Free Republic

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to consider an appeal by the city of Waco and McLennan County in lawsuits filed by bikers arrested in the 2015 Twin Peaks shootout that left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. Attorneys for the defendants asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an April decision by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that reinstated the lawsuits of about 90 bikers whose civil rights cases were dismissed last year by U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of Waco. The federal appeals court panel reversed an Albright ruling that held a...

Heather Wallace plead guilty to child endangerment and can no longer work with kids.Heather Wallace's oldest son, 8-year-old Aiden, was driving his two brothers crazy in the car as they all returned from karate one afternoon in October 2021. Wallace asked Aiden to walk the rest of the way home—half a mile in quiet, suburban Waco, Texas—so that he could calm down. For this she was arrested, handcuffed, and thrown in jail. She was charged with endangering a child, a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of two years in prison. "It really brought us into deep trauma," says Wallace. She...

Nearly 90 bikers claim they were falsely arrested after deadly shootout The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated the lawsuits – at least temporarily – of about 90 bikers arrested in the 2015 Twin Peaks shootout whose civil rights cases were thrown out last year by U.S. District Judge Alan Albright. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court reversed Albright’s previous ruling that a grand jury’s indictment of the 90 bikers “served to break the chain of causation” for their false arrest claims and sent the cases back to Albright for further consideration in light of the...

If you ask Paul Looney, a Houston defense attorney, about the Twin Peaks biker case, he’ll tell you there’s one person who knows more about it than anyone else alive: his trial-preparation specialist, Roxanne Avery. An entire wall of her home office in Norman, Okla., is covered with wallet-size mug shots of the nearly 200 bikers arrested, as well as photographs of the nine men who died that day, seven years ago, after a violent brawl in a Waco parking lot. Each picture is layered with Post-it Notes and details about the subjects: ages, road names (Cheech, Chain, Drama, Sidetrack,...

he 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed former Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman and Assistant Chief Robert Lanning from lawsuits filed by bikers alleging false arrest after the 2015 Twin Peaks shootout, but left former McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna as a defendant. The ruling, issued late last week, is the most recent development in the six-year legal battle waged after hundreds of Bandidos and Cossacks and their respective support clubs squared off in the Twin Peaks parking lot while families were dining or shopping May 15, 2015, at the busy Central Texas Marketplace. About 134 bikers...

Former U.S. Rep. Bill Zeliff, a three-term Republican best known for helping lead the congressional investigation of the government’s disastrous siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, has died. He was 85. Zeliff, who represented southern and eastern New Hampshire in the U.S. House from 1991 to 1997, died Monday, according to Farley Funeral Homes and Crematory in Venice, Florida, where he had retired. He died after declining health, his wife told WMUR-TV in New Hampshire... ....While in the U.S. House, Zeliff chaired the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice and was a...

Officers quickly arrived and discovered shots were being fired from a hotel window. Officers worked to get patrons out of the hotel and secured them in a safe location nearby, according to police. The Richmond Police Emergency Response Unit was called to the scene and made contact with a male inside the room who was later identified as 55 year old Samuel Riddell of Waco. Police continue they learned that Riddell occupied the room with a female who secured herself in the bathroom until police safely got her out. Riddell was eventually taken into custody and later interviewed by detectives,...

No, that is not David Chipman standing in the ruins of the burnt-out Waco compound, site of the 1993 slaughter of members of the Branch Davidian religious group led by David Koresh. He was too busy back at the office helping to manufacture and disseminating lies about what went on at the compound to justify a brutal, murderous, and unnecessary assault. The animus he exhibited in his tenure at ATF towards gun owners and gun rights, to the point of using violence as a gun-control tactic, reflects a view he holds today and shares with the likes of Biden “gun...

Earlier in Joe Biden’s presidency, we wondered if his wife Jill was running the White House, and in effect the country. It’s still not out of the question, but it’s beginning to look more like Chief of Staff Ron Klain, unelected and not confirmed by the Senate, is the real president. This should make all Americans uncomfortable. Klain, who was the vice president’s chief of staff when Biden held that office, has been called “the man executing Biden’s mission” (which seems to be carrying out the Cloward-Piven model that advocates manufacturing a political and economic crisis so that politicians can...

A cult-like group that incorporates AR-15s into its worship ceremonies and embraces Donald Trump's MAGA politics has bought a compound for its "patriots" 40 miles from Waco in Texas. The compound is meant to be a place of refuge for members of the Sanctuary Church – which is also called Rod of Iron Ministries – ahead of a "war" and "genocide" that will supposedly be brought against them by the "deep state”. Vice News reported that the church is led by Pastor Hyung Jin "Sean" Moon, who is often referred to as "King" by his followers.

The Waco Police Department is joining a nationwide effort to try and diversify its police force by recruiting more women. Recently, the department signed "The 30x30 Pledge," which aims to have women make up 30 percent of its police force by 2030. So far, there are 37 women in the Waco PD, according to Officer Garen Bynum, the department's spokesperson. He said they make up 15% of its officers, which is 3% more than the national average of female officers (12%). Still, "to make the 30x30, we still have a lot of work to do," Bynum said. Before the pledge,...

One of the most prominent Southern Baptist pastors in the nation is warning Christian parents to keep their kids away from Baylor University.Article by Todd Starnes from WND.“What they teach and the underlying philosophy is anti-Christian,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said on the “Todd Starnes Radio Show.” “And I don’t think any true Christian parent who wants their kids to have a Christian education would allow their child anywhere near Baylor University.”Jeffress, the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas and a Baylor alumnus, was set off by the university’s recent actions on LGBT-related issues.The Board of Regents adopted a...

Welcome to the weekend. Back in the 1970's there were radio stations like KIIS in Los Angeles and WMGK in Philadelphia playing softer sounds called "soft rock" or "adult contemporary". Here are some songs in that take us back to that kind of sound... Are You An 'Abolitionist'? The Latest Vandalism From Portland "Direct Action" in downtown Portland last night... The United Kingdom is a dying nation. Peter Hitchens has urged young people to leave the country because it has no future but Mr. Hitchens does draw on his own father and his military service in the Royal Navy to...

President Joe Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) may have falsely claimed that cult members at Waco shot down helicopters. David Chipman has been slated to lead the agency as the Biden administration looks at ways to implement more restrictions on access to firearms. Chipman was an ATF agent for 25 years and is currently a senior policy advisor at Giffords, a lobby group seeking stricter gun laws led by former representative Gabriel Giffords. During a Reddit "Ask Me Anything (AMA)" last year, a user identifying himself as Chipman made the claim about members...

David Chipman, the gun control activist who President Biden nominated today to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) claimed last year that members of the Branch Davidian sect shot down two helicopters during a standoff with federal agents in Waco in 1993. That is certainly an odd statement considering it didn’t happen and Chipman served 25 years with the ATF. Chipman posted the comments as part of a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” event and even posted a photograph on the Reddit thread to confirm his identity. In response to a comment about the Waco siege from...

The White House announced Wednesday that President Biden will nominate longtime Giffords policy advisor and former ATF agent David Chipman to lead the nation's gun regulatory agency. Chipman, whose bio submitted to Congress in relation to his role in testifying in support of recent gun control measures, details that he has been with Giffords since 2016, having come to that anti-gun group after previously working for Bloomberg-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Prior to that, he was with the ATF from 1988 to 2012, including running the agency's Asset Forfeiture Program, leading the Detroit Field Division, and serving as "Case agent...

Baylor Bears coach Kim Mulkey is taking stiff criticism for saying the NCAA tournament should stop coronavirus testing for the Final Four. Mulkey made her feelings known in a presser after her team was eliminated from the tournament on Monday, ESPN reported.

On February 28, 1993, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents initiated a raid at a compound in Waco, Texas that resulted in a deadly shoot-out and an ensuing 51-day standoff.The ATF raid targeted the compound of a religious sect of Seventh Day Adventists, known as the Branch Davidians and led by David Koresh. The initial raid was an attempt to serve search and arrest warrants for Koresh and other members of the religious sect on weapons charges, but the bungled raid saw ATF agents pull back due to casualties sustained in the initial assault.According to a Treasury Department...

“The record of the Waco incident documents mistakes. What the record from Waco does not evidence, however, is any improper motive or intent on the part of law enforcement.” – Joseph Biden, U.S. Senator, Delaware (D) and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which issued the Waco Investigation Report The siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, is an important event in American history because it directly led to one of the biggest terrorist attacks on American soil – the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building. It’s not necessary to defend this act of terrorism to understand...

Twice-failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called most Republicans “cowards” and “spineless enablers” for supporting President Donald Trump, who defeated Clinton during the 2016 presidential election with zero political experience. According to a report by Axios, Clinton told New York Times Opinion podcast host Kara Swisher on Sunday that “most Republicans are going to want to close the page” and “want to see [Trump] gone as much as we do, but they can’t say it publicly.” Most Republicans, Clinton claimed, “have been cowards, spineless enablers” of the president. The former secretary of state also said it makes her “literally sick”...