These are trying times. Never in the history of this country
have we been so weakened and polarized by what many view as deliberate
government policy. Now anti-gunners in the U.S. Congress, the Obama
administration, and legislatures across the country are seeking to exploit the Newtown tragedy to
promote their “gun control” agenda that envisions federal, universal background
checks on gun purchases, and that could lead to gun registration and
confiscation.
At the same time, the increasing militarization of law
enforcement, most visibly demonstrated by the growing use of massive, SWAT-type
raids on businesses and individuals, sometimes with federal involvement or
authorization, is heightening concerns that this country is moving toward a
police state.
Mountain Pure SWAT
Raid: The Movie
Mountain Pure Water, LLC is headquartered on Interstate 30
just outside the town of Little Rock, Arkansas. The company
manufactures and distributes beverage containers, spring water, fruit drinks,
and teas. In January 2012, about 50 federal agents, led by Small Business
Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) Special Agent Cynthia
Roberts and IRS Special Agent Bobbi Spradlin, swooped in, guns drawn. Without
explanation they shut down plant operations, herded employees into the
cafeteria, and confined them to the room for hours. They could not so much as
use the bathroom without police escort. Cell phones were confiscated and all
Internet and company phones were disabled.
Plant Manager Court Stacks was at his desk when police burst
through his office door, guns drawn and pointed at him—a thoroughly
unprofessional violation of basic firearms
discipline in this circumstance, and the cause of numerous accidental SWAT
killings.
According to Mountain
Pure CEO John Stacks, the search
warrant was related to questions about an SBA loan he secured through the
Federal Emergency Management Agency to recover tornado losses to his home,
warehouse, and associated equipment. Mr. Stacks says the SBA apparently doesn’t
believe that assets listed as damaged in the storm were actually damaged.
The search warrant was extremely vague and some agents’ actions
may have been illegal, according to company attorney, Timothy Dudley.
Comptroller Jerry Miller was taken
to a private room and interrogated for over three hours by SBA Special Agent
Cynthia Roberts, the raid leader. He requested an attorney and was told “That
ain’t gonna happen.” According to Miller, the SBA unilaterally changed the
terms of Stacks’ loan. He says he asked Roberts what gave the SBA authority to
do that, and she responded, “We’re the federal government, we can do what we
want, when we want, and there is nothing you can do about it.” Miller said
during the raid Roberts “strutted around the place like she was Napoleon.”
Stacks said the company has had three IRS audits in the past
three years, including one following the raid, with no problems. The SBA has
still not filed any charges, continues to stonewall about the raid’s purpose,
and refuses to release most of the property seized during the raid.
Quality Assurance Director Katy Depriest, who doubles as the
company crisis manager, described agents’ “Gestapo tactics.” She added that
they confiscated CDs of college course work and educational materials for a
class she had been taking that resulted in her flunking the course. Those
materials have not yet been returned.
Attempts were made to contact Ms. Roberts for this article,
but she is no longer employed by the SBA. Questions were directed to the Little Rock, Arkansas U.S. Attorney’s
office. The USA’s
public affairs officer had no comment; however they have convened a grand jury
to evaluate the case.
- Many company employees were willing to discuss this raid on the record.
- Mountain Pure and several employees have sued Special Agents Roberts and Spradlin.
- Mr. Stacks commissioned a video about the raid, reproduced below.
The video includes testimony from Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of famed Gibson Guitar Corp., which suffered two such raids, and another raid target, Duncan Outdoors Inc. The video does not attempt to establish anyone’s guilt or innocence, but rather highlights law enforcement’s heavy-handed tactics in executing SWAT-style search warrants against legitimate businesses. Gibson has settled with the Justice Department in a case fraught with legal ambiguities, while Duncan has been indicted for violations of currency transaction reporting requirements.
Mr. Stacks claims he has gotten calls from many companies
that have suffered similar raids, but they are afraid to speak out. Here are a
few examples that have made national news:
- FDA officials, U.S. Marshals, and the Pennsylvania State Police raided an Amish farm in 2011 for selling raw milk.
- A Department of Education SWAT team raided a man’s home, “dragged him out in his boxer shorts, threw him to the ground and handcuffed him” in front of his three young children. They were looking for evidence of his estranged wife’s financial aid fraud.
- 66 year-old George Norris spent two years in jail following a USFWS raid that nailed him for filing incorrect forms on imported orchids.
- A Fairfax, Virginia optometrist being served a warrant for illegal gambling was killed by a SWAT team member whose firearm accidentally discharged. He answered the door in his bathrobe, unarmed and unaware that he was even under investigation.
War on Small
Business?
In 2006, the IRS announced it would shift its focus to audit more small businesses.
IRS data on tax audits seems to bear this out. Between the first and second
half of the last decade, the audit coverage rate on businesses with assets
between $10 and $50 million increased by 42 percent. Between 2001 and 2005 an
annual average of 13,549 returns were audited for businesses with assets less
than $10 million. Between 2006 and 2011, the average was 19,289, an
increase of over 42 percent (pdf).
This has paid off in increased enforcement revenues, but are
massive SWAT raids an essential part of this new strategy? In addition to the
potential dangers and the outrage of having company employees treated like drug
dealers or terrorists, the cost of these raids is staggering. Agents told
Mountain Pure employees they had flown in from all over the country.
The Sharpsburg Raid
Sharpsburg, Maryland,
population 706, is a quiet little town bordering the Antietam National
Battlefield in rural Washington
County. On Thursday,
November 29, 2012 at about 12:30 pm, the quiet was shattered by an invasion of
over 150 Maryland State Police (MSP), FBI, State Fire Marshal’s bomb squad, and
County SWAT teams, complete with two police helicopters, two Bearcat “special
response” vehicles, mobile command posts, snipers, police dogs, bomb disposal
truck, bomb sniffing robots, and a huge excavator. They even brought in food
trucks.
A heavily armed MSP Special Tactical Assault Team Element
(STATE) executed a no-knock search warrant, smashing through the reportedly
unlocked door with a battering ram. They worked until after 7:30 p.m.,
ransacking a modest, 20 ft. by 60 ft. single-family home for weapons, and
searching for its owner, one Terry Porter.
For hours, neighbors were left worrying and wondering, while countless police
blanketed the area.
Local resident Tim Franquist
described the scene:
The event, or siege as we are calling it, involved convoys of police speeding to the area, two helicopters, armored vehicles, command centers, countless police cruisers and officers. They blocked off the roads and commandeered a campground as their staging area.
Terry Porter is
married with three children, has lived in the town all of his life, and owns a
modest welding business. He is also a prepper. His preparations include an
underground bunker, buried food supplies, and surveillance cameras. Porter
really doesn’t like Obama, and tells anyone who will listen.
Unfortunately, one listener was an undercover officer for
the MSP. The police had become interested in Porter through an anonymous caller
who claimed that Porter “had been getting crazier and crazier…” and that he
had “10 to 15 machine gun-style weapons, six handguns and up to 10,000
rounds of ammunition…” The MSP performed a background check and discovered
Porter had a 20-year-old charge for aiding marijuana distribution, a
disqualification for firearms ownership.
MSP detailed an officer to visit Porter’s shop on November
16th posing as a customer. The officer said Porter “openly admitted
to being a prepper.” Not a crime. Porter also allegedly claimed to have a Saiga
shotgun, and was willing to use it “when people show up unannounced.” Based on
the Russian AK-47 design, some Saiga variants are fully automatic. On November
27th MSP obtained a search warrant.
Two days later they appeared at Porter’s door but could not
find him. Porter later disclosed he “left out the back door.” Where he went has
not been disclosed. However, local blogger Ann
Corcoran, who lives nearby and followed the issue closely, claims he hid
out in fear for his life. Given highly publicized, accidental shootings
involving SWAT teams and the overwhelming force present, that’s a reasonable
assumption.
The following day Porter turned himself in and took the
police through his property. The raid produced a total of four shotguns, a
30-30-caliber hunting rifle and two .22-caliber rifles. He was charged with
firearms possession violations and released on a $75,000 bond.
The raid was one of the largest in recent U.S. history, twice the size of the 1993 Branch
Davidian raid in Waco, Texas, which initially involved 76
ATF agents. It almost rivaled the recent 200-strong statewide manhunt for California cop-killing
cop, Christopher
Dorner. Yet only a few local stories emerged and those presented a
hysterical portrait of Porter while largely underreporting the police presence.
Why the Raid?
The MSP did not notify town officials or Washington County
Sheriff Douglas Mullendore, who learned of the raid after it began, when they
requested the use of his SWAT Team and Bearcat. The MSP also set up a command
center at a campground within the national park without notifying the Park
Police. Bills have since been introduced in the Maryland legislature by Washington County
Delegate Neil Parrott (HB
0219) and State Senator Chris Shank (SB
0259) to require notification of local law enforcement before any outside
agency serves a warrant.
A meeting following the raid attracted 60 concerned Sharpsburg citizens and
leaders. Sharpsburg Vice Mayor Bryan Gabriel characterized
the raid as “overwhelming,” and said it “could have put a lot of people at
risk.” Erin Moshier, a citizen who attended the meeting added, “We all felt
there was excessive force involved, and we felt that a member of our community
was victimized and we wanted to get to the bottom of it and get some answers.”
Both Gabriel and Sheriff Mullendore have issued statements of support for
Porter, who they know personally. Citizens created a “Friends for Terry”
website to help with his legal costs.
When asked why the police did not simply detain Porter in
town or at a traffic stop, MSP Hagerstown Barracks Commander, Lt. Thomas
Woodward said the police only had a property search warrant and had no
authority to arrest Porter. However police do have authority to “detain the
property owner for 24 hours” when executing a search warrant, so Porter could
have been intercepted elsewhere, but they chose to execute that authority as
part of the raid.
Lt. Woodward said that the state police have a good working
relationship with Sheriff Mullendore. If that is the case, why didn’t they
consult the sheriff first? If Porter were really that dangerous wouldn’t it be
helpful to get more information from a trusted source better acquainted with
him? Mullendore said they usually do give notice. Reportedly several state
police who personally know Porter reside in Sharpsburg. Why were they not consulted?
Does the MSP detail SWAT automatically for gun search
warrants? Some other police forces do. For example, in one fatal Florida SWAT
shooting, a 21-man SWAT team was called in merely because the target had a
concealed-carry permit. Are SWAT raids to become the order of the day for gun
owners?
If Mr. Porter is indeed adjudicated a felon in possession of
firearms, then he was in violation of the law. He didn’t help his case by
bragging to the undercover officer about his doomsday preparations, especially
the Saiga—which turned out to be nonexistent.
There is nothing wrong with being prepared, or even
describing the actions you might take in a hypothetical “doomsday” situation,
but in fairness to police, with all the lunatics coming out of the woodwork
these days, and the heightened atmosphere of mutual distrust between law
enforcement and citizens, the MSP might be excused for presuming the worst. But
150 police?
Recent events such as the kidnapping/bunker
standoff in Alabama,
and cop-killer Dorner, provide apt examples. Police never know what to expect.
Still, in this case at least, it seems a little more investigation and
consultation with local authorities could have resolved this issue quietly and
with much less risk and cost.
Cost of the Operation
Neither the FBI nor the MSP have publicly disclosed how many
of their officers were involved in the raid. However, Senator Shank and
Delegate Parrott were told in a meeting with top MSP officials that the total,
including federal, state, and local police, exceeded
150. From public information requests we know that the Washington County
Special Response Team (SRT) sent 17, including four snipers, two medics, and
their Bearcat driver. Only two of these actually participated, the driver and a
sniper who accompanied him.
The FBI personnel were
training nearby and when their assistance was requested, many, if not all,
chose to participate. A witness on the scene guessed there were approximately
40 officers at the campground where the FBI staged. If we assume a total of
150, that would leave 93 MSP. The following table, based on police
salaries gleaned from public
sources provides a rough estimate
of the personnel cost for this operation.
The MSP argued that only variable costs—those directly
related to the operation—are relevant. By this logic, the operation cost very
little, as salaries and other fixed costs are incurred anyway. But the
personnel and resources involved would otherwise have been engaged elsewhere:
tracking down criminals, enforcing other laws, and assisting in emergencies.
There are clearly other, potentially more beneficial activities they could not
simultaneously perform. This is called opportunity cost and must be considered.
This raid cost
approximately $11,000 per hour, which dramatically illustrates one reason
government spending is so wildly out of control. If agency managers considered
the true cost of their decisions,
they might work harder to prioritize their activities and not waste valuable
resources on errands of questionable value.
High visibility events like the Sharpsburg raid present a one-sided picture
of police as out-of-control, wasting time on seeming trifles. But their daily
efforts, which go largely unreported, paint a much more balanced picture. For
example, the MSP Gang Enforcement Unit has aggressively investigated violent
street gangs, one of the largest sources of gun violence.
Between 2010 and 2012 alone, the Gang Unit made 621 gang
arrests and seized 94 firearms. This does not include their extensive work with
multi-agency task forces. Here, they have participated in successful operations
against such violent gangs as the Crips & Bloods, Wise Guyz, B-6, the Black
Guerrilla Family, Juggalos, the Dead Man Incorporated crime syndicate, and
others, and have brought many of these offenders to justice.
Militarization of
Police
The SWAT concept was
popularized by Los Angeles Police Chief Darryl Gates in the late 1960s in
response to large-scale incidents for which the police were ill-prepared. But
the use of SWAT teams has since exploded. Massive SWAT raids using
military-style equipment are becoming routine methods for executing search
warrants. One
study estimates 40,000 such raids per year nationwide:
These increasingly frequent raids… are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers.
John W. Whitehead writes in the Huffington
Post, that “it appears to have less to do with increases in violent crime
and more to do with law enforcement bureaucracy and a police state mentality.”
The ACLU recently
announced its intention to investigate the militarization of law
enforcement. Ironically, despite the perception of heightened gun violence due
to incidents like Newtown, ACLU points out that both crime rates and law
enforcement gun deaths have been declining for decades (see chart).
Yet police forces are becoming increasingly
militarized due to huge subsidies provided by the federal government:
Through its little-known “1033 program,” the Department of Defense gave away nearly $500 million worth of leftover military gear to law enforcement in fiscal year 2011… The surplus equipment includes grenade launchers, helicopters, military robots, M-16 assault rifles and armored vehicles… Orders in fiscal year 2012 are up 400 percent over the same period in 2011...
Congress created this provision in 1997 for drug and
anti-terrorism efforts. It has since provided over 17,000 agencies $2.6 billion
worth of equipment at no charge. One local agency now owns an amphibious tank,
while another obtained a machine-gun-equipped APC.
Additionally, Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) grants have allowed state and local agencies
nationwide to purchase Bearcats. These 16,000 pound vehicles are bulletproof
and can be equipped with all kinds of extra features.
Ironically, while SWAT teams probably got their biggest
boost initially from conservatives, many fear law enforcement is becoming a
tool to enforce leftist ideology. University criminal justice programs turn out
graduates indoctrinated in liberal theology, which carries into modern law enforcement
bureaucratic culture.
Today this trend is reflected in reports coming out of the
Department of Homeland Security, the military, and various law enforcement
“fusion” centers, that identify gun-owners, patriots, ex-military, Christians,
pro-life activists, and tea party members as “potential domestic
terrorists (pdf).”
The perpetrator of last summer’s attempted mass shooting at
the Family Research Council headquarters now admits he was prompted by the Southern
Poverty Law Center’s “Hate Watch” list. The radical leftist SPLC is now “consulting”
with the FBI and DHS regarding “rightwing hate groups.” The group labeled AIM’s
Cliff Kincaid a member of a sinister group of “Patriots” for writing critically
of the United Nations, President Obama, and the homosexual lobby, among other
things. Ironically, the SPLC “Teaching tolerance” project ran an article
praising unrepentant Communist terrorist bomber Bill Ayers as a “civil rights
organizer, radical anti-Vietnam War activist, teacher, and author,” with an
“editor’s note” going so far as to say that Ayers “has become a highly
respected figure in the field of multicultural education.”
Ammo, Military
Equipment and Domestic Drone Use
The Internet is abuzz with news that the Department of
Homeland Security is purchasing over 1.6
billion rounds of pistol and rifle ammunition, 2,700 Mine Resistant Armored
Vehicles (MRAP), and 7,000 fully-automatic “personal defense weapons.” Some of
this is worthy of concern, some maybe not so much. Meanwhile, the expanded use
of aerial drones within the continental U.S. has created anxiety among the
public and political leaders alike.
Ammo
Reportedly, the order for 1.6 billion rounds of pistol and
rifle ammunition would fulfill DHS requirements for the next five years, or 320
million rounds per year. DHS has 55,471 employees
authorized to carry firearms, which comes to about 5,800 rounds per year, per
employee. For perspective, during the first year of the war on terror,
approximately 72 million rounds were expended in Iraq
and another 21 million in Afghanistan
by an estimated 45,000
combat troops. This
amounts to about 2,000 rounds per war
fighter.
Yet the requisition may not be unreasonable. The largest
order, 750 million rounds, came from DHS’s Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center (FLETC) for training. FLETC Public Affairs Director Peggy Dixon said
that the purchase request was “a ceiling. It does not mean that we will buy, or
require, the full amounts of either contract.” Another 650 million rounds are
being purchased by Inspections and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to cover the next five
years.
Since these are maximum figures, it is difficult to
conclusively evaluate the purchase. Some have asserted that the practical
effect—if not the deliberate intent—is to dry up the private market for
ammunition. Congressmen are now demanding
answers from DHS regarding these purchases. But most ammunition shortages
are likely due to civilian demands. Obama and the Democrats’ palpable hostility
to gun owners has caused ammunition and firearms purchases to skyrocket.
There are 80 million gun owners in the U.S. If each
just purchased 100 rounds of ammo—enough for one afternoon at the range—that
would equal 8-billion rounds. Many are purchasing significantly more.
MRAPs &
Submachine Guns
The original story regarding a purchase of 2,700 MRAPs s was
in error. The confusion centers on a 2011
order from the U.S. Marines to retrofit 2,717 of its MRAPs with upgraded
chassis.
DHS has been using MRAPs since 2008 and currently has a fleet
of 16 received from the Army at no cost. They are used by DHS special
response teams in executing “high-risk warrants.”
Similarly, the purchase of 7,000 “Personal Defense Weapons”
is not extraordinary for an agency of this size.
Instead of asking why DHS needs 1.6 billion rounds of ammo or 7,000 “Personal Defense Weapons,”
the real question should be “why does DHS need 55,000 law
enforcement officers?”
Drones
DHS’s Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) has been
operating Predator drones since
2005, with a current fleet of nine. Some in Congress seek to expand their use. In
February of 2012, Congress passed the FAA
Modernization and Reform Act, which includes a provision for commercial
drone regulations. The
FAA projects that up to 30,000 drones could be flying by 2020. A
requisition memo describes
these requirements for drones operated by CBP against border incursions by
frequently armed drug traffickers and coyotes, but concern
exists that this use will extend to U.S. citizens inside the border.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) filibustered the nomination of John
Brennan as CIA Director, in order to obtain answers about lethal drone use
against American citizens within the U.S. Holder finally sent Paul a letter,
which said:
It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: ‘Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?’ The answer to that question is no.
Paul said they had been asking
Holder for about six weeks. But Holder
didn’t answer the question at all. Paul did not specify Americans “engaged
in combat on American soil.” He asked about attacks against any Americans
on U.S.
soil. Holder had said in earlier testimony that the President did
have the authority to kill Americans on American soil in certain
circumstances.
Given the Obama administration’s contempt for the
Constitution and its broad definition of “domestic terrorists” to include
pretty much anyone they don’t like, there is cause for genuine concern.
Gun Control
The Sharpsburg raid occurred
prior to the Newtown
tragedy, but nonetheless reinforced the widespread impression that MSP is an
anti-gun organization. Did the MSP decide to make an example of Porter to send
a message to Maryland
gun owners, or were they genuinely afraid that Porter was about to go postal?
That question is unclear, but a Maryland
law enforcement source who has attended briefings on the subject said that
state police are “gearing up for confiscation.”
In 1989 Patrick O’Carroll of the Centers for Disease
Control, stated:
We’re going to systematically build a case that owning firearms causes deaths. We’re doing the most we can do, given the political realities (emphasis added).
The CDC further revealed its strategy in 1994:
We need to revolutionize the way we look at guns, like what we did with cigarettes. Now it [sic] is dirty, deadly, and banned.” Dr. Mark Rosenberg, Director of the CDC’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention. Washington Post, 1994 (emphasis added).
Do these themes sound familiar? They represent a single
component of a vast effort by media, politicians, Hollywood, educational institutions, and
professionals to vilify gun ownership. One left-wing
organization, Third Way,
created a “messaging strategy,” encouraging the term “gun safety” because “gun
control has become a loaded term that leads voters to believe that the
candidate supports the most restrictive laws.”
Since Newtown,
however, the anti-gunners have pretty much dropped any pretense. Here is a
small sampling of recent anti-gun lunacy:
- Florida Democratic state Senator Audrey Gibson has proposed a bill requiring anger management classes for would-be ammo purchasers.
- Colorado State Senator Evie Hudak told a rape victim testifying against gun control that having a gun was a waste of time as the rapist would have killed her with it.
- A Democrat activist says we should train rapists not to rape, rather than using guns to stop them.
- A Baltimore, MD seven-year old was suspended from school for two days for biting a pastry into a shape that looked like a gun.
- A five-year old was suspended from school and branded a “terrorist threat” for telling a classmate she was going to shoot her with her Princess “bubble gun.”
- A Philadelphia 5th grader was called “murderer” by classmates and yelled at by her teacher for having a piece of paper cut into a shape that looked vaguely like a pistol.
- A New Jersey family was visited by police and the Department of Youth and Family Services because of a photo of their 11-year-old son posing with a rifle.
In an unguarded moment recently, U.S.
Rep Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) revealed the Democratic intentions:
We want everything on the table…This is a moment of opportunity. There’s no question about it…We’re on a roll now, and I think we’ve got to take the—you know, we’re gonna push as hard as we can and as far as we can.
Conclusion
The increased militarization of police forces and the
associated use of SWAT teams for routine law enforcement are a dangerous trend.
Given Obama’s seeming willingness to abuse the power of his office on so many
fronts, it is reasonable to expect more, not less, of the kind of abusive
police overreach described in this report, while police forces and capabilities
will continue to grow.
Obama’s obvious hostility to gun owners is fueling
legitimate fears of gun confiscation, furthering an atmosphere of mutual
distrust and paranoia between police and civilians. This raises the specter of
armed confrontations should there be attempts to confiscate firearms. As one
law enforcement official said at a recent gun hearing, “Good people are going
to die trying to take these guns and good people are going to die trying to
keep them.”
Ironically, despite its professed commitment to stopping
“gun violence,” the Obama Administration authorized gun-running to Mexican drug
cartels and Jihadists in Libya
and elsewhere in the Middle East. Some
hearings and investigations have been held into these schemes but there has
been little accountability for this “gun violence.”
At an AIM conference before the 2012 presidential election,
impeachment proceedings against President Obama were discussed. Citing his
experience with the Clinton
impeachment, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), then-chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, talked about hearings held by his committee featuring constitutional
experts who said “no other administration has ignored laws like this
administration…” In regard to impeachment, however, he said that the standard
was extremely high, and the process long and involved. He concluded, “I really
think the better answer is to turn the attention to the American people and
saying, ‘If you feel that strongly about the President, one way to register
that discontent is to vote for the other person.’”
In the end, of course, Obama won re-election, and the abuses
continue. However, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), has suggested impeachment may be
an option if the President continues to govern through unilateral executive
orders and attempts to impose his anti-Second Amendment agenda through such measures.
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