Michigan County and State Anti-Constitutional Resistance

I'm posting this thread to help inform the citizens of the State of Michigan about the state and county support for defending our constitutional rights from the unconstitutional policies of the U.S. federal government.

I want to concentrate on the supporters of state and county authority, but will also include any supporters of federal authority I find within Michigan.

I will be adding more information as I find it and encourage others to help out with any information they can add.

Of the 83 Michigan Counties, the following list is of the Michigan Counties with Sheriffs who support the U.S. and Michigan State Constitutions.

Allegan County
Barry County
Benzie County
Eaton County
Elkhart County
Joseph County
Kent County
Macomb County
Menominee County
Oakland County
Ottawa County
Tuscola County

The following links are articles on some of those county sheriffs.

www.elkharttruth.com...

www.mlive.com...

cspoa.org...

hastingsbanner.com...

hastingsbanner.com...

thecountyguard.org...


There is also resistance to the federal government inside the Michigan State government. Here is some information concerning the Michigan State Legislature

"Michigan Senate Votes 37-0 To Defeat Obama’s NDAA! "

"In a vote of 37-0 (1 absent), the Michigan Senate joined the growing list of states and municipalities throughout America in passing their version of the Liberty Preservation Act, released by the Tenth Amendment Center. Senate Bill 94 (SB94) now proceeds to the Michigan State House. State Senator Rick Jones, the bill’s sponsor, and grassroots activists forged the bipartisan alliance against the federal law that applies the law of war and indefinite detention to anyone on U.S. soil."

www.westernjournalism.com...


"Michigan House votes to reject federal detention plan. Representatives unanimous in 107-0 decision blasting Washington"

"Their proposal states “no agency of this state, no political subdivision of this state, no employee of an agency of this state or a political subdivision of this state acting in his or her official capacity, and no member of the Michigan national guard on official state duty shall aid an agency of the armed forces of the United States in any investigation, prosecution, or detention of any person pursuant to section 1021 of the national defense authorization act.”

Rep. Tom McMillin, the sponsor, was pleased, according to the Tenth Amendment Center, which monitors issues of state sovereignty."

www.wnd.com...


Apparently the Michigan State House Speaker, Jase Bolger, supports the federal government over our state's rights.


"Michigan State Speaker Violates States Rights and Oath"

"As states, communities and people across the country rush to protect State and Individual Rights under assault by a federal administration which has become tyrannical, operating far beyond its constitutional authority and at odds with the fundamental rights of the people, Michigan State House Speaker Jase Bolger issues an official position statement that should instantly end his political career."

www.rightsidenews.com...

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Thank you !

It mentioned joining other "states and municipalities throughout America", so it got me looking. Neither my state or county are on the lists. Check here for yours.

NDAA Nullification Tracking

reply to post by elouina


According to my cursory research, those websites that list counties are incomplete. I had to do some digging to come up with the dozen counties in my list.

Thanks for contributing Elouina.

I'd just like to add that the following counties are important due to large population, proximity to large urban centers, or because of political clout.

Macomb and Oakland Counties are suburbs of Detroit proper (which is in Wayne County) with large populations that have considerable influence during presidential elections.

Kent County, with Grand Rapids and surrounding communities, has the largest population in west Michigan's lower peninsula.

Even though it would seem that the rural counties would be mostly behind this, some of Michigan's most populous counties are in the resistance movement against federal power grabs. Add to that the legislative moves to create state laws that acknowledge the unconstitutional policies of the fed and it looks like Michigan is heading in the right direction - IMO of course.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


Interesting. 107-0. Uh huh.

So what was these people's position on the passing of the UnPatriot Act? And on FISA legislation?...Or...How about NSPD-51? And do their towns have militarized cops with tanks and drones?

I don't mean to sound so skeptical, but honestly this is all too little, too late.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


thanks for posting!

Allegan County
Barry County
Benzie County
Eaton County
Elkhart County
Joseph County
Kent County
Macomb County
Menominee County
Oakland County
Ottawa County
Tuscola County

That's it Of all the many counties in Michigan...only these support the Constitutions :shk:
Glad I live in one of them......makes you wonder what is wrong with the others.....

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck

 

Interesting. 107-0. Uh huh.

So what was these people's position on the passing of the UnPatriot Act? And on FISA legislation?...Or...How about NSPD-51? And do their towns have militarized cops with tanks and drones?

I don't mean to sound so skeptical, but honestly this is all too little, too late.

edit on Thu Mar 14th 2013 by TrueAmerican because: (no reason given)

I will have to do more research to come up with the answers to those important questions. As far as state representatives go, that is a tall order. However, I should be able to find out, without a lot of searching, about the military gear and what state, county or city police forces might have that. That information would be good to know in a SHTF situation.

Thanks for your input TrueAmerican, I give you a star for that of course.

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


I'm sure there is more counties and I hope other Michiganders would add to that list, but yeah, 12 out of 83 is pretty low, but the state seems on board with this and I expect more counties to fall in line.

Thanks for the applause Don't Tread On Me, I was hoping that this post would be at least worthy of some flags, so that caught me a little by surprise.

I'd like to clarify that the unanimous House Bill was HB 5768 which also addresses Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act.

I found another House bill that has recently been introduced.

House Resolution 0018 (2013) rss

"A resolution to reaffirm the right to keep and bear arms under the Michigan Constitution, the supremacy of the Second Amendment over the Commerce Clause, the limitations of the Office of the President to ban firearms by use of executive order, and the intent of the Michigan Legislature to not recognize or enforce unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful firearm restrictions placed upon its citizens."

Let hope this one passes too.

Some bills passed by the Michigan House and Senate have been controversial. Those include the following.

The New Emergency Manager Law

"Michigan’s Senate approved a law to give financially distressed cities and school districts a choice of bankruptcy or a state-appointed emergency manager with power to cancel union contracts.

The bill, which goes to Republican Governor Rick Snyder for his signature, would replace a similar 2011 measure voters repealed Nov. 6. Opponents who led that effort called the law, Public Act 4, undemocratic and an attempt to bust unions."

www.bloomberg.com...


Financial Martial Law -

"Although Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) anti-union crusade has received the biggest headlines, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is poised to sign an even more drastic assault on working Americans into law. Last week, the Michigan legislature passed a “financial martial law” bill that allows Snyder to appoint “emergency financial managers” with the power to terminate collective bargaining agreements:"

thinkprogress.org...


Michigan Right-To-Work Bill -

"The state where the United Auto Workers was founded and labor has long been a political titan will join 23 others with right-to-work laws, which ban requirements that nonunion employees pay unions for negotiating contracts and other services.

Supporters say the laws give workers more choice and support economic growth, but critics insist the real intent is to weaken organized labor by encouraging workers to "freeload" by withholding money unions need to bargain effectively."

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Those last posts lead me to someone I haven't mentioned yet, one tough nerd, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

I think we should keep a close eye on Rick, it doesn't seem like he is much of a defender of the constitution.

His veto power can be a road block to pro constitution legislation.

www.reuters.com...

"Michigan's governor vetoes gun bill after Connecticut massacre
Reuters – Tue, Dec 18, 2012

DETROIT (Reuters) - Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder on Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed some gun owners to bring concealed weapons to places such as schools and day care centers, his office said.

The bill passed the Republican-majority Michigan legislature last Thursday, the day before the mass shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary schools left 26 dead, including 20 young children.

Snyder was already reluctant to sign the bill before the Connecticut incident, but that "heartbreaking" event gave him "extra pause," said Sara Wurfel, Snyder's press secretary. (Reporting By Bernie Woodall; Editing by Greg McCune)"

I'll be checking around the web and on threads here and adding more about Rick as I go along.

I'd just like to say that the last post about the Governor's veto was a good example of a veto against the 2nd amendment, however, considering that Sandy Hook just happened, that was a tough situation and don't blame him for his veto. If I were Governor, I probably would have done the same, I'm sure it was a really tough decision on his part.

Here is an article that examines the suspicious legislation in question.

"Michigan Right to Work Law Was the Brainchild of ALEC The Most Dangerous Group in Politics"

"No sooner had the GOP secured total control of Michigan in 2010, holding majorities in both houses and winning the governorship, than the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing ultra-conservative 'bill mill' and THE source of money and corruption in politics today, lept into action. ALEC wasted no time in sending many of their most onerous 'model legislation' bills to Michigan. These included the Emergency Manager law, privatization of public schools, expansion of charter schools, HB 5221 (Voter ID Act), which required voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote, and HB 4305 with language similar to ALEC’s model 'Immigration Law Enforcement Act.' "

www.policymic.com...


Here is another article on another questionable bill.

"Michigan immigrants challenge governor Rick Snyder over licenses"

"ACLU seeks to prove refusal of driving licenses to those with 'deferred status', as in Arizona and Nebraska, is unconstitutional"

www.guardian.co.uk...

IMO, it seems that "right-wing conservative" would best describe Rick Snyder, and I feel that if he thought he could skirt the constitution he would probably try to. Tricky Rick Snyder

In a post from TrueAmerican, "And do their towns have militarized cops with tanks and drones?"

There is plenty of evidence that there are some Michigan law enforcement using military
weaponry. Here is some information on police militarization in Michigan.

"The ACLU wants to know what some Michigan law enforcement agencies are doing with military equipment"

"The American Civil Liberties Union is asking police departments in Michigan for information about their use of military-style weapons and tactics.

The ACLU sent public records requests this week to police departments in Detroit (Wayne County), Flint (Genesee County) and Dearborn (Wayne County), as well as the Michigan State Police. Similar requests were sent to cities in 22 other states."

www.michiganradio.org...

"September 11 also brought a new source of funding for military-grade equipment in the Department of Homeland Security. In recent years, the agency has given anti-terrorism grants to police agencies across the country to purchase armored personnel carriers, including such unlikely terrorism targets as . . . Adrian, Michigan;"

www.huffingtonpost.com...


It looks like I should do a little research on Adrian, Genesee and Wayne Counties and where they stand on the constitution.

Posted for easier find. Keep it up!

I made a mistake in my last post. I wrote "Adrian, Genesee and Wayne Counties" but Adrian is a city in Lenawee County. I don't know why I just noticed that now.

After looking for connections to Homeland Security, I found Detroit, Dearborn and Flint to be very open about working with Homeland Security (esp. Detroit and Dearborn), but they aren't talking online too much about the toys they have. I would have to dig a lot deeper to find department grants and purchases, but they sure seem proud to work with DHS on their websites. The Detroit Police Homeland Security page is somewhat disturbing with a banner that reads, "Securing our Nation, one block at a time".

Adrian, with a 27 man police force that doesn't really have any special crime units, makes no association with the Department of Homeland Security on their website. I doubt the Adrian Police Dept have any tanks or drones.

Edit to Add:
Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad . . .

Early this year, the board of directors of the Southeastern Michigan Chief’s Association, which represents municipalities, including Detroit, in seven counties, unanimously selected Haddad as its representative on the federal Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) committee. UASI is responsible for the appropriation of federal funding for Homeland Security projects in the State of Michigan.

www.pressandguide.com...


The Urban Area Security Initiative grant money is a good place to start when trying to find out which police departments have military toys.

Some important corrections and a map graphic for people who like pictures.

First, a glaring error about one of the counties in my list of pro-constitution counties.

Elkhart County is, of course, in Indiana, just south of St Joseph County (not Joseph County as spelled in the list). Elkhart is pro-constitution though. These errors were very obvious, so my apologies to all who are following this.

So there are only 11 pro-constitution counties in my list and 3 pro-Federal Government counties.

Here is a map of Michigan Counties based on my current list. Green counties are pro-constitution, red are for the pro-feds and orange is possibly pro-feds.



I checked out the political leanings of the counties in the list and found that, with regards to elections, Ottawa and Allegan counties have been consistently Republican over the years and that Wayne and Genesee have been consistently Democratic. The other counties have been mixed and back and forth in voting trends.

Edit to add: Population figures from the 2010 census for the highest population counties in the list.

Pro-Fed Counties

Wayne County - Population 1,820,584

Genesee County - Population 425,790

Total: 2,246,374

Pro-Constitution Counties

Oakland County - Population 1,202,362

Macomb County - Population 840,978

Kent County Population of 602,622

Total: 2,645,963

Regardless of the low number of pro-constitution counties vs uncommitted counties, the population figures are encouraging IMO.

Here is some conformation on the Genesee County Sheriff's anti-constitutional attitude.

Michigan Sheriff: Random Narcotics Checkpoints Are Totally Constitutional Lucy Steigerwald | Oct. 21, 2011 4:28 pm Genesee County, Michigan Sheriff Robert Pickell is not concerned about the constitutionality of his new method of keeping Flint free of illegal drugs. Fourth Amendment fans, medical marijuana patients, and jumpy motorists are less sure. . . . The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that DUI checkpoints were illegal, but the U.S. Court leaves the matter up to the states, under certain conditions.

reason.com...