Free Republic

<p>A home was heavily damaged after an operation to find gang members who are indicted on 97 counts.</p> <p>SWAT members were looking for Jashavious Keel. He is one of the suspects named in a Chatham County indictment. The district attorney's office said 14 West 61st Street is his last known address.</p>

SACRAMENTO -- A day after furious Coloradans recalled two state senators who voted for new gun laws, California lawmakers pressed ahead with their own agenda Wednesday aimed at giving the Golden State the strictest gun control in the country. Colorado's recall elections and California's rush to pass gun bills in the final week of its legislative session quickly reignited the national debate over balancing public safety with constitutional rights. The Colorado votes sent a Rocky Mountain chill down the spines of lawmakers in other battleground states, but those in bright blue California seemed unfazed. "I don't see anybody switching teams...

This posted by several people on FB: WARNING ALERT *** WARNING ALERT *** WARNING ALERT FIRST ARRIVALS OF BIKERS IN AND AROUND DC ARE BEING TARGETED BY FEDERAL AGENTS IN FULL TACTICAL GEAR PERFORMING CONTACT SWEEPS IN CAMPGROUNDS FOR WEAPONS. THOSE WHO HAVE LOVED ONES RIDING TO DC NEED TO WARN THEM THAT ARRESTS AND CONFISCATIONS ARE IN FULL OPERATION BY FEDERAL FORCES. THOSE EXERCISING 2ND AMENDMENT NEED TO USE EXTREME CAUTION AND PLACE THEIR GUNS IN PLACES AWAY FROM WHERE YOU WILL BE GATHERING BUT NEARBY ENOUGH TO GET TO THEM IF IT BECOMES NECESSARY TO DEFEND YOUR LIFE...

BERKELEY, CA -- A truck driver was beaten within an inch of his life by California Highway Patrol for not signing a traffic ticket that he could not read. The driver, who broke no laws, was beaten so badly that he woke up in a trauma hospital. Olegs Kozacenko, a local resident originally from Russia, was pulled over and cited by police for allegedly driving too many hours in one day. Kozacenko refused to sign the ticket because he had not or could not read it. CHP Officers didn't take kindly to the driver's refusal to sign. Two officers, one...

Long before vineyards became agriculture du-jour in Virginia, Mike Bowles planted grapevines in 1977, and he claims he's Albemarle's first farm winery operator. Thirty years later, he wanted to be a pioneer again and hop on the craft-distillery trend to make the Italian spirit grappa from chardonnay grape leftovers. Instead, he's earned a more dubious distinction as possibly the first person to get busted while applying for a federal distillery license. Under Virginia's Alcoholic Beverage Control regs, that could cost him his license to make wine at all. Bowles insists he was trying to comply with the hefty volume of...

Washington police are operating under orders to arrest tourists and other non-residents traveling with spent bullet or shotgun casings, a crime that carries a $1,000 fine, a year in jail and a criminal record, according to a new book about the city's confusing gun laws. "Empty shell casings are considered ammunition in Washington, D.C., so they are illegal to possess unless you are a resident and have a gun registration certificate," pens Emily Miller in her investigative book, "Emily Gets Her Gun: ... But Obama Wants to Take Yours." Under the law, live or empty brass and plastic casings must...

According to a declassified order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as of 2011, the US National Security Agency was "acquiring" more than 250 million "internet communications" each year under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) — the statute that allows the NSA to collect the content of internet communications. The order states that the "vast majority" of these communications were obtained from internet service providers under PRISM, and that only nine percent of of the total internet communications acquired by the NSA were part of its "upstream" collection practices, which pull data directly from telecommunications cables. The...

“Ruby Ridge” used to refer to a geographical location in the state of Idaho, but after an incident that took place there 10 years ago on Aug. 21, the phrase has come to refer to a scandalous series of events that opened the eyes of many people to the inner workings of the federal government, including the vaunted Federal Bureau of Investigation. Now that 10 years have passed, the feds will accelerate their ongoing effort to “move forward” and have the scandal declared “ancient history.” But the Ruby Ridge episode should not be soon forgotten.On August 21, 1992 a paramilitary...

We need police to catch murderers, thieves and con men, and so we give them special power -- the power to use force on others. Sadly, today's police use that power to invade people's homes over accusations of trivial, nonviolent offenses -- and often do it with tanks, battering rams and armor you'd expect on battlefields. In his book "Rise of the Warrior Cop," Radley Balko recounts the rise of police SWAT teams (SWAT stands for Special Weapons And Tactics) armed with heavy military equipment. SWAT raids began as rarely used methods of dealing with violent situations, like hostage-takings. But...

Richard Malley helps patrol the sparsely populated Arizona desert to spot Illegal aliens.  He has been arrested for refusing to surrender his rifle to deputies who refused to show their ID.  The story says that Richard Malley is accused of aggravated assault for allegedly pointing his rifle at a deputy.   From  abc15.com: GILA BEND, AZ - Authorities arrested an Arizona Minuteman for allegedly pointing a rifle at a deputy over the weekend. According to court paperwork, 49-year-old Richard Malley and two other men who are part of the Minuteman militia were patrolling the desert just east of Gila...

Government officials do some really crazy things in the name of law enforcement.I recently wrote about an armed raid on an animal shelter in order to execute a baby deer.That was paramilitary overkill (pun intended), though it probably didn’t waste as many tax dollars as the regulatory overkill of the year-long sting operation by the Food and Drug Administration against an Amish farm for the horrible crime of selling unpasteurized milk to consenting adults who prefer unpasteurized milk.And let’s not forget Robert Norlander, the thuggish, dumpster-diving IRS agent, who sought to ruin the life of an innocent man because…well, for...

This past week I was over on Officer.com trying to convince some hot-headed, patriot-hating young cops that the Constitution is actually the law of the land. I failed. One of them refers to open carriers as “attention whores.” I was denounced as a traitor to law enforcement for insisting that gun owners actually have rights that LEO’s are legally and morally bound to respect. It got me thinking about the great gulf that separates the law enforcement profession that I knew as compared to the one that exists today. I never thought I’d be one of those geezers that says,...

Never in the history of the USA has it been in so much trouble as it finds itself today. There is neither point nor gain in attempting to soft-soap anyone about this. Its demise now seems imminent, as no one is doing anything to stop the now proven-to-be criminal and would-be POTUS illegally occupying what was once--but is no more--our White House. The end of America as the world’s “shining city on a hill” is in its final stage of demolition. No one cares to stop its murder. So, the United States of America will die. The Obama syndicate, in...

A new mobile app developed by U of San Diego Lecturer Brett Stalbaum allows people to "GeoLocate dangerous guns and owners." The app pinpoints the locations of homes, businesses and other sites where "dangerous" guns are located. Geo Marker (app developer)states it's for the safety of public to know where potential "unsafe" gun owners might be. Read more here westernshootingjournal.com/industrynews/geolocate-guns-and-owner-app/Really?, WTF, as you can see many non-gun activist will jump all over this for the cause of good.

Several residents at the “Garden of Eden” sustainability garden in Arlington, Texas, claim that local police raided their farm because they thought tomato plants were marijuana plants. The police reportedly damaged the garden's property and the crops during the Aug. 2 raid, which included a SWAT team (video below). “They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation. They destroyed everything,” said garden owner Shellie Smith to WFAA-TV. Apparently, an undercover officer and a helicopter surveillance crew believed there was probable cause that the wrong kind of plant was being grown in the garden and...

By the hearing's end, the committee had voted along party lines to approve bills that would add all semi-automatic rifles that accept detachable magazines to the state's list of banned assault weapons; ban owning any magazine that holds more than 10 rounds, including existing ones; ban "bullet buttons" that allow fast swapping of rifle magazines; require long-gun buyers to pass a written safety test; and add more crimes to the list of those that would bar someone from carrying a firearm. The bills, already passed by the state Senate, are moving inexorably closer to floor votes and the governor's desk.

Prepare to be outraged.....Shocking Surveillance Video Captures Cop Brutally Beating Female Shoplifter In Front Of Her 1 Yr Old Child in Iowa. I worked in corporate loss prevention a long time ago...let me tell you...this is beyond lawsuit...these cops should be in prison. Video: http://www.ktrh.com/pages/michaelberry.html?article=11556885

<p>The National Security Agency has a secret backdoor into its vast databases under a legal authority enabling it to search for US citizens' email and phone calls without a warrant, according to a top-secret document passed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden.</p>

The email service reportedly used by surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden abruptly shut down on Thursday after its owner cryptically announced his refusal to become "complicit in crimes against the American people."Lavabit, an email service that boasted of its security features and claimed 350,000 customers, is no more, apparently after rejecting a court order for cooperation with the US government to participate in surveillance on its customers. It is the first such company known to have shuttered rather than comply with government surveillance."I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or...

The discussion that will take place next year in the Utah Legislature over law enforcement raid-style search warrants is a necessary topic to debate. Certainly, the use of a battering rams to combat minor offenses is something that should not occur. A libertarian group, the Libertas Institute, and others, including the American Civil Liberties Institute, will lobby for limits on police use of force during search warrants for minor crimes. When this discussion occurs, it must focus on the safety aspects — to police and suspects — that these raids provide. These raids, as conducted now, are too dangerous. One...