Free Republic

Behind the orchestrated riots that were allowed to strike Baltimore in recent weeks, and Ferguson, Missouri, before that, lies an agenda that has nothing to do with the fact that “Black Lives Matter.” As the Obama administration and more than a few race-mongers allied with the White House have already made clear, the real goal involves further chipping away at local self-government and community control over police departments — and expanding federal control over local law enforcement in its place. In between fanning the division and unrest with racialist rhetoric, Obama is also exploiting the chaos he is helping to...

For close to 20 years now, I’ve been observing and reporting on a disturbing trend in law enforcement – the federalization and militarization of local police forces. Until recently, practically no one noticed what was happening. But with the focus on police shootings and the civil disturbances that have followed – sometimes involving tanks, military-style gear and Kevlar – it’s hard not to notice that local cops don’t exactly look like Officer Joe Bolton anymore. It was none other than Al Sharpton (I won’t call him reverend) who suggested recently that the answer to the use of excessive force by...

(You will hear and obey me) Baltimore will soon be the first national police force that Obama promised and Al Sharpton has been promoting. (I’m waiting for the IRS to announce they made a mistake and instead of owing taxes, Sharpton has a 20 million dollar refund coming) For a while it looked like Ferguson would hold this distinction after Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder announced that the police force there was racist, but they weren’t willing to roll over. Obama will force it on them eventually, but Baltimore will be the first. The mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has...

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has gotten an extension to the Monday deadline her office faced for processing a proposed ballot initiative that advocates killing anyone who engages in gay sex. Harris asked a state court in late March for permission to reject the measure, calling it obviously unconstitutional.

The urban legends about black helicopters, clandestine military camps, tunnels underneath major airports, secret cabals, hidden detention camps, trains loaded with caskets and body bags and the like were around long before the Internet. The Web just made them easier and quicker to reproduce. One of the tea-party organizations even has reported an anonymous claim there were train cars moving around the country with prison-like shackles installed. Most people dismiss such reports as hyperbole. Fiction. The fretting of nutcases. But now there are powerful new forces aligning with those who are suspicious of the federal government, doubt the official...

Time is running out.  The American people had better get a clue, and acquire an education about what is REALLY happening all around them. Obama is a thug who will NOT voluntarily give up his "throne". Remember all the talk and rhetoric about a "third term?" Maybe they're planning an "unelected third term." Consider: *  We have a sitting 2nd term President whose campaign started in the living room of a former leader of America's most violent and notorious Marxist revolutionary group, Bill Ayers.  *Ayers group, Weather Underground, bombed federal buildings, attacked police stations, and planned the extermination of 25...

The Associated Press is asking whether our police will change the way they deliver service to the people of the cities and towns they patrol. The answer is a definite Yes and No. Yes they will; but No; those who will be watching won’t perceive the difference. Police work requires the continual processing of data drawn from your surroundings. What a police officer sees and does not see is far more subjective than those who have never done a tour in a radio car can possibly imagine. As a patrol officer you process information constantly and on some days make...

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) didn't think much of the Baltimore riots that erupted in protest of the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Sunday's Face the Nation on CBS, Cummings spoke of the violence as a "situation" that "could've been a lot worse." The violence that erupted in Cummings's city caused the entire crowd gathered at the Baltimore Orioles' stadium to be stuck in lock down mode while the "protestors" raved outside smashing cop cars and hurling flaming barrels. Cummings, who was there at the time, said he had a direct hand in...

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who guards the guardians?) – Juvenal Honest observers in this country have to admit that we have a police problem that is increasingly growing more serious. While some of the stories that have come out about police brutality and police overreach have clearly been invented or exaggerated by the Left for the purposes of inflaming racial tensions and undermining American civic stability, there are nevertheless a large number of incidents in recent years which cannot simply be wishcast away. The warrantless, no-knock, early morning, heavily-armed SWAT raid for even the most minor of things is becoming...

A Virginia police officer detained a television news videographer Tuesday because his camera vest could have been tactical gear. The incident was captured on cell phone video by veteran investigator reporter Russ Ptacek from WUSA9, who posted it on Twitter along with photos of the detainment. The video is posted below. The cop was from the Arlington County Police Department, part of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to my article about Wisconsin prosecutors’ efforts to criminalize conservative activism,complete with terrifying dawn and pre-dawn raids. Without the courage of the raids’ targets who were willing to speak with me–on and off the record–there would have been no story. Ironically enough,on the very weekend that my story hit National Review,the Huffington Post published yet another screed against so-called “dark money” relying on the very existence of the unlawful John Doe investigations to cast a cloud of suspicion on conservative activists. The language is instructive: The Wisconsin Supreme Court is slated to take up...

When a neighbor was engaged in a domestic dispute, Henderson, Nevada police demanded that Anthony Mitchell allow them to use his home as a fort and command center in order to gain a tactical advantage in their efforts to cope with the situation. Mitchell refused, but police battered down his door, pepper sprayed him, and put him in jail for the duration. Mitchell sued contending that this home invasion by the police violated his constitutional rights under both the Third and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution. Federal district court Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed Mitchell’s Fourth Amendment argument, saying that...

The West Memphis NAACP has legitimized and inflamed the war on cops by urging blacks to arm up against them. “Law enforcement has to understand, you cannot do what you please when you see us,” Crittenden County NAACP head Shabaka Afrika said in a news conference. The deaths of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown had really roiled angry black activists and street thugs who make up their army. But the killing of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD and the shooting of Walter Scott in South Carolina have pushed them over the edge. Nation of Islam leader Louis...

‘They came with a battering ram.” Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin’s Act 10 — also called the “Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill,” it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions — was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs’ frantic barking. The entire house — the windows and walls — was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. She wasn’t dressed, but she started to run toward the door, her body in full...

A federal law passed in February 2012 to help middle class families by creating jobs and cutting payroll taxes included a section mandating the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband communications system for law enforcement and first responders. The system, which is being created under the direction of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet), seeks to create a nationwide broadband network capable of being used for a variety of law enforcement purposes including remote surveillance, mobile biometric applications like field fingerprint scanning and facial recognition, as well as automated license plate reading. The system is currently in a pilot phase...

The Z-Ro Retinal Obfuscation weapon mounted to a handgun. Last summer’s riots in Ferguson, Missouri, prompted much talk by President Obama and certain members of Congress about the need to demilitarize local police forces. Nearly a year later, the opposite is happening. New and more powerful weapons are flowing into local police departments daily, and still others are new to the marketplace. One weapon about to make its debut is the “Z-Ro Retinal Obfuscation” gun. When fired, the gun allows an officer to temporarily blind his targeted subject for up to 15 minutes. The new “compliance weapon” made a...

Cherished family heirlooms were among the 21 firearms Michael Roberts surrendered to the Torrance Police Department in 2010, after his doctor filed a restraining order against him. The court order was the result of a dispute Roberts had with a member of the doctor’s staff and, after Roberts pleaded no contest, the matter was resolved. Yet, even though he filed the proper Law Enforcement Gun Release paperwork on four separate occasions, obtained clearance from the California Department of Justice and had two court orders commanding the return of his guns, police refused to hand them over. With the backing of...

It’s a phrase few Americans ever have the occasion to say: “I’m really getting pulled over by a tank right now.” The reasons why the Florida man said it are just as eyebrow-raising as the fact that he was pulled over by a “tank” in the first place. The whole encounter was captured on video. The Gainesville Sun reported Monday on the story of 23-year-old Lucas Jewell, a self-professed Navy veteran and Gainesville City Commission candidate, who was pulled over by sheriff’s deputies in an armored personnel vehicle after a University of Florida football game Saturday. At first, Jewell thought...

In August of 2014, military helicopters flew low over residential neighborhoods of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, engaged in a series of night-time training exercises. The exercises involved the Naval Warfare Development Group - a "special forces" component of the U.S. Navy - and were aimed at enhancing urban combat tactics. Just as they had two years earlier, military personnel had come to the Twin Cities to conduct counter-terrorism training operations in an urban environment. And just as before, those operations commenced with little advance notice to the public.

he Baltimore Police Department has used an invasive and controversial cellphone tracking device thousands of times in recent years while following instructions from the FBI to withhold information about it from prosecutors and judges, a detective revealed in court testimony Wednesday.. The testimony shows for the first time how frequently city police are using a cell site simulator, more commonly known as a "stingray," a technology that authorities have gone to great lengths to avoid disclosing. The device mimics a cellphone tower to force phones within its range to connect. Police use it to track down stolen phones or find...