Free Republic

"I've been saying for six months now: hit Iran" Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham... US Central Command says that a US warship shot down a drone and a missile off the coast of Yemen... Canadian political activist Ezra Levant owner of "Rebel News" fined 13-thousand dollars for publishing a book critical... US politics President Donald Trump removed from the ballot in the State of Maine by Democrat... Israel attacking Syria tonight... A federal judge in New York rejecting a bid by Democrat Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey to delay his trial... Venezuela announcing military maneuvers near Guyana in response...

A father of seven and pro-life warrior was arrested this morning in Pennsylvania by 25-30 FBI agents for protecting his son from crude actions reportedly made against his son by an abortion escort. The SWAT team of 30 FBI agents swarmed their property with around 15 vehicles at 7:05 a.m. this morning. Having quickly surrounded the house with rifles in firing position, “they started pounding on the door and yelling for us to open it.” Before opening the door, she explained, her husband tried to calm them, saying, “‘Please, I’m going to open the door, but, please, my children are...

The president of Accuracy in Media — the group that deployed “doxxing trucks” to Ivy League schools mired in pro-Palestinian controversies — had his home searched by a cadre of rifle-toting SWAT officers in the early hours of Friday, The Post has learned. Accuracy in Media boss Adam Guillette was away from his North Florida home when he received a call from local authorities Friday notifying him that officers had searched his home around 1:30 a.m. after receiving a call falsely claiming that Guillette was at home and pointing a gun at his wife’s head. Guillette, who was out of...

Pawlowski was scheduled to appear at the trucker blockage in Alberta before being arrested for ‘mischief’ by undercover police. CALGARY, Alberta – Canadian pastor Artur Pawlowski was arrested yet again at his home in Calgary this morning before he was scheduled to appear at a peaceful Freedom Trucker protest. Rebel News reported that an undercover SWAT team arrested the Christian preacher after staking out his home in a van, according to Pawlowski’s son, Nathaniel. ... Pawlowski was planning to perform a church service at the trucker blockage in Milk River, Alberta. In a live video of the preacher’s arrest, a...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities. The Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, agents are set to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts, according to sources familiar with the matter, though a specific plan on what the agents will be doing had not been made public. One city official said the city was aware of the plan but not any specifics....

The increase in police brutality in this country is a frightening reality. In the last decade alone the number of people murdered by police has reached 5,000. The number of soldiers killed since the inception of the Iraq war, 4489. What went wrong? In the 19070’s SWAT teams were estimated to be used just a few hundred times per year, now we are looking at over 40,000 military style “knock and announce” police raids a year. The police presence in this country is being turned into a military with a clearly defined enemy, anyone who questions the establishment. If we...

Ever since 911, there has been a trend moving toward much harsher local police. Here is a photo of how the Boston Police have militarized to the point it looks like war against the people. Even small towns are geared up for war. The small town of Medford, Oregon with a population of 76,462 has spent millions of dollars to militarize their police. They have their own Swat Teams, yet no incident in history of some major shooting of such a nature to warrant a Swat Team. The entire reason where there was the Second Amendment was to eliminate this...

~On the other hand, tea-wise, the Johnson County Sheriff's Department is taking it to a whole other level. Two years ago, at 7.30 one April morning, a sleepy Bob Harte staggered to the front door of his home in Leawood, Kansas to answer a knock and found a fully-armed SWAT team outside preparing to use the battering ram. They shoved him to the floor, surrounded him with pointing rifles, and the whole rigmarole began... On the other hand, at least the Hartes and their kids are still alive. I've written often about the increasing tendency of American cops to police...

“In the military mind set, the “drug war” has moved from metaphor to real life, with American streets as the “front,” American citizens as the “enemy” and law enforcement officers as the warriors. At the direction of Congress, the Pentagon has spent the past 20 years providing military hardware free of charge to police departments throughout the nation, all for the stated purpose of fighting the War on Drugs. Billions of dollars worth of “surplus” military grade equipment has been transferred, literally enabling law enforcement in towns both large and small to serve warrants, control crowds and “keep the peace”...

The man in the photo to the left isn't a Ranger in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. He's a Texas game warden, kitted out to check your deer tags or lead a paramilitary, kick-the-door-in assault on your tent. The militarization of every possible law enforcement entity in America is complete: Texas Parks and Wildlife now has a SWAT team. The 25-man unit can deploy anywhere in the state within four hours, TPWD boasts, and is modeled after what military types call a "force multiplier," which basically means that these guys can shoot a bunch of bullets. At what, you ask? In this...

Conservative reporter Audrey Hudson was awakened by federal officers acting on a warrant for a toy potato gun. She is convinced they were acting on orders from the Regime in response to her criticism of Barack Obama. One of Hudson’s main concerns involves her sources. What might the Regime do to them? How will they be punished? Click on the link to Coach is Right for Hudson's interview with FOX News reporter Gretchen Carlson.

Policing: The Dallas County Sheriff's Office gets an MRAP tactical military vehicle, used for counterinsurgency fighting in Iraq, as law enforcement becomes a collection of SWAT teams pursuing not-always-guilty Americans. In early August, a SWAT team broke through the gates of a 3.5-acre farm in Arlington, Texas, that promotes a sustainable lifestyle and did a 10-hour search of the property. Residents were handcuffed and held at gunpoint as police looked for nonexistent marijuana plants and various city code violations. As the owners watched, 10 tons of their private property was hauled off in trucks — dangerous items such as blackberry...

Overnight my computer blew up with E-mails decrying the destruction and torment done by Homeland Security, Emergency Response Teams and Florida State Police goons, especially from Broward and So Fla, to the once quiet Florida Everglades. So let’s get this dam ( to avoid print style book standards) straight as Rush likes to say. While erstwhile print outlets in our So Fla regions team with the Martin County Rino’s to get our Florida Legislature to give even more land over to the federal government in the form of emergency relief declarations that look to stop estuary blooms by the Army...

It is clear that things have changed in America and much of it is due to two wars: the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. These ongoing conflicts have brought about major changes in the way law enforcement does business with Americans every day. Because of the so-called war on drugs, SWAT teams began springing up across the land, tactically armed and ready to do whatever became necessary to overcome the drug problem that this country faces. The fight against terrorism has also been added to the picture and because of it, the same SWAT teams can be...

“America Has Become A Piñata…” By Addison WigginMay 7, 2012 Baltimore, Maryland – “America’s national government has moved way beyond a political spoils system,” wrote Charles Goyette in his book The Dollar Meltdown. “A spoils system leaves the host alive so that a politician’s occasional ne’er-do-well brother-in-law can be put on the payroll.” In contrast, Goyette suggested, “America has become a piñata: Everybody gets a crack at it. Presidents and other elected officials pass the big stick around as a reward to those who help keep them in charge of the piñata party.” Goyette’s book came out in 2009. Since...

Two centuries ago the Founders feared a strong, centralized federal government would establish a standing army, an irresistible force capable of crushing those rights of individual liberty which had been so carefully and deliberately crafted into the Constitution. Today that fear has been realized, not with the American military, but in the increasingly disturbing form of paramilitary units and heavily equipped tactical assault teams which exist in even small town police departments and bureaucracies within the federal government. In Waco, 80 lives were taken by masked SWAT team members driving armored vehicles in what one writer properly called an “…ATF...

OAKLAND, Calif. — A veteran journalist and newspaper editor who was shot to death on his way to work reportedly received threats before he was murdered in what police are calling a premeditated hit, according to The Oakland Tribune. Chauncey Bailey, 57, editor of the Oakland Post and a former reporter for The Oakland Tribune, was shot about 7:30 a.m., police said... Oakland Police spokesman Roland Holmgren said police don't have a motive for the killing, but it did not appear to be random. He also said it's not clear whether the attack had anything to do with Bailey's journalism...

The rising use of SWAT teams is bad, but it's about to get worse.Radley Balko on botched SWAT raids in the November 2006 issue of Playboy.

The LA County Gun Task Force has served another search warrant on the home of another member of the fifty caliber community. On Monday September 18th, eighteen police cars swarmed the neighborhood where the FCSA member lives and served a search warrant signed by Judge Steven Kleifield of the LA County Superior Court. The officers were at the residence for several hours and confiscated all semi-automatic firearms belonging to the victim. The probable cause for issuing the search warrant was not available in the body of the affidavit so the reason for the search is unknown at this time. It...

The recent killing of an unarmed Virginia doctor has raised concerns about what some say is an explosion in the use of military-style police Swat teams in the United States. Armed with assault rifles, stun grenades - even armoured personnel carriers - units once used only in highly volatile situations are increasingly being deployed on more routine police missions. Dr Salvatore Culosi Jr had come out of his townhouse to meet an undercover policeman when he was shot through the chest by a Special Weapons and Tactics force. It was about 2135 on a chilly January evening. The 37-year-old optometrist...