Posted on 02/25/2015 2:22:52 PM PST by Dacula
It seemed like a typical congressional meeting for the Republic of Texas. Senators and the president gathered in the center of a Bryan, Texas, meeting hall, surrounded by public onlookers, to debate issues of the national currency, develop international relations and celebrate the birthday of one of their oldest members.
But this wasn't 1836, and this would be no ordinary legislative conference. Minutes into the meeting a man among the onlookers stood and moved to open the hall door, letting in an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI.
In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing all cellphones and recording equipment in a Valentine's Day 2015 raid on the Texas separatist group.
"We had no idea what was going on," said John Jarnecke, president of the Republic of Texas. "We knew of nothing that would warrant such an action."
The raid was a response to legal summons sent by Republic of Texas members to a Kerr County judge and bank employee, demanding they appear in the Republic's court at the Veterans and Foreign Wars building in Bryan the day the officers stormed in. Jarnecke's group, the subject of a half-hour YouTube documentary, maintains a small working government, including official currency, congress and courts.
"You can't just let people go around filing false documents to judges trying to make them appear in front of courts that aren't even real courts," said Kerr County sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who led the operation.
He acknowledged he used a "show of force," grouping officers from city, county state and federal law enforcement to serve a search warrant for suspicions of a misdemeanor crime. He said he had worries that some extremists in the group could become violent, citing a 1997 incident when 300 state troopers surrounded an armed Republic leader for a weeklong standoff.
"We've had years of bad press, but we're not those people," said Jarnecke of the '97 incident. "But yes, we are still making every attempt to get independence for Texas and we're doing it in a lawful international manner."
The Republic has a lengthy list of qualms with the federal government, among them that Texas was illegally annexed in 1845. But most of their complaints have to do with the behavior of the American legislature and executive. Robert Wilson, a senator in the Republic, equated politicians in Washington D.C. to the "kings and emperors" of the past, and sees Texas independence as part of a worldwide movement for local control.
"This is the century for colonialist ambitions to be reversed," the 78-year-old pastor said. "I've watched a lot of things happen, and the people of the world are fed up. The spirit of the world right now is: make things smaller, move governments closer to home, take back self-rule."
Jarnecke said he was being taxed by a foreign government that he feels doesn't represent him, and protested having to fund bank bailouts and foreign wars.
"According to the U.S. Constitution, the only place any army should be is guarding our own borders, not invading and trying to impose their will on every other country of the world," Jarnecke said.
Still, he and Wilson said their group would not resort to violence, but is working through world courts to get international recognition of an independent Texas. They said their methods are legal, but Sheriff Hierholzer contests that.
"We've had a lot of dealings with Republic of Texas members in the past here, too, flooding the court with simulated documents," he said. "I don't have any problem with them going back to the Republic of Texas but they need to do it through the proper legal channels."
The judge and banker summoned to the Republic's court had been involved in the foreclosure of a member's Kerr County house. The invalid court summon was signed by Susan Cammak, the Kerr County homeowner, and David Kroupa, a Republic of Texas judge from Harris County.
A search warrant, photographed and emailed by a Republic of Texas member before her phone was confiscated, accuses the two of "simulating legal process." It also authorizes the seizure of all computers, media storage, software, cell phones and paper documents. Hierholzer said the seized devices will be downloaded and reviewed to determine if others conspired in the creation and issuance of false court documents.
Police searched and fingerprinted each person at the meeting, but they did not perform cheek-swab DNA testing as the warrant allowed.
No arrests were made in the raid, but the case is still under investigation, Hierholzer said. The FBI and Texas Rangers would not comment.
Jarnecke acknowledged that legislation and court summons issues by the Republic have no real effect, but said the group was close to taking their case to an international court—they haven't yet selected which. He hopes that will be the first step in rallying for Texas independence.
"I'm positive we will get out independence back at some point in time," he said. "Now we're just trying to nip things in the bud ahead of time to make sure the people are the ones that have the power when it happens, not the government."
No. I think they got in trouble with the law in an armed confrontation in West Texas years ago. They seemed like kooks.
I'm glad that our bankrupt-at-all-levels gruberment has got some extra cash laying around to send 20 or more LEOs on an all-day raid for a misdemeanor.
Won't be as profitable as the 25-LEO raid on the Dell Maraschino factory up in Brooklyn, New York, though. The thugthorities scored BIG-TIME with that one. Ka-CHING!!!:
...The DA's office and environmental regulators discovered 80lbs of pot in three large bags and hundreds of thousands of dollars concealed in the secret room...
...A row of luxury, vintage cars were also found covered in tarp in a back lot of the factory in the industrial area of Red Hook...
And how did our intrepid modern-day vice-admiralty courters get the bling?
...Despite watching comings and goings at the factory for six months, the DA's office was unable to work out if there was a marijuana business operating inside.
An anonymous source told the paper that the environmental offense warrants were simply used to get into the building...
We're so screwed as a country. It's only a matter of time before the authorities start rolling the twenty-man squads to kick in your door because you wrote something on Free Republic that they didn't like.
May our chains sit lightly, but pick up some lumber & Visqueen to repair your door.
20 guys to serve a search warrant for suspicions of a misdemeanor crime isn't like unto German fascism?
Here's hoping the next time you get your oil changed at the quick-lube place, the service personnel call in 20 guys to do the change, and charge you for their time, man for man.
"That'll be 416.98, Mr. wideawake, and thank you for your business!"
LOL! :)
Didn’t a couple of the leaders of this group run to the Davis Mountains a few
years back? Maybe it was another group, I can’t remember.
Kooks is an understatement. Crazy. If they so reject the US and Texas, why don’t they head south to Mexico or elsewhere. See how they like the lack of benefits of being Americans.
and another seccesionists group:
Subtle? What was "subtle" about sending a small army of LEOs to arrest people for alleged misdemeanors? Moreover, if I read this right, the precipitating factor was that TWO attendees filed some legal documents considered fraudulent. That being the case, to avoid a possible confrontation arrest the TWO privately, away from the others.
This "raid" smells of David Koresh redux.
worries that some extremists in the group could become violent —
How about ‘children’ invading a mall or movie theater?
1%ers raping in their campground?
Drug dealers kidnapping citizens in Phoenix?
Workplace violence (shhhh) on an Army base?
etc.
No hypocrisy here folks.
Plenty of federal agents to track down a small obscure group in Texas to investigate a possible misdemeaner. Meanwhile, illegal aliens, drugs, and criminals are flowing across the southern border like locusts and illegal aliens are allowed face to face time with POTUS. Who’s living in the shadows again???
Post foreclosure eviction, perhaps?
That’s possible, I suppose.
Obama Admin: ISIS Are Not Terrorists But 72 Types Of Americans Are, Did You Make The List?
“...debate issues of the national currency, develop international relations and celebrate the birthday of one of their oldest members.”
What next?
Are they going to arrest people for playing Monopoly or the local middle school kids participating in Model U.N?
model UN?
Only the kids playing Israel, Uganda and Taiwan have to worry about that.
Good point. Apparently, American laws are only enforced against certain "undesirable" groups within the country.
Which is the same as being ruled by lawless tyrants...
” Good point. Apparently, American laws are only enforced against certain “undesirable” groups within the country.
Which is the same as being ruled by lawless tyrants... “
The late Sam Francis spotted this early on. ‘Anrcho-tyranny’ is how he described it in his writings.
When I lived in Texas 20 years ago they were trying to cash these enormous checks for a billion dollars or so and all had these handmade “ID papers” as “citizens” of the Rep of TX with names like GALAHAD of LAMPASAS and such. Seemed pretty kooky to me.
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