", will allow police and government contractors to utilize government warrant-less wiretaps, searches of Citizens' Internet activity, ground and email and other warrant-less sources to forfeit Citizens' homes, businesses and other assets.
Most property and business owners that defend their assets against Government Civil Forfeiture claim an "innocent owner defense." This defense can become a criminal prosecution trap for both guilty and innocent property owners. Any fresh denial of guilt to the government when questioned about committing a crime "even when you did not do it" may "involuntarily waive" your right to assert in your defense-the "Criminal Statute of Limitations" past for prosecution: immediately assert your right to first have an attorney present before answering a single question-any fresh denial of guild, even 30 years after a crime was committed may allow Government prosecutors to use old and new evidence, including information discovered during a Civil Asset Forfeiture Proceeding to launch a criminal prosecution. For that reason many innocent property and business owners are reluctant to defend their property and businesses against Government Civil Asset Forfeiture. Additionally providing a federal agent a wrong or misleading answer to a question can subject you to imprisonment under USC sec. 1001, Internet search James Brogan V. United States. N0.96-1579. Also see in that decision Justice Ginsburg opinion on involuntarily waving your right to assert in your defense-the "Criminal Statute of Limitations" past for prosecution.
No doubt government is sitting on a ton of illegally obtained evidence. The GOP's proposal to allow government to use illegally seized evidence against Citizens could be used to selectively target citizens in a flood of prosecutions and forfeitures. One can envision police and government contractors drooling over the prospect the GOP might succeed getting Congress to pass legislation allowing prosecutors to use illegally obtained evidence resulting from false arrests: only a mere preponderance of evidence, little more than hearsay gleaned from no warrant searches and false arrests, could be introduced in civil asset forfeiture proceedings to seize Citizens' assets.
The U.S. Supreme Court increasingly is leaning toward allowing police to use in prosecutions illegally seized evidence, if it was obtained by police "allegedly making an honest mistake" which appears to mirror "Section 3509 Admissibility of Evidence Obtained By Search or Seizure" introduced in Rep. Hatch' Crime Control Act of 1993.
Ross
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Citing Infringements on Rights of Street Preachers, Rutherford Institute Asks Federal Court to Call a Halt to Enforcement of Noise Ordinance
Click Here to Read the Press Release
Hello,
I just read that your group is helping "Repent America" to sue the City of Winchester and the State of Virginia to repeal the noise ordinance here.
The noise ordinance is a law that in effect in most, if not all, states. It allows police to lessen noise and if need be, fine people for breaking that ordinance. The fining rarely, if ever, happens.
In Winchester, the noise ordinance is in effect from 9am to 9pm, in the surrounding county (Frederick County, Virginia) it is in effect from 8am to 9pm. That means you can not play loud music, make excessive noise or otherwise disturb people during evening, night and morning hours. There is an extra part to this, the ordinance allows police to tell people to turn down music and other things causing noise during the day, like say during a parade. That doesn't count for lawn mowers, tractors, bands playing, etc.
By Repent America's lawsuit, you are opening up that anyone can play music as loud as they want, with no consequence. I'm sorry, but I like to sleep. Give people an inch and they'll take a mile, the old saying goes. If you give people that opportunity to play their music loud or heck, just sit in their cars and rev them all night, they'll do it.
So, I ask, would you like that happening in your neighborhood? No. So, why do you want to essentially make it legal for it to happen in mine? Because Repent America was asked to turn off an amp for a mic, doesn't have anything to do with freedom of speech. Let me break out the history book.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Nowhere in there does it say, you can have a microphone hooked to an amp during a parade. Nowhere in there does it say, my neighbors can play loud music as loud as they want while I am trying to sleep. Nowhere in there does it say, some guy can park his car in my parking lot and rev his engine all night cause he feels like it.
You CAN however talk all you want, that was NEVER prevented. You can talk, they didn't duct tape their mouths shut, they just said "turn it down" when the parade was starting. I don't think that is too much to ask. I don't want to hear anything other than the bands, the people and the parade. If I want to hear about Heaven and Hell, I will go to church or you can talk afterward.
What your lawsuit is saying is your group lacked the common courtesy to turn the mic off during the parade, so people could enjoy that parade. The same thing they would ask anyone else to do if you yourself complained if you were trying to watch the parade. This is EXACTLY what the law was designed to do, make unnecessary noise stop. Nothing to do with speech, just unnecessary noise.
So, I ask, would it be OK if I came to your house at, say, 2pm, hooked up a mic with an amp and started reading the paper? Freedom of speech, right? Would be annoying, wouldn't it? You'd call the police and tell them to have me "turn it down", wouldn't you? So, what is so different about you that you can't do the same for 2 1/2 hours during a parade? Nothing.
I hate to say it, but bringing forth a lawsuit like this, it will just make the City of Winchester, Frederick County, and the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival committee less likely to give Repent America a permit to be in the walking areas for the festival next year, it might even have people talking back, but not in the way you like. But what it won't do, it won't give Repent America the voice you want. It won't give them any listeners. Because all they will see, all the people of Winchester/Frederick County will see is "that group that tried to get the noise ordinance taken away".
If it isn't OK to do it at your house or your place of business, it isn't right for you to do it here....and there is nothing in the Constitution about that, just Common Sense.
Please leave my town, my county, and my state out of your "message" and leave us alone.
Thank You,
Tybois
This case would be a good vehcile to address the noise in the electornagnetic spectrum that is contributing to manipulation of the human nervous system.
That's something that will get the officials attention.
If they are going to enforce the noise ordinance, then include enforcement of all different kinds of noise.
Sincerely,
Ken
Hello,
I just read that your group is helping "Repent America" to sue the City of Winchester and the State of Virginia to repeal the noise ordinance here.
The noise ordinance is a law that in effect in most, if not all, states. It allows police to lessen noise and if need be, fine people for breaking that ordinance. The fining rarely, if ever, happens.
In Winchester, the noise ordinance is in effect from 9am to 9pm, in the surrounding county (Frederick County, Virginia) it is in effect from 8am to 9pm. That means you can not play loud music, make excessive noise or otherwise disturb people during evening, night and morning hours. There is an extra part to this, the ordinance allows police to tell people to turn down music and other things causing noise during the day, like say during a parade. That doesn't count for lawn mowers, tractors, bands playing, etc.
By Repent America's lawsuit, you are opening up that anyone can play music as loud as they want, with no consequence. I'm sorry, but I like to sleep. Give people an inch and they'll take a mile, the old saying goes. If you give people that opportunity to play their music loud or heck, just sit in their cars and rev them all night, they'll do it.
So, I ask, would you like that happening in your neighborhood? No. So, why do you want to essentially make it legal for it to happen in mine? Because Repent America was asked to turn off an amp for a mic, doesn't have anything to do with freedom of speech. Let me break out the history book.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Nowhere in there does it say, you can have a microphone hooked to an amp during a parade. Nowhere in there does it say, my neighbors can play loud music as loud as they want while I am trying to sleep. Nowhere in there does it say, some guy can park his car in my parking lot and rev his engine all night cause he feels like it.
You CAN however talk all you want, that was NEVER prevented. You can talk, they didn't duct tape their mouths shut, they just said "turn it down" when the parade was starting. I don't think that is too much to ask. I don't want to hear anything other than the bands, the people and the parade. If I want to hear about Heaven and Hell, I will go to church or you can talk afterward.
What your lawsuit is saying is your group lacked the common courtesy to turn the mic off during the parade, so people could enjoy that parade. The same thing they would ask anyone else to do if you yourself complained if you were trying to watch the parade. This is EXACTLY what the law was designed to do, make unnecessary noise stop. Nothing to do with speech, just unnecessary noise.
So, I ask, would it be OK if I came to your house at, say, 2pm, hooked up a mic with an amp and started reading the paper? Freedom of speech, right? Would be annoying, wouldn't it? You'd call the police and tell them to have me "turn it down", wouldn't you? So, what is so different about you that you can't do the same for 2 1/2 hours during a parade? Nothing.
I hate to say it, but bringing forth a lawsuit like this, it will just make the City of Winchester, Frederick County, and the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival committee less likely to give Repent America a permit to be in the walking areas for the festival next year, it might even have people talking back, but not in the way you like. But what it won't do, it won't give Repent America the voice you want. It won't give them any listeners. Because all they will see, all the people of Winchester/Frederick County will see is "that group that tried to get the noise ordinance taken away".
If it isn't OK to do it at your house or your place of business, it isn't right for you to do it here....and there is nothing in the Constitution about that, just Common Sense.
Please leave my town, my county, and my state out of your "message" and leave us alone.
Thank You,
Tybois
This case would be a good vehcile to address the noise in the electornagnetic spectrum that is contributing to manipulation of the human nervous system.
That's something that will get the officials attention.
If they are going to enforce the noise ordinance, then include enforcement of all different kinds of noise.
Sincerely,
Ken
SWAT Team Mania: The War Against the American Citizen
Click Here to Read the Commentary
Thank you for a good and needed article. I have sent it to a friend as there are so many people who are totally unaware of the evils going on around them.
You mentioned SWATs having their roots in California in the '60s, but in the early '60s I was on the Jackson MI Police Department and at that time "Heavy weapons squads" were being created in response to the racial protest and the like at the time. The militarization of police has been unabated ever since.
I am not a particularly brave person, but when it comes to police work you do the job or get out, it's the right thing to do. I was appalled watching the videos of Columbine years ago with all law enforcement hunkered down around the school knowing a probable shooting rampage was going on inside. I don't believe in fool hardy actions or misplaced bravado, but never could I have tolerated not being on the offensive. From that and other incidents I decided that cowardice plays a roll in much of the SWAT team proliferation.
Additionally at that time for a 90 man department all the training was in house and on the job. Now all that has been abandoned and at least in MI graduation from a college level law enforcement training curriculum is required. So training is mostly at the whim of colleges and professors.
A third very important factor with the militarization is the proliferation of SWAT teams on TV programs. Occasionally they are shown in a bad light, but for the most part everything is depicted as good and virtuous. Usually the applications are appropriate, unlike what really happens in real life. But, on TV no one questions the need or validity of SWAT teams.
I still maintain a level of respect for those serving in law enforcement, but one cannot ignore the abuses and excesses.
One of my sons and his future wife was visiting me and they had a small motor home parked in the drive. To avoid them needing to come in and use my Internet service I attempted to run a telephone line out to the motor home. The wire my son bought did not have the ends on it so I left a 25' wire with a connector socket laying on the ground. One night two gestapo dressed deputy Sheriffs arrived and said 911 dispatch had received a call that hung up and they had to check it out. I assured them that I live alone and made no such call, but they persisted. They must have observed me at my computer through the large front window as they came to the house.
Afterward I regretted letting them in, but I did even though I explained the light rain must have shorted the telephone wire I left laying. Now, the stupid part is the lights were on in the motor home and obviously someone was in there. Yet those deputies never checked it out and my son never knew they were there.
Keep sharing the word Mr. Whitehead, people need to know about the excesses, SWAT teams raiding Amish dairy farmers and the like.
Sincerely,
Ron
Dear Mr Rutherford
After reading your article, SWAT Team Mania, I feel compelled to share with you a story about my father. He was a construction worker that got himself elected mayor of Missouri City, Texas (pop. 30,000 at the time?) in the early 70's by going door-to-door every evening and talking, at length, to anyone that would let him. During his political career, which included two terms as councilman, one of the agonies of my childhood was being dragged around with him on his rounds and having to endure hours of adult discussion as he talked to his constituents. (He loved to talk but he was also emphatic about the Constitution and upholding it as well as is oath of office.)
One discussion that I remember now, after having read your article, was about his opposition to the creation of SWAT teams. At that age I certainly did not understand everything I heard but I think that maybe the city of Houston had created a SWAT team around that time and that there was probably some enthusiastic noises being made by the moneyed interests in the area. (Namely developers who turned Missouri City into a huge sprawling upper class suburbia called Quail Valley, which ironically, denied an environmental group I worked with years later from canvassing door-to-door in the area by claiming some bizarre interpretation of their Constitutional "rights" to not allow Freedom of Speech. They lost of course.)
My father, I remember now, was emphatically against SWAT teams and had some huge discussions about it. Later, when I was much older, he mentioned once that very issue and described how he had given a speech at a mayor's conference in opposition to SWAT teams because they were paramilitary organizations and therefore, in his opinion, unconstitutional. The one thing about my father that was certainly different from most elected officials was that upon election to mayor, he sat down and read all of the by-laws and regulations of the community and county. It was infuriating to the developers and their lawyers because he would quote them chapter and verse the regulations that forbid them to do what they were planning to do.
He failed to get re-elected and was beaten by a much better funded opponent who just happened to be friendly with the developers and who immediately set out to remove the restrictive regulations on development. My father later ran for Lieutenant Governor of Texas on the Republican ticket and then got audited by the IRS three times in the next 5 years. He was at that time making about 32k per year and that never changed much for the rest of his life. At his death, he had about 5k in cash, some small property with a trailer home on it, and a 20 year old car. Oh yeah, and a garbage truck's worth of bags of receipts going back 25 years because after the audits he became obsessive about documenting even the smallest purchases. (Literally, there were receipts for such things as a pack of gum and 10 gallons of gas. It was a mess.)
I live in Switzerland now and never plan on returning to the USA. Here we have a real democracy and even if it is not perfect, it is functional, which is more than I can say about the USA. Ironically, because the Swiss have a great liking for America, the greatest threat and most detrimental changes to Swiss democracy have been the results of American corporate influence here.
Thanks for your articles and for voicing your opinion so forcefully and eloquently."Qui tacet consentit" - He who is silent, agrees.
Sincerely
Douglas
John -
I enjoyed "SWAT Team Mania: The War Against the American Citizen" and found it to be spot on with my knowledge on the topic. I am a retired military guy and have a number of close friends in law enforcement. Many of my acquaintances, most in fact, do not support the militarization of LE nor the capricious use of SWAT teams for non-violent crimes. I look forward to reading your work. Please keep up the good work.
Peace,
- Skip
Dear Staff:
I was very pleased to see you address the issue of the quasi- if not total militarization of the domestic police forces and their conversion into a 24/7 SWAT enforcement regime. I agree that this does not bode well for relationships between citizens and their constabulary. Take the case of David Burgert, now front and center in the news media. David Burgert apparently ran afoul of his corrupt law enforcement establishment back in 2002 and started being slandered as a "militia-survivalist-nut". He was not defended adequately in court the first time & despite having only minor infractions (gun ownership), ultimately was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government and spent time in a federal correctional facility. Interestingly, the head of the Flathead County SWAT team at the time, Chuck Curry, is now the Sheriff and is continuing the county's vendetta against Burgert.
A simple moving violation has been the pretext of this new attempt to rope Burgert back into jail. In all of the alleged confrontations with police, no one has ever been injured--this in itself is surprising given Burgert's supposed "paranoid anti-government" delusions. It sounds very much as if they have already decided that this man is throwaway trash and their actions indicate that he is guilty with no chance of being proven innocent. (Wouldn't it suit their interests just fine if they found him and used him for target practice in the wilderness, where no one is looking and, where they have set the tone for his justifiable execution?)
A case history compiled about Chuck Curry, the SWAT menace and current Sheriff, is not so savory: his use of 'no-knock' SWAT raids on unsuspecting homeowners (ie, drug users) have been overturned several times on procedural grounds in Montana courts due to his many violations of the 4th amendment. Not surprisingly, it is this same Chuck Curry along with the FBI and others who now seeks to hunt down a supposed miscreant in the woods and give him no due process.
I offer this as an example of what happens when the police themselves are creating the very conditions they claim to want to avoid: direct confrontation with an irate populace. Which came first, oppression in the form of SWAT or, the arming and anger of the population?
Sincerely,
Karl
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
A friend of mine in NYS sent me your article on Swat Team Mania on the Rutherford.org site and I just had to write.
On Aug. 3, 2011 I was a victim of Swat Team Mania. First off, I am a 69 year old woman with stage III colon cancer and have spent the last 27 years in the same home, in the same town in Tennessee raising my parrots under the registered trademarked name of Hookbill Haven. I have shown my birds and won several Best in Shows, have raised several generations of rare Amazons, Greys and other species and sold my handfed babies to people all over the country, including the editor of the local paper and the owner of the local Farm Bureau Insurance Co. with never a complaint.
Last year during my second recurrence of colon cancer I needed a resection, involving a week long stay in the hospital. I hired a woman to come in and feed and take care of my 100+ birds. I did not particularly like dealing with her afterward and never had her to return until July 8,9,10th of this year when I hurt my neck and needed help. She came in and cleaned cages in a few rooms working several hours on those afternoons. My neck healed and I again let her go because things were turning up missing and she was acting erratically.
On the late afternoon of Aug. 2, after pulling in my driveway I was confronted by what looked to be a utility worker, dressed in white driving a white truck with a utility logo. He told me that the water to my home was to be shut off the next day (the HOTTEST day of the year) while a main was repaired.
I informed my estranged husband that evening and asked him to come early the next day and make sure all the outside animals, chickens, horses, etc. had plenty of fresh water.
On Aug. 3, worried about the upcoming heat and lack of water mentioned, I got up at 5am and started changing water dishes of all my birds in the house to make sure EVERYONE had fresh water. At 7:10 am the phone rang and I was told to come out of my home to show the utility men where my water line was. I was promptly served with a search and seizure warrant based on terrible lies that this woman had said about me and who I have since learned has a criminal record. I was not allowed to return to my home nor even get my cell phone. At the same time the assistant district attorney showed up and behind him a SWAT team, complete with bullet proof vests, automatic rifles aimed and wearing gas masks entered my home yelling and screaming. Thank God my estranged husband was not there or I believe they would have shot him!
What prompted this? I am a published auther, an animal rescue..a small elderly woman that raises BIRDS and have never even gotten a speeding ticket! I was even on the City of Portland web site as a "Noteable". Am wondering why in the world would they do this? Am still wondering today.
A road block was set up and NO media or anyone else was allowed within a half mile of my house during the raid, for the whole day. A porta potty was immediately set up. This raid was carefully planned ahead of time.
As soon as the SWAT team came out of the house a long line of people commenced to come up my driveway and I was informed that they were here to "inspect" my birds. At first I noticed a familiar face, a vet that had treated several of my birds and cats before, so I thought they would go in and see that my parrots and lovebirds were all fine and that would be that. WRONG! Another group closely followed the first carrying kennel cabs and white towels. I was ushered to the police station against my will and kept there all morning until a detective took me back to my home. There I was informed that ALL my birds, cats, my pet goose and some chickens were being confiscated. Then I was held at the police station and told to sign a "surrender" or post a $50,000 surety bond for their care and the costs of the raid, now totally "$30,000". I don't have that kind of money but still did not want to sign away my whole business and $40,000 worth of parrots but I was told if I signed there probably wouldn't be any charges and I wouldn't go to jail and I was in such a mental state I finally did sign it, a fact that no one in the world can know how much I regret.
And I was IMMEDIATELY ushered off to jail. They lied.
At least ONE of my parrots, and some have said two, were killed by Animal Rescue Corps during the raid. All photos were staged and taken by ARC, as I said NO media were allowed near my property...and Ch.2,4,5, Fox 17, the newspapers were all here trying to get photos to no avail. Property was destroyed during this raid, doors to outside pens were cut off, chickens were let loose, my horses were injured and several rescues were later killed because, according to ARC head, Scotlund Haisley, "they had no quality of life!" Now who is he to decide what lives and dies? He was recently let go from the Humane Society for Gehstapo like behavior during raids and is now known to direct his group to attack the elderly, particularly single women who raise animals as a business.
The assistant DA, who is a member of the Animal Legal Defense League, the police and the extremist Animal Rescue Corps have taken a self supporting, animal loving business person and ruined her financially, physically and emotionally for what? For politics and the almighty dollar...or dollars, $40,000 + of them. I have never made a late payment and now my line of credit, my business, is gone and I have been declared indigent by the court. My birds were gone before the hearing even took place just 7 days later. Only my purebred chickens were taken including a famous Andalusian rooster who was "Chicken of the Week on the online Backyard Chickens web site..a prestigious award he deserved. He did not deserve what he got here that day. 40+ mixed breed chickens were left and the fat, healthy cats were returned a few days after my hearing.
And if you would like to know about that joke, please let me know and I will tell you how the asst. DA and my attorney sold me down the river when I could disprove EVERY charge and did indeed get one knocked off immediately because the vet did not remember that he has examined one of my rescue parrots 10 years ago and declared her inoperable. Justice is only as large as your wallet. I am looking for it though because I feel my rights were violated in many ways and are still being violated as the DA will not give me the unedited video that was taken on the day of the raid or the necropsy reports which he already gave to the media.
Another aside...the assistant DA called the county codes department during the raid and had my home condemned for NO REASON! Signs were posted and the police said I was not allowed in my house. I slept in my truck for 3 nights until my daughter came down from Cincinnati and got a room. The monday after the hearing I was permitted back inside my home with no inspection. This was done so it looked like they found my home in terrible condition...it was not. I have central heat/air, city water, good electric, plumbing, a new roof, etc. A nice home...NO REASON!
Thank you for the time you have take to read my story. If you would like to use any part or all of my story please feel free and if you have any off the record advice I am all ears. I cry every day and night for my beautiful birds that I will never get back but I still need to do something...somehow...for my name and the name of my business.
Best...
Lasandra
Thank you for a good and needed article. I have sent it to a friend as there are so many people who are totally unaware of the evils going on around them.
You mentioned SWATs having their roots in California in the '60s, but in the early '60s I was on the Jackson MI Police Department and at that time "Heavy weapons squads" were being created in response to the racial protest and the like at the time. The militarization of police has been unabated ever since.
I am not a particularly brave person, but when it comes to police work you do the job or get out, it's the right thing to do. I was appalled watching the videos of Columbine years ago with all law enforcement hunkered down around the school knowing a probable shooting rampage was going on inside. I don't believe in fool hardy actions or misplaced bravado, but never could I have tolerated not being on the offensive. From that and other incidents I decided that cowardice plays a roll in much of the SWAT team proliferation.
Additionally at that time for a 90 man department all the training was in house and on the job. Now all that has been abandoned and at least in MI graduation from a college level law enforcement training curriculum is required. So training is mostly at the whim of colleges and professors.
A third very important factor with the militarization is the proliferation of SWAT teams on TV programs. Occasionally they are shown in a bad light, but for the most part everything is depicted as good and virtuous. Usually the applications are appropriate, unlike what really happens in real life. But, on TV no one questions the need or validity of SWAT teams.
I still maintain a level of respect for those serving in law enforcement, but one cannot ignore the abuses and excesses.
One of my sons and his future wife was visiting me and they had a small motor home parked in the drive. To avoid them needing to come in and use my Internet service I attempted to run a telephone line out to the motor home. The wire my son bought did not have the ends on it so I left a 25' wire with a connector socket laying on the ground. One night two gestapo dressed deputy Sheriffs arrived and said 911 dispatch had received a call that hung up and they had to check it out. I assured them that I live alone and made no such call, but they persisted. They must have observed me at my computer through the large front window as they came to the house.
Afterward I regretted letting them in, but I did even though I explained the light rain must have shorted the telephone wire I left laying. Now, the stupid part is the lights were on in the motor home and obviously someone was in there. Yet those deputies never checked it out and my son never knew they were there.
Keep sharing the word Mr. Whitehead, people need to know about the excesses, SWAT teams raiding Amish dairy farmers and the like.
Sincerely,
Ron
Dear Mr Rutherford
After reading your article, SWAT Team Mania, I feel compelled to share with you a story about my father. He was a construction worker that got himself elected mayor of Missouri City, Texas (pop. 30,000 at the time?) in the early 70's by going door-to-door every evening and talking, at length, to anyone that would let him. During his political career, which included two terms as councilman, one of the agonies of my childhood was being dragged around with him on his rounds and having to endure hours of adult discussion as he talked to his constituents. (He loved to talk but he was also emphatic about the Constitution and upholding it as well as is oath of office.)
One discussion that I remember now, after having read your article, was about his opposition to the creation of SWAT teams. At that age I certainly did not understand everything I heard but I think that maybe the city of Houston had created a SWAT team around that time and that there was probably some enthusiastic noises being made by the moneyed interests in the area. (Namely developers who turned Missouri City into a huge sprawling upper class suburbia called Quail Valley, which ironically, denied an environmental group I worked with years later from canvassing door-to-door in the area by claiming some bizarre interpretation of their Constitutional "rights" to not allow Freedom of Speech. They lost of course.)
My father, I remember now, was emphatically against SWAT teams and had some huge discussions about it. Later, when I was much older, he mentioned once that very issue and described how he had given a speech at a mayor's conference in opposition to SWAT teams because they were paramilitary organizations and therefore, in his opinion, unconstitutional. The one thing about my father that was certainly different from most elected officials was that upon election to mayor, he sat down and read all of the by-laws and regulations of the community and county. It was infuriating to the developers and their lawyers because he would quote them chapter and verse the regulations that forbid them to do what they were planning to do.
He failed to get re-elected and was beaten by a much better funded opponent who just happened to be friendly with the developers and who immediately set out to remove the restrictive regulations on development. My father later ran for Lieutenant Governor of Texas on the Republican ticket and then got audited by the IRS three times in the next 5 years. He was at that time making about 32k per year and that never changed much for the rest of his life. At his death, he had about 5k in cash, some small property with a trailer home on it, and a 20 year old car. Oh yeah, and a garbage truck's worth of bags of receipts going back 25 years because after the audits he became obsessive about documenting even the smallest purchases. (Literally, there were receipts for such things as a pack of gum and 10 gallons of gas. It was a mess.)
I live in Switzerland now and never plan on returning to the USA. Here we have a real democracy and even if it is not perfect, it is functional, which is more than I can say about the USA. Ironically, because the Swiss have a great liking for America, the greatest threat and most detrimental changes to Swiss democracy have been the results of American corporate influence here.
Thanks for your articles and for voicing your opinion so forcefully and eloquently."Qui tacet consentit" - He who is silent, agrees.
Sincerely
Douglas
John -
I enjoyed "SWAT Team Mania: The War Against the American Citizen" and found it to be spot on with my knowledge on the topic. I am a retired military guy and have a number of close friends in law enforcement. Many of my acquaintances, most in fact, do not support the militarization of LE nor the capricious use of SWAT teams for non-violent crimes. I look forward to reading your work. Please keep up the good work.
Peace,
- Skip
Dear Staff:
I was very pleased to see you address the issue of the quasi- if not total militarization of the domestic police forces and their conversion into a 24/7 SWAT enforcement regime. I agree that this does not bode well for relationships between citizens and their constabulary. Take the case of David Burgert, now front and center in the news media. David Burgert apparently ran afoul of his corrupt law enforcement establishment back in 2002 and started being slandered as a "militia-survivalist-nut". He was not defended adequately in court the first time & despite having only minor infractions (gun ownership), ultimately was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government and spent time in a federal correctional facility. Interestingly, the head of the Flathead County SWAT team at the time, Chuck Curry, is now the Sheriff and is continuing the county's vendetta against Burgert.
A simple moving violation has been the pretext of this new attempt to rope Burgert back into jail. In all of the alleged confrontations with police, no one has ever been injured--this in itself is surprising given Burgert's supposed "paranoid anti-government" delusions. It sounds very much as if they have already decided that this man is throwaway trash and their actions indicate that he is guilty with no chance of being proven innocent. (Wouldn't it suit their interests just fine if they found him and used him for target practice in the wilderness, where no one is looking and, where they have set the tone for his justifiable execution?)
A case history compiled about Chuck Curry, the SWAT menace and current Sheriff, is not so savory: his use of 'no-knock' SWAT raids on unsuspecting homeowners (ie, drug users) have been overturned several times on procedural grounds in Montana courts due to his many violations of the 4th amendment. Not surprisingly, it is this same Chuck Curry along with the FBI and others who now seeks to hunt down a supposed miscreant in the woods and give him no due process.
I offer this as an example of what happens when the police themselves are creating the very conditions they claim to want to avoid: direct confrontation with an irate populace. Which came first, oppression in the form of SWAT or, the arming and anger of the population?
Sincerely,
Karl
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
A friend of mine in NYS sent me your article on Swat Team Mania on the Rutherford.org site and I just had to write.
On Aug. 3, 2011 I was a victim of Swat Team Mania. First off, I am a 69 year old woman with stage III colon cancer and have spent the last 27 years in the same home, in the same town in Tennessee raising my parrots under the registered trademarked name of Hookbill Haven. I have shown my birds and won several Best in Shows, have raised several generations of rare Amazons, Greys and other species and sold my handfed babies to people all over the country, including the editor of the local paper and the owner of the local Farm Bureau Insurance Co. with never a complaint.
Last year during my second recurrence of colon cancer I needed a resection, involving a week long stay in the hospital. I hired a woman to come in and feed and take care of my 100+ birds. I did not particularly like dealing with her afterward and never had her to return until July 8,9,10th of this year when I hurt my neck and needed help. She came in and cleaned cages in a few rooms working several hours on those afternoons. My neck healed and I again let her go because things were turning up missing and she was acting erratically.
On the late afternoon of Aug. 2, after pulling in my driveway I was confronted by what looked to be a utility worker, dressed in white driving a white truck with a utility logo. He told me that the water to my home was to be shut off the next day (the HOTTEST day of the year) while a main was repaired.
I informed my estranged husband that evening and asked him to come early the next day and make sure all the outside animals, chickens, horses, etc. had plenty of fresh water.
On Aug. 3, worried about the upcoming heat and lack of water mentioned, I got up at 5am and started changing water dishes of all my birds in the house to make sure EVERYONE had fresh water. At 7:10 am the phone rang and I was told to come out of my home to show the utility men where my water line was. I was promptly served with a search and seizure warrant based on terrible lies that this woman had said about me and who I have since learned has a criminal record. I was not allowed to return to my home nor even get my cell phone. At the same time the assistant district attorney showed up and behind him a SWAT team, complete with bullet proof vests, automatic rifles aimed and wearing gas masks entered my home yelling and screaming. Thank God my estranged husband was not there or I believe they would have shot him!
What prompted this? I am a published auther, an animal rescue..a small elderly woman that raises BIRDS and have never even gotten a speeding ticket! I was even on the City of Portland web site as a "Noteable". Am wondering why in the world would they do this? Am still wondering today.
A road block was set up and NO media or anyone else was allowed within a half mile of my house during the raid, for the whole day. A porta potty was immediately set up. This raid was carefully planned ahead of time.
As soon as the SWAT team came out of the house a long line of people commenced to come up my driveway and I was informed that they were here to "inspect" my birds. At first I noticed a familiar face, a vet that had treated several of my birds and cats before, so I thought they would go in and see that my parrots and lovebirds were all fine and that would be that. WRONG! Another group closely followed the first carrying kennel cabs and white towels. I was ushered to the police station against my will and kept there all morning until a detective took me back to my home. There I was informed that ALL my birds, cats, my pet goose and some chickens were being confiscated. Then I was held at the police station and told to sign a "surrender" or post a $50,000 surety bond for their care and the costs of the raid, now totally "$30,000". I don't have that kind of money but still did not want to sign away my whole business and $40,000 worth of parrots but I was told if I signed there probably wouldn't be any charges and I wouldn't go to jail and I was in such a mental state I finally did sign it, a fact that no one in the world can know how much I regret.
And I was IMMEDIATELY ushered off to jail. They lied.
At least ONE of my parrots, and some have said two, were killed by Animal Rescue Corps during the raid. All photos were staged and taken by ARC, as I said NO media were allowed near my property...and Ch.2,4,5, Fox 17, the newspapers were all here trying to get photos to no avail. Property was destroyed during this raid, doors to outside pens were cut off, chickens were let loose, my horses were injured and several rescues were later killed because, according to ARC head, Scotlund Haisley, "they had no quality of life!" Now who is he to decide what lives and dies? He was recently let go from the Humane Society for Gehstapo like behavior during raids and is now known to direct his group to attack the elderly, particularly single women who raise animals as a business.
The assistant DA, who is a member of the Animal Legal Defense League, the police and the extremist Animal Rescue Corps have taken a self supporting, animal loving business person and ruined her financially, physically and emotionally for what? For politics and the almighty dollar...or dollars, $40,000 + of them. I have never made a late payment and now my line of credit, my business, is gone and I have been declared indigent by the court. My birds were gone before the hearing even took place just 7 days later. Only my purebred chickens were taken including a famous Andalusian rooster who was "Chicken of the Week on the online Backyard Chickens web site..a prestigious award he deserved. He did not deserve what he got here that day. 40+ mixed breed chickens were left and the fat, healthy cats were returned a few days after my hearing.
And if you would like to know about that joke, please let me know and I will tell you how the asst. DA and my attorney sold me down the river when I could disprove EVERY charge and did indeed get one knocked off immediately because the vet did not remember that he has examined one of my rescue parrots 10 years ago and declared her inoperable. Justice is only as large as your wallet. I am looking for it though because I feel my rights were violated in many ways and are still being violated as the DA will not give me the unedited video that was taken on the day of the raid or the necropsy reports which he already gave to the media.
Another aside...the assistant DA called the county codes department during the raid and had my home condemned for NO REASON! Signs were posted and the police said I was not allowed in my house. I slept in my truck for 3 nights until my daughter came down from Cincinnati and got a room. The monday after the hearing I was permitted back inside my home with no inspection. This was done so it looked like they found my home in terrible condition...it was not. I have central heat/air, city water, good electric, plumbing, a new roof, etc. A nice home...NO REASON!
Thank you for the time you have take to read my story. If you would like to use any part or all of my story please feel free and if you have any off the record advice I am all ears. I cry every day and night for my beautiful birds that I will never get back but I still need to do something...somehow...for my name and the name of my business.
Best...
Lasandra
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