Thursday, August 21, 2014

From Herschel Smith -- "Assessment Of Ferguson: Misrepresenting The Liberty Movement."

"Reading the comments to this post by Mike Vanderboegh has persuaded me to weigh in on Ferguson and the liberty movement. It had to happen. The liberty movement – at least for some – sees a common enemy, the police state, and is allying itself with crooks and liars. This is to be avoided since it does nothing except harm the movement."
Nightmare. And it’s just beginning. Ferguson is a microcosm of Chicago, LA, Houston, New York, and Atlanta. It’s all unraveling for them. Your job is to be prepared, not to side with any of them. This is their nightmare. Let them live it alone. Let Ferguson burn. Don’t fill in the gaps for them. Don’t side with criminals or militarized police. Let it all collapse, you have no friends in the fight.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Guess Mr. Smith would have been one of the people whom kept driving in their cars on I-15 in Bunkerville after seeing 400 citizens standing up to 60 BLM thugs in the wash at the Bundy Ranch? Or would have let the Jews in Warsaw take care of their problems with the Nazis by themselves? I could go on and on, but why bother with this spectator. Hope he has some friends when they come for his keyboard.

Anonymous said...

I have felt from the beginning of this mess that both sides were acting like a**holes. Lunatic militarized police itching for a fight and the thug culture that prefers to acquire material possessions by looting rather than working for them. I send articles daily to friends and family concerning what's really going on in America and I avoided sending anything on Ferguson except one article concerning the rights of journalists being hindered by police.

Alan W. Mullenax said...

My thoughts exactly. I'm fine to sit back and watch them tear each other to pieces.

One problem though. Should the thing escalate to a certain point, the cops are gonna get real sensitive and then begin to treat the law abiding like they treat the lawless. Now when that happens...

harp1034 said...

Right on! We don't have a dog in this fight. Stand back and let them chew each other up.

rexxhead said...

"If you work too hard to repair the bad decisions by management at work, they never learn from their mistakes."

Wow. Just 'wow'. I'm 70; why did I never figure this out for myself?

Anonymous said...

Mr Smith exposes his own bit of collectivist dogma here and he should rethink responsibility. His version is rested in not what's actually happened but what "might" happen.

He uses the notion that storing "too much" black powder is "too dangerous" and thus "irresponsible". Hogwash! Who the hell is HE to decide FOR another how much of ANYTHING they can and cannot have? Are they entitled to their castle or not? Mr Smith is trying to have his cake and eat it too.

Let me educate Mr Smith as to what REAL responsibility is. It matters not how much powder I have in my house. It's NOT YOUR BUSINESS, it's not for YOUR FEAR to decide. That's YOUR EMOTION transgressing MY liberty. It's truly NO DIFFERENT than someone saying they fear the "cache" their neighbor has cuz cuz it's "dangerous" and could now down the entire neighborhood. This that cache must be a "crime" and banned.

Knock it off Mr Smith. Admit the reality. Until that neighborhood gets blowed up, until your property is ACTUALLY blown up, until you are actually hurt, until something ACTUALLY happens, you are as guilty of infringing upon a enumerated right as Dianne Feinstein - and under the same tyrannical tool -"fearmongering in the world of what-if".

And music? Tossing rocks? How about mowing the lawn, Mr Smith ? Here's a tip, sometime you make noise that bothers a neighbor too...maybe it's as innocent as tearing out a concrete driveway to replace it. The point being, you again are treating the entire world as YOURS and only YOUR liberty matters. Hardly.

If you, Mr Smith, want to argue that a person must take responsibility for their powder store destroying another's property or harming flesh and blood people, then I will stand beside you. If you want to punish the POSSIBILITY, I'll stand opposed to you 100%. Thus because you have then engaged in the loyalist ideology that claims your liberty trumps all because you know "what's best" and what must be mandated and banned "for safety". That, sir, is EXACTLY the attitude our Founders rejected as ANTI liberty. And they understood that without individual liberty in place - no responsibility can EVER teach the lesson you yourself talk about!!!

You ought appologize to your neighbor. You know why? He was good enough to respect your rights but sadly you haven't returned that respect. Here's why - you demand ONLY your liberty matter, with his destroyed. Here's a word for ya - MUTUAL respect. You COULD both have your liberty respected - like say, at three in the afternoon that fella could enjoy his music as he sees fit WHILE respecting your opposition to it at three in the morning. See how that works? BOTH of you tolerate each other and their disperate decisions and BOTH retain exercise and enjoyment TOGETHER!

It's comical sometimes, watching people proclaim liberty WHILE they try to justify snatching the liberty of another. It's easy to see if one just looks. Heck, just take note of the generalization made about Fergusun! Mr Smith portrays it like every person in that place is a criminal looter. Hardly. Wake up Mr Smith. Read your own piece and think it through. Then, try again, keeping it real this time.

Anonymous said...

The holier-than-thou attitudes exhibited by both Hersch and the guy he quotes in his article mean that they are apparently oblivious to the fact that the purpose of law and government is to protect individual rights. If no one's rights are violated, no crime has been committed.

I agree that we have no dog in this fight in Ferguson...both sides are wrong. But Hershey leaves out that Ferguson as a municipality has been issuing $2.6M in tickets per year to its residents and living like a parasite off the people. They are collecting $130 for every man, woman and child in the town for things like "jaywalking" which Herschel says is a "crime".

Really? Just whose rights are violated when you jaywalk (ASSUMING no one is hit by a car and the car owner's property is damaged by the jaywalker)?

Answer: NO ONE'S.

No victim, no crime. Or are we going to continue the stupidity of 40K new federal laws EVERY year; a system of laws so complex everyone breaks several per day; and a "pre-crime deterrence" policing method that can ONLY result in the loss of liberty?

You don't drink and drive....good for you. Neither do I b/c it's irresponsible. I don't generally drive recklessly....but I'm assuming the comments by Battlefield USA...are in that same vein; i.e., the author doesn't "drive like a maniac at 120 MPH"....but I'll bet he BREAKS THE LAW and COMMITS A CRIME by regularly exceeding the speed limit by 5 mph or more.

He's a hypocrite, nothing more. And worse, he's a statist whose more than willing to tell someone else how much "ammo" or "black powder" they should be allowed to store in their home on the off chance there's a fire that *could* blow up his house.

The slippery slope is that in order for you to know that...you've got to be able to search your neighbor's house anytime you so choose. Apparently, the 4A doesn't mean much to these statists who are masquerading in liberty clothing. And the worst part....they can't even see it.

Sean

I Hunter said...

Yes. Let Ferguson burn. Let LA burn. Let Chicago burn. Then small town Ohio. Then small town Idaho. then small town New Mexico. Then small town Oklahoma.

And when it get's to your town?

I think this is happening now in Iraq. It's called ISIS.

Anonymous said...

Personnel selection and mission creep along with the fact that your average politician believes that he or she "owns" law enforcement are the problems here. Not a competent and well armed police unit as well as a heavily armed and free population. This seems to be something we just can't manage anymore, and I don't believe for one minute that this is accidental. But that's another kettle of worms, although related.

I remember a conversation I had with another deputy once upon a time and remember his words exactly. We were discussing the then newly proposed CCW shall issue statute and He disagreed with it completely. I asked him why considering the wait time on back at that time and the fact most civilians/citizens will immediately come to your aid if needed, no question asked and without hesitation. He responded, "Because we're the only one's who can carry concealed and if it gos through, we won't be."

Selection of personnel is critical. Knowledge of the existence of the constitution and bill of rights as more than theory, is also critical because there really are correct and incorrect answers that your personnel should know before ever having enforcement responsibilities.

When you are a hammer, everybody begins to look like a nail, until it's explained to you the difference between John Q. Public and the average bad guy.

Tasso said...

Herschel's conclusion? "Let Ferguson burn."

Sorry, no, I do not agree with that. There are good righteous Christians in that town, beset by criminals. I stand with them.

I can't believe you agree with him on this Mike. What do we stand for if not the rights of the innocent against the mob? We are willing to drive to Nevada for a single man, but not willing to utter a word for an entire town?

Sean said...

I heard THAT.

Anonymous said...

Very well said, Anon at 9:39 on Aug. 21.

Anonymous said...

Despite all the bunny trails that the author goes down, I think the point to be grasped is that there really are no good actors in this situation. Good people yes, but they are victims caught in a war between communists (taking unearned wealth because they believe they are entitled to it), and fascists (who basically seek to create a society of vassalage/peonage).

Paul X said...

There is a time for standing back, and a time for getting involved. This is one of the former.

As to the rest - the critiques of the author - yeah, he doesn't seem to understand liberty very well either.

Anonymous said...

I'll proffer that there are three groups here to consider, not two. The first group are the protestors. The second group are the LE folks. The third group is the looters. The first group should be supported by us III folks regardless of what they are protesting. We claim to support the constitution, and citizen protest is fundamental to the cause. The second group (at all levels) is out of control. Their actions against the protestors should cause them to be banned from LE for life. The third group are scum and the LE types should have cracked down on that from the beginning.