Government

I am the law!

Oklahoma Senator Regina Goodwin famously demanded that Trump be “locked up” because no one is above the law.

So it comes as no surprise that she refused to show her driver’s license when she was pulled over for running several stop signs, escalating the traffic stop into a shouting match, simultaneously proving that she believes herself to be above the law, and disproving the claim that all cops are just looking for a reason to shoot black people.

If it weren’t for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.

By Divemedic, ago

Safety, My Ass

Florida does not require a concealed weapons permit. They also tell you that, if you comply with a police officer’s demands, you won’t get shot. The traffic stop that involved Jason Arrington proved that to be a lie. I tried to find a copy of the bodycam video that I could embed, but that was a no-go. Here are two links to the video:

When you watch this video, note that the man was completely compliant in every way. He answered every question, and complied with every request and order. He was pulled over in a traffic stop and the cop asked him if he had “anything crazy in the car.”

Mr Arrington replied that he did have a gun on his person. The cop then made some small talk and asked if he had a concealed weapons permit, and the man replied that he did not. (That isn’t required under state law.) The cop then asked Arrington if he was a convicted felon, to which he replied that he was not.

Then the cop said that they would have Arrington step out of the car and would disarm him, for the safety of both Mr Arrington and the police. That turned out to be a lie. The statement from the Sheriff’s office tells the rest of the story:

The firearm was secured in a holster and Officer Cardwell [a female backup deputy] had difficulty removing it. When [she] was finally able to remove the firearm from the holster, she unintentionally placed multiple fingers inside the trigger guard of the firearm, causing the firearm to discharge.

The bullet from this negligent discharge struck Arrington in the leg. I don’t blame the female deputy for this. She was placed into this situation without the proper training, and one would assume that the JSO takes guns from people during traffic stops as a matter of course. This wasn’t her fault. The real fault lies in a department policy of unnecessarily seizing firearms, and in not training deputies in how to safely handle unfamiliar firearms.

Unnecessary gun handling increases the odds of a negligent or accidental discharge from near zero to some other, higher chance. A gun that is in a proper holster has a near zero chance of discharging unexpectedly. Additionally, a person who has been pulled over for a nonviolent, noncriminal traffic violation and is otherwise compliant has a near zero chance of attempting to use that firearm to illegally injure or threaten police officers.

This unintentional discharge was the direct result of:

  • Police who are paranoid in believing that everyone who has a gun is a threat to their safety. They are not.
  • Police attempting to handle firearms with which they are unfamiliar is a hazard to everyone around them. Contrary to popular belief, police training in firearms and firearm safety is poor. If official policy of a department requires cops to disarm people, then the department has a responsibility to train officers to handle firearms in a much safer manner than what was displayed here.

For those reasons, the man is suing the Sheriff’s office. As a result of this incident, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office sent a memo to the entire department, notifying deputies that a person who is in possession of a firearm but not otherwise demonstrating that they are a threat to officers who are present, is not subject to having his firearms seized.

As it should have been all along.

This is also why I don’t inform cops that I am carrying. Florida doesn’t require me to, and I don’t. Asking me “Do you have anything crazy in the car?” isn’t asking me if I am armed, and I will respond in the negative.

By Divemedic, ago

Anchor Babies

Donald Trump is claiming that he will end the practice where a pregnant woman illegally enters the US then presents herself to an Emergency Room while in labor, the hospital delivers the baby as required by EMTALA, and the baby is subsequently declared to be a US citizen. The left then claims that it is unfair to separate a child from the rest of the family, thereby making the child an ‘anchor baby’ shoehorning in half a dozen illegals. This practice is called birthright citizenship.

The left claims that Trump can’t stop this because of the 14th Amendment, which reads (in pertinent part):

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 

It isn’t quite as easy as the left would have you believe. The Supreme Court decided this in 1873, and I would think that the court in 1873, a mere 5 years after the passage of the 14th Amendment would have a bit of firsthand knowledge of what the Amendment was for. This is what they had to say in the case of Elk v. Wilkins (1873):

This section contemplates two sources of citizenship, and two sources only: birth and naturalization. The persons declared to be citizens are “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The evident meaning of these last words is not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction and owing them direct and immediate allegiance.

Meaning, of course, that it isn’t as simple as “where were you born” but indicating that there are more limits to be explored here. Furthermore, SCOTUS ruled in 1872 that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was:

The first clause of the fourteenth article was primarily intended to confer citizenship on the negro race, and secondly to give definitions of citizenship of the United States and citizenship of the States, and it recognizes the distinction between citizenship of a State and citizenship of the United States by those definitions.

The question isn’t as cut and dried as the left would have us believe. This one is going to SCOTUS, I think. This shows that Trump is not the ignorant buffoon that the left wants us to think that he is.

By Divemedic, ago

Executive Orders

Executive orders are orders written by the chief executive, instructing executive branch employees in how they are to carry out their duties. In the case of the Federal government, the chief executive is the President, of course.

I have long been highly critical of how Executive orders have been used. They cannot be used to create laws out of whole cloth, as that is the job of the legislature. What EOs can be used for, however, is to instruct federal employees in how they will carry out the duties that have been assigned to them by law, in my opinion.

So that brings us to our current problem- there are state and local governments that are refusing to abide by or even comply with the enforcement of Federal law. Namely, there are cities who are refusing to comply with ICE in removing illegal immigrants from our country. I would wholeheartedly approve of an EO instructing Federal employees to refuse to issue or approve ANY grants or Federal funding to any local government who declares itself to be a sanctuary city. That would also include providing access to Federal programs like the NCIC or any other crime related database to any police department who refuses to comply with Federal law.

The entire Federal grant system is based upon Presidential Executive Order No. 12372, which was issued by President Reagan in July of 1982. That EO allows states to establish a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to review proposed federal financial assistance. So Trump could simply modify that EO to make this happen.

The Feds have been tying funding to their edicts for decades. It’s how 21 became the national drinking age nationwide– it’s time that the Trump team begin playing the game.

By Divemedic, ago

Honduras

The US under Trump is set to deport and return illegals from Honduras back to their home country. In response, the President of Honduras is threatening to shut down a US military base that is located at the Soto Cano air base. She claims that the US maintains this military base without cost.

OK, shut down our air base and we will cut off all money that is given to Honduras in any form whatsoever. Last year, that came to more than $152 million in direct payments.

Why do we continue to give money to countries that hate us? The only reason I can come up with is – money laundering. I really believe that most government expenditures see some form of kickbacks coming to the people in our government who decide who gets what funding. That includes everyone- legislators, government bureaucrats, all of them. Most of our middle level, and all of our senior level government officials are crooked.

It needs to stop.

By Divemedic, ago

NORTHCOM Security

NORTHCOM has just announced increased security at all CONUS military installations, effective Monday morning:

The Commander of U.S. Northern Command has directed all military installations to immediately implement heightened security measures. These include:

100% ID checks

Random inspections

Suspension of the Trusted Traveler Program. (The Trusted Traveler Program was a procedure that allowed DoD-affiliated sponsors to vouch for vehicle occupants to gain entry onto an installation. )

Drivers should expect delays and random inspections at entry gates as we enhance the security posture of our installation to ensure our ability to project combat power when and where required. This is a critical step in ensuring the security and readiness of our installations. Drivers should expect delays at entry gates due to increased inspections.

Note that this move is supposedly in response to the events in New Orleans and Las Vegas, but if it was that serious, why wait nearly a week? Why would this move begin on the very morning that the Electoral College votes are to be certified?

By Divemedic, ago

Invading New York

Everyone has seen the video of the murdered woman on the New York subway who was killed when she was set on fire, so I won’t post a link to it here. It turns out that the asshole who is accused of committing the murder was deported in 2018, but immediately snuck back in just in time to commit at least one murder.

ICE issued an order to have him detained to Federal custody, but NY has refused the request, citing “sanctuary city” laws. If the state and city of New York can claim that Federal law doesn’t apply in their city, then DJT needs to issue a couple of executive orders on his first day.

  • All access to Federal law enforcement databases like NCIC will be suspended for the entire state of New York until such time as they participate with Federal Law Enforcement efforts
  • Any New York official who refuses to comply with Federal Law Enforcement gets arrested for obstruction. That includes the Governor, the mayo of NYC, state judges, and anyone else who says no to ICE detainers. If you or I refused to comply with a NY court order, we would go to jail, and we all know that “no one is above the law.”
  • All Federal funding or grants to NY are hereby suspended until NY pays by US law.

We all know that people in New York will then reply by claiming that they are not going to forward income tax payments, or some other nonsense. At that point, the President would then be permitted to declare that New York’s actions are making it impossible to enforce the law. The law here is 10 USC 252:

Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.

You’re reading this correctly- the President could then order Federal troops (or the NY National Guard, under Federal orders) to suppress the rebellion and enforce Federal immigration laws.

Just after this is complete, Trump should then tell any other “sanctuary cities” that they are next, unless they comply with the law.

As much as I feel that the Federal government is outside of its constitutional authority, enforcing immigration laws and defending the border is well within Federal purview.

By Divemedic, ago

What if the entire Barrel is Bad Apples?

Check this arrest of February 2023 out:

The guy was arrested for making an obscene hand gesture and 2 counts of obstruction for refusing to provide ID as a result of the unlawful stop. It’s a violation of the man’s Constitutional rights to initiate a traffic stop because you don’t like his hand gestures. The fact that the cop even admits this as a reason for the stop makes this case a slam dunk, IMO. The officer even put this in writing in his arrest report, claiming that giving the middle finger isn’t allowed, as it is a hand gesture that is not being used to signal a turn. You can read the arrest report here.

He was held in jail for four days on a cash only bail. The charge for hand gestures was dropped, and one of the obstruction charges was dropped. I expect the second one will go away as well, since the entire pretext for the stop is unconstitutional and a violation of Mr. Lambert’s rights. There is a lawsuit pending.

This is the same police department that paid a $3.5 million settlement when they stopped a pedestrian for not walking on the sidewalk. They shot the man 22 times, and even though he had been armed with a knife, it was after he was incapacitated, not moving, and was lying on top of the knife, thus he was no longer a threat to the officers.

Of course, the cops tried to hide behind qualified immunity. Sorry, but that legal concept has to go. Force cops to buy malpractice insurance. It’s one area where I disagree with Trump. Cops don’t deserve more immunity, because this will only get worse.

There are some who are trying to make this about race, but I don’t think that police abuse of power is about anything other than power corrupting those who wield it. It’s time that cops lost a bit of that plenipotentiary power.

By Divemedic, ago

Federal Issue

The man who killed the Unitedhealthcare CEO is being charged with the Federal crimes of stalking and murder. I don’t think that he should be. I would go one step further to say that stalking and murder shouldn’t be Federal crimes. Stalking and murder are already crimes in each and every one of the states. In this particular case, he committed both crimes and their predicates primarily within the state of New York.

If New York wants to charge him under those statutes, then the state of New York can request that he be extradited to stand trial, then so be it, but I don’t see where we need a Federal law making either of those acts a crime. In fact, I think that most laws at the Federal level can be dispensed with as redundant. The only exceptions would be crimes specifically against the Federal government, such as assassination of a Senator, accepting bribes, or other crimes that are particular to the operation of Federal government.

Otherwise, you might as well admit that the states are merely political subdivisions of the Federal whole and stop pretending that we are a United system of independent states.

By Divemedic, ago