Free Republic

The Carroll National Guard unit will train on urban military operations by holding a four-day exercise at Arcadia. The purpose of the April 2-5 drill will be to gather intelligence, then search for and apprehend a suspected weapons dealer, according to Sgt. Mike Kots, readiness NCO for Alpha Company. Citizens, law enforcement, media and other supporters will participate. Troops will spend Thursday, April 2, staging at a forward operations base at Carroll. The next day company leaders will conduct reconnaissance and begin patrolling the streets of Arcadia to identify possible locations of the weapons dealer. The primary phase will be...

"They hit the door right here and the door flew open," says Mike Hasenei, standing outside his Elkridge home. His wife, Phyllis, was watching television with her 12-year old daughter when members of the Howard County Police Tactical Team came through the door. "They had guns pointed at us. You have 25 guys coming in here all dressed in black and all that we saw were their eyes, and they're screaming 'Hands in the air!'" Members of the team were acting upon a tip that an assault rifle, magazines and hollow-point bullets stolen from a marked police car the night...

Collateral raid damage In January 2007, a SWAT team in Lima, Ohio, shot and killed Tarika Wilson, a 26-year-old mother, during a drug raid at the home of her boyfriend, Anthony Terry. When the unarmed Wilson was shot, she was kneeling on the ground, complying with police orders. She was holding her 1-year-old son, Sincere, who was also shot, losing his left hand. A subsequent investigation revealed that Officer Joseph Chavalia heard another officer shooting Terry’s two dogs, mistook the noise for hostile gunfire, panicked, and fired blindly into the room where Wilson was kneeling. Chavalia was charged with involuntary...

By Tim McGlone The Virginian-Pilot © February 5, 2009 CHESAPEAKE The trial of Ryan Frederick in the shooting death of a police officer - a case that tore apart two families and a community - left all sides disappointed Wednesday. The jury refused to convict Frederick of capital murder but recommended a maximum 10-year prison term for voluntary manslaughter. Family, friends and colleagues of Detective Jarrod Shivers, shot and killed by Frederick on Jan. 17, 2008, wept in astonishment as the jury returned its verdict. Across the aisle, Frederick's family and supporters were relieved. About an hour later, the jury...

wo Salinas police officers fired their guns about 11:30p.m. Tuesday after stopping a vehicle near North Sanborn Road and Freedom Parkway, police said. The officers fired several shots after they "perceived a threat" when contacting the driver and passenger, police said. No one was hit and no arrests were made. Both officers were placed on paid administrative leave according to department policy. Cmdr. Dino Bardoni, who leads the department's investigations division, was not available to comment Wednesday. Cmdr. Al Ruiz, appointed to answer questions in Bardoni's absence, said more information could be released today. "We are still investigating," he said....

BATFE arrests not a person, but a gun part. That's right folks, the stupidity has reached a new level. BATFE has arrested a belt fed upper for a MAC 10. Len Savage, a licensed firearms manufacturer, registered an upper as an SBR and submitted it lawfully to BATFE for confirmation. BATFE attempted to have Mr. Savage modify his submission (illegally) to register the item as a machinegun. He of course refused. BATFE has now arrested the upper after using a metal plate, a chain and wire ties (conversion devices) to make it fire. This move by BATFE is the same...

Seconds after BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant, police immediately began confiscating cell phones containing videos that have yet to see the light of day. In fact, the only videos that have been seen by the public were filmed by people who managed to leave the scene before police confronted them.In one instance, police chased after Karina Vargas after she stepped on the train, banging on the window after the doors closed and demanding her to turn over the camera. The train sped away with Vargas still holding her camera.Her video, which did not show the...

At the board meeting today, Orange County deputies searched gun-rights supporters, especially those wearing CCW buttons, according to those who attended the meeting. Although Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said she would let the permits expire rather than revoke them, her real disdain for freedom is shown by the presence of the SWAT team and the heavyhanded searches of law-abiding residents who wanted to attend the board meeting. Did the sheriff really think that gun supporters are somehow dangerous. I’ve been to gun shows and gun events and have never felt safer. Share this post: 9 Responses to “SWAT team searches gun-rights...

 Graphic:     Weapons confiscated last year by Paterson police. A new state program is gathering unprecedented information about illegal guns traveling into New Jersey, and police expect to tap that data this year as part of a statewide crackdown on weapons used in violent crimes. New Jersey has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, but they can’t stop people from bringing weapons here from less regulated states. Almost three-quarters of guns recovered in New Jersey were purchased elsewhere, according to federal data released last year. To help stanch that flow, New Jersey will become the first...

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has a simple, blunt message for hunters in Wisconsin: When a DNR warden asks you to give up your legal firearm, do so, plain and simple, no matter what. What's more, that goes for all citizens, the agency has asserted. Citizens with firearms, the DNR argues, should always do exactly what law enforcement officers tell them to do, regardless of the circumstances of the situation. To which one former hunter education instructor for the department has an equally simple and blunt response: The agency's directive is unconstitutional, plain and simple, and citizens don't have...

Yes it is time for another “Hippie Report” from Humboldt county Ca. Join us as we explore The Triad of Death. Humboldt State University, the Ciy of Arcata Ca., and The glorification of marijuana aimed at the youth of the community by the local newspaper - The North Coast Journal. 01/07/09

Tennessee Firearms Association, Inc.Legislative Action CommitteeI know of at least 3 FFL holders in parts of the state of Tennessee who are actively being pursued by ATF on license revocations and/or who have recently surrendered the license because its simply too expenses and to hard to fight ATF. I have been told there are many more. What I have seen is that this trend by the ATF is getting worse and will likely get much worse with Obama in control of the Executive Branch (and thus appointing the Attorney General) and with Pelosi and Reed in almost total control of...

Update - 12/13/08 - the trial date we hear has been postponed to a later date. If someone disagreed with you about an article or story you published and then complained to the police who came into your business and arrested you for disorderly conduct, would that incident be newsworthy? What if the police arrested you for disorderly conduct while you were exercising any other constitutionally protected right because someone did not want you to exercise your right? Would you want to tell the people of Wisconsin how fragile it is to exercise their rights? Once arrested, do you think...

In keeping one's eye on the ferment in lower courts on gun issues post-Heller, Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy finds an interesting footnote in a U.S District Court for Utah memorandum opinion and order.(pdf) The order allows the (partial) moving forward of a lawsuit charging some police officers of 4th Amendment excessive force violations due to their ruffian behavior against a man in Salt Lake City who didn't, because he was physically unable to, raise both hands above his head when ordered to by the cops. The details of the story in Volokh's post make for aggravating reading, to...

A crack SWAT team of sherrif's deputies, health inspectors, and Ohio Department of Agriculture officials busted into the Manna Storehouse food co-op in LaGrange, Ohio, in a raid last week. The co-op is also the home of the Stowers family, so Katie Stowers, her children, and her in-laws were held at gunpoint while the agents took tens of thousands of dollars worth of meat, plus computers and cell phone. Chad Stowers, Katie's husband, wasn't home because he is a U.S. Navy Seabee currently in Iraq. Their crime? The warrant listed the reason for the raid as "beef." Manna may, perhaps,...

Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio December 4, 2008 See also Community Policing, http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/Community-Policing.htm and Training an army of world servers http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/1-service.htm Home http://www.crossroad.to/index.html "Over the past 20 years Congress has encouraged the U.S. military to supply intelligence, equipment, and training to civilian police. That encouragement has spawned a culture of paramilitarism in American law enforcement. The 1980s and 1990s have seen marked changes in the number of state and local paramilitary units, in their mission and deployment, and in their tactical armament." –Cato Institute. http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/#paramilitary "We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve...

BATFE Adds Theft to Its Crimes Friday, October 17, 2008 Coloseum Software Corporation has developed software that will help dealers record all of the information that is unconstitutionally required by the federal government -- and to keep that information in a way that insulates them from bogus prosecutions at the hands of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (aka The Gang). The document that is most often involved in "gotcha" injustices is the Form 4473 which all customers must fill out when buying from a licensed federal firearms dealer -- a requirement that is yet another unconstitutional imposition...

Don’t be surprised to see an Army tank rolling down a street near you.The Cobb County police department has refurbished a donated Armored Personnel Carrier for officers to use in SWAT situations. Enlarge this imageBOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.comCobb police have a new tank. The vehicle is being driven by Detective Steve Brawner as Sgt. Lester Maddox directs him into position. Cobb County police unveil its new crime-fighting machine, The L.A.V. 300 (Light Armored Vehicle) at Marietta Square on Saturday. • Photos The vehicle, which retails for $500,000, is a Light Armor Vehicle that was used by the U.S. Army...

ACLU Director of Communications Brandon Hensler says the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida received an early victory today when Senior Federal Judge Lacey A. Collier denied the ATF’s motions for summary judgment in Kilpatrick v. U.S. The ACLU filed the case on April 18, 2006, on behalf of Karen J. Kilpatrick, who claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) violated her Free Speech rights. Kilpatrick was driving her blue van in Pensacola on April 19, 2004, with the slogans “Remember the Children of Waco” and “Boo ATF” written on some of the windows when she was...

In a split decision Thursday, the state Supreme Court rejected a plea by a Kent property owner seeking compensation for damage done during a drug raid. Affirming lower court decisions, five of the court's nine justices found the city of Kent was not required to pay $5,000 for damage to buildings owned by Leo Brutsche during a failed 2004 anti-methamphetamine operation. During the raid, narcotics officers used battering rams to knock down doors in buildings owned by Brutsche while searching for a meth lab they believed Brutsche's son to be operating on the property, according to court records. No drugs...