Note From a Cop- Tree of Liberty Forums

Note From a Cop

Note From a Cop

The fear on the street is palpable. Ever since the election of Barack Obama as President of these United States in November 2008, coupled with the election of a democrat party majority in both the U.S. House and Senate, concern for the United States and personal safety has ignited like a fire in dry grass.

Sales of guns – black guns, rifles, shotguns and handguns (particularly 9mm) everywhere, have gone through the roof. AR15s have literally flown off of dealer shelves, and only now in the spring of 2009, have I seen the display samples of ARs begin to reappear on the wall of my favorite shooting emporium after the initial post election rush.

Manufacturers of ARs are still working to catch up and some of the major suppliers are as much as 150,000 guns behind. Not only that, ammo is in the shortest supply I have ever seen in the 43 years of my shooting life. Have you recently tried to get 5.56mm, 9mm or even 380 ammo?

Supplies of 5.56mm and 9mm ammo are in short supply due to the black gun buying craze; .380ACP because of the rise in people getting concealed carry permits and the resurgence of interest in convenient 380 handguns like the fine Ruger LCP. In fact, in doing a review of the Ruger LCP, my gun store only had a small supply of ONE .380 round on hand, the Winchesters 95-grain SXT, which they had just gotten in. Unfortunately, I had to do a 30-round review of that pistol. There was none other to be found.

What is odd about this new fear is that it is not coming from the average citizen gun owner out there, but it is coming from what to me is an almost shocking source: street cops.

Street cops and SWAT cops that I know from various agencies – rural, suburban and metro – in my area are scared. Cops that before November 2008 never gave much thought (that I knew of anyway) to politics or more
importantly to gun rights. For the most part, these are the guys that didn’t generally have any interest in shooting or gun ownership beyond keeping track of where their duty gun is, and a few of them didn’t even do that so well.

The guys I am talking about now are some of the same guys who used to not even carry off duty on a regular basis- but not anymore. They don’t scare easily, defenders of the Constitution of this State and the United States (as our oath of office reads), have been buying ARs, survival gear, and all the ammo they can lay their hands on. All of them (or I should say “us”) have been discussing and have been acquiring guns to provide a layered perimeter defense.

What are we suddenly so afraid of? Well in our discussions it seems to boil down to four areas.

First, fear of federal government intrusion into our lives. Every time I look at or listen to the news, there is something new and intrusive coming out of the Obama administration and this Congress. New tax schemes, government-run Canadian-style healthcare, a volunteer citizen defense force (whatever that is, what happened to the National Guard?) equipped with funding similar to our military, forced voluntary “service” after retirement, a lack of a southern border with hordes of illegal and criminal aliens pouring over our border, the swine flu scare as well as government forced closing of thousands of privately held Chrysler and GM dealerships, which will be the final nail in the coffin for these companies and the list goes on and on.

But these items in the news are just the tip of the iceberg. We can’t see the full impact of these actions yet, but we don’t know what was added into the thousand of pages of stimulus package bills in the dead of night yet. I predict however that when the plans contained in the stimulus packages go into effect, a lot of us are going to be surprised if not shocked by what has suddenly and sweepingly changed.

What also scares us is the second, well-founded fear that there is an assault weapons ban looming, one that would make the Clinton Ban appear like a look of disdain in comparison. I remember well the 1990s and the Clinton years: the rise of militia groups, the “black helicopter” rumors and paranoia, all of which was motivated by the Brady Law and the Assault Weapon’s ban. What if a new ban comes requiring registration or confiscation and turn-in of banned weapons as what happened in Australia?

...I foresee much civil disobedience coming down the road. Americans are citizens, and not subjects like the British, Canadians or Australians. They just don’t always obey the law blindly and not one officer or citizen that I spoke to said anything like “I hope I get to keep this gun for awhile before they are banned; They are fun to shoot, so I would hate to give it up.” It isn’t going to happen, so the cop on the street and the soldier on the base needs to think now what he will do if the orders come down. I think you all get what I am saying here.

Which leads me to the third fear, that there is a revolution coming, yes, a revolution on the scale of the original American Revolution. You can hear this topic discussed on many of the talk radio shows by even the big name hosts. The possibility of an armed revolution against the U.S. government being discussed, albeit very gingerly and fleetingly and as something to be avoided, which it is. I never heard this mentioned in the 90s. One of my quietest, low profile officer friends brought it up the other day.

He said that at some point in the near future, he felt there is going to be an armed revolt if things keep going the way they are. Something has got to give. I was shocked. Yes, I had heard this from some of my more radical
cop friends in the past, but to hear it from a guy like this was unprecedented. Now, these guys are not saying this will happen to foment revolution, preach sedition or to even participate. They just want to be ready if it happens, to at least defend their families, because number four on the fear list is general societal chaos.

Cops fear for their parents, wives, children or grandchildren more now than ever before. Most cops are encouraging their spouses and loved ones to get concealed carry permits. Not only that, but some of these same cops are buying gun mounts for their personal cars so they can carry an AR in the family ride at the ready all the time. They are also strapping on heavier forms of off-duty hardware. I have other friends that are issued ARs or subguns for tactical team use, who always have their gear with them and are planning on just commandeering these weapons for personal use in defending hearth and home.

Final Notes

This is pretty heady and maybe even dangerous stuff. Know fully that I am not advocating anything here. I am reflecting to you what I see and hear going on around me, and maybe saying things that haven’t been said in the
open, until now. It is something to think about.

Written By; Scott Wagner is a Police Academy Commander and Professor at Columbus State Community College in Columbus Ohio, and Commander of the 727 Counter Terror Training Unit. A 29 year law enforcement veteran, and current Deputy Sheriff, he is the Precision Marksman for the Union County Sheriff’s Office SRT Team.

9/11 Project: www.meetup.com...

So this goes to show you guys about the fact that even everyday cops are scared by the s*** that is going on these days. From the firearms and ammunition rush to the potential situation x.
This explains some of those reports of cops using their position to get more ammunition and firearms directly from dealers instead of through usual channels.

Yea I think even police and military are beginning to see that something big is coming down the road. This is why I think most military and police won't fire on law abiding citizens. They are Americans first, and have families to protect.

This was a very interesting read, thank you for posting it.

[edit on 30-6-2009 by JipStix]

The cops are scared because they will be the justified targets of the peoples's righteous anger.They have sided with the wealthy and powerful, abusing the public they swore to protect. They're smart enough to know that they've broken laws and trust. (fear one: intrusion into their lives uncovering lawbreaking and conspiracies to obstruct justice).

If a revolution comes, the few "good" cops will be joining it, while the desperate bad ones (majority) will ruthlessly put it down, just like in Teheran.

But the whole thing reads like a racist Republican rant.

[edit on 30-6-2009 by apacheman]

reply to post by apacheman


apacheman, this isn't a "racist republican rant."(pulling the race card immediately usually indicates being a racist or a bigot yourself)
This is showing that cops themselves are concerned about what is going to go down when sit x arrives. When that happens, people aren't going to give a damn about the majority of cops, they're going to be concerned about number 1 and their families.
Police have not by any means sided with the wealthy and powerful, they have sided with the law.
The only reason you think that is because the PEOPLE allowed the wealthy and powerful to get into such positions over the law.
I hate it when people like you think in absolutes, there is no such thing as an absolute.

Scary, ain't it? Americans actually arming themselves, in case the government over steps the boundaries a bit too far. American's are fairly complacent. Yeah, we have been taught that our governmental model is the best. But even the blind are now beginning to see. The Spirit of 1776 still simmers in this great melting pot. That is what brought others to this great land. Let's hope our government can see what is happening and corrects itself. Yeah, It's a pipe dream, eh?

I admire Patrick Henry, I admire George Washington, I admire Lincoln and I admire MLK, Jr. But we have an entirely new situation here. It's much more complicated and much more technological. It's time for a new breed of patriot. Godspeed young patriots. Your time has come. Yep, I am an aging fart, but put a gun in my hand and point me in the right direction and I believe one of my shots will be true.

[edit on 30-6-2009 by kyred]

reply to post by spec_ops_wannabe


When it starts by blaming Obama, then it's a racist Republican rant. Where the hell was this bozo the last eight years while Bush & co were shredding the Constitution? Sorry, sounds like the guilty getting worried that their party's over.

Originally posted by apacheman
reply to post by spec_ops_wannabe

 

When it starts by blaming Obama, then it's a racist Republican rant. Where the hell was this bozo the last eight years while Bush & co were shredding the Constitution? Sorry, sounds like the guilty getting worried that their party's over.

I can tell you where they were: They were busy persecuting targeted individuals like myself. Perjuring themselves in court, harassing whoever they were told to on whatever flimsy pretext, collecting revenue for their paymasters from citizens that posed no threat and caused no harm and intimidating the populace by using their electric torture devises on anyone that didn't lick their boots quickly enough.

I sincerely hope that the good cops that are left are waking up to what they've become and where this is all going. If it takes a partisan cool-aid induced slap to the face to make it happen so be it. At some point they've got to realize that Bama is just accelerating what W, et al were doing.

I am so glad you posted this. Every so often there is a post about how terrible the police are and I feel scared because of my past that maybe I will be singled out as 'one of them'... but I am glad you see it is not everyone.
There are corrupt police everywhere and bad ones and exploit their power and such but they are all human remember.
Of course they are scared, MORE scared because they know people will hate them. You have two kinds: working for the man (ie will shoot you) and working for their family (will ultimately, even if not immediate, side with the civilians). The good ones are scared of being labelled in with the bad.
It is the same with the military but the police are worse off, their job is to ENFORCE and so if the law says 'protect the law' and the law says do not shoot people, and someone goes to a government building and takes politician hostage (evil or not), they are the threat and you cant blame the police for seeing that threat, it is what we are trained to do.
There is also the mentality of humanity: you have good police, standing in front of the protestors, not wanting to engage and hurt someone. But then someone throws a molotov cocktail at them, or they get hit in the head with a large rock. Do you know that feeling? Anger overcomes. And a good police will turn bad. It is quite simple.
I miss my P80 about now.

[edit on 30-6-2009 by Ridhya]

reply to post by apacheman


So let me get this straight, by blaming Obama for something it's automatically racist? Is that right?
Someone who doesn't like Obama is automatically a racist then I take it then? You sir, are no better.