Free Republic

“As London prepares to throw the world a $14 billion party, it seems fair to ask the question: What does it get out of the bargain?” asks the Christian Science Monitor in a recent story on the 2012 Summer Olympics. “Salt Lake got to show that its Mormon community was open to the world,” observes journalist Mark Sappenfield. “Turin got to show that it was not the Detroit of Europe. China got to give the world a glimpse of the superpower-to-be. And Vancouver got to show the world that Canadians are not, in fact, Americans.” And what is London showing...

The massacre of a dozen movie-goers in Colorado has sparked another spate of liberal demands for gun control. University of Colorado Professor Chad Kautzer has launched an online petition aimed at banning “concealed carry laws.” While acknowledging that such a ban might not have stopped James Holmes from shooting 70 people in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, Kautzer insisted that “the ability to add an illegal possession of a firearm charge to the list of offenses for which he will be prosecuted would have a deterrent effect.” In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested that police should go on...

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) - A Kansas City couple says the DEA busted down their front door, and they did absolutely nothing wrong. The address the DEA searched was in fact the one they got a warrant for, but the concern is about what sent the federal agents there - a photo and the GPS info attached to it. Shanila Jimerson was already suffering from wrist and knee pain when agents told her to hit the floor, and a panic attack set in. "All I seen was an AK and they say open the door," Jimerson said. "I started telling...

An innocent man was shot dead by police after deputies mistook him for an attempted murder suspect. Lake County, Florida officers showed up at the Blueberry Hill apartment of Andrew Scott at around 1.30am on Sunday Roused from his bed in the middle of the night by an unknown presence at his property, Andrew Scott answered the door holding a gun. Officers had not announced who they were because they did not want the man they thought was inside, Jonathan Brown, to escape.

When the woman called 911 a deputy wasn’t sent because the compliance officer is a county employee. A Georgia homeowner allegedly awoke to an unusual scene on July 2 — a county code compliance officer yelling at her over the state of her lawn from the doorway of her bedroom. “I woke up, I didn’t have my glasses on or my contacts in and all I see is this big burly figure standing in my doorway,” Erica Masters explained. “A big huge guy with a grey shirt. It scared the mess out of me.” She elaborated: “[He] yelled at me...

Code Enforcement Officer Walks Into Home Monday morning, Erica Masters was sleeping in her bed when Columbia County Code Compliance Officer Jimmy Vowell came to serve a violation notice for her grass being too long. Erica caught the whole incident on tape. "He let himself in and actually came through the house and into my bedroom. And yelled at me to wake me up, to let me know that I needed to come back outside and sign the violation notice." Erica says she was freaked out seeing a stranger in her doorway. "I woke up, I didn't have my glasses...

“Would You Take Away Guns From Law-Abiding Citizens?” Open Poll Causes Stir In American COP Magazine Will You Do It? I’ve known anti-gun cops, who seriously said things like, ‘They have no right to own a gun, it’s my job to protect them. If they have guns, it’s just a danger to me!’ I ike to think my “real” job is as the editor of our sister publication, American Handgunner magazine. A publisher wears many hats, but what I really like to do is write, edit and interact with readers. What I’ve never forgotten is we, you and I, are...

After perfecting them overseas in military situations, it was only a matter of time before the government and law enforcement would start using aerial drones for monitoring US citizens back home. And that time is now, as partygoers in Miami recently discovered. Back in January of 2011 Miami's police force acknowledged that they'd be the first in the country to employ camera-equipped drones to keep tabs on the city. So while its appearance isn't a complete surprise, this clip from YouTube user 'miamiearl' showing one of the drones monitoring partygoers at a recent Memorial Day weekend celebration, is still a...

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. - 18-year-old Troy teen Sean Combs An 18-year-old Troy teenager is heading to court as a poster boy for the fight over open carry gun rights in Michigan. Sean Combs, 18, of Troy, was arrested back in April after he was spotted with a loaded 1942 M-1 Garand military rifle slung across his back in downtown Birmingham. The legal question at this time is if what Combs did was allowed, because Michigan is an open carry state, or was he, as the police say, brandishing a firearm. Tonight, it will be up to a jury. A judge says...

A woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma is suing the city’s code enforcement teams after they illegally cut down her entire survival garden. Denise Morrison, who started the garden after becoming unemployed, had over 100 medicinal and edible plants in her front and back yard. She told local Tulsa reporters that she started her garden, after becoming unemployed, as a way to feed herself and treat a variety of medical issues. Instead of relying on government handouts, this woman took matters into her own hands and decided to become self sufficient. She filled her yard with things like, fruit trees, berries, nut...

Army First Lt. Augustine Kim’s finally got the Washington Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to return his guns after two years -- only to find them permanently damaged. The department violated its own regulations on handling firearms in evidence by engraving marks on the sides of the guns, and the city should reimburse the soldier for the loss. The Afghanistan war veteran was wrongly arrested while lawfully transporting his firearms from New Jersey to his home in South Carolina. All charges were later dismissed, but the city refused to respond to repeated requests from the national guardsman to return the $10,000...

While Army 1st Sgt. Matthew Corrigan slept inside his Northwest Washington home, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) response teams were gathering outside. Dozens of SWAT and explosive-ordnance-disposal officers spent hours preparing a full-scale invasion of the residence in the middle of the snowstorm of the century. It was not an operation to protect the public from a terrorist or to stop a crime in progress. It was to rouse a sleeping man over a secondhand report that he might have an unregistered gun. It all started a bit before midnight on Feb. 2, 2010. Sgt. Corrigan had called the National Veterans...

An Asheville, N.C. man has enlisted the aid of North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr to investigate a visit he received from two armed Environmental Protection Agency officials and a local police officer. Burr has been in touch with the man and started an inquiry into the incident with EPA. According to the Ashville Citizen-Times, Larry Keller claims the EPA targeted him after he sent an email on April 27 to former EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz, who resigned on April 30 over comments he made comparing the administration’s enforcement policy to Roman crucifixions. (RELATED: Complete coverage of the...

On the sixth floor of a sleek office building here, more than 150 techies are quietly peeling back the layers of your life. They know what you read and where you shop, what kind of work you do and who you count as friends. They also know who your mother voted for in the last election. The depth and breadth of the Obama campaign’s 2012 digital operation — from data mining to online organizing — reaches so far beyond anything politics has ever seen, experts maintain, that it could impact the outcome of a close presidential election. It makes the...

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) – The FBI has confirmed the man arrested in connection to a bank robbery in Aurora is the suspect they were looking for and acted alone. The suspect has been identified as Christian Paetsch, 45, of Centennial. The Wells Fargo at Chambers and Hampden was robbed just before closing time on Saturday. Shortly afterwards police shut down the intersection of Buckley and Iliff just southeast of the bank, corralling nearly two dozen cars in search for the suspect. Police Chief Daniel Oates on Monday apologized to the innocent bystanders that got caught up in the search for...

Privacy: News the EPA is conducting surveillance on farmers goes against our grain. Freedom means freedom of movement and the presumption of innocence. How can we have it if every move is monitored by government? Nebraska's congressional delegation sent a justifiably angry letter to Administrator Lisa Jackson last week complaining that her Environmental Protection Agency had exceeded its legislative and constitutional authority by conducting drone surveillance flights over Nebraska and Iowa farms looking for violations of the Clean Water Act. "They are just way on the outer limits of any authority they've been granted," said Nebraska GOP Sen. Mike Johanns,...

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) proposes that the U.S. Army be used to plan, command, and carry out (with the help of civilian law enforcement) domestic police missions. So says a story appearing in the May/June issue of the influential organization’s official journal, Foreign Affairs. The article lacks a single reference to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits such actions. In an article penned by Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General Raymond T. Odierno, the CFR would see the Army used to address “challenges in the United States itself” in order to keep the homeland safe from

Now the Chicago police department is following Obama’s example and telling people that their First Amendment rights can be terminated anytime. Check out the incident caught on camera when a couple of news reporters were trying to cover a story outside a Chicago hospital. Following the threat, the officer arrested the two journalists. Even though they were released a short time later, the incident has not gone unnoticed. According to the National Press Photographers Association, there have been 70 such arrests that they have documented since last September. Many of the arrests have involved the filming of news stories when...

AURORA, Colo. – Police have a “person of interest” in custody in connection with the robbery of the Wells Fargo back at 15301 E. Hampden Avenue Saturday afternoon. Immediately following the robbery, police closed the intersection of Iliff and Buckley after reports the suspect might have taken hostages. According to our crew on the scene, police stopped and searched nearly two dozen cars. The adult occupants of the vehicles were handcuffed during the investigation.

Conservative bloggers say they are being terrorized by a potentially deadly prank in which phony 911 calls bring armed cops to their doors in search of criminals, all in retaliation for their blog posts. At least two conservative Internet pundits have reported being victims of "SWAT-ing." In at least one incident, the caller claimed to be the resident of the home and confessed to shooting his wife, according to a recording of the call posted online. "It's a phone call that could have gotten me killed," Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney at Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, wrote...