Posted on 08/07/2004 9:37:20 AM PDT by TERMINATTOR
On Saturday, July 17, an unknown shooter wounded an Oshkosh, Wisconsin, police officer, then faded into the night. Was the shot fired by a partying teenager? Was it an accidental discharge from another officer's gun? Was it a mistake or an intentional assault? No one knows.
What happened next is unclear; everyone gives a different version of the events.
According to the most credible reports, the Oshkosh PD evacuated a several block area. Without warrants in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, SWAT teams and police dogs descended on the neighborhood. Officers got consent to search homes. (It's logical to assume that "consent" in this case was given under heavy police pressure.) Once inside, police officers confiscated firearms -- without warrants, without consent, without probable cause. Residents returned to homes that appeared to have been "tossed" by burglars and found their guns missing.
Oshkosh police say they have since returned all firearms for which they had no warrants. Some media reports and individuals who cared enough to call say the Oshkosh police have "more or less" apologized to the abused victims.
Activist gun owners are up in arms -- as they should be. But few gun-rights groups (including JPFO, until now) have jumped into the fray, partly because it's so unclear what really happened that night. We have tried to contact our members in the area and have gotten no response.
Whatever happened, the Oshkosh police obviously behaved outrageously. Whether the unconstitutional confiscations were department policy, superior officers' orders, or screwups by incompetently dangerous cops who neither knew nor cared anything about the Fourth Amendment, those confiscations were unAmerican in the deepest sense. In fact, they were anti-American.
But frankly, it's hard to defend citizens who are so deeply in denial that -- in this day of anti-gun hysteria and ninjafication of American police forces -- they'd open their doors and willingly let police rifle through their possessions. Those victimized residents also have a responsibility as citizens, as Americans. And they failed in their responsibility as seriously as the police did.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS?
Take the historical perspective. It's entirely possible that this police action was a trial balloon for larger-scale raids and confiscations. Even if it was only an isolated incident, it sets a dangerous precedent. It tells other police agencies -- and the federal agencies who are working to militarize them -- just what people in the American heartland will tolerate.
Why did the police chief authorize random gun seizures (if he did)? Why did officers conduct them? We need to understand the mentality behind such "all guns are bad, all people are guilty" attitudes. Remember, this is the attitude of men and women _who claim to be our protectors. Yet their hatred and suspicion of us runs deep -- and all too often, runs uncontrolled.
We strongly suggest that you read a small, slender book called _Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland_ by Christopher R. Browning (available at Amazon.com, among other places). This is the story of how a group of perfectly ordinary middle-aged German men, too old for the army, carried out a horrific mass slaughter of innocents ... simply because. They did it because they were asked (not ordered) to. They did it because they didn't want to let down their fellow police officers. They did it because they, like so many American police officers today put their security or their pension above their morality. A few probably even did it because they enjoyed it. If you want to see the mentality that's increasingly overtaking American police, read this book.
If citizens won't put limits on police, who will? The police will never police themselves. They'll never limit their own desire for more power, more authority, more control, more obedience.
Ask yourself: Am I going to cooperate with government, get stepped on, then complain afterward?
We believe -- we hope -- that the average JPFO member would know better than to consent to a random, warrantless search. But we also despair. We've seen well-informed people bend under the frightening force of the police. And we have to face the fact that the vast majority of Americans choose not to be informed. They choose to close their eyes to the incipient police state around them. They choose to go along to get along, rather than stand on their own knowledge and convictions.
Three years ago, we published The State vs. the People: The Rise of the American Police State. The residents of that Oshkosh neighborhood either didn't read it or chose not to believe the evidence.
How long have we been promoting the Bill of Rights? The residents of Oshkosh paid no attention.
Did the victims of the Oshkosh raids have any understanding of history, as expressed in the documentary film Innocents Betrayed? Or were they too busy watching TV shows in which nearly all cops -- including brutal ones -- are heroes?
The ultimate lesson of the Oshkosh gun confiscations is that "it CAN happen here."
Unfortunately, this is a lesson we've failed to learn over and over again. We should have learned it when the U.S. Army attacked the Bonus Marchers in Washington, DC, during the Depression. We should have learned it when the federal government rounded up peaceable Japanese-Americans and thrust them into barren camps. We should have learned it when young men with badges on their chests but no clue in their heads fired on protesting students at Kent State. We should have learned it at Ruby Ridge, at Waco.
The violence and violation of rights escalate. The majority of Americans -- even those like the residents of Oshkosh who stare brutality and injustice right in the face -- choose to let tyranny roll on.
Although we pity those foolish Americans and we fear for the country they're creating, there's only so much that JPFO or the Second Amendment Foundation, or the NRA, or Gun Owners of America, or KeepandBearArms.com or anybody else can do.
If people choose not to learn and defend their rights, then we'll all suffer the catastrophic consequences of their willful ignorance.
The Liberty Crew
"Was there anyone that refused the search and demanded a warrant?"
Great point - If you give up your rights you don't have any rights.
But from the lack of news about this, I'm beginning to suspect all is not as it was portrayed to be....
"Was there anyone that refused the search and demanded a warrant?"
Great point - If you give up your rights you don't have any rights.
But from the lack of news about this, I'm beginning to suspect all is not as it was portrayed to be....
I know it is hard to believe, but the OldDominantLiberalMedia spikes stories like this as a part of policy.
John Lott has even written a scholarly book about it, titled "The Bias Against Guns". I need to get a copy as a refernce. I do recall, however, that on one national story, where guns were used to stop a school shooting, something like 302 out of 304 total stories that could be found failed to mention that fact.
Much of this is due to a rabidly antigun culture at Associated Press, which serves as a filter to the news for most of the nations newspapers.
I suppose citizens could have refused entry by the cops, but we still have peaceful ways of addressing these issues. If armed cops bust into your house it would be foolish to violently confront them.
This past term the US Supreme Court affirmed the right of citizens to sue police who violate their constitutional rights. This is not a petty remedy for citizens.
Under this ruling citizens may go into court and strip cops of their sovereign immunity. They may then personally sue the cops for everything they own. Additionally, criminal charges may be filed against the cops, meaning fines and jail time. The citizens may also sue the municipality.
These cops are about to feel real sorry they did this.
Good luck with your lawyers, I'll keep my guns.
Ohhhhhhhh ohhh... The guns of Brixton.
-The Clash, Guns of Brixton--
I did not drag it out and post it here before, but I can tell you from recent personal experience that questioning the legitimacy of ANY police order these days will get you maced, beaten, and and convicted of "Failure to heed the orders of an officer".
The officers will casually commit perjury to justify their actions, and the judge will allow their clearly invented testimony to be treated as fact.
Then you will be lucky to escape with only "Ten days - Suspended, on condition that...."!
The police state is already here, we just dare not say so out loud.
But don't you know, they're just doing it to ''keep us all safe and free''? whats wrong with you, Terminattor? are you a liberal who don't lick the boots of the papa govt and almighty cops?
:-D
Just kiddin. great article.
"The Supreme Court has also upheld the homeowners right to shoot home invaders..."
They would probably also uphold the rights of the other three cops to shoot the homeowner who defended his home...
"I know it is hard to believe, but the OldDominantLiberalMedia spikes stories like this as a part of policy."
That goes without saying, but where is the NRA jumping all over this ?
If any of the people were colored, where is Jesse Jackson and the ACLU ?
I think the mindset you refers to is very common. in the 90's i had my car illegally searched because i pulled out of a restaurant in the mountains that they told me was ''known for drug activity''. the reason they gave for pulling me over was a 'breaklight that was flickering', lol.
They had been in front of me but then pulled over on the shoulder, let me pass, saw my alleged 'flickering breaklight', then pulled me over.
i actually thought it was a bit funny at the time because i've never done any drugs i my life,; never even smoked cigarettes.
But what i was going to say was, the attitude you refer to is common even in traffic citations. People today seem to assume that they're 'guilty' if a cop issues them a ticket. this couldnt be further from the truth, but people bend over, bow down and ''just pay itt' as well as 3 years of increased insurance, because theyre too damned lazy and ignorant to know the atual traffic law, and fight the corrupt system. aside from that, much of these traffic tickets are about nothing but revenue.
I know first hand because i've had kangaroo courts lick the boots of lying cops and pronounce me 'guilty' of traffic convictions.. which i later had overturned, by a panel of 3 Superior court judges. (it was very easy! ;-) all it takes is a little knowledge, and fire in the belly. (see www.helpigotaticket.com)
but then again, these days people will bow down and say "aww, come on. just do what they say, and pay it." do what your masters say, and slouch down and watch the ball game or american idol or whatever nonsense is on tv., and slurp your beer as your beer belly gets wider by the week.
Yikes!
On a related note i thik you'll like this column- Devvy Kidd: 'Where have all the men gone?'
Where was the ACLU on this?
I read the media coverage the day after it happened. They were very careful, as usual, not to upset the cops or portray them in an unfavorable light. Just once, just once, I'd like to see the media stand up for the Bill of Rights other than the right of Homosexuals to marry or the right to abortion. Some day the chickens will come home to roost and I fear that day. It won't be pretty.
The police are bonded and you can sue for their bond price. The bonding companies really don't like this and can place a lot of pressure on the cops.
You're right of course, you can shoot home invaders except in the Northeastern states where they're protected. Shootouts with the SWAT Ninjawarriors aren't usually real productive without sufficient backup. They'll kill you, your family, your pets and burn your house, then they'll tell the story any way they want to.
They're attitude after a major terroist attack will eventually result in a civil war in this country. I have corresponded with Police Officers who actually believe that they could control a citizenry that is in active revolt. That attitude comes from them being the only openly armed section of society at large. They really tend to underestimate the seething undercurrent of resentment and in some cases actual haterd of an overbearing and authoritarian government. We are being "governed" as never before.
That's because they see themselves as embattled heroes and generally are of low moral and ethical character.
Write those guys back and direct them here: Enemies Foreign and Domestic. Book written by a freeper. 20 chapters are online (about half the book) It posulates EXACTLY such a scenario. The freeper in question is a former SEAL. Travis McGee.
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