Category: Law & Order

Missouri Sheriffs  – as all Sheriffs do –  still retain the power to deputize whoever they want, and in the past quite often commisioned ‘Special Deputies’ with no law enforcement status or required duties, primarily as a way to legally sidestep the ban on concealed carry, that is, up until when wanna-be gun grabber John Danforth was Attorney General in the mid 70s, and ruled that reserve deputies had to serve on duty at least 24 hours per month. We then elected him to the Senate where as a mere one of a hundred politicians he was actually less able to bother the citizenry.

NYTimes Frets Over Long Island Executive’s ‘Special Deputies’

If you’re a regular reader here at Bearing Arms, you know that I’ve got my own concerns about Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s “special deputy sheriffs“, but mine are substantially different than the anxieties of Long Island Democrats shared by the New York Times.

 In a piece headlined, “A Trump Ally Is Training 75 Armed Citizens. Is That a Militia?” reporter Corey Kilgannon plays up the fearmongering by Democrats over Blakeman’s plans for a reserve deputy force that would be deployed during emergencies.

The leader of a New York City suburb is recruiting 75 armed citizens, many of them former police officers, for a force of “special deputies” to be activated whenever he chooses.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald J. Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”

The posting called the initiative a strategy to assist in the “protection of human life and property during an emergency” such as a hurricane or blackout — and perhaps, Mr. Blakeman later added, “a riot.”

The new force has drawn vocal opposition in this well-to-do Long Island county, which is one of the country’s safest, protected by one of the largest police departments. It has plunged Nassau into a national debate about authoritarianism in an election season that some see as a fork in the road for American democracy.

Whether Nassau County actually needs a reserve force of deputies is an open question, but these types of programs are hardly unusual. They can be found in New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.; just to name a few deep-blue cities that have similar reserve or auxiliary officer programs in place. And despite Kilgannon’s contention that the reserve force in Nassau County will be under the sole supervision of Blakeman, who could call them out at his whim, the reserve force is run by Sheriff Anthony LaRocco. According to the sheriff, the “Provisional Emergency Special Deputy Sheriffs will have no police powers unless an emergency is declared by the County Executive and they are activated.”

Despite those guardrails, Long Island lefties are losing their minds over what they see as Blakeman’s “private militia”.

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Former Judge has Crap for Brains

Quote of the Day

One problem with the court’s approach is that it is formalist, pedantic—soulless.
It wrongly suggests that the court should give the words in a statute a form-over- substance significance that focuses on dictionaries, and historic word usage while ignoring the basic right at stake or the basic evil a law aims at ending.

In the abortion case, an anti-abortion court could have turned the decision on weighing a life or potential life protected by the Constitution against the liberty of a woman to control her own body—another right protected by the Constitution.
Rather than methodically marching to the foregone conclusion that women had no rights historically, the court could have overturned Roe simply by restriking the balance of rights in favor of a life or potential life that might be lost in abortion.

Rather than spending their time fixated on the interior life of a gun, the court in Cargill could have considered what the law was obviously aimed at limiting—guns that mindlessly spew multitudes of bullets and threaten public safety. Laws have values in them—life, liberty, public safety, etc., and when the court ignores them in favor of games with words, it undermines respect for the institution.

Thomas G. Moukawsher
Former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. June 25, 2024
Bump-Stock Ruling Reveals a Supreme Court Obsessed With Word Play | Opinion (msn.com)

I dropped my jaw in amazement reading this.
He thinks judges should weigh the pros and cons and examine how they feel about the topic to decide the case?
Really?
That is the job of the legislators when making the laws. If he were to have it his way we would end up with bump stocks being legal or illegal depending upon which judge was assigned to our case. Abortion doctors and the women who employed their services would be sent to jail or on their way, again, depending on what judge they were assigned or perhaps even the mood of the judge that day.

Word mean things and the law depends on the precise meaning of the words used to create those law. If not, then the result will be injustice and chaos. You just won’t know what is an ordinary everyday activity and what a multiple year felony.

This guy is a former judge! Well, maybe this is the reason he is a former judge. He has crap for brains.

New FBI rule gives gun dealers access to stolen firearm records; Springfield law enforcement and gun store owners weigh in

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – A new ruling by the FBI gives federal firearm licensees access to FBI records of stolen firearms.

Before this new ruling, firearm dealers had to use their best judgment when buying guns from strangers.

“People that bring in a used gun, I have no way of knowing if it’s stolen or not and if I do purchase it, and it is stolen, I lose the money I put into it and the gun,” 417 Guns owner Brent Ball said.

We asked how he verifies whether a gun is stolen or not without the database tool. Ball said he was in law enforcement for many years and tries to use his best judgement when buying firearms, but there’s not been a way to verify whether it’s stolen or not until now.

“If I’m not comfortable with the situation, I have them leave. I don’t need that business,” Ball said.

Major Tad Peters with the Springfield Police Department said this new ruling is a good thing, especially since the city has experienced issues with stolen firearms before.

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BLUF:
From what I can gather, the problem in cities is usually not that the police department itself is unwilling to assist, but that they are under orders from the mayor, afraid of upsetting far left constituents, to stand down.

Well, of course that’s what’s going on. Police usually do exactly what their city’s management tells them to do. Geez……

DAVID BERNSTEIN

Hans Bader on Selective Law Enforcement
Police in some major cities are refusing to enforce the law against protest “encampments”
I have been increasingly aware of, and disturbed by, instances of local police declining the requests of universities to help the universities–which generally do not have law enforcement officers capable of dealing with hundreds of people resisting arrest–arrest  protestors and remove their protest encampments. I was preparing to write a blog post about this, but Hans Bader beat me to it. So rather than reinvent the wheel, with permission, below is a shortened version of Hans’ post:

You have a right to free speech, but that doesn’t give you a First Amendment right to camp out on my lawn with protest signs. That’s trespassing. But government officials sometimes allow trespassing when they sympathize with the trespasser’s viewpoint. Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC have refused to remove progressive anti-Israel protesters camping out at private universities — Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, and George Washington University.

Law professor David Bernstein notes that “Baltimore police will not assist in removing illegal encampment at Johns Hopkins University. Worse, they actually praise the illegal encampment as a valid exercise of First Amendment rights, which is complete nonsense. It’s especially nonsensical because most of the protesters are trespassers with no connection to the university.”

“The City of Baltimore strongly stands with every person’s First Amendment rights. Barring any credible threat of violence or similarly high threshold to protect public safety, BPD currently has no plans to engage solely to shut down this valid protest or remove protesters,” said the Baltimore police department in a statement apparently dictated by the mayor’s office.

Contrary to what this statement claims, there is no “First Amendment” right to camp out on public property, much less private property like the campus of Johns Hopkins University, which can tell trespassers to leave regardless of whether they are engaged in First Amendment activity. Camping out on someone else’s property is not a “valid protest,” even if the protesters have not yet made any “threat of violence.” The Supreme Court ruled that protesters do not have a right to camp out even on public property devoted to public use, like national parks, in Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence (1984).

Yet Neetu Arnold of the National Association of Scholars notes that Philadelphia is similarly refusing to clear out a protest camp at the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League university: “Philadelphia Police ignores Penn’s request to disband unauthorized encampment. The university has to provide proof that the encampment poses an imminent danger. Penn students have received multiple warnings to avoid the immediate area.” The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that the “Philadelphia Police Department declines to disband encampment after Penn requests immediate help.”

As a University of Pennsylvania alumnus notes, these illegal protests are only being allowed by progressive officials because of the viewpoint they are expressing. If the protesters were “white nationalists waving nazi flags and telling black people they should go back to Africa I’m sure [police] would be out there pretty quickly” to remove them.

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Yeah, this’ll be off the news by late tomorrow

Charlotte Shooter Identified as 39-Yr-Old Terry Clark Hughes, Jr. – 4 Law Enforcement Dead, 8 Shot – Two Females Arrested from House Including 17-yr-Old – Police Report Second Shooter

The Charlotte police released a statement last night.

Charlotte, N.C. – (Monday, April 29, 2024) – On Monday, April 29, 2024, an armed suspect opened fire on law enforcement officers in the 5000 block of Galway Drive in the North Tryon Division. Four Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers were shot, one of which succumbed to his injuries. Additionally, four officers from the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force were shot, three of which succumbed to their injuries.

On Monday, April 29, 2024, around 1:30 p.m., the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force, comprised of officers from multiple agencies, was conducting an investigation in the North Tryon Division at a home in the 5000 block of Galway Drive. The preliminary investigation indicates officers were attempting to serve active felony warrants on a male subject. As officers approached, the male subject discharged his firearm striking multiple officers. These officers requested immediate response from other officers. As officers responded, the gunfire continued, striking additional officers.

In total, eight officers were struck during the gunfire. The officers were rushed to area hospitals. Three task force officers were pronounced deceased at the hospital. One of the injured CMPD Officers, Joshua Eyer, a 6-year veteran, fought for his life for several hours before succumbing to his injuries.

The male suspect exited the residence on Galway Drive with a firearm. Law enforcement officers perceived an imminent deadly threat and fired their service weapons striking the suspect in the front yard of the residence.

The CMPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) began negotiations with other occupants in the house. Two females exited the residence and were transported to the Law Enforcement Center (LEC) in Uptown (601 E. Trade St.) to be interviewed by detectives.

Upon securing the scene, the suspect was pronounced deceased at the residence. The deceased suspect has been identified as Terry Clark Hughes, Jr, 39. Mr. Hughes was wanted for Possession of a Firearm by Felon and Felony Flee to Elude (2 counts) out of Lincoln County, North Carolina.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, The U.S. Marshals Office, North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, CMPD’s Crime Scene Investigations, CMPD’s Operations Command, Victim Services, N.C. State Highway Patrol, Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Homicide Prosecution Team, MEDIC and the Charlotte Fire Department all responded to the scene.

The investigation is being conducted by CMPD’s Homicide Unit. This is an active and ongoing investigation. As is standard procedure with any officer involved shooting, the CMPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau will conduct a separate but parallel investigation.

As additional information develops, it will be released by the CMPD’s Public Affairs Office. For additional information in reference to this case, please refer to the report: 20240429-1333-00.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. (just sayin™)

 

G O V E R N O R  G R E G  A B B O T T

January 24, 2024

The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States. The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them. The result is that he has smashed records for illegal immigration.

Despite having been put on notice in a series of letters–one of which I delivered to him by hand–President Biden has ignored Texas’s demand that he perform his constitutional duties.

* President Biden has violated his oath to faithfully execute immigration laws enacted by Congress. Instead of prosecuting immigrants for the federal crime of illegal entry, President Biden has sent his lawyers into federal courts to sue Texas for taking action to secure the border.

* President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The effect is to illegally allow their en masse parole into the United States.

* By wasting taxpayer dollars to tear open Texas’s border security infrastructure, President Biden has enticed illegal immigrants away from the 28 legal entry points along this State’s southern border– bridges where nobody drowns–and into the dangerous waters of the Rio Grande.

Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just 3 years. That is more than the population of 33 different States in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the States has inflicted unprecedented harm on the People all across the United
States.

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and the other visionaries who wrote the U.S. Constitution foresaw that States should not be left to the mercy of a lawless president who does nothing to stop external threats like cartels smuggling millions of illegal immigrants across the border. That is why the Framers included both Article IV, sec. 4, which promises that the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion,” and Article I, sec 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges “the States’ sovereign interest in protecting their borders.” Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387, 419 (2012) (Scalia, J., dissenting).

The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, sec. 4 has triggered Article I, sec. 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, sec. 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.

Greg Abbott
Governor of Texas

 

“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Thomas Jefferson

ISP (Illinois State Police) Won’t Pursue Charges Against Residents Who Didn’t Register Guns By Jan 1

Springfield, IL-(Effingham Radio)- The Illinois State Police won’t pursue charges against Illinois residents who didn’t register their weapons that fall under the new law by the January 1st deadline.

The ISP says the FOID Portal will remain open and people can submit endorsement affidavits at any time. Residents who fail to register weapons that fall under the law could face felony charges. More than 29-thousand residents have registered their assault weapons.

Sutter County (California) Sheriff and District Attorney”

“…As a Sheriff’s Office, we use discretionary decision making in our investigations and act in accordance with the spirit of the intended law.

As a District Attorney’s Office, we evaluate cases based on the totality of the circumstances and the ability to seek successful prosecution based on the evidence presented to us.

The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office and The Sutter County District Attorney’s Office will work collaboratively to evaluate circumstances on a case-by-case basis and do what is in the best interest of justice and our community.

We have no interest in criminalizing constitutionally protected behavior. We took an oath to uphold our Constitution and will work to protect the rights of our citizens. This issue is far from being resolved and we are hopeful the courts will rule in favor of our constitution. We will continue to keep our community informed on this important issue.”

Tulare County (California) Sheriff  won’t ‘actively’ seek SB 2 violators

As your Sheriff, I want to make it clear that the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office will NOT be out actively looking for Lawful CCW Permit holders who might be violating Senate Bill 2. The Sheriff’s Office has much more pressing issues to tackle and does not have the time, nor the resources, to invest in a law, where the specifics seem to change on a daily basis.

Yuba County (California) Sheriff and District Attorney

We believe that SB 2’s sweeping expansion of “sensitive place” provisions for concealed carry permit holders is repugnant to the United States Constitution and will be struck down by the courts for violating the Second Amendment. Until the legal challenges to SB 2 have been definitively settled by the courts, we will exercise our common sense and discretion to ensure the law is not enforced in a way that would violate the rights of our citizens.

Ohio Prosecutor: Robbers Should Expect to Get Shot

There are some DAs who are very tough on crime and there are others who are soft on crime. It doesn’t matter what city, county, or state you’re in. What matters is the DA in charge of prosecuting crimes in your neck of the woods.

In Ohio, though, there are a few mixed signals being sent by a prosecutor.

You see, she’s opted to prosecute a man who shot a robber trying to rob his store, but she’s also telling criminals that if they’re robbing a place, they should expect to get shot.

An Ohio prosecutor has indicted a smoke shop manager for allegedly shooting to death a 16-year-old boy during a robbery attempt — but warned that people “should expect to be shot” if they target stores.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers filed the charges against the manager, Tony Thacker, 29, for allegedly shooting at would-be robbers as they fled VIP Smoke Shop in Delhi Township on Oct. 20, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.…

“However, I want to make perfectly clear — these retail thefts will not be tolerated. If you try to rob a store, you should expect to be shot,” she added.

Mixed signals, right?

Not necessarily.

What’s omitted in that quote is that the person Thacker shot was, first of all, running away. That means he was no longer a threat. A lot of people think they can shoot someone fleeing, but you can’t do that. They’re no longer threatening you–unless, of course, they’re taking shots at you while running away or something similar–so your right to defend yourself isn’t applicable.

It also seems that Thacker was a prohibited person due to a felony conviction. That also changes the calculus a bit.

But Powers isn’t wrong to warn would-be robbers that if they’re going to commit an act like this, they should expect to be shot.

Robbery is an inherently violent crime in most instances. Law-abiding citizens who exercise their right to keep and bear arms have a right to protect themselves from violent criminals. In a state like Ohio where there are a fair number of gun owners, the risk to criminals becomes very real.

I want them to know that. I want them to understand that. I want them to recognize the very real probability that if they continue down this path, it’s only a matter of time before someone shoots them.

Almost no criminal thinks they’re going to get caught, but quite a few recognize that they’ll be face-to-face with their victim. That means a high likelihood that they’ll be shot.

What happened in Ohio may look like mixed signals, but it’s not because of some extenuating circumstances. Yet it also looks like Powers isn’t really interested in prosecuting armed citizens who act in self-defense, either.

If she were, I suspect she’d not have said what she did, especially knowing how a lot of people throughout the nation would react to it.

Of course, she also said the truth. It’s just a shame that in this day and age, that’s a revolutionary act.

Nebraska AG Deems Omaha & Lincoln’s Executive Orders Illegal

On Friday, December 15th, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers issued a formal opinion that the gun-free zone executive orders in Omaha and Lincoln are illegal for outdoor facilities. He deemed that “municipalities lack the authority to regulate the possession of firearms and certain weapons in quintessential public spaces, such as parks, trails, and sidewalks…” and that attempting to do so is an infringement on both the Second Amendment and the Nebraska State Constitution.

Senator Tom Brewer, who championed constitutional carry and statewide preemption bill LB 77, requested an opinion on the executive orders’ constitutionality this fall, specifically pertaining to the outdoor facilities the orders regulated.

This is a significant victory for all Nebraskans, and clarifies that municipalities lack the authority to regulate carry in “quintessential” outdoor spaces. Residents in Lincoln and Omaha should contact their local elected officials to rescind these unconstitutional orders and ordinances using their contact pages. For Lincoln, please contact the city council and Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird. For Omaha, please contact the city council and Mayor Jean Stothert.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,….“

Potential Mass Shooting in Denver Stopped by Police, not Gun Control

Authorities in Denver still aren’t sure what Joshua Mitchell’s plan was, or if he even had one, when he abandoned his car on a busy street and walked a mile to a city park while armed with a rifle, but after Mitchell was shot and killed by officers police discovered hundreds of rounds of ammunition in multiple magazines on his person and in a knapsack.

Mitchell didn’t fire any rounds before police arrived on the scene at Commons Park on November 20th, but there were multiple 911 calls made from parkgoers alerting authorities to a man who was chasing people and yelling at them while carrying a long gun. When the first officers showed up at the park, Mitchell was seated on a park bench, but refused to drop his gun when officers told him to do so. Instead, he allegedly raised the rifle at one of the officers and squeezed off several rounds, prompting them to fire back in response.

Body-worn camera footage shows both officers told Mitchell to drop his weapon twice before Mitchell began shooting. He started shooting approximately 15 seconds after the officer on the hill exited his vehicle.

The two officers fired seven rounds during the shooting, Clark said. Police approached him after it appeared he had dropped the rifle to see if they could provide medical aid. Mitchell was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.

Police Chief Ron Thomas said officers may have prevented a greater tragedy from occurring that day.

“I want to acknowledge that any time a life is lost it’s certainly a tragedy and I don’t want us to lose sight of that today,” Thomas said. “I do think there’s evidence to suggest that had the officers not taken the actions that they took that there could have been an even greater tragedy given some of the things that we’ve discovered in our investigation.”

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Personal Defense And The Law
Knowledge of self-defense involves more than knowing how to draw your firearm or marksmanship.

Not long ago, I heard about an incident I want to bring to your attention. A motorist, traveling outside his state of residence, was the victim of a minor traffic accident. However, during the investigation, an officer found two handguns in his car. The motorist was arrested for carrying without a permit, a felony in that particular state.

The problem was that the motorist had a concealed-carry permit alright—but only in his home state. This man was not a criminal. He had no prior-arrest record. He simply was in a state that refused to recognize another state’s license. What that oversight meant for this gentleman was a trip to jail, very expensive legal fees and possible time in prison—and loss of his Second Amendment rights.

We spend a lot of time talking about guns and gear and even some time talking about tactics. But, I’m not sure we spend enough time discussing the various laws concerning personal defense. It is possible to be otherwise justified in defending oneself, yet still be charged with a crime for some violation of legal procedure.

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Here we go again
Same old *stuff* again…..

Gunman suspected of killing Texas SWAT cop and 2 hostages was reportedly on FBI terror watchlist.

The gunman who killed Texas SWAT Officer Jorge Pastore in a shootout that also left two hostages dead was wearing body armor and night vision goggles — and was on the FBI’s terror watchlist, according to reports.

A search warrant for the suspect’s south Austin home — the scene of Saturday’s deadly shootout — unearthed bomb-making materials inside, calling for help from the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team, according to KXAN.

“Cutting instruments, body armor and any tactical gear to include firearms were all said to be worn or used by the suspect,” reads the warrant, which noted that it’s “not uncommon for people with a gun, body armor or night vision to make homemade explosives.”

Neither the suspect nor the dead hostages had been officially identified as of early Wednesday.

However, a local organization called the Round Rock Area Muslims said they were all family members of a “beloved brother” who was well-known in the local community.

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Oklahoma Sheriff Opens an Investigation Into ATF SWAT Raid on FFL’s Home.

Oklahoma’s Pushmataha County Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation into the ATF for their recent SWAT raid of one of their county’s most respected residents, Russell Fincher, PCSO Undersheriff Dustin Bray said Tuesday. 

No one at the ATF warned the Sheriff’s Office in advance that highly armed federal agents would be conducting the SWAT raid, the Undersheriff said.

We weren’t apprised of anything,” Bray said. “We are a Second Amendment County and we are going to protect our citizens here. We are not going to enforce any gun law or rule that violates the constitution.” 

Bray did not yet know whether the investigation would yield criminal charges against ATF agents, adding, “That’s a good one for the Attorney General. The thing I’m looking at are more constitutional issues than criminal, such as civil rights violations.” 

Bray said his agency began a “deep dive” into ATF’s conduct, but this investigation was put on hold because of an unrelated double-homicide in the county followed by two officer-involved shootings. The PCSO has around a dozen deputies who are responsible for patrolling a county of more than 1,400 square miles. 

Undersheriff Bray, a 21-year law enforcement veteran who has been at PCSO since 2018, was most concerned about ATF’s apparent disregard for standard deconfliction protocols, which are commonplace among state, county and local law enforcement agencies.  

The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies defines confliction as “the process of determining when law enforcement personnel are conducting an event in close proximity to one another at the same time. Events include law enforcement actions such as raids, undercover operations, surveillance, or executing search warrants.” 

In other words, deconfliction prevents two groups of cops from showing up at the same location at the same time and pointing guns at each other. 

“They (ATF) didn’t do any deconfliction with Pushmataha County,” Bray said. “We had no idea they were coming. We didn’t hear anything about it until weeks had passed. Nothing ever got reported to us. I’m not a fan of that. The Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer of the county.”

ATF Special Agent Theodore Mongell, who led the SWAT raid at Fincher’s home, was unwilling to talk about deconfliction or the Sheriff’s Office’s ongoing investigation.

“Sir, per the last conversation we had, I can’t give any comment at this time,” Mongell said Wednesday. “This is a confidential investigation – a criminal investigation. I will forward your information to my supervisors for comment.”

No one from ATF’s Oklahoma City Field office or ATF’s Tulsa Satellite Office returned the call.

Background 

A story published Tuesday revealed that Oklahoma state Rep. Justin “JJ” Humphrey sent a letter to Oklahoma’s Governor, Attorney General and other law enforcement officials demanding an investigation into the ATF raid of Fincher’s home. Fincher is one of Humphrey’s constituents, a parttime gun dealer, a high school history teacher and a Baptist pastor. 

According to a press release, Humphrey said he was contacted by Fincher after a dozen ATF SWAT team members bearing “automatic weapons” raided Fincher’s home, handcuffed him on his porch in front of his 13-year-old son and coerced and threatened him into relinquishing his Federal Firearm License.

“If this report is true, and I have every reason to believe it is, then it would appear the ATF’s actions constitute a gross misuse and abuse of their federal police powers,” Humphrey said in the press release.

Fincher, Humphrey wrote in the letter, “is a distinguished figure in our community, serving both as pastor and schoolteacher in the small community of Clayton, Oklahoma. He is known as a respected member of the community, and I have every reason to believe his account. If proven true, the actions of the ATF agents could be seen as a severe misuse and abuse of their federal law enforcement authority.”

Pending 

Communications staff for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond did not immediately return calls or emails seeking their comments for this story. 

A GiveSendGo account has been created to help with Fincher’s legal fees.

The story is always about guns. People are bad. This guy’s a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now and I lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It’ll sit there. But as soon as a wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting people with it, there’s the problem. The problem is the individual.

 

Illinois Gov. Pritzker Allows Non-US Citizens to Become Police Officers With New Law: ‘Fundamentally Bad Idea’

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D., signed a bill into law that allows non-U.S. citizens to become police officers in the state, angering critics who slammed the idea of foreigners arresting American citizens as “a fundamentally bad idea.”

Illinois House Bill 3751 will no longer require U.S. citizenship as a qualification to become a police officer in the state. The bill was signed by the Democrat governor on Friday and will go into effect on January 1, 2024, despite facing heavy opposition from GOP lawmakers and prominent police groups.

The bill “provides that an individual who is not a citizen but is legally authorized to work in the United States under federal law is authorized to apply for the position of police officer, subject to all requirements and limitations, other than citizenship, to which other applicants are subject,” HB3751 reads, adding that non-U.S. citizens must be able to obtain, carry, purchase, or otherwise possess a firearm under federal law to apply for the job.

Immigrants who remain in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Act, are also entitled to apply for a position to join law enforcement, the bill states.

Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, a Republican, voiced her outrage over the new law on Twitter over the weekend, writing that “no sane state would allow foreign nationals to arrest their citizens.”

“At 5 p.m. yesterday, when no one was paying attention, Pritzker signed a bill to allow illegal immigrants to become police officers, giving non-citizens the power to arrest citizens in our state,” she tweeted. “No sane state would allow foreign nationals to arrest their citizens, this is madness!”

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Hunter Biden probe shows corruptness in America’s two-tier justice system.

America’s two-tier justice system keeps rolling along.

And Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who snubbed the House’s request for documents pertaining to his probe of Hunter Biden, is the latest to show how far the Department of Justice will go to keep it rolling.

Hunter, President Joseph Robinette Biden’s black-sheep son, is facing tax and weapons charges that would represent deep hot water for most Americans. But Hunter isn’t most Americans.

He’s the president’s son, and, allegedly, bagman as well. And our Justice Department, headed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is out to spare him the consequences of his actions.

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley has come forward to report that Department of Justice officials took care to ensure that Hunter couldn’t be charged by ordering US attorneys in Washington, DC, and California not to prosecute.

Weiss didn’t charge Hunter because he allegedly said he lacked the authority to charge for things outside his home jurisdiction.

Garland could have granted Weiss the power to do so, but despite claiming that Weiss had unlimited powers, Garland never made the grant.

Hunter’s charges thus fell through a crack.

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley has come forward to report that Department of Justice officials took care to ensure that Hunter couldn’t be charged by ordering US attorneys in Washington, DC, and California not to prosecute.

But hey, the tax fraud was only one of Hunter’s legal problems where the Department of Justice was happy to help out.

Hunter did get charged in Delaware, but only with two misdemeanor tax charges and a felony gun charge, for which he’ll get pretrial diversion and no prison time.

The tax charges could carry as much as two years in prison, and the gun charge could produce a 10-year sentence, but Hunter’s plea deal is expected to produce none.

Columnist J.D. Tuccille writes, “If, as expected, Hunter Biden’s plea deal on tax and firearms charges keeps him out of prison, it would be a remarkable display of leniency. . . . It’s enough to make a suspicious person wonder if the deal was meant to give the appearance that justice was done to divert attention from more serious matters. It’s also a hint of the restraint prosecutors exercise for the powerful, and which the rest of us would appreciate.”

The tax charges could carry up to 2 years in prison along with the gun charge producing a possible 10-year sentence, but Hunter’s plea deal is expected to produce none. Ya think?

As law professor Jonathan Turley notes, the charges also allow Hunter to avoid discussing the (likely unsavory) sources of the money.

How convenient.

“The House Oversight Committee has documented potentially millions in financial transfers from foreign sources to Biden family members. . . . Garland took the most important step in pulling off the controlled demolition by steadfastly refusing to appoint a special counsel. Such an appointment would allow the release of a report that would detail the alleged corrupt practices of the Biden family and the knowledge and involvement of the president,” Turley wrote.

That’s why they didn’t do it.

This seems deeply suspicious, and the House Judiciary Committee is investigating.

But Weiss, ignoring a subpoena, is stonewalling.

People used to say that it’s the coverup that gets you, not the crime, but today’s Democrats obviously don’t believe that.

It’s been obvious for a while that there’s a two-tier justice system in America.

If you’re a Jan. 6 protester who just wandered around the Capitol, you can expect solitary confinement before trial, and prosecutors who’ll throw the book at you.

But if you’re the son of a (Democratic) president, you can expect to be handled with kid gloves.

Our Constitution forbids “titles of nobility,” whereby the elite live by different rules than the rest of us.

It doesn’t seem to be working very well, does it?

This movement could retake control of prosecutors’ offices: Our country needs a group of conservative prosecutors who are bold

The spate of politically motivated prosecutions against former President Donald Trump in recent months has further underscored how the left – with a big financial assist from liberal megadonor George Soros – has weaponized local district attorney offices to target their political enemies while failing to punish actual criminals. Conservatives desperately need an answer to this alarming trend to restore the rule of law in our country.

In addition to the Biden Department of Justice’s persecution of Trump, the former president has already faced an indictment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and is also being targeted by Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis and Westchester County, New York, District Attorney Miriam Roach.

All of these investigations are noticeably light on the facts and reek of partisan motivations. As I have written previously, Ms. Willis is reportedly attempting to charge President Trump under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, better known as RICO — a state-level version of the federal RICO law that prosecutors have used to target the mob and criminal gangs.

But these sham investigations are only a few of the many egregious derelictions of duty from Bragg, Willis, Roach, and their compatriots in the criminal justice “reform” movement.

So-called “reform” prosecutors have flat out refused to prosecute many crimes, leading to predictably disastrous results for their communities. In Manhattan, Bragg has downgraded 52 percent of felony cases to misdemeanors, while cutting sweetheart deals for rapists and murderers. In Fairfax County, Virginia, Steve Descano, another “reform” prosecutor, cut a plea deal with a child sex offender that was so lenient the judge told the victim, “your government has failed you.”

George Gascon in Los Angeles, Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Foxx in Chicago, and dozens of other radical left DAs have similarly tragic track records. Chesa Boudin in San Francisco and Kim Gardner in St. Louis have already been booted out of office before the end of their terms.

Far from acting independently of one another, all of these prosecutors are part of a cohesive national movement with a shared set of policy goals, including the elimination of cash bail, a drastic reduction in prison sentences, and a refusal to prosecute entire categories of crimes.

One of the biggest and most public patrons of this movement is George Soros, who has poured more than $35 million into DA races throughout the country via a complex network of PACs, dark money groups, and nonprofits. As these contests are typically low-dollar affairs compared to more high-profile state and federal races, that money has gone a long way. In some cases, Soros-backed candidates outraised their opponents by as much as 90 percent.

As of last June, Soros prosecutors represented some 72 million people – roughly one in five Americans.

The result has been the wave of violent crime that is now sweeping America’s cities. Murders in Los Angeles spiked from 258 in 2019 to 397 in 2021 and 382 last year. Violent crime is surging in Philadelphia and Chicago.

As Alvin Bragg has shown, these prosecutors are also willing to use the power of their offices to target their political opponents. For Soros and his far-left allies, installing loyal prosecutors is a cheap and effective way to bog down their political enemies in an endless sea of bogus litigation.

Replacing these “reform” prosecutors with candidates who will actually enforce the law and end the politicization of the justice system is a vital step toward securing our democracy and restoring public trust in the elected leaders charged with keeping our communities safe.

In order to accomplish this, conservatives need a unifying prosecutor movement of their own – one that upholds the rule of law rather than undermines it. One that pursues justice rather than perverts it. One that honors the hard work and sacrifices made by local law enforcement rather than seeks to defund it. One that remembers the lessons of Giuliani’s Manhattan and believes that small things like fixing broken windows matter. One that holds that the years 1789 and 1776 define our institutions rather than 1619.

Most importantly, our country needs a group of conservative prosecutors who are bold enough to say their communities: “we are not Manhattan, we are not Chicago, we are not St. Louis, we are not Los Angeles, and we are not San Francisco. If violent criminals hurt people in our community, we will not rest until justice is done.” In other words, “We’re your Huckleberry.”

By retaking control of prosecutors’ offices, conservatives can deliver a major blow to the radical left’s war on our institutions and republican system of government. For the future of our country, it is time to take a stand.

The Big-City Murder Rate Is Falling and the Reasons Won’t Surprise You.

Violent crime — specifically, the murder rate — spiked in 2020 and has been coming down gradually ever since. Now, in 2023, the number of murders in the United States has dropped precipitously. Jeff Asher published a piece in The Atlantic  revealing that “[m]urder is down about 12 percent year-to-date in more than 90 cities that have released data for 2023, compared with data as of the same date in 2022.”

Is defunding the police actually working? Is the prevailing policy of prosecutors giving out light sentences to hardened thugs leading to a “come to Jesus” moment for criminals and causing them to reform?

Not hardly. In the wake of the sky-high violent crime rates from 2020, big-city mayors hired more cops, and many departments reinstituted “aggressive policing methods” to deal with the out-of-control shootings and murders.

“It is possible that police departments have returned to some of the proactive work that they curtailed during the COVID pandemic and after George Floyd, activities that may be inhibiting some gun violence,” Jerry Ratcliffe, a criminal-justice professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, told Asher.

Many cities have used federal COVID-relief money to hire more police officers, and there is some evidence—albeit preliminary—that adding police officers helps to reduce homicide, while also leading to more arrests for low-level offenses. We do not yet know how successful agencies have been at growing their ranks or whether more police officers are resulting in fewer shootings. Murder is down in Chicago, New Orleans, and New York, for example, but Chicago’s number of police officers is virtually unchanged from last summer, while New Orleans’s is down more than 8 percent and New York has roughly 2 percent fewer officers.

More police and more aggressive tactics resulting in fewer murders? Whoda thunk it? Duh.

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American U. students at odds with D.C. group that favors unarmed police

Some American University students are skeptical at claims made by the District of Columbia’s so-called “Peace Team” that unarmed police are “highly effective” at preventing gun violence — in one of the deadliest cities in the country.

According to its website, the DC Peace Team’s mission is to “cultivate the habits and skills of nonviolence in communities, so [it] can better resist injustice, and thus, build a more sustainable just peace.”

The team is a huge proponent of, and utilizes, restorative justice (which has been growing in the nation’s school systems, much to many teachers’ chargrin) and weaponless “civilian protection units.”

According to Peace Team Board Member Sal Corbin (pictured), such methods “emphasize inclusion rather than exclusion […] and punishment.”A former psychology professor, Corbin told The Eagle he grew up in a violent atmosphere where punishment was “swift and severe.”

As such, he wanted to study an alternative. Corbin believes an unarmed police force is “extremely effective” and involves “deploying teams to events where violence or escalation is a possibility.”

Robert Schentrup of the youth gun reform group Team ENOUGH added that “when victims of [gun] violence don’t get help, their natural response is to traumatize other individuals in that same way.”

The Peace Team notes it will even intervene in certain situations “with their bodies.”

But The Eagle notes some American U. students are wary. One student said even with stricter gun control, criminals will still find a way to possess firearms, so yes, cops should be armed. Another said disarming police when the threat of a mass shooting is ever-present seems like a bad idea.

American, like other colleges in and around the nation’s capital (Georgetown, Howard) have unarmed campus cops. George Washington University, however, recently decided to arm a small percentage of its officers.

Washington DC’s violent crime is up 10 percent so far this year, and is 147 percent higher than the national average. Other crimes in the city occur at a rate 87 percent higher than the national average.

Even Corbin conceded that “clearly there are circumstances where weaponry is needed.”

“Our goal isn’t to replace law enforcement entirely, but rather give an alternative approach to it that doesn’t necessitate, increase or escalate violence,” he said.