Tag: ALERT! Lawful Activity Detected

You Don’t Need Permission to Secede

After the election people have been petitioning the Obama administration to allow their respective individual state to secede from the union:

More than 100,000 Americans have petitioned the White House to allow their states to secede from the US, after President Barack Obama’s re-election.

The appeals were filed on the White House’s We the People website.

Most of the 20 states with petitions voted for Republican Mitt Romney.

I think the people filing petitions have little understanding of secession and statism. Secession is not something you need permission for, you can secede from anything at any time you desire. You may be violently punished for seceding but it is still your right as a free human being to decide you no longer wish to association with an organization. That brings is to our second issue, statism. States exist from expropriating wealth from others. Each individual state expropriates wealth from the people living within its borders and the federal government expropriates wealth both from individuals living within its borders and the individual states that makeup the Union. Because of this petitioning the federal government to allow your individual state and, by association, yourself to secede is pointless. The federal government isn’t going to allow such a thing to happen because you and your individual state are sources of revenue for itself.

Wars aren’t cheap and the federal government is waging plenty of them. The United States military is dropping bombs that costs thousands of dollars from drones that cost millions of dollars. Fighter jets and bombers that cost millions of dollars are launched from aircraft carriers that cost billions of dollars. There’s no way the federal government is going to voluntarily allow a source of its revenue to leave. In fact the last time states and individuals tried to leave the Union the federal government used a great deal of violence to prevent them.

Secession is the right of every individual. Individual states should be allowed to secede from the federal government, counties should be allowed to secede from individual states, towns should be allowed to secede from counties, and people should be allowed to seceded from towns. Unfortunately each of the mentioned state entities will use violence to prevent secession because it goes against their interests.

The State Never Forgets to Punish Good Deeds

When the state sees somebody performing a good deed they are usually quick to swoop in and mercilessly punish the good Samaritan. Take the paramedic who had the audacity to give a blanket to a man in need:

Two weeks ago, a house caught fire, and the elderly man who lived there was brought outside wearing only his underwear. Paramedic Jeff Gaglio gave him a blanket. Then on Tuesday, Gaglio was informed that the department was bringing him up on charges for his action. Jerald James, chief of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS), who is responsible for Gaglio’s punishment, said in defense of the charges, “We can’t have an employee who feels that they have a right to give away state property without getting prior approval.” In fact, his department and the city of Detroit are strapped for cash. However, it has also been revealed that the department did not pay for the blanket. The one that Gaglio gave away had been donated.

What I find most laughable is the idea that the state can own property. In this case the blanket was donated by if it was purchased by the state it would have been purchased with stolen money. The state exists solely off of extortion in the form of taxes, fines, and other assorted fees. Failure to pay taxes or fines will result in the state’s boot being brought down upon you and if you fail to pay any demanded fees before doing something you will also find the state’s boot coming down upon you. Considering this fact it’s impossible to say the state can own legitimate property since all the property they acquire is acquired through extortion.

The way I see it the state doesn’t own property and the people have every right to claim any property currently claimed by the state. Every building, automobile, and aircraft carrier was made possible by resources stolen from you and me. Were there any justice these goods would be liquidated and the funds dispersed amongst the population based on the amount of money that was stolen from them by the state. Instead the state punishes anybody who attempts to return even the tiniest of these goods to the people.

Leah Plante Joins Fellow Anarchist in Prison

I have an update on yesterday’s story about Leah Planet. She refused to testify against he fellow anarchists during the grand jury hearing and is now being held in a cage:

A third self-described anarchist from the Pacific Northwest has been jailed by federal officials for refusing to speak before a secretive grand jury that the accused have called a politically-motivated modern-day witch-hunt.

Leah-Lynn Plante, a mid-20s activist from Seattle, Washington, was ushered out of court by authorities on Wednesday after refusing for a third time to answer questions forced on her by a grand jury — a panel of prosecutors convened to determine if an indictment can be issued for a federal crime.

She joins fellow anarchists Katherine Olejnik and Matt Duran as state prisoners in their fishing expedition. Even though the state goons had enough cause to get a warrant issued (in other words they were able to drop the word anarchist near a judge) they apparently couldn’t find enough evidence of wrongdoing to charge the three with any crime so they’ve resorted to coercive tactics to wrest testimonies from the three. Fortunately Leah, Katherine, and Matt are reusing to play the state’s game.

I can do nothing but commend the three’s refusal to cooperate with the criminal gang generally referred to as government. Whether they do anything wrong or not isn’t really relevant in this case as responsibility to gather evidence of wrongdoing falls to the prosecutors. Seeing insufficient evidence exists to even bring up charges this is looking more like an anarchist witch hunt than a serious attempt to get justice for wronged individuals.

This is Nothing New for Gun Owners

The Supreme Court is looking at a case that may prevent individuals from reselling foreign made devices containing copyrighted works:

At issue in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons is the first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products.

Under the doctrine, which the Supreme Court has recognized since 1908, you can resell your stuff without worry because the copyright holder only had control over the first sale.

Put simply, though Apple Inc. AAPL has the copyright on the iPhone and Mark Owen has it on the book “No Easy Day,” you can still sell your copies to whomever you please whenever you want without retribution.

That’s being challenged now for products that are made abroad, and if the Supreme Court upholds an appellate court ruling, it would mean that the copyright holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it.

I know many of my friends will be in a tizzy over this case but such shenanigans are nothing new for gun owners. Federally licensed firearms dealers have long been required to perform a background check on anybody purchasing a firearm. On top of that many individual states, including California, Illinois, and New York [PDF], require all firearms sales to go through federally licensed dealers making it illegal for an individual to sell a firearm directly to another individual. Last year gun control extremist extraordinaire, Chuck Schumer, was pushing to ban all private sales of firearms in the United States. Effectively all federally licensed firearms deals and all individuals in several individual states are prevented from selling their firearms without the state’s permission.

State power only increases. When the state managed to control the sale and transfer of one good it set a precedence for controlling the sale and transfer of all other goods. Those of us in the gun community are well aware of the state’s power over the sale and transfer of firearms so we’re probably the least likely to be surprised by any ruling that would prevent the sale and transfer of foreign made devices containing copyrighted material.

The question we must now ask if how will the Supreme Court rule. I wouldn’t be surprised if they uphold the current ruling (which states it is illegal to resell foreign made devices containing copyrighted works without permission). It would be trivial to uphold such a ruling using the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Commerce Clause. At that point I will gladly welcome owners of electronic devices into the club of individuals possessing goods that cannot be sold without state approval.

Illegal Attempted Criminal Behavior

You know the police state is in full swing when attempted criminal acts are illegal:

A 29-year-old Geneva man is facing charges after 10 pounds of marijuana was found inside a package.

Angnem Green of Geneva is charged with attempted criminal possession of marijuana, a felony.

Mind you that the man isn’t being charged with possession but attempted possession of marijuana. Shouldn’t the man actually have to have possession of an illicit substance before he’s charged with a crime? I guess people are easier to control if you make everything illegal.

Equality, the Lowest Common Denominator

Modern society has become obsessed with the idea of equality. Public schools have especially become proponents of making everybody equal, even if it means making others miserable:

A talented head cook at a school in central Sweden has been told to stop baking fresh bread and to cut back on her wide-ranging veggie buffets because it was unfair that students at other schools didn’t have access to the unusually tasty offerings.

What’s next? Will a high school football team with a great quarterback be forced to remove him from the team to ensure teams with poor players can compete equally? Reality doesn’t concern itself with what’s fair. Some people are simply luckier than others and nothing can be done to correct that. While many children are born into poor families in third world countries some are fortunate and born into wealthy families. Most children are both with good health but some are unfortunate and have horrible health issues starting at birth. When we obsess over perfect equality or fairness we are effectively saying we must bring everybody down to the lowest common denominator, which will require lowering the standard of living for a huge number of people.

Instead of punishing those with advantages we should be striving to boost everybody’s quality of living to match those of the more fortunate.

Making Up Propaganda

The state has a habit of making up stories in order to make itself appear necessary and benevolent. For example the United States government has spend untold amounts of money convincing the people living within its claimed territory that certain drugs are bad. Needless to say the same government also like to brag about drug busts because it believes such busts will convince the people of the government’s necessity. Sometimes the state gets caught making up such propaganda and it’s usually quick to deny such allegations, even when those allegations are undeniable:

[P]olice still won’t admit the plants they seized in what was supposedly the biggest outdoor marijuana bust in Lethbridge history are plain old flowers — daisies, to be precise.

All police will concede at this point is the 1,624 plants torn from a suburban Lethbridge garden on July 30 isn’t marijuana, as first claimed after a phalanx of police marched in and starting plucking.

Daisies aren’t marijuana but the state isn’t going to admit that anytime soon.

Another Shut Up Slave Moment Brought to You by the State

What happens when you catch the police brutalizing the public? You become a target of the state:

Keene, New Hampshire – August 4, 2012 – The controversial felony wiretapping charges journalist and CopBlock.org founder Adam ‘Ademo’ Mueller is facing will go to trial, a situation that has stirred up a hornet’s nest of free speech advocates in New Hampshire. The “Free Ademo” supporters are planning to show their support en masse at Hillsboro County Superior Court when jury selection for the trial begins at 9 a.m. Monday, August 6. This will be the first time an activist has taken a case this serious to trial since the state passed HB 146, a jury nullification law that ensures the defense’s right to inform the jury of their right to issue “not guilty” verdicts when they disagree with the application of the law in question.

According to court documents, the three wiretapping charges stem from a vlog Mueller posted on CopBlock.org, which featured recordings of on-duty public officials being interviewed about alleged police brutality at a local school. Mueller was reporting about a video recorded by a Manchester West High School student’s cell phone, depicting Officer Darren Murphy slamming a handcuffed student’s face into a cafeteria table. The video later went viral.

This is going to be an interesting case due to the jury nullification law recently passed in New Hampshire. Traditionally juries are told that they must rule based on the letter of the law but this isn’t true, a jury may rule in whatever manner it wants without facing repercussions. If members of a jury believe a law is wrong they may give a ruling of innocent. Juries in New Hampshire, thanks to the passage of HB 146, will now be informed of their jury nullification powers and this seems like the case to use such powers on as Ademo is really being charged with catching the police brutalizing people they’re supposed to protect.

That’s Quite the Rap Sheet

It’s good to see that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) manages to find time to deal with real criminals like Matthew Swaye and Christina Gonzalez who have the audacity to film police officers being tyrannical dicks:

The flyer featured side-by-side mugshots of Matthew Swaye, 35, and his partner Christina Gonzalez, 25, and warned officers to be on guard against them. It was spotted by multiple people, including the couple, when it was taped to a podium outside a public hearing room in the 30th Precinct house last Thursday, where residents met for precinct council meeting.

“Be aware that above subjects are known professional agitators,” read the flyer, which bears the NYPD shield and a seal of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division. It also gave the home address of the couple.

“Above subjects MO is that they video tape officers performing routine stops and post on YouTube,” the sign said. “Subjects purpose is to portray officers in a negative way and too deter officers from conducting there [sic] responsibilities.”

How dare they film public officials, who are paid by the individuals through taxes, while they’re performing their work in public places! If citizens start holding the police accountable for their misdeeds the police state could be put at risk.

In all seriousness I find it funny that the NYPD are putting so much effort into “warning” officers about these two instead of realizing what the officers are doing is deplorable and should be stopped. The police have no right to stop and frisk individuals and any officer performing such action should themselves be arrested. Imagine what would happen if you stopped a police officer, threatened force against him if he didn’t submit to your authority, and began frisking him.

Good on Matthew Swaye and Christina Gonzalez, I hope other individuals follow in their footsteps. I would love to see police officers under constant surveillance by the people.

Thou Shalt Not Interfere in the State’s Fund Raisers

In a classic example of “If you fuck with the state the state will fuck with you!” a woman has been place in jail for warning motorists of nearby speed traps:

Natalie Plummer was riding her bicycle home from the grocery store when she noticed several cars beng pulled over for speeding. Hoping to save a few drivers from a potentially pricey ticket, she turned one of her paper bags into a sign that warned of the waiting police ahead.

While she was doing so, an officer pulled up and arrested her.

“I was completely abiding by the law,” she told KRTK. “I was simply warning citizens of a situation ahead.”

The Houston police, however, were not amused by her tactics and arrested her for, believe it or not, “standing in the street where a sidewalk is present,” an offense that not only sounds ridiculous, but that Plummer also denies even doing.

Natalie attempted to prevent individuals from being victimized by the state and its fund raiser attempt. As she was interfering with the state’s wealth transfer they arrested her. While holding up a sign qualifies as free speech there is always a law that can be used to shutdown a meddlesome individual who has the audacity to help their fellow individuals.