Smart Bombs: A constitutionalist context
Video shot at the Spokane Valley Mall shows a deputy explaining why the Sheriff’s Office needs a mine-resistant, military-style vehicle. He replies, “We’ve got a lot of constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, a lot of ammunition.”
I’m not thrilled with the militarization of law enforcement, but I don’t believe the buildup is leading to an assault on law-abiding citizens. Law enforcement is increasingly afraid of the public and vice versa.
Extreme constitutionalists are believed to be responsible for the assassination of two police officers in Las Vegas last summer. They left a “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and a note saying, “This is the beginning of a revolution.”
Last spring, extremists rallied to the side of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, going so far as to point weapons at law enforcement officers in a tense standoff.
Some constitutionalists believe many federal laws are unconstitutional, but they still follow them. Others, like Bundy, defy laws and their enforcers, and then politicians like Rep. Matt Shea swoop in for rhetorical support. It can be dangerous. To extremists, Bundy wasn’t a deadbeat who was two decades behind on the rent (unlike law-abiding ranchers grazing cattle on public land); he was defending his property.
These self-proclaimed constitutionalists pay special attention to the 10th Amendment, believing states’ rights nullify many federal laws. They join Oath Keepers, which urges sheriffs to uphold the founding document by refusing to enforce federal laws considered to be invasive. Considered by whom? By them.
If sheriffs don’t sign up, they’re deemed traitors. For example, Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.
Extreme constitutionalists distrust the media, preferring to get their “news” from websites such as Infowars.com, which is where the video was posted. The location of the video is the overlooked part of this melodrama.
Infowars (the name says it all) was started by Alex Jones, a radio host who believes the moon landing was faked and the feds were behind the Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombings. Jones has insinuated that the FBI was responsible for the murders of the two Las Vegas cops as they ate lunch. The feds did it to smear the anti-government movement, just as they framed Timothy McVeigh.
“Evidence shows … that calls for violence often comes from government inserted agents provocateurs. The FBI specializes in this sort of behavior,” Jones has said.
This is rank speculation, but it fits the overarching narrative of American leaders conspiring with other nations to construct a one-world government.
On the latest anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Infowars carried an article stating that Middle East terrorists were a front for the U.S. government’s inside job. Author Paul Craig Roberts wrote: “For thirteen years a new generation of Americans has been born into the 9/11 myth that has been used to create the American warfare/police state.”
The “myth” is that Osama bin Laden directed the attack on the United States. Not true, says the author. America attacked itself to grease the skids for the Patriot Act, which was the tool needed to implement a police state. Plus, bin Laden couldn’t have been killed by Seal Team 6, because he died of an illness in December 2001, according to Roberts.
So those troops you’ve thanked for their service in Afghanistan and Iraq? Just dupes sent on a foreign mission to expand an evil police state at home. That revulsion you felt for those who hijacked the planes and killed 3,000 people? Misguided anger. Your government did it.
It’s in this context that one should read the headline at Infowars accusing Sheriff Knezovich of “fearmongering” – as if it were an act the site abhors.