Posted on 12/08/2011 3:14:57 AM PST by marktwain
Less than two months ago I was the guest on a radio program out of Fairbanks Alaska called Patriot's Lament (click here to view the video). Two of the hosts were David Giessel and Joshua Bennett.
David and I had become good friends ever since we met at the recent Casey summit. Being a young anarcho-capitalist, we had him on Anarchast (click here to view). Living in Alaska, they had been very curious about my libertarian hideaway in southern Mexico (AcaCondos) and David had made plans to visit this December.
That was, until, the FBI with 30 strong wearing body armor and bearing machine guns raided Joshua's house a few days ago.
The following is Joshua's account of what happened the morning of December 6th under his blog post entitled, "It Won't Happen In America, Yeah Well It Just Did":
This morning while I was working on a bid for a job, my phone quit working. I tried it a few more times and then thought about it for a minute and then asked my wife, is your phone working?It wasn't.
So I sat and waited.
Then they came.
I watched them scatter.
My wife came running down the stairs yelling, "Josh, there are a bunch of men surrounding our house and they have guns!!"
I have 8 children, all of them watching the scene unfold before their eyes. Dozens of agents wearing body armor and carrying machine guns, swarm around our house.
I think over my options, (there is only one, they kill kids) and I walk to the door, and yell loud enough for the thugs outside and my family inside to hear, "It's the FBI , don't be scared, just be quiet and sit down!" I open the door and am looking at Michael Anderson's wife. They have her in front of them, between us, and she is crying.
"How can I help you?"
"Mr. Bennett, we are here for Michael Anderson!"
"Do you have a warrant?"
They walk right in. My mind is screaming to demand to see the warrant, when I am told, "Mr. Bennett, we don't want any trouble, and I don't want to frighten your children." He's a little late for that. He ignores my request about the warrant, and proceeds to find and arrest Michael Anderson. I stand in my living room and watch the agents running around here to there. I look at one who is holding his rifle next to a car. He looks at me for a second, then moves behind the car and continues to watch. I look at my 6-year-old twin girls; they are scared to death. I hold my hands out far from my sides for "them" to see.
Michael is brought upstairs, his 4-year-old son is screaming at the agents, "Don't take my dad, don't take my dad!" I ask what he is being charged with, and am told he is being held as a witness. "You guys arrest your witnesses now?" I ask about the warrant again. But it's done. They go out the door. They put Mike in the car, and spend a few more minutes running around the house for some reason, guns in the open.
Now they are gone.
One of the twins asks me, "Poppa, why did they come here with guns?" I say they were scared.
"Why poppa? Why are they scared of us, we don't hurt people, and we wouldn't hurt them". I tell her they just wanted to come and get Mike, and it's ok because now they are gone. She says," I know why they came and took Mr. Anderson, Poppa, because they know he didn't do anything wrong, and they don't want him to tell other people". HA! Out of the mouths of babes. She is right, one agent could have come and actually served the warrant, and produced the same outcome. That must not be enough fun for them. I talked to my older sons...were they afraid? Yes. One said," Dad, there were guys running all over with guns, how could we not be?" I told them it's ok. I was too.
I hope they enjoyed terrorizing my family.
Thugs.
Criminals in costumes.
So, Joshua's house got raided by 30 well armed FBI thugs looking for Joshua's friend, Michael Anderson. There was no arrest warrant for Michael and he currently sits in jail charged with nothing as the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner explains. Anderson had previously been held for 8 months just for being mentioned in a conversation with some other men supposedly wanted for planning to kill Alaska State Troopers or court officials and was released until he was once again kidnapped on December 6th.
While we know nothing of Michael Anderson's involvement in any activities, having Joshua's house raided, terrifying his entire family, sadly, does not surprise us.
The police and all the endless government agencies in the US have all become increasingly militarized. The US Department of Education bought a number of shotguns earlier this year, leaving one news agency to question why the DoE needs shotguns. That question was soon answered when a similar home raid was conducted by a DoE SWAT team in California looking for a woman who was behind on her student loans.
Many are awakening to the fact that there will be no political solution for the sad state of affairs in the US. Voting is just the slave's suggestion box and many are finally realizing that it does not matter for which of the two political parties in the US you vote. They both do nothing but increase the size of government and its control over your life. As Gary Lloyd said, "When the government’s boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence."
There are no laws.
There is no Constitution.
There are only powerful people who think they can get away with things.
And they are usually correct.
What arm of the government isn’t militarized now?? ,, Even the Dept. of Education has an arsenal. http://usgovinfo.about.com/b/2010/03/18/why-the-dept-of-education-needs-shotguns.htm
Sounds like more to this story:
“Anderson had previously been held for 8 months just for being mentioned in a conversation with some other men supposedly wanted for planning to kill Alaska State Troopers or court officials”
Just asking...seems like the FBI was expected.
I mean Anarchists seem to draw their attention for some reason.
This sucks and the FBI is digging its own grave so it can be by the DEA & ATF. Sad.
Horse hockey! If the government was so severe, it would be using cattle prods on the OWS crowd as it should. Virgina is still paying disability to state troopers that injured their backs dragging lard arse striking union miners out of the road years ago when we expiermented with an affirmative action governor that should have been a warning about Obama.
More to the story?
So that would justify the ignoring of requirements to enter a home when a warrant is requested?
If such behavior is OK when there ‘is more to the story’, then it WILL be OK when there is no story at all.
“What is really nasty here is the cavaler attitude toward a warrant. Perhaps someone can explain how this is not a direct violation of the 4th amendment?”
I hate to be the one to tell you but thanks to the Patriot Act they don’t need a warrant anymore. And thanks to the recent Legislation passed by the SEnate last week they can snatch up anybody, accuse them of being Al Queda and put them in a detention camp incognito indefinitely. Welcome to the Police State ya’ll.
Who'da thunk it...
In typical ham-handed fashion, said government then makes things worse by using the same kind of tyrant-tactics the kooks said they would...
Stick a fork in us. This isn't going to get any better from here.
I’m glad you find the burgeoning police State funny. :-|
It does not impact me. :-)
Yet...
You are exactly right. The recent update to the spending bill
makes it clear that you only need to be “associated” with Al
Queda before they can treat you as a terrorist...no definition
or criteria is given as to the burden of proof prior to
declaring you as such. Thus they can pretty much pick a group
in secret and declare them terrorists and then round’em up
under the rule of war. No judicial process etc etc.
Give 'em a chance and the NRA/GOA/SAF/JPFO type groups will be added to that "list".
I am confident in my assertion.
Some more info on this fiasco...
“If you can’t charge ‘em, break ‘em until they snap.”
Yeah... This’ll end well.
If the first, you are naive and are due a rude awakening.
If the latter, the same...
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