Yes, this is how we live now: Ada County SWAT arrests a man for "disturbing the peace." |
When Daniel Webster warned that there will always be men who
“promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters,” he most likely had
in mind people like Ada County Sheriff Gary Raney.
Ironically, Webster’s brand of nationalism would have harmonized
with Raney’s
federal supremacist view of law enforcement, in which local police and
sheriffs are duty-bound to carry out policies ordained by the central
government, even when doing so pits them against the populations they
supposedly serve. Not surprisingly, Raney is an ardent drug warrior, a
proponent of civilian disarmament, and a stout defender of police
militarization.
In June 2013, as nearly all of Idaho’s 44 sheriffs publicly
pledged not to enforce any new federal anti-gun measures, Raney used an op-ed
column in the Idaho Statesman to lecture the public that the Constitution’s “supremacy
clause” means that “every state shall abide by the laws passed by our Congress.”
Raney accused his colleagues in Idaho and neighboring states of being “indulgent”
toward their misinformed constituents and “making hollow promises to protect
you from the intrusions of the federal government.”
If and when Washington decrees that the helotry must be
disarmed, Raney – while emitting great gusts of mournful reluctance, no doubt –
would carry out the mission, displaying the same devotion to duty exhibited by his
19th Century predecessors as they enforced the Fugitive Slave Act: “[D]espite
the fact that I personally oppose some of the gun control measures currently
under consideration, my oath requires me to uphold the laws that are passed by
our federal and state representatives.”
In carrying out that mission, Raney would certainly make use
of the hardware transferred to his department by the Pentagon under the 1033
program. That prospect is obvious to observant Gem State residents, whose
concerns prompted Raney to disgorge another op-ed column to
assure local residents that his department has taken note of public concerns
regarding police militarization.
Raney’s op-ed was published in the wake of the militarized
police rampage in Ferguson, Missouri, during which the police focused their
attention on protesters, while looters were left free to pillage local
businesses. He admitted that the behavior of police officials in Ferguson was “abysmal,”
and criticized them for responding to public protests “like a military unit
defending Fallujah.”
Here Raney makes dishonest use of an expression that has
become a cliché: No American military unit ever “defended” Fallujah; the
defenders of that city were the ones shooting at the armored vehicles carrying
an unwelcome foreign army of occupation. Raney’s linguistic subterfuge here is
significant, because the language of his op-ed column is that of an occupier
striving to win the “hearts and minds” of the subject population.
The real problem with what happened in Ferguson, from Raney’s
point of view, is that it incited public disapproval of the Pentagon’s
weapon-transfer program.
“The events in Ferguson have … called into question the
militarization of police across the country and led the media to report local
stories about that concern,” observed Raney or, more likely, his ghostwriter. “Here
in Treasure Valley, law enforcement agencies have been given armored vehicles
and other equipment.”
The actions of militarized police in Ferguson shouldn’t
disturb residents of Boise and the surrounding cities: “This is Ada County
where we use those tools to keep people safe,” Raney insists, echoing
assurances offered by kindred officials elsewhere – including Ferguson,
Missouri.
The real issue, Raney concludes, is “communication” – which for
him and others of his ilk is a process in which the public dutifully takes
dictation from its self-appointed overseers, accepts their pronouncements
uncritically, and celebrates their wisdom and restraint in exercising their
power over us.
Harboring or expressing dissenting views displays “ignorance”
– a word Raney used just a few days later in an interview with Boise’s CBS affiliate while denouncing
a proposed bill that would place the most modest imaginable restrictions on the
transfer of military hardware to the police.
The measure, which
is co-sponsored by Idaho Republican Congressman Raul Labrador and Georgia
Democrat Hank Johnson, is grandly entitled
the “Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act.” If enacted, the bill would forbid
transfer of some battlefield-grade offensive weaponry to police departments,
such as armed drones and combat-configured aircraft. Most of its provisions
would merely tighten up the bookkeeping involved in Pentagon transfers. The
most laudable element of the bill would remove a requirement that agencies
receiving those assets use them within a year – a provision that creates a
perverse incentive for unnecessary paramilitary operations by police.
Rep. Labrador describes the bill as an effort to re-draw the
“clear line between the military and civilian policing.”
Just days after appearing to concede that police in Ferguson
had behaved like an occupying army, Raney sneered that the Labrador-Johnson
bill “is bred out of ignorance.”
“I wish that the congressman would have talked to his
constituency, and asked us here in law enforcement: how do you use that?” Raney
complained. “This is something that helps keep our deputies, our officers, and
our troopers safe. The military equipment many times can save taxpayers money.
It’s not something to be afraid of.”
Labrador’s mistake, apparently, was listening to those who
are being plundered through taxation, not enriched by it. Such people are not
his “constituency,” according to Raney, and their concerns aren’t worthy of the
congressman’s attention.
At this point it’s worth remembering Raney’s resolute
statement that he would “uphold the laws that are
passed by our federal and state representatives,” even if those enactments
require the disarmament of the citizenry. The sheriff can countenance the idea
of being commanded to confiscate guns from the public, but condemns
congressional action to place negligible restrictions on his ability to get
combat-grade hardware from the Pentagon.
Similar disapproval dripped from an op-ed published by Idaho
Statesman editorial page editor Robert Ehlert. In the fashion of an “exhorter”
following a circuit-riding preacher, Ehlert reiterated the main points made in
Raney’s column, while heaping scorn on any stiff-necked unbelievers who persisted
in thinking for themselves.
“I have no problem with Treasure Valley law enforcement
agencies accessing these tools,” writes
Ehlert. “I like the fact that the Ada County sheriff and Boise Police
Department…have used their equipment responsibly.” Ehlert’s unqualified
approval of Raney and his comrades contrasted with his frigid disdain for those
who spread “suspicion about this equipment when we have no record of abuse in
Idaho.”
Despite the assurance with which he pontificates on our
local problems, Ehlert
only arrived in the Gem State in April 2013. A little less than twenty
years earlier a heavily militarized law enforcement contingent tried to annihilate
an entire family at Ruby Ridge. One of the assailants, FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi,
murdered a nursing mother by shooting her in the head while she held her
infant.
In February 2013 – just a few weeks before the much-traveled
“journalist” Ehlert was hired by the Statesman, a
SWAT team terrorized an entire apartment complex in Caldwell during a midnight
no-knock raid that was carried out on
the basis of an unsubstantiated claim – made by a woman with a criminal record
– that one resident had “threatened” her. David and Connie Johnson, whose home
was the first to be invaded, were thrown to the ground and cuffed at gunpoint –
despite the fact that the raiders had kicked in the wrong door, and none of the
victims residing in the apartment resembled the suspect.
Michael Gibbons and Marcella Cruz didn’t
receive the full-fledged SWAT treatment during the illegal raid of their home
in Letha, Idaho in August 2012. They nonetheless were menaced by Gem County
Sheriff’s Deputies clad in body armor and carrying assault rifles.
Marcella was
assaulted by Detective Rich Perecz, and left with bruises across the left side
of her body. Michael was
forced to kneel with gun barrels trained at the back of his head while the
deputies – along with Sheriff Chuck Rolland – conducted an illegal search of
the couple’s home.
This raid was supposedly carried out because of an anonymous
(and maliciously false) report of “domestic violence,” which would have
justified a brief and unobtrusive “welfare check.” The military posture was
deemed necessary because Michael
Gibbons had been politically profiled as a “constitutionalist.”
I grant that it may be unfair to expect someone who helps
edit a newspaper to stay abreast of local news, but Ehlert really should have
been aware that on August 12 a SWAT team was deployed in Caldwell in an effort
to apprehend a single suspected gang member, who escaped and was subsequently arrested through less dramatic means.
Six days later, the oh-so-responsible Boise/Ada County SWAT
team was deployed in an MRAP to arrest a man suspected of pointing a gun at a
pedestrian. This raid, which took place late in the evening, resulted in an
arrest on a single misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace, which is the
sort of thing that happens when police carry out a military-style raid at
midnight.
On August 26, another midnight SWAT deployment took place
just a few blocks from my home in Payette.
The target was a 37-year-old man named Billy Palmer. According to the Incident
Report, Palmer was the subject of warrants in nearby Malheur County, Oregon for
“Fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer” and “reckless driving” –
neither of which is a violent felony. His previous record in Idaho consisted of
a single $47.00 speeding citation.
What apparently happened is that Palmer, seeking
to avoid a traffic stop in Oregon, slipped across the Snake River – only to
find himself on the receiving end of a midnight SWAT raid.
The Payette Police received an anonymous tip that Palmer had
rented a room in a local motel and that he might have a gun. Rather than staking out the facility and
waiting to arrest the less-than-menacing fugitive in a low-key fashion, the
SWAT team was deployed.
A spotlight was directed into Palmer’s room, and a PA system
was used to order Palmer to surrender. When Palmer declined to do so, the SWAT
team stormed the room and took him into custody without other violence.
Although Palmer was unarmed a rifle and a single box of ammunition was found in
his vehicle.
This is a case in which Mayberry-level misconduct provoked a
Fallujah-style response. Although it may seem trivial to statist scribes like
Ehlert, overkill of this kind is abusive, commonplace, and representative of
the gratuitous militarization of routine warrant service that results from the “use
it or lose it” provision of the 1033 program.
Ehlert and the newspaper that employs him were directly
implicated in at least one criminal abuse of power by Sheriff Raney – the exploitation
of legally protected personal information in an FBI file to retaliate against
one of the sheriff’s political rivals, former State Rep. Mark Patterson.
In early 2013, Rep. Patterson proposed legislation that
would make it a misdemeanor for an Idaho peace officer to enforce federal gun
confiscation measures. Raney, as head of the Idaho Sheriffs Association,
opposed that bill, warning legislators that it would imperil federal agreements
permitting police and sheriffs to conduct “asset forfeiture” operations.
After the measure was defeated, Patterson sent a letter to Raney demanding information on the sheriff’s
potentially illegal lobbying efforts against a gun rights bill he opposed.
The following day Raney sent notice to Patterson announcing the revocation of his
concealed weapon license, claiming that Patterson had lied on his application
by failing to disclose a withheld judgment on a felony charge nearly 40 years
ago.
The
news of the CWL revocation, along with privileged information from Patterson’s
NCIC background check, were leaked to Dan Popkey,
who at the time was a reporter at the Statesman. (He
has since been hired as a press spokesman, ironically, by Rep. Labrador.)
Both the retaliatory use of the FBI information, and its provision to the
Statesman, were criminal acts committed either by Raney or someone in his
office. (I
have previously examined this story in greater detail.)
A
withheld judgment is not a conviction, and once a term of probation ends the
charge is expunged from the individual’s criminal record (although a residual
record is still available through the NCIC system). An Idaho resident subject
to a withheld judgment who applies for a CWL is eligible to receive one,
and is not legally required to disclose the matter in any case. This was made
clear by the Idaho Attorney General’s office in response to an inquiry by State
Rep. Judy Boyle. Sheriff Raney reacted to Boyle’s inquiry by filing a spurious ethics
complaint against her and publicly accusing her of criminal behavior.
This criminal misuse of protected
information in a federal database to carry out an East German-style act of
political retaliation revealed that Raney has the disposition of a commissar,
which amply justifies public misgivings about allowing him to have access to
Pentagon-provided war-fighting equipment. This conclusion is buttressed by a
less grievous – but, in a way, more aggravating – abuse that took place earlier
this year.
In late August, the Boise State
University football team proudly released a video showing its coaching staff
participating in a “team-building exercise” with the Ada County SWAT team.
The
clip depicted Coach Bryan Harsin (who, as
the beneficiary of a five-year, $7.5 million contract, is the highest-paid
employee of the Idaho state government) and his staff being ferried to a
training site in an armored vehicle, followed by simulated gunfire and
flash-bang explosions.
Granted, no injuries resulted from that
episode, apart from the routine plunder involved in all government operations.
This little cosplay exercise underscores the fact that SWAT operators see their
presents from the Pentagon as toys, rather than tools – and they should be taken
away before more innocent people get hurt.
Update: As if to prove my point...
... Ada Metro SWAT carried out a raid at a yard sale in Meridian on September 22.
Update: As if to prove my point...
... Ada Metro SWAT carried out a raid at a yard sale in Meridian on September 22.
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8 comments:
Thank you Will. Another informative article that eloquently explains our sorry state. (Pun is intended)
When ignorant morons like the sheriff incorrectly quote the supremacy clause from their 8th grade civics book, they always leave off the most important part: "in persuance of..." - which totally changes the meaning. Madison was the primary author of what Patrick Henry correctly referred to as one of the "sweeping clauses" and he later nullified the Alien and Sedition Acts along with Jefferson. So if Madison thought states and counties had to obey federal law, he clearly changed his mind just a few years later.
helotry? Woo-hoo, I learns a new word.
Sounds like you have your own little Hitler for sheriff.
Please excuse my tangential trangression, but has anyone else seen the little factual nugget that the alleged Pennsylvanian murderer Eric Frein is an actor? Yeah, that's right. He appears in the John Black movie 'Lustig' as a German Nazi camp guard. He's listed in the credits as the 'second German soldier'. Someone - or should I say some agency - has also just scrubbed his MySpace page and his actor's credentials listed in the IMDB page.
What the hell is going on here?!
In case you missed the memo, actors are all the rage these days, hell there might even be full fledged false flags out there or grey flags in which actors add to the message of real events.
Have to draw these patriotic fuckers out of hiding. One way to do that is to create FF scenarios that paint all patriots and preppers as wack job cop killers. Sadly for OPFOR they are losing badly. Each day more people awaken and realize that the great fleecing to maintain "order" is just that, a fleecing.
Sounds like from this story that, that sheriff can do as he pleases no matter what the federal and or state laws are. Even going after the state's lawmakers when he's upset with them if they do their jobs in such a way that he doesn't like. All of which makes the whole state smell rotten from the top on down.
Looking into Idaho's economy for its citizens and its clear, the state is set up for the good old boy networks and not the people. The people of Idaho are about at the bottom of the barrel for all states in the union. Wages, individual economic grow stink and on top of that taxes are some of the highest in the nation. All of which makes it clear that the private sector isn't investing in Idaho, because they understand the state has serious issues. Which this story makes it clear, the state relies on federal government handouts, military equipment and money to survive.
Ada county is one of the only liberal counties in this state. NO one cares what Raney thinks. He should move to WA State or OR State. That's more up his alley.
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