Free Republic

Ferguson is not just about systemic racism—it's about class warfare, and how America's poor are held back Will the recent rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, be a tipping point in the struggle against racial injustice . . . By focusing on just the racial aspect, the discussion becomes about whether Michael Brown’s death—or that of the other three unarmed black men who were killed by police in the U.S. within that month—is about discrimination or about police justification. Then we’ll argue about whether there isn’t just as much black-against-white racism in the U.S. as there is white-against-black. (Yes, there is. But,...

Jedediah Purdy, a professor of law at Duke University Law School, is vexed by the two biggest problems facing the United States. No, not a chronically low labor participation rate, not an economic recovery which often looks more like a recession, not the renewed aggression of great powers like China or Russia, or the collapse of smaller powers in Central America and the Middle East. Taking to the pages of Politico Magazine, Purdy warned in stark terms of the real problems facing the country. They just happen to be problems which have always been and always will be problems; the...

The Pentagon has donated hundreds of MRAP vehicles to police departments nationwide. Snip: Historians looking back at this period in America’s development will consider it to be profoundly odd that at the exact moment when violent crime hit a 50-year low, the nation’s police departments began to gear up as if the country were expecting invasion — and, on occasion, to behave as if one were underway. The ACLU reported recently that SWAT teams in the United States conduct around 45,000 raids each year, only 7 percent of which have anything whatsoever to do with the hostage situations with...

CNN has updates on the story of the Georgia SWAT team that threw a flash bang while executing a no-knock warrant that severely burned a nineteen-month-old baby. Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell says the deputies involved are "devastated" and that they've been called "baby killers" and received threats. "All I can say is pray for the baby, his family and for us," the sheriff told CNN. Terrell has insisted his officers and those of the local police department did nothing wrong and blamed the target of the warrant (not found at the house that was invaded) on the attack on...

Democratic Florida Rep. Joe Garcia — fresh off being caught eating his own earwax on camera — was caught red-handed (or is it yellow-fingered?) in another gaffe this week, claiming that low crime rates in border cities with lots of federal immigration workers is proof that “Communism works.” Garcia made the comment during a Google hangout he convened last week to talk about comprehensive immigration reform with supporters. The Democrat attempted to point out how, for all their talk about limited government, many Republicans are fine spending loads of government money on border security. “Let me give you an example,...

Not only has the Obama administration waged war on our veterans through the VA Scandal, now there is whole new front of attack on our veterans we have to worry about. In a terrifying news report on the militarization of our police forces – watch as a veteran officer of the Indiana police remarks that police are having to prepare for returning veterans with the ability to make IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices). That’s right. One of the reasons our police forces are giving for having to become more like military forces is the soldiers returning home from the front. It’s...

A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks "the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W." According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an "ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding," and a "30 rd. capacity" magazine. They also want the submachine guns to have a "sling," be "lightweight," and have an "oversized trigger guard for gloved operation."

A faithful reader forwards this link under the header, "The Fine Print Everyone is Missing on the new USDA Ballistic Vests Order...." with this quote from the order and a comment: Please note: "Synopsis: Added: May 07, 2014 2:24 pm The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC and Regional Offices, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of ballist vests, compliant with NIJ 0101.06 for Level IIIA Ballistic Resistance of body armor. Body armor is gender specific, lightweight, trauma plate/pad (hard or soft), concealable carrier, tactical...

Firearms Solicitation Number: USDAOIGWEA-5-7-14 Agency: Department of Agriculture Office: Office of the Inspector General Location: Procurement Branch Solicitation Number: - - - - - Notice Type: USDAOIGWEA-5-7-14 - - - Sources Sought Synopsis: Added: May 07, 2014 2:03 pm The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore grip) and scope...

Rob Gray and his brother-in-law said they were walking down River Street enjoying the sites with their families when they were confronted by a man. Then, a mob attacked them. “I took a punch to my eye and cracked my orbital,” said Gray. “I was grabbed by the back of my head at a full run and he smashed my head into the car and I hit the ground,” said Jim Thomas. "This was a violent, malicious attack on a family of eight people." Thomas says the attackers went after his wife as well. "There was a man holding her...

HEARNE, Texas (AP) — The nephew of a 93-year-old Central Texas woman shot and killed by a police officer says his aunt fired two shots before the officer shot her. Roy Jones told KBTX-TV (http://bit.ly/1izkcTq ) of Bryan and College Station for a story aired Friday that he had taken his aunt Pearlie Golden to renew her driver's license Tuesday, but she was denied after failing her test. As Jones took his aunt back to her Hearne home, he could tell she was upset by the denial, he said. Back at her house, Jones said he was sitting with his...

Happy Patriots' Day. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. ...   As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to...

Barack Obama has finally managed to drive Vladimir Putin from the front pages and BREAKING NEWS alerts by deploying armed US federal rangers from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in order to deal with “illegal cattle grazing” on the ranch of Cliven Bundy in Nevada.

Dan Zimmerman at The Truth About Guns asks Could Connecticut Gun Laws Spark Another Waco?There’s been a lot of discussion among members of the Armed Intelligentsia lately about how Connecticut’s finest might proceed if they decide to confiscate unregistered guns from the state’s 100,000 or more newly-minted felons. The level of concern is evidenced by daily long comment threads, speculative posts by people who are not members of law enforcement, and even a couple of contributed opinions from the LEO community. The rational consensus seems to be that if the gun-grab order were given, cops would pinch a registration scofflaw...

Conservative critics of government are “freaks,” are “in for a pretty rough ride,” and “will need their Kevlar,” i.e., bullet-proof vests. These statements didn’t come from the Obama administration or some radical leftwing organization. They are Facebook posts of a Republican elected official in Virginia’s Fauquier County. Fauquier drew national attention in 2012 for charging farmer Martha Boneta with violating the law by having a birthday party for eight little girls without a permit and zoning site plan. The highly charged posts of county supervisor Holder Trumbo came shortly after two recent events, and are emblematic of the civil war...

HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut officials are urging owners of now-illegal assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines to relinquish them to the police or make them permanently inoperable. The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection announced Friday it had sent a letter to owners who had failed to register the items by a Jan. 1 deadline, part of last year's gun control law. Officials offered advice on what to do now with the weapons and magazines.

SAN DIEGO – With a search warrant in hand, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confiscated computers, customer lists and the questionable polymer 80 percent lower receivers from four Ares Armor store locations throughout San Diego County over the weekend. “There were women and children inside our retail establishment when the (ATF) agents came in with guns drawn,” said Ares Armor Executive Officer Dimitrios Karras. “They came into our firearms manufacturing facility saying, ‘Arms up!’  like they were invading Iraq.” The raid happened three days after Ares owner was granted a temporary restraining by a...

>The latest gun control law in Connecticut has crossed a very frightening line. A standoff has been created between the government and tens of thousands of gun owners now considered felons. It marks the beginning of an Orwellian new phase. Gun owners saw it coming, as evidenced by their recent adoption in recent years of the defiant expression “molon labe.” The phrase originated from Spartan General-King Leonidas, who reportedly responded with “Come and get them!” to Persian Emperor Xerxes’ demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans fought valiantly, but were ultimately defeated. With...

The CT cop told him, “I cannot wait to get the order to kick your door in.” This comment comes on the heals of another story in which a CT Lieutenant told a woman over the phone that she was anti-American

John Cinque, a Navy veteran who told Connecticut lawmakers last year he would not comply with the state's new gun control law, told Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Joe Visconti that a Branford police officer said he couldn't "wait to get the order to kick your door in," Freedom Outpost reported Saturday, citing a YouTube video posted Friday. "I live in Branford, and his words straight out were 'I cannot wait to get the order to kick your door in,'" he told Visconti. Freedom Outpost's Tim Brown said Cinque provided the name of the officer in the incident, and posted a screenshot...