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Police Training needs Reform; Prejudice is learned, can be unlearned  (Part 1)

By Rick Dalton

The recent upheaval on the streets of America, ignited by the brutal and despicable murder of a black man by a few rogue Minneapolis police officers, has caused untold physical and emotional damage, and has widened the rift between the police and the citizens they are supposed to serve and protect. Many suggestions on how to fix things have come from insiders and outsiders alike.

I’d like to offer my own thoughts on how to help heal the wounds internally, as well as help to bridge the confidence gap between those who wear the uniform and the citizens of America.  I served in various capacities as a sworn officer for the Mesa, Arizona Police Department for  twenty years ending in 1998. Since that time I have associated with and peace officers regularly and I continue to teach firearms classes on occasion. With that background, and noting that, until very recently, most of the suggestions to improve policing have involved looking forward to new policing models and policing technology, I’d like to suggest that mayors, city councils, police and Sheriffs Office command staffs pause and take a look back.

One thing first

But before we do, I must address the most wild, dangerous, unwise and hateful idea that has ever been thrown down, almost as a gauntlet, to affect change.  And that idea is that Americans defund or totally disband their police departments and sheriffs’ offices.

First of all, the idea itself is a part of a plan to eliminate local and independent law enforcement agencies from their positions as the guardians of freedom and the protectors of American exceptionalism.  Some of the specifics that have been suggested to flush out this crazy notion involve turning the people, formerly police officers, who respond to domestic disputes and mentally ill persons who might or might not be violent,  into social workers who wear blazers or cardigans instead of gun belts, and hand out lollipops.  This drastic reduction or total elimination of the numbers of current police officers, who are trained, prepared and equipped to handle whatever might evolve in a situation has already happened in America, and more than once.  One look back at the police pull-back after the riots in Ferguson, Missouri or Baltimore, or other similar situations, should be stark proof that this idea is bonkers.  And let me say right now, that some – though not all – of the police actions that sparked such anger and outrage in our citizens, deserved strong opposition and strong discipline or prosecution against the specific police officers who were involved.  The few bad cops in America tarnish the badge, which is called a shield for a reason.  Immediately after police held back and did not respond to most calls for service for fear of being attacked and/or accused of wrong-doing, crime rates, including murders in those cities, spiked dramatically upward.  Innocent beleaguered families begged for more policing, not less, in crime-ridden cities, including Chicago, which gets my vote for the murder capital of America.

It is encouraging to see that the vast majority of Americans, of whatever political persuasion or racial group, soundly reject such an insane idea.

Back to the Future

Let’s look back to a time when the cop on the beat actually knew some of the families who lived in the area where he served, and some of them knew him or her – by name.  Back to a time when police training actually featured the word servant. Back to a time where citizens would actually come to the aid of an officer who was struggling with a suspect with no back-up.  Back to a time when on a Christmas day, a father would come out of his house, flag down the beat officer driving by, and invite him to come in and have Christmas dinner with the family.  Both of these stories actually happened to me while on duty.

So let’s return to a time when many cop cars sported the words: In God We Trust, somewhere on their exterior, and a time when virtually every city and county police patrol car in the nation carried on its driver’s door, the motto: To Protect and Serve.

To Protect and Serve.

American cops came face-to-face with this pledge every time they hit the streets after briefing and it meant something. That motto has been missing from patrol cars for many years. As far as I knew from interactions in mundane as well as life-or-death interactions with my academy class- mates, we were all believers in the fact that our mission was to do just one thing, though in many different ways. And that one thing was to protect the God-given individual rights of our citizens.  We were called “peace officers” in the state standards, and that, too, meant something.  The culture of servant-policing was handed down from the top, and we were taught that our mission was to be first, a shield, and only if necessary, a sword.  And when we used the sword, it was only when we were protecting citizens’ rights, not just to show our power.

Of course, our service and protection to the community was many times anything but peaceful.  But it was always our goal.  The 1957 Law Enforcement Officers Code of Ethics, which we all pledged to follow, was given to each of us.  In part, it said:

“As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve the community; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the constitutional rights of all to liberty, equality, and justice.

I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all and will behave in a manner that does not bring discredit to me or to my agency…I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession… law enforcement.”

(This powerful and personal pledge of service has, sadly, been replaced, in many agencies, by the Law Enforcement Code of Conduct, which has removed the references to God, and other parts of the original.) That was the general state of law enforcement for the nation.  But more than that, our own General Orders Manual, featured the following orders from the command staff to all personnel:

“The application and enforcement of the law must be accomplished in the spirit set forth by the framers of the Constitution.  The rights of each citizen are equal with those of the state, which might accuse him.”  ~Mesa PD Gen. Order 01.103~

“A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential to the security of individual rights and the perpetuity of a free state.” ~Art. 2, Sec. 1, Arizona Constitution~

“Officers should display a reverence for the legal rights of all citizens and a reverence for the law itself.” ~Mesa PD Gen. Order 01.103.B.4~

“Enforcement action should not be taken in grudging adherence to the rights of the accused, but in the spirit of ensuring that the rights of accused persons are protected by the police.”  ~Mesa PD Gen. Order 01.103.B.3~

“All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.” ~Art. 2, Sec. 2, Arizona constitution~

“We love peace, as we abhor pusillanimity; but not at any price.  There is a peace more destructive of the manhood of man than war is destructive of his material body.  Chains are worse than bayonets.”  ~Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857)~

Sadly, these general orders aren’t a part of the MPD Manual today.  Contemporary training of recruit officers is much different, and militarism has crept in, along with the idea that cops are better than the citizens, and must supervise them. Not every cop has this attitude, but too many display it regularly.  Recent use-of-force incidents demonstrate the fact that the servant mentality is on life support. These orders, or their equivalent, should be part of every officer’s training.

This servant culture can be reinstituted in American policing, but like those early years, it must begin in the recruit training academy, and must come from the top down.  Culture is contagious.

In Part 2, we will present specific and necessary training curriculum ideas that can reform and serve as a course correction maneuver for American Policing.

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Prelude To Martial Law

Published: Thursday, June 4, 2020

On the heels of government lockdowns of almost the entire country over the coronavirus, we are now witnessing nationwide riots over a Minneapolis policeman’s murder of George Floyd—and, predictably, Donald Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and turn the U.S. military loose on the protesters and rioters.

From before Trump was inaugurated, I tried to warn people that 1) He has zero understanding of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and 2) He is a tyrant at heart. Again and again, Donald Trump has proven me right on both counts—not that it matters to a hill of beans to the vast majority of Christians and conservatives.

In fact, at least 50% of the American people—mostly Christians and conservatives, of course—WANT Trump to unleash the U.S. Armed Forces on the American citizenry. But there is no provision in the Constitution for the federal government to be involved in local and State law enforcement. Law enforcement is strictly the responsibility of the states and local communities.

Attorney John Whitehead has the best summary of the George Floyd tragedy that I’ve read to date:

Brace yourselves.

There is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of this country.

Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by political theater and public spectacle that they are oblivious to all else, you’d better beware.

Anytime you have a government that operates in the shadows, speaks in a language of force, and rules by fiat, you’d better beware.

And anytime you have a government so far removed from its people as to ensure that they are never seen, heard or heeded by those elected to represent them, you’d better beware.

What is unfolding before us is not a revolution.

The looting, the burning, the rioting, the violence: this is an anti-revolution.

The protesters are playing right into the government’s hands, because the powers-that-be want this. They want an excuse to lockdown the nation and throw the switch to all-out martial law. They want a reason to make the police state stronger.

It’s happening faster than we can keep up.

The architects of the police state have us exactly where they want us: under their stamping boot, gasping for breath, desperate for freedom, grappling for some semblance of a future that does not resemble the totalitarian prison being erected around us.

For just one fleeting moment, “we the people” seemed united in our outrage over this latest killing of an unarmed man by a cop hyped up on his own authority and the power of his uniform.

That unity didn’t last.

Indeed, it didn’t take long—no surprise there—for us to quickly become divided again, polarized by the misguided fury and senseless violence of mobs taking to the streets, reeking of madness and mayhem.

Deliberately or not, the rioters have directed our attention away from the government’s crimes and onto their own.

This is a distraction.

Don’t allow yourself to be so distracted.

Let’s not lose sight of what started all of this in the first place: the U.S. government.

More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the systemic violence being perpetrated by agents of the government constitutes a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to protect us.

Case in point: George Floyd died at the hands of the American police state.

The callous, cold-blooded murder of the unarmed, 46-year-old black man by police is nothing new: for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, police knelt on Floyd’s neck while the man pleaded for his life, struggled to breathe, cried out for his dead mother, and finally passed out and died.

Floyd is yet another victim of a broken system of policing that has placed “we the people” at the mercy of militarized cops who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.”

Daily, Americans are being shot, stripped, searched, choked, beaten and tasered by police for little more than daring to frown, smile, question, challenge an order or just exist.

I’m talking about the growing numbers of unarmed people who are being shot and killed for just standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.

Killed by police for standing in a “shooting stance.” Killed for holding a cell phone. Killed for holding a baseball bat. Killed for opening the front door. Killed for being a child in a car pursued by police. Killed for approaching police while holding a metal spoon. Killed for running in an aggressive manner while holding a tree branch. Killed for crawling around naked. Killed for hunching over in a defensive posture. Killed because a police officer accidentally fired his gun instead of his taser. Killed for wearing dark pants and a basketball jersey. Killed for reaching for his license and registration during a traffic stop. Killed for driving while deaf. Killed for being homeless. Killed for brandishing a shoehorn. Killed for peeing outdoors. Killed for having his car break down on the road. Killed for holding a garden hose.

Now you can make all kinds of excuses to justify these shootings, and in fact that’s exactly what you’ll hear from politicians, police unions, law enforcement officials and individuals who are more than happy to march in lockstep with the police. However, as these incidents make clear, the only truly compliant, submissive and obedient citizen in a police state is a dead one.

Sad, isn’t it, how quickly we have gone from a nation of laws—where the least among us had just as much right to be treated with dignity and respect as the next person (in principle, at least)—to a nation of law enforcers (revenue collectors with weapons) who treat us all like suspects and criminals?

This is not how you keep the peace.

This is not justice. This is not even law and order.

This is certainly not freedom. This is the illusion of freedom.

Fortunately, not everyone who wears a badge has bought into the Police State. There are still real lawmen such as Chattanooga, Tennessee, Police Chief David Roddy.

Chattanooga Police Department Chief David Roddy said police officers who didn’t see an issue with the graphic video that showed former Minneapolis police officer David Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as the 46-year-old repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” should quit the force.

“There is no need to see more video. There is no need to wait to see how “it plays out”. There is no need to put a knee on someone’s neck for NINE minutes. There IS a need to DO something. If you wear a badge and you don’t have an issue with this…turn it in,” Roddy wrote.

God bless the wonderful law enforcement officers of this country represented by Chief Roddy.

Here are bullet points of the current government-manipulated “emergency” that you need to recognize:

*People in Minneapolis and all over America were absolutely RIGHT to be incensed at another unarmed, helpless American citizen being murdered at the hands of a police thug. This goes on almost daily all across this country.

As I understand it, this man was apprehended on suspicion of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not a capital offense in this country. And even if his crime had been a capital offense, the arresting officer has no right to take the life of the individual (who is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law) unless he does so in self-defense. And a handcuffed man lying on the ground posed absolutely no risk to the life of the officer in Minneapolis who killed this suspect.

As does Mr. Whitehead, I keep a running report of the growing police abuses that are taking place on a daily basis in this country. If reading the accounts of everyday police abuse that take place all over America doesn’t make your blood boil, you are NOT an American at heart and have no right to claim you love Liberty and constitutional government.

This is flat unacceptable, inexcusable and unforgivable. And, as I said, it goes on all of the time.

It’s time that Christians and conservatives get over their love affair with all things police and military and fall in love again with Liberty and the Natural rights of man protected in our Bill of Rights. It’s time to demand constitutional law enforcement in our states and local communities.

*Minnesota cops receive training from the Israelis.

Officers from the US police force responsible for the killing of George Floyd received training in restraint techniques and anti-terror tactics from Israeli law-enforcement officers.

Mr Floyd’s death in custody last Monday, the latest in a succession of police killings of African Americans, has sparked continuing protests and rioting in US cities.

At least 100 Minnesota police officers attended a 2012 conference hosted by the Israeli consulate in Chicago, the second time such an event had been held.

There they learned the violent techniques used by Israeli forces as they terrorise the occupied Palestinian territories under the guise of security operations.

The so-called counterterrorism training conference in Minneapolis was jointly hosted by the FBI.

I have documented several times in this column how U.S. law enforcement personnel are increasingly receiving training from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Our police officers are being trained by the terrorists of Tel Aviv in the terrible art of torture and death.

This knee-on-neck technique is straight out of the Israeli handbook. This technique is often known to slowly break the necks of the victims. And this training is widespread throughout the United States. Hundreds—maybe thousands—of American law enforcement officers from Minnesota, New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Washington State and Washington, D.C. (and doubtless many other states), have been flown to Israel for training.

*There is no doubt whatsoever that agent provocateurs from the federal government are in the thick of these riots, helping to fan the flames of hate and discontent in order to create enough mayhem to “justify” the government’s use of military force and martial law against the American citizenry.

The lockdowns from the coronavirus have barely started to lift when the government has created another reason to lock us down. This is no coincidence. These government mobsters go from crisis to crisis, emergency to emergency, to justify their burgeoning Police State. Now that the corona “pandemic” has been exposed as a big, fat con job, the power elite must manufacture another crisis.

*Since the beginning of time, it has been the responsibility and duty of the individual to protect himself, his family, his property and his community. I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’ll say it again: It is not the job of the government to protect you. It is your job to protect yourself.

The riots breaking out all over the country PROVE the necessity of the right of the people to keep and bear arms, they PROVE the necessity of people owning and possessing AR-15-style semi-automatic rifles with large-capacity magazines and they PROVE the necessity of people owning and possessing Glock semi-automatic pistols with large-capacity magazines.

When we refuse to arm ourselves, when we refuse to be prepared to defend ourselves with the arms we possess and when we expect the government (especially the federal government and, GASP, the U.S. military) to defend us, we have voluntarily put the chains of tyranny around our own necks. And that’s exactly what many people—including Christians and conservatives—are doing right now.

And that’s another reason they love Donald Trump. Trump openly calls for military aggression around the world and here at home, and Christians love him for it. There is no doubt, if Trump sends the U.S. armed forces to attack American citizens, and he locks down city after city under the jackboots of martial law, Christians will love him even more.

I am convinced, a sizable percentage of today’s evangelical Christians have a tyranny wish; they have a death wish. They are cheering their own enslavement.

*The use of military forces for domestic law enforcement activity is strictly taboo in America. 

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the U.S. military from taking part in domestic law enforcement activities, and the Insurrection Act requires that a State legislature or governor request help from Washington before any such help could be given. And even at that point, the duties of military personnel are strictly limited.

Beyond that, the very thought of using the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement should send chills down the spine of any real American. The last thing we should ever want to see is military personnel aiming their guns at the American people—FOR ANY REASON. In truth, no REAL American serving in the U.S. Armed Forces would obey such an order; and no REAL American military officer would give such an order.

We’ve been through this before—but that was before the Fourth Member of the Godhead, Donald Trump, was president. With Trump in the White House, many evangelicals are more than willing to throw away the Constitution and rule of law. In fact, they have already done just that.

One thing I’m sure of: This latest “emergency” following so closely on the heels of the coronavirus “emergency” is no coincidence. The people of America are being played; they are being professionally “set up” by out-of-control, power-mad despots who will stop at nothing to destroy the constitutionally protected liberties of this country.

That governors throughout the U.S. are canceling Independence Day parades this July is about a whole lot more than the almost non-existent coronavirus. You can count on that. These perfidious governors want to wipe the memory of Liberty out of our minds.

John Whitehead is right: What we are witnessing is a prelude to martial law.

Folks, stop depending on Donald Trump—and the rest of those criminals in D.C.—to save your Freedom. The power to defend Liberty rests where it has always rested: with We the People. Freedom is seldom taken; it is given away. If WE refuse to give it, NO ONE can take it.

Remember that!

P.S. Next Monday, June 8, is the 53rd anniversary of the act of war committed by Israel against the United States in the unprovoked attack of the USS Liberty. I am committed to doing everything I can to not let the memory of this horrific attack die. I have joined with my friend and survivor of the Liberty attack, Ron Kukal, to help spread the word about the truth of this attack far and wide.

Ron and some of his fellow survivors wrote a book that every American MUST read. It is entitled Remember The LIBERTY! This book exposes one of the most explosive and hidden secrets in U.S. history. It tells the true story of how a sitting U.S. president collaborated with Israeli leaders in the fomentation of a war between them and their Arab neighbors. It was a war that was deliberately designed to include the theft of Arab land.

Very few people in our country are even aware of what happened to the USS Liberty. But this story must get out. I urge you to buy a copy for yourself and one for as many friends as you can.

Order Remember The LIBERTY! here.

Plus, here is a recent address from another survivor of the Liberty attack and co-author of the book Remember The LIBERTY!, Ernie Gallo, that I urge you to read. He gives an urgent, heartfelt and truthful presentation that every American—especially every Christian—should read.

May God bless these dear men.

© Chuck Baldwin

Download free computerized mp3 audio file of this column

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Lexington And Concord Redux In Virginia

Published: Thursday, January 16, 2020

Tragically, most Americans do not have any idea what it was that actually triggered America’s War for Independence. The primary reason was not “taxation without representation,” or taxes of any kind, for that matter. And it was certainly not because our Founding Fathers were a bunch of anti-government extremists or demon-possessed puppets of the Illuminati.

For the most part, our Founding Fathers were good and honorable men of devout Christian faith. They were mostly educated men of means who had much to lose by supporting America’s War for Independence. They were schooled in both the Holy Scriptures and the principles of Natural Law. They were men who valued liberty above safety and wealth and were willing to sacrifice their “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” to be able to bequeath the principles of liberty to their posterity.

“The shot heard ’round the world” in the pre-dawn hours of April 19, 1775, on Lexington Green, Massachusetts, was probably inevitable, but the causes of its occurrence cannot be denied. The primary mission of the British Crown that morning was to confiscate the firearms of the colonists in Lexington and Concord. It sent 800 military troops to fulfill that mission.

Warned of the approaching British troops by Paul Revere and William Dawes, a little over 70 men (mostly from the congregation of the Church at Lexington, pastored by Jonas Clark) stood on Lexington Green, muskets in arm, to face the troops. The rest, as they say, is history.

What is undeniable is that decades of grievances of the colonies against British injustice and oppression did NOT bring the colonies to open rebellion against the Crown. For decades, the colonies peacefully petitioned, redressed, reasoned, appealed, pleaded and remonstrated with the British Crown without bloodshed. Even the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, did not bring the colonies to arms against their government. But when British troops marched on Lexington and Concord to confiscate the firearms of the colonists, the line between peaceful protest and armed revolution was crossed.

Now, almost 245 years later, the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia is threatening to cross that line again. As we speak, the State of Virginia is attempting to pass laws that would forcefully confiscate the arms of the people of that sovereign State: specifically, semi-automatic rifles AND pistols.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is backing a proposed ban on “assault weapons” that would prohibit the sale of many semi-automatic firearm designs like the AR-15, but would grandfather existing owners of the weapons so long as they are registered — or else face surrender.

His proposed bill did note, “The provisions of this act may result in a net increase in periods of imprisonment or commitment.” (Source)

In fact, Governor Northam has asked the Virginia legislature for an additional $250,000 to fund the anticipated incarceration of Virginians who refuse to comply with the State’s gun confiscation ban and an additional $4.8 million budget to fund a special 18-member SWAT team dedicated to confiscating the arms of the people of Virginia. A U.S. Congressman from Virginia, Donald McEachin, is urging Governor Northam to call out the Virginia National Guard to confiscate the arms of the Virginians.

Predictably, hyper gun-grabber and billionaire Jewish Zionist Michael Bloomberg is throwing his money and support behind the Virginia governor’s efforts.

Make no mistake about it: This has the potential to be a Lexington and Concord redux.

Get a grip on this folks! This is happening in the land of Washington and Jefferson—the land of Lee and Jackson. This is happening in Virginia. I lived in Virginia for over two years; our oldest child—our only daughter—was born in Virginia.

As one can imagine, the freedom-loving people of Virginia are NOT taking this lying down. Ninety-one counties and eleven cities in the State have declared themselves to be in open rebellion against these tyrannical proposals from Richmond. The vast majority of sheriffs around the State have said they will NOT enforce these gun confiscation laws, if they are passed. And the sales of firearms in Virginia have exploded.

I encourage readers to watch this testimony from a Virginian who was a former active duty soldier and Marine and is currently a Major in the Marine Corps Reserve and a federal police officer, regarding the resolve of Virginians to maintain their right to keep and bear arms.

This coming Monday, January 20 (the day in between the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, by the way), 100,000 Virginians are expected to descend on the Virginia legislature in Richmond to protest the proposed gun confiscation acts—acts that can only be described as acts of war against the people of that State.

A sizeable number of states with tyrannical gun-grabbing governors and State legislatures are watching the events in Virginia with heightened interest, as they intend to enact the same kind of gun confiscation laws in their states. The governor of Washington State is already seeking gun confiscation laws in that State predicated on the proposals of the Virginia State government.

And as one can imagine, other draconian gun control measures, such as universal background checks (meaning there would be no such thing as private gun sales), a high-capacity magazine ban (magazines holding more than ten rounds), gun registration—and Donald Trump’s favorite: “red flag” gun confiscation laws—are also being proposed.

Speaking of Donald Trump, has anyone noticed that this president who keeps telling us how much he supports the Second Amendment has thus far said absolutely NOTHING in defense of the brave men and women of Virginia who are RIGHT NOW fighting for the right of every American to keep and bear arms? Not a peep! Not a tweet!

This braggadocious, pompous, loquacious loudmouth, who is quick to condemn almost anyone and everyone to eternal hell if he doesn’t agree with them, is totally mute about the Lexington and Concord redux that is taking place right now in Virginia. He conducts rallies all over America, so why won’t he go to Virginia and help rally the people in support of their God-given right to keep and bear arms?

From a strictly political perspective, Trump should be jumping all over this situation in Virginia. After all, he LOST that State in 2016 to Hillary Clinton. And since Trump became president—and for the first time in 26 years—Democrats control the governor’s mansion and both State houses. And what is the first thing they try to do? Propose laws to confiscate the people’s firearms.

Trump has campaigned all over America in support of the Second Amendment. He has repeatedly told us that he is a “true friend and champion” for the Second Amendment (of course, he told us the same thing about the pro-life cause, and he’s done absolutely NOTHING to overturn Roe—and continues to fund Planned Parenthood to the tune of over a half billion dollars annually).

One would think that Donald Trump would be seizing the opportunity that this Democrat gun grab in Virginia affords him to rally the people of that State to his 2020 candidacy by screaming to the heavens about how Democrats are going to take their guns and how he will protect those liberties.

Instead, he’s said NOTHING.

Remember, however, this same Donald Trump is the loudest voice in the country in support of “red flag” gun confiscation laws. In his heart and soul, Trump has always been a New York pro-gun control, pro-abortion liberal. He only became “pro-life” and “pro-gun” when he decided to run for president as a Republican in 2016.

There is absolutely no doubt that the rush to enact gun confiscation laws by states around the country—including Florida and Virginia—is largely due to the encouragement they received from President Trump’s boisterous call for gun confiscation in 2018.

Plus, I hope you realize that Donald Trump is also the loudest voice in America in support of the militarization of our police.

For decades, I have tried to awaken the people of America—especially the Christian people of America—to the existential threat against our right to keep and bear arms. I have urged Christians to vote with their feet and get out of these statist churches who teach that we are Biblically bound to submit to governments that would demand the surrender of our firearms. Any pastor or Bible teacher who takes that position is not only anti-freedom, anti-Constitution, anti-Bill of Rights and anti-Natural Law; he is also anti-Christ and anti-God.

My constitutional attorney son and I co-authored a book entitled To Keep or Not To Keep: Why Christians Should Not Give Up Their Guns. Every Christian in America—especially in Virginia right now—needs to read this book.

I delivered two messages dedicated specifically to the scriptural duty of Christians to never surrender their arms—and I’m talking about our AR-15 rifles. The first message is entitled A Biblical Portrait Of The Righteousness And Requirement Of Bearing Arms. And the second message is entitled The Attack Against Our Guns And The Christian Duty To Repel The Attack.

I’ve said it from the pulpit, and I’ll say it here: The day that my AR-15 rifle is outlawed, I will be an outlaw! And I would make that decision with the perfect confidence that doing so is in total conformity with the scriptural and Natural laws of my Creator and Redeemer—the same confidence as had Jonas Clark and those brave men on Lexington Green.

The truth is, the attempted tyrannical behavior of the State of Virginia—and many other government entities across the country—are exactly why America’s founders put the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The right to keep and bear arms has nothing to do with hunting or target shooting and everything to do with protecting oneself and others from common criminals and with protecting freedom from the criminals in government—ANY government.

To the valiant, liberty-loving people of Virginia, I say: HOLD THE LINE! Fate has chosen you to once again be the vanguard of liberty for our nation. Never surrender your arms! Never surrender your semi-automatic rifles or your semi-automatic pistols. Never surrender your high-capacity magazines. And never surrender your right to freely sell, purchase or possess a firearm without government registration.

AT ALL COSTS, DO NOT SURRENDER!

If the tyrannical gun grabbers of this country can succeed in bringing the People of Virginia to their knees, it will start a whirlwind of gun confiscation that will sweep across this entire nation.

I’m here to tell you that the vast majority of the People of Montana are with you. And if and when it comes our turn to stand and fight this tyranny, that is exactly what we will do. And I’m sure I am speaking for the People of Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia and many, many others.

Christian pastors in Virginia: Rally the people to liberty!

Sheriffs, police chiefs, deputy sheriffs, policemen and State patrolmen: Resist this tyranny!

It is no hyperbole to say that the future of America as a free and independent country rests upon the shoulders of the People of Virginia RIGHT NOW, as well as with the liberty-loving people in all of our 50 sovereign states.

Donald Trump or no Donald Trump. Republican Party or no Republican Party. Pastor or no pastor. Governor or no governor. Lawman or no lawman. WE THE PEOPLE fought to make this country free; and WE THE PEOPLE must fight to keep this country free.

P.S. Here, again, is our book To Keep or Not To Keep: Why Christians Should Not Give Up Their Guns.

And here is my message DVD A Biblical Portrait Of The Righteousness And Requirement Of Bearing Arms.

And here is my message DVD The Attack Against Our Guns And The Christian Duty To Repel The Attack.

© Chuck Baldwin

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“Red Flag” Gun Confiscation Laws Are Even Worse Than You Think

Published: Thursday, August 22, 2019
by Chuck Baldwin

As I said in this column last week, Republicans Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio are joining forces with liberal Democrats to soon enact “red flag” gun confiscation laws. I also reported on the push for the enactment of other gun control measures such as universal background checks being promoted on Capitol Hill and by the White House here.

Yes, Donald Trump is calling for “red flag” gun confiscation laws and universal background checks. Trump said, “I have an appetite for background checks. We’re going to be doing background checks. We’re going to be filling in . . . the loopholes.”

I urge readers to watch my 8-minute video exposing Donald Trump’s betrayal of his promise to protect the 2nd Amendment and share it with as many of your friends as you can. If we don’t convince our U.S. senators to reject these egregious gun control measures, THEY WILL BE PASSED, AND TRUMP WILL SIGN THEM INTO LAW. We have about two or three weeks to convince our senators to reject these new gun control laws. That’s it.
Please watch the video and share it with everyone you can.

If law-abiding gun owners don’t call their U.S. senators en masse, and I mean posthaste, you are very likely to wake up one morning around 4am to the sound of a SWAT team breaking down your door to confiscate your guns, prepared to kill you or any member of your family who resists. Why? Perhaps because a gun-hating neighbor hates you having guns or a relative doesn’t like you and is looking for any way to “teach you a lesson” or your ex-spouse is looking for any way to “get even” with you or an anti-gun cop with a grudge wants to send a political message or a family doctor or school teacher overheard one of your children talk about how many guns daddy has and became alarmed, etc., ad infinitum.

Plus, the FBI has just recently stated that if you believe in “conspiracy theories,” you are a “domestic terrorist threat.” That statement is from an FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019. That FBI designation alone could very easily precipitate a “red flag” gun confiscation order being rendered against you.

And Donald Trump himself recently demonstrated how dangerous “red flag” laws are. In a tweet on August 13, President Trump said,

Would Chris Cuomo be given a Red Flag for his recent rant? Filthy language and a total loss of control. He shouldn’t be allowed to have any weapon. He’s nuts!

Are you paying attention? Donald Trump was threatening to use a “red flag” law to authorize police agencies to take away an American citizen’s Natural God-given right of self-defense simply because Trump didn’t like what the citizen said—about him.

Folks, don’t you see? Those in authority can use “red flag” gun confiscation laws against ANYONE they want and for ANY REASON they want.

In other words, there doesn’t have to be a reason. Under “red flag” laws, all it takes for police to come and seize your guns is for someone to make a “red flag” accusation against you. That’s it. And, yes, it really IS that easy.

“Red flag” laws not only eviscerate the 2nd Amendment, but the 1st Amendment, 4th Amendment, 5th Amendment, 6th Amendment, 7th Amendment and 8th Amendment.

The enforcement of “red flag” laws is actually much worse than you think, so says Donald Kilmer, an attorney who has litigated and defended against many state and federal gun charges.

Everyone is debating “red flag” laws like they’re some new thing, but California has had variations of them for decades. We call them domestic violence restraining orders, civil harassment restraining orders, workplace restraining orders, elder abuse restraining orders, mental health seizures and prohibition orders, and, more recently, gun violence restraining orders.

They’re all meant to disarm dangerous people — but they’re all fundamentally flawed.

None of these red flag laws would have prevented recent mass shootings. And in my 23 years practicing law in the heart of Silicon Valley, I have litigated dozens of these cases. I’ve seen firsthand the practical enforcement problems that emerge in real-life cases.

These kinds of court orders are usually obtained from a judge ex parte. That’s fancy Latin for: The judge only hears one side of the story, it is not your side, and you may not even know about it until after the fact. Then they immediately strip you of fundamental constitutional rights for the duration of the orders. You’ll get your “full due process” hearing, but not until later.

And any violation of these orders is separately punishable as a crime. So even if you are innocent of the underlying conduct that inspired the “red flag” order, if you violate the order pending your hearing, you can still face criminal charges.

That kind of situation is ripe for danger. In one situation in Baltimore, police ended up shooting [and killing] a man when they came to collect his guns under a “red flag” law.

In one case in Southern California, a client had to pay a $1,000 ransom, that was reduced from an initial “offer” of $4,000, to get his 50-gun collection back.

Experienced counsel to defend you in a “due process” hearing will run about $15,000 in fees. If you lose and want to appeal, expect to spend another $25,000 to $100,000 in fees and costs. And even with all of that, you might still lose.

To win these hearings, you have to refute an allegation that you pose a danger to yourself or others where a judge already issued a temporary ex parte order that concluded you were already a danger. Many judges will likely err on the side of caution, and against your rights.

As a practical matter, if the government’s interest is in separating a potentially-dangerous person from guns, it makes no sense to leave other guns that belong to family members in the home. So, if you live with someone that gets a red flag order issued against them, then you and others living in the same home risk losing your guns, too.

Even if you win, the judge isn’t going to just hand your guns back to you at the end of the hearing. It’s probably a good idea to “lawyer up” just to go through the process of recovering your guns, so you don’t go to jail or prison for accidentally breaking an obscure firearm law or regulation. You wouldn’t want to set off a red flag.

Law-abiding gun owners better get a big whiff of reality SOON and realize that if they are going to maintain the right to keep and bear arms much longer, THEY must step up to the plate and defend that right—and I mean RIGHT NOW.

The NRA is compromised and is in complete disarray and is offering NO HELP. Donald Trump has already proven he has ZERO fidelity to the 2nd Amendment (or to the rest of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, for that matter). Most Christians and conservatives are in a state of deep denial and hibernation, believing that their yellow-haired savior would never betray them, in spite of the fact that he has already betrayed them—repeatedly.

It is up to individual freedomists and gun owners who are willing to fight for their right to keep and bear arms to fend off this assault against our 2nd Amendment liberties. Reinforcements are not coming; it is up to YOU AND ME.
How much does the 2nd Amendment mean to you? Each of us will determine the answer to that question by what we do or do not do RIGHT NOW.

P.S. I, again, URGE readers to watch my 8-minute video regarding Trump’s betrayal of the 2nd Amendment and the push for the enactment of “red flag” gun confiscation laws and share it with everyone you can. In the video, I also include the phone numbers for both the White House and U.S. Senate, where you can call and voice your opposition.

P.P.S. Here is my video Open Letter To Our Legislator, Judges And Lawmen regarding “red flag” gun confiscation laws. Please watch it and share.

© Chuck Baldwin

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Chuck Baldwin: Declare A State Of Emergency To Build The Wall?

Published: Thursday, January 17, 2019

During this current partial government shutdown, President Trump has repeatedly threatened to declare a State of National Emergency and use the U.S. military to build his coveted wall across our southern border. And conservatives—even many of the ones I thought had a grasp of the fundamental principles of liberty—are shouting their support.

Don’t get me wrong: I have been a longtime proponent of the U.S. stopping illegal immigration. When I campaigned for President on the Constitution Party ticket back in 2008, putting a stop to illegal immigration was one of the major planks of my platform. (Where were all of these anti-illegal immigration Christians and conservatives then? Supporting pro-illegal immigration Senator John McCain, that’s where.) My strong opposition to illegal immigration earned me a live interview on Lou Dobbs’ national television show and endorsements by several pro-legal immigration groups. My track record against illegal immigration is long and consistent.

However, I have not been shy about opposing Trump’s plan to build a wall. I think walls are a very bad idea. It’s one thing to put a wall around a private residence or even a private “gated” community; it is another thing entirely to fence in a country. Remember, walls not only keep people out (to some extent), they also keep people IN. When governments build walls, they are usually around prisons.

The fact is, we wouldn’t even have an illegal immigration problem if the stupid warmongering neocon foreign policies in Washington, D.C., were not creating refugees all over the world and if the Welfare State in D.C. (and several states within this country) wasn’t holding out every conceivable financial incentive in the world for illegals to ignore our laws and come here. Make no mistake, America’s Warfare State, with its punitive sanctions, embargos, regime changes, etc., is driving people out of their countries; and America’s Welfare State, with its allurement of free medical care, housing, education, food stamps, etc., is enticing illegals to come here—all of the rhetoric of politicians in Washington, D.C., notwithstanding. Solve those problems, and you solve the illegal immigration problem.

But illegal immigration is not the focus of this column.

The focus of this column is not even the wall itself. I oppose the wall, but I acknowledge the right of the President of the United States to build one—IF Congress appropriates the funds to do so. (Republicans held the House and Senate during Trump’s first two years in office. Why didn’t they appropriate funding for the wall then? And why no government shutdown then?) But the idea that Donald Trump will declare a National Emergency to circumvent Congress is abhorrent to every principle of constitutional government. Show me anywhere in the Constitution where the President (any President) is authorized to declare a National Emergency to bypass Congress—because it won’t pass a law he wants passed—and then implement that law via Executive Order. You can’t, because it’s not there.

I well remember Christians and conservatives angrily bashing Barack Obama and Bill Clinton every time they signed an Executive Order. But now these same Christians and conservatives are shouting their support for Donald Trump to pass not just an Executive Order but a National State of Emergency. So much for conservatives supporting the Constitution.

Of course, our federal government didn’t behave constitutionally for most of the Twentieth Century—and it still isn’t. But the unconstitutional conduct of the federal government (and presidents in particular) is not a blessing; it is a curse. Most of the political problems that America is struggling with today are the direct result of the unconstitutional conduct of presidents, congressmen and Supreme Court justices in Washington, D.C.

The fact is, we have been living under an illegal State of National Emergency since 1933. And in 1976, the federal Congress officially passed the National Emergencies Act (NEA). I guess they were tired of being seen as wimpish doormats for unconstitutional bully presidents, so they decided to go ahead and give presidents the authority to do what they do not have the authority to do—but do anyway.

Here is how a Senate committee examining the question in 1973 justified granting the President the power to declare national emergencies:

“[T]his vast range of [presidential] powers, taken together, confer[s] enough authority to rule the country without reference to normal constitutional procedures [emphasis added].”

Now, isn’t that hunky-dory? With that kind of reasoning, why even bother electing a Congress or swearing an oath to the Constitution? But I digress.

It didn’t take long. Three years after Congress passed the NEA, President Jimmy Carter declared the first National Emergency under the new law to freeze Iranian assets after the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. That State of Emergency has been renewed every year since by six different presidents, by the way.

Since then, some 58 declarations of National Emergency have taken place, enacted by presidents from both parties, and 31 of these are continually renewed. The thing that would make Trump’s declaration of a State of National Emergency different from the others (should he declare it) is this National Emergency would be directed to military activity within the continental United States.

Everyone seems to agree that when acting under a Declaration of War or a Declaration of National Emergency, a president has virtually king-like power. For all intents and purposes, under such a declaration, a president becomes a monarch. Only a 2/3 majority from both houses of Congress can wrest emergency power from a president—meaning it’s all but impossible.

Add a National Emergency of this nature to existing laws passed by Congress, such as the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, sections giving domestic police power to the military contained in the NDAA, etc., and we have a recipe for disaster—a REAL emergency.

Author Andrea Pitzer writes:

Writing a history of concentration camps around the globe, I’ve spent several years looking at how leaders, revolutionaries and military juntas have used “states of exception” — situations in which ordinary laws are deferred or no longer apply. The most notorious example played out between the world wars: Before Adolf Hitler was appointed German chancellor in 1933, Article 48 of the Weimar constitution was invoked more than 100 times, allowing the president to override legislative authority. After his appointment, Nazi leadership employed this extraordinary measure more aggressively to cement Hitler’s use of dictatorial power for more than a decade.

But as philosopher Giorgio Agamben noted in his writing on the topic, states of exception weren’t just for Nazis. Article 23 of Argentina’s constitution allowed for the suspension of constitutional guarantees in the event of domestic disorder. When generals seized power there in 1976, they made intricate, exhaustive use of the article to pervert the legal process. In Chile, a coup on Sept. 11, 1973, institutionalized extrajudicial governance, and the resulting state of emergency remained in place for 15 years.

More recently, Myanmar’s fledgling democracy declared a state of emergency over violence in the western state of Rakhine in 2012. The government imposed emergency powers to segregate the Rohingya Muslim population, isolating it behind checkpoints that helped lay the groundwork for ethnic cleansing.

Again and again, when democracies are destabilized, declaring a state of emergency is the linchpin of the process. As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson noted in 1952, emergency powers “tend to kindle emergencies.”

Pitzer goes on to remind us:

The United States has its own history to consider. In December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt put Hawaii under martial law in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Early the following year, he signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans, most of whom were U.S. citizens. According to the popular understanding, the United States was frightened into violations of its own ideals, but that idea is false. Francis Biddle, the attorney general at the time, as well as U.S. naval intelligence and even J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI, understood that mass internment was unnecessary. But the power of the executive, in this case a president deferring to the military, overruled the advice of key officials. The Supreme Court backed the president, denying justice to tens of thousands of detainees.

Pitzer concludes:

Totalitarianism rises out of a process, not a single event. Declaring a state of exception in response to a political impasse would be a big step toward degrading an already vulnerable system. A fake emergency could trigger a real catastrophe — one that a split Congress would be unlikely to resolve and that a Supreme Court sympathetic to an imperial presidency might even worsen. We have more than a century of precedents at home and abroad to demonstrate all the ways things could go wrong.

Agree with building a wall along our southern border or not, this fact cannot be denied: If President Trump declares a National Emergency, he would be doing so to circumvent the will of Congress. That hardly meets the legitimate definition of an “emergency.” Even warmongers G.W. Bush and Dick Cheney only declared a National Emergency after the horrific 9/11 attacks—a Pearl Harbor-type emergency. Obviously, Bush and Cheney used the 9/11 attacks as justification to take us into two unconstitutional and immoral wars against countries that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Besides building a wall, what would Trump justify under his declaration of a National Emergency? I shudder to think about it.

But Trump knows that if he fails to deliver on his promise to build the wall, his base of support will abandon him in droves, and he would have absolutely no chance of winning re-election in 2020. Donald Trump’s re-election hopes depend on the wall. And he knows it. And if Trump eventually caves on funding for the wall, it will be because he plans to leave office before the 2020 elections in order to cut a deal for clemency for himself, his family and his businesses—all of which are up to their eyeballs in criminal conduct—and turn the presidency over to globalist insider and ultra-Zionist Vice President Mike Pence. More on that down the road.

Regardless, the reason America was founded as a constitutional republic and not as a monarchy was to make it difficult for our president to assume monarchical powers. 99.9% of the time, gridlock in Washington, D.C., is GOOD. In a republic, laws are supposed to be difficult to pass. The constitutional checks and balances that retard the advancement of impulsive, frivolous, unnecessary or destructive laws protect liberties, not hinder them.

The problem in America today is both sides of the political debate only want to enforce constitutional (aka “limited”) government when the other side is in power. Democrats are fine with Barack Obama violating the Constitution but scream bloody murder when Donald Trump does it. And Republicans are fine with Donald Trump violating the Constitution but scream bloody murder when Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton does it.

This means that neither liberals nor conservatives, Democrats nor Republicans are constitutionally principled. All either side wants is power. And I have never seen anyone from either political party who lusts for power more than Donald J. Trump. I shudder to think what this aspiring despot would do should he declare a State of National Emergency that targets America’s homeland.

Do I want to stop illegal immigration? You bet I do. But do I want to see a President become a monarch and destroy our Constitution to do it? Absolutely not!

I ask you, if we violate the laws of the land, how are we any better than those we want to keep out of our country for violating the laws of the land? And if we let the President of the United States violate the laws of the land, what does that tell the world about America?

Ah, shucks! I forgot. The American people—including our pastors and churches—have been letting their presidents violate the laws of the land (and the laws of God and Nature) for decades. So, why should I think it would stop now? Silly me.

P.S. I have a 5-DVD, 9-message series entitled Natural Law, Liberty And Government available at a huge discount. These 9 messages discuss the Biblical standard for government, the relationship between Natural Law and liberty, the scriptural influence on our Bill of Rights, the Christian’s call to liberty and the relationship and/or distinction between sin, crime, government and God.

These messages contain the foundational principles of government that were commonly understood and proclaimed by both philosopher and pulpiteer for hundreds of years before and after America’s founding—principles that have been forsaken and forgotten in both our churches and our halls of congress for nearly a century. These are the principles that built—and could once again rebuild—America’s constitutional republic.

Right now, this series of DVD messages is available at a HUGE DISCOUNT. To order this 5-DVD, 9-message series, Natural Law, Liberty And Government, go here:

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©2019 Chuck Baldwin

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