What a dumb sh*t! Grumpy
Category: Cops
Australian police are using a brutal ambush on two cops to encourage residents to rat out neighbors who are skeptical of the Covid-10 vaccine, or harbor anti-government views.
On December 12, two Brisbane police officers were gunned down by a family of rural Australians, who opened fire as the two officers approached their home. Constables Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26 died in the attack, while a third officer, Constable Randall Kirk, was shot in the leg but managed to escape. A fourth officer, Keely Brough, fled to safety in the bushes.
Later that evening, members of the rural family were killed in a shootout with tactical police.
In response to the incident, Deputy Commissioner Tracy Linford suggested that neighbors need to assume anyone who harbors non-mainstream views is clearly a threat.
“As I said before, if there’s anybody out there that knows of someone that might be showing concerning behavior around conspiracy theories, anti-government, anti-police, conspiracy theories around COVID-19 vaccination as what we’re seeing with [shooting perpetrators] the Train family, we’d want to know about it. We want to know about that. And you can either contact the police directly or go through Crime Stoppers,” she said.
In response, Rebel News‘ Avi Yemini replied: “Queensland Police appealing to the public to dob in their neighbours who “are anti-government or believe Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theories.””
This has not sat well with many:
MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) – A federally licensed firearms dealer in Macomb County is accused of importing devices that convert semiautomatic guns into machine guns, commonly known as Glock switches.
According to the Department of Justice, Chase Farmer, 23, of St. Clair Shores, owns Clinton Township-based Shall Not Be Infringed LLC. From November 2020 until March 2021, authorities allege Farmer used a Russian website to order the switches and drop-in auto sears, which are also used to convert guns into automatic weapons.
READ: What is a Glock switch?
While ordering these items, authorities say Farmer used an alias and falsified details in his PayPal payments. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives found evidence of the crimes and evidence he did not keep proper records, authorities said.
Farmer was licensed to deal in firearms, but he was not licensed to import guns, federal authorities say.
He was charged in a federal indictment with illegally importing Glock conversion devices from Russia and failing to keep proper records. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “A federal grand jury in Des Moines returned an indictment … charging Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt with unlawfully obtaining and possessing machine guns,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Idaho announced in a mid-December press release. “According to unsealed court documents, Wendt … exploited his position … to acquire 10 machine guns purportedly for the official duties and responsibilities of the Adair Police Department, but later resold several of those machine guns at a significant profit.”
He also, per the release, “acquired 13 machine guns for his Denison-based gun store, BW Outfitters, through false statements to the ATF that the machine guns were being demonstrated for future potential purchase by the Adair Police Department … sought to demonstrate or purchase approximately 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department, which serves a town of less than 800 people [and, with an accomplice] hosted public machine gun shoots, where they charged patrons money…”
Nice work if you can get it. The problem is, without a badge, you can’t, and therein lies the crux of police as “Only Ones.”
That’s a term I started using (and trying to get others to adopt) after a DEA agent explained to a classroom full of school children that he was “the only one professional enough” to carry a Glock and then shot himself in the foot trying to re-holster it. As I explain to readers on my The War in Guns blog:
“[T]he purpose of this feature has never been to bash cops. The only reason I do this is to amass a credible body of evidence to present when those who would deny our right to keep and bear arms use the argument that only government enforcers are professional and trained enough to do so safely and responsibly. And it’s also used to illustrate when those of official status, rank, or privilege, both in law enforcement and in some other government position, get special breaks not available to we commoners, particularly (but not exclusively) when they’re involved in gun-related incidents.”
Over the years, and without particularly trying, that body of evidence just keeps growing, and growing, and growing. As the character Brant from the dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner noted:
“You know the score, pal. If you’re not cop, you’re little people.”
They sure do make it tough to “Back the Blue” sometimes, don’t they? For those gun owners who wave that flag and insist it’s just “a few bad apples,” what percent would not obey orders to confiscate your guns? Show your work.
The Adair indictment also illustrates another danger, particularly in jurisdictions where police officials are either enthusiastically on board (or even driving) the citizen disarmament bandwagon.
“What Would Happen if ‘Battle of Athens’ Round Two Ever Becomes Necessary?” I asked back in 2014. That article looked at the militarization of police departments with surplus equipment from the feds. It focused on recent acquisitions by the McMinn County Sheriff’s Department and speculated on how the World War Two veterans trying to ensure election integrity against a corrupt sheriff and deputies would have fared had they been greeted by full autos, grenade launchers, and MRAPs.
Let’s keep working for freedom to reduce the need to ever have to find out. Let’s not forget that things may come down to resistance or surrender.
While the charges against Chief Wendt are just that, while he is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and while the Justice Department and ATF have given gun owners very little reason of late to trust any charges they bring as anything other than tyrannical overreach and/or in-your-face political rape, it’s not out of line to speculate that exploitation of the badge was going on.
There is one thing that is provable, and this one that I’m quoting from The Captain’s Journal is beyond the shadow of a doubt:
“There is a solution to all of this, of course. Undo the infringement of the NFA, GCA and Hughes Amendment. Then no one will be able to enrich themselves this way by selling machine guns.”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
Bradley Wendt knows he may be in some trouble. But he’s holding out hope that being criminally charged with lying to the feds while selling machine guns for a profit—allegations he denies—might not be the career setback it looks like.
The police chief of Adair, Iowa, a tiny town of about 800 people with three other officers on its force, Wendt was placed on leave in September after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) raided his office and his two gun stores.
This week, the feds detailed their case against him, saying Wendt obtained dozens of machine guns for his trio of cops over the last four years. According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, Wendt was exploiting his law enforcement position to obtain military-level weaponry that he resold in his private gun stores—and his buddy’s separate firearms business.
In a Friday phone call and text message exchange with The Daily Beast, Wendt admitted that he was “overwhelmed” by the allegations. And while he deferred any questions about the indictment to his attorney, Wendt added that he “certainly” hopes he can keep his job as the top cop in Adair.
The decision, he said, is “up to city council members,” who are set to have a meeting on Monday to discuss his career fate.
“I just want people to know the truth,” he said—before his attorney added that his client was just trying to do right by his neighbors.
“Mr. Wendt’s purpose here was not to provide a personal benefit to himself or anyone else. He is a trained police officer and firearms instructor, as well as a Federal Firearms Licensee, and only sought to benefit his community,” his lawyer, Nick Klinefeldt, told The Daily Beast.
By all accounts, Adair is quintessential small-town America. The rural enclave, which sits roughly an hour outside Des Moines, has six churches and one main road. The place is best known for its massive yellow “smiley-face” water tower along Interstate 80.
“Welcome to Adair, it’ll make you smile,” the city’s slogan states.
So when Chief Wendt started collecting machine guns, the feds took notice.
“Brad Wendt is charged with exploiting his position as chief of police to unlawfully obtain and sell guns for his own personal profit,” FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said in a statement.
In the indictment, prosecutors allege that between July 2018 and August 2022, Wendt provided “law letters” to the ATF in which he justified his acquisition of guns “not lawfully available to the public” by falsely claiming they were for his department—or that he wanted them demonstrated to his officers for potential future purchases.
Then, Wendt and his friend, Robert Williams, would allegedly either resell a majority of their weapons or have paid demonstrations where patrons could shoot the machine guns.
In all, Wendt allegedly requested 90 machine guns for purchase or demonstration. ATF did not approve all the police chief’s requests for the latter.
Wendt and Williams have been charged with conspiracy to make false statements and defraud the ATF—and the police chief is also facing 18 additional counts of making a false statement to the federal agency and one count of illegal possession of a machine gun. Williams is charged with three counts of making a false statement and aiding and abetting a false statement to the ATF. (His attorney told The Daily Beast that all the firearms associated with Williams “were acquired after ATF approval with letters authored by Chief Wendt that tracked ATF forms indicating an interest in seeing sample firearms, and the firearms were all accounted for in Mr. Williams’ inventory.”)
Wendt’s lawyer said the police chief intends to plead not guilty to the charges, stating his client “has faithfully and honorably served the people of Iowa as a law enforcement officer for over 20 years.”
“All of the transactions were approved with the full knowledge of the ATF. He looks forward to proving his innocence at trial,” Klinefeldt added.
The lawyer did not respond to a follow-up request for clarification about how, exactly, Wendt obtaining and demonstrating the use of military-style weapons would benefit the residents of Adair.
Neither Adair’s mayor nor any of its city council members responded to a request for comment. Adair City Attorney Clint Fichter declined to comment about whether Wendt has been permanently removed as police chief after his arrest, stating, “I don’t support the media anyway.”
This is not Wendt’s first time having to defend himself against some wild allegations.
After nine years serving as a police officer with the Denison, Iowa, Police Department, Wendt was fired by the city in February 2017 after a lengthy administrative leave spurred by charges he was hit with two years prior. In December 2015, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources alleged that Wendt illegally killed two buck deer with two other people.
The case was eventually dismissed in November 2016. Wendt’s request to be reinstated, however, was denied by the City of Denison—which claimed that his conduct was in violation of numerous rules of the police department.
Wendt went on to file a preliminary injunction, claiming retaliation, before ultimately filing another lawsuit against the city and police department. In the end, he settled both legal actions in 2019, receiving more than $600,000 from the city due to the alleged emotional distress and loss of wages from the whole debacle. The Denison Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wendt soon found employment again, scoring a job at the Lake View, Iowa, Police Department—before becoming Adair’s chief of police in July 2018. Meanwhile, the indictment states that Wendt has owned two firearm supply stores—BW Outfitters—since 2013.
Prosecutors say that Wendt’s scheme involved both layers of his professional life—that he “obtained 10 machine guns for the Adair Police Department and 13 machine guns for BW Outfitters.”
He also allegedly wrote “approximately 22 additional demonstration law letters… requesting a demonstration of 52 total machine guns to the Adair Police Department for potential future purchase,” the indictment states. “Of those 52 guns requested by Wendt for demonstration… approximately 27 were in fact transferred and acquired” by other gun stores.
In total, prosecutors allege that Wendt purchased 25 machine guns for his police department—of four total people, including himself—and requested 65 more for demonstration. Among the weapons Wendt sought to obtain for the department, according to the feds, was a rotary M134 minigun, a firearm that is usually mounted on military helicopters.
“The Adair Police Department does not own a helicopter,” the indictment says, noting the ATF denied the transfer.
Then, Wendt allegedly sold several guns registered to the force for profit—and rented out machine guns registered to his department or gun store. The indictment notes that some of the weapons were bought with Wendt’s personal funds, and it is not immediately clear if he used any city money in the alleged scheme.
If Wendt is determined to paint the federal case as some kind of harsh crackdown on sane gun-loving behavior, he may not be able to count on universal support from the local law enforcement community.
A spokesperson for the Iowa Police Chiefs Association said that while she was not familiar with Wendt’s case, the organization “partners with federal law enforcement agencies and that includes ATF.”
“All officers are sworn to an oath to enforce the laws of the land and Constitution,” the spokesperson added. “Violating that oath is an embarrassment to the profession.”
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers said Friday the agency intercepted a record number of firearms at airport security checkpoints this year, a nearly 10% increase over 2021’s record level.
Officials reported the agency stopped 6,301 firearms from crossing through secure areas of airports since the beginning of 2022 and anticipates detaining approximately 300 more before the new year. Of those firearms, more than 88% were loaded, the agency said.
The number of firearm interceptions surpassed the previous record of 5,972 firearms detected in 2021.
“I applaud the work of our Transportation Security Officers who do an excellent job of preventing firearms from getting into the secure area of airports, and onboard aircraft,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a news release. “Firearms are prohibited in carry-on bags at the checkpoint and onboard aircraft.”
Although firearm possession laws vary by state and local government, passengers are prohibited from carrying guns in carry-on bags at any TSA security checkpoint, even if a passenger has a concealed weapon permit. However, the agency says passengers may travel with a firearm — but it must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container and transported as checked baggage only and declared each time they present it for transport as checked baggage.
The agency said that TSA had increased the maximum civil penalty for a firearms violation to $14,950 to reduce the threat of firearms at checkpoints.
“When a passenger brings a firearm to the checkpoint, this consumes significant security resources and poses a potential threat to transportation security, in addition to being very costly for the passenger,” Pekoske said.
According to the agency, TSA firearm catches have increased since 2010, rising from just 1,123. However, the number of interceptions dipped in 2020 by more than 1,000 amid the COVID pandemic, when the industry took a massive hit after non-essential air travel nearly came to a complete stop.
Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an expert on aviation security, told The New York Times, “the majority of people are not doing it with malicious intent.”
“They’re simply forgetting,” Dr. Jacobson said, adding the gun sales increasing nationwide among first-time gun buyers could explain the rise in interceptions.
Last year, the Times reported data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center that showed about a fifth of all Americans bought firearms for the first time, with about 39 percent of all American households owning guns.
Comparing the number of Americans owning a firearm from 2016, a General Social Survey, a public opinion poll conducted by a research center at the University of Chicago, showed that the number increased from 32 percent.
David Fitz, a spokesman for the TSA, told the Times that “the most common reason given by passengers bringing a firearm into a checkpoint is ‘I forgot it was in the bag’ or ‘Someone else packed my bag for me.’”
Fitz added that most “parts of the country where open carry and concealed weapons permits are higher” trend typically in Southern states.
The agency said although some airlines may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition, passengers traveling by air who wish to transport firearms must do so in checked baggage by following proper packing guidance for firearms in checked baggage.
Categories
Turkey shoot in Georgia
Fatal shots were fired last month after several young men broke into an Atlanta home on Thanksgiving Day.
Police determined that the suspects attempted to break into a home in the Gresham Park neighborhood of Atlanta. The homeowner exercised his 2nd Amendment rights, firing on the intruders, who appear to have returned fire as well.
A neighbor said that she didn’t realize it was gunfire when she first heard the ruckus.
“I didn’t even think they were gunshots. I thought they were fireworks because there were so many,” she told FOX 5. “It’s very disturbing to see that.”
Preliminary reports stated that police were called by neighbors when shots were detected. They arrived on the scene and found several males, ages 23, 18, and 15.
All three had sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to a local hospital, where the 18-year-old, Taneaious McCune, died due to his injuries.
Follow-up reports say another man, 30-year-old Telvin Thomas, showed up at the hospital afterward with similar bullet wounds. It has since been determined that he had also been involved in the break-in.
WSBtv reported on the events and disclosed that police say another group had been found and “were detained on the scene with the help of SWAT officers.” This group appears to have been planning to help with the home invasion.
After reviewing information, the authorities told WXIA that they deem the homeowner to have fired the shots in an act of self-defense, which “seemed justified.” No charges are likely to be filed against the homeowner.
Rather, the suspects are facing charges of criminal murder for the death of their accomplice.
The following Sunday, just days after the first incident, a candlelight vigil was being held for 18-year-old McCune. During the vigil, more shots rang out.
Police arrived at the scene to find 1 dead and 2 injured, all of them minors.
The perpetrator had left on foot, and according to The Atlanta Journal, detectives are actively working to identify the suspect.
Unfortunately for the people gathered at the vigil, no one stepped up to defend the group from the shooter. Hopefully, after these two events, residents in the neighborhood will take measures to ensure they can adequately protect themselves and their loved ones.
Honolulu Police Chief Arther “Joe” Logan has asked residents to call the police if they see another citizen open-carrying. This request, from a live stream for “Spotlight Hawaii,” comes on the heels of the HPD issuing concealed-carry licenses.
According to Logan, dispatched officers will be required to investigate any complaints. Police will need a physical description of the person in question as well as any other detail that can aid in their investigation.
“Obviously, concealed carry and the definition of ‘conceal’ means that you can’t see it or it is unrecognizable to the average person,” said Logan. “If it is noticed and you can see it, I would ask you to call 911.”
Back in June, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on a case known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen that struck down New York’s “may-issue” carry scheme and opened the door for firearm enthusiasts to carry across the country.
However, it has also led to some controversial requirements for those wishing to obtain a permit in Honolulu. An applicant must be able to remove their weapon from the holster and hit a silhouette target, placed at five distances, from nine to 45 feet.
SEE ALSO: Federal Judge Strikes Down Draconian Hawaii Handgun Purchase Requirements
The owner of 808 Gun Club Tom Tomimbang said last month that he is not too concerned about the requirements in an interview with Hawaii News Now.
“Practice, practice, practice, right?” Tomimbang said. “If they do that before they take the actual qualification course, they should be able to do it.”
Chief Logan says this requirement test is not really to prove someone can shoot, but that they can shoot under duress – which is why they added a timed element to the test.
“You might have to learn how to cope with that stress while shooting,” he said.
Currently, there are around 600 pending applications for CCW licenses on Oahu, and they are being processed in the order in which they were received.
Aside from the requirement test, these 90-day applications require applicants to undergo background checks, mental health evaluations, and live-fire training before the HPD issues the certification – similar to a driver’s license with a picture included.
Gun carriers who get caught in public without their license will face a misdemeanor criminal offense.
Chief Logan has declared that he will not wait on the city of Oahu to complete action on Bill 57, which would limit concealed carriers from possessing a weapon on public transit, at schools, or in the voting booth.
SEE ALSO: Smith & Wesson Files Suit in Hawaii for Public Records Disclosures
Furthermore, the bill would also prevent carrying in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, the Hawaii Children’s Discovery Center, the Honolulu Aquarium and the Honolulu Zoo. Those permitted to concealed-carry would also be required to stand 100 feet away from the outer edge of groups of 25 or more who are participating in “first amendment expressive activities.”
State Legislature is expected to discuss adopting statewide standards for carrying restrictions by location in January. Meanwhile, Bill 57 passed the initial reading at a November 29th city council meeting. The bill is required to be voted on twice more before it can be implemented.
Logan has been making the rounds with members of the city council to ensure the language of the bill is clear for citizens and law enforcement alike. He wants everyone to understand what to do in confusing situations where a legal carrier is forced to pick up their child from school last minute. According to Logan, these murky circumstances need some elaboration.
“The way the language of the law is written is really going to impact how we enforce, ” Logan said. “It’s something we need to figure out.”
Logan says that with officers putting their lives in danger, a clearly worded ordinance or law is expected to protect them.
“It becomes a little difficult for us on an enforcement level, ” said Logan. “We’re already asking our officers to do a lot.”
