Man, this is a crazy story. I really think our Police Forces have become the “Standing Armies” our founding fathers warned us about.
A task force including members of 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on a gold mine in the tiny town of Chicken (pop. 17) last month, in what locals described as a raid.
“Imagine coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say “POLICE” emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms,” gold miner C.R. Hammond told the Alaska Dispatch. “How would you have felt? You would be wondering, ‘My God, what have I done now?”
“Imagine coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say POLICE emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms.”
– C.R. Hammond, gold miner
A spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency did not deny that agents wore body armor and carried guns, but said it was not a “raid.”
Think of the scope of this, they nearly DOUBLED the town population with up-armored police “Task Forces”. Why?
The investigation was into possible violations of the Clean Water Act, according to the EPA. The officers were part of the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force and visited the outpost near the Canadian border during the third week of August to investigate water discharges into rivers, streams, lakes and oceans….The raid, according to one Senate staffer close to the matter, was conducted as such because of information received from the Alaska State Troopers about rampant “drug and human trafficking” in the area, the Alaska Dispatch reports.
That purported explanation was seemingly debunked by a spokeswoman for the law enforcement agency who told the newspaper that it did not advise EPA officials to conduct the raid, adding that no evidence exists to believe those crimes are occurring. Calls seeking additional comment from the Alaska State Troopers were not returned early Friday.
WTF??? I’m all for making sure people aren’t raping the land and communal water ways while conducting their business, but this appears to be an exercise for nothing. If this had NOT been a government entity it would be called “A Hoax”.
These law enforcement task forces and SWAT teams are the standing armies our founding fathers warned us about!
Sounds like they wanted to play with their toys.
When did we start referring to suspects as “violators” ? Sort of tells you what you need to know about the folks conducting this deal….
Didn’t they use a similar excuse to do the Waco Raid?
Pretty soon somebody is going to take these folks under fire, then what???
They are armed like our Army is.
They are armored like our Army is (that armor is simply painted black, rather than ACU).
They have vehicles shockingly similar to what our Army uses, if not perfectly identical thanks to governmental surpluses and transfers.
And they can, will, and do violently disrupt your world, if not end your life, over something as idiotic as an incorrect address.
I would venture to say our Founding Fathers would say the police is beyond their concept of a “standing army”…
Worse is the police rules for engagement and punishment for improper engagement and injury/death is LESS strict than our armies.
Really scary.
This is looking more and more like a politically motivated intimidation raid, to satisfay the Gaia-worshipping supporters of the Administration.
Let’s be clear –what they were investigating was whether or not the mining site was sending water that was too muddy back into a stream. This was a compliance inspection, no different than OSHA visiting a construction site. All the other excuses have proven (by statements from law enforcement agencies involved) to be false.
This is what happens when you make every swinging Richard a sworn, arms bearing, LEO. Just like when every Podunk one light town has a SWAT team, it’s going to use them at every excuse to justify the spending (and because when it’s “in-house”, you don;t have to convince an outsiode agency you need the assets).