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You are here: Home / Archives for Law Enforcement

Law Enforcement

June 22, 2020 By Sam Bushman

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.

Filed Under: 1News, Civil War, Constitution, Law Enforcement, Martial Law Tagged With: Abuse Of Power, Bad Cops, Law Enforcement, Martial Law, Military State, Police State, Riots

June 6, 2020 By Sam Bushman

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

Filed Under: 1News, Civil War, Constitution, Economy, Health, Martial Law Tagged With: Abuse Of Power, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Insurrection Act, Law Enforcement, Lockdowns, Martial Law, Military State, Police State, Riots

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