Sheriffs in outlying counties may be working to protect your liberties; but as of July 1, Colorado is a de facto police state — one in which being caught with now-illegal standard-capacity magazines, even those grandfathered in (given that there is no ready method for proving the magazines were purchased before the ban goes into effect) under the laws signed by “pro-gun” Governor Hickenlooper, can lead to arrest and confiscation, depending on the whims of a given LEO on any given day. Either these law enforcement officers — exempted from the law themselves — are to be thanked for believing you about the purchase date and letting you go; or else they can arrest you, confiscate your property, and run you through the system at great expense in time and treasure, where you can prove your innocence — their presumption having been that, without documentation of purchase, you were in violation of the law.
Neither of which scenarios is, frankly, acceptable, relying as they do on the benevolence of the state’s policing authorities for the maintenance of our supposedly natural rights. And according to some reports, LEOs in Denver and Boulder will be enforcing the new laws to the letter — meaning that the position of nearly any magazine with a removable base-plate can be construed as a violation of the law.
What the Colorado gun-control measures have done — on purpose, is my surmise, driven as they were by Bloomberg and the White House through the Democrat puppets in the Colorado assembly — is destabilize a consistent, repeatable, uniformly applied rule of law. Making Colorado a post-constitutional state — and a model for other states whose elected Democrat leaderships are being urged to seize upon this window of opportunity to ignore the wishes of those they represent and throw in with the larger progressive agenda, which calls for using staged crisis moments opportunistically to ram through unpopular, liberty-robbing legislation that will “nudge” subjects into “proper” behavior and makes them more dependent on government, and so more manageable and docile.
And in a state where the laws are not applied consistently, what we have is tyranny.
Given that state of affairs, here’s some advice: Don’t talk to the police:
This is where we are. In the United States.
And yet Republicans are poised to position themselves politically in favor of certain gun control laws, and in favor of backdoor amnesty for illegals who were drawn here on the promise of joining a welfare state, in direct violation of existing immigration law, which our Supreme Court has decided is not really the law at all, should the Executive decide not to follow it.
I don’t know that I’ll be around for the revolution. If it ever comes. Because it seems to me that we’re outflanked, and with the media AND our “own” representatives throwing in with he statists, we have so many obstacles to overcome just to gain a foothold from which to fight back with any real effect.
What we need is John Connor. And a few cyborgs friendly to the liberty agenda.
Short of that…?
“And a few cyborgs friendly to the liberty agenda.”
I’m thinking that a few cyborgs with a thirst for power hungry politicians might be better.
The legal presumption is the other way around. The burden of proof is on the prosecution. Of course, they’ve already made your life hell before you get to that point. The process is the punishment. Best not to bother. Best not to take a chance on having them at all. Best to be a compliant subject.
Short of that . . . ?
Heightist.
Denounced.
Call realtor. Plant For Sale sign in front yard. Assemble packing boxes in garage.
Biden is such a happy pappy, now about those other States…
Yes. And these arrests will likely be thrown out.
But the point I’m making is the one you are making: the state has the burden of proof, but in the interim, the police will just decide to let the prosecutor’s office figure it out. They are just following the law, you see.
Things will sort themselves out for the law abiding eventually. After all, if they have nothing to hide, why would they care if they are first arrested. Because exoneration is so liberating!
They’re just doing their job, after all. Why do you hate the police? Are you a criminal or something?
How can law enforcement be outgunned when they have (almost) all the (new manufacture) ammunition?
Interesting video. Especially the point of “There is absolutely nothing you can say to police that can possibly help you. It can only hurt you.”
They are tired of being outgunned. They are tired of being outgunned.”
Outgunned by who? The 99.9% of responsible gun owners who will never give LEOs even a moment of concern, yet who are the primary target of this new legislation? Or criminals, who are the ones taking actual shots at LEOs yet will pay zero, zip, nada attention to this legislation?
Biden is a complete and utter moron. And water is wet.
I’ve always taken the attitude that anyone who abuses his authority at me will find his authority gracing my mantel.
It’s been a long time since it’s happened, and I can’t really explain it.
Two sides of the same coin:
“You don’t have to have a magazine-fed firearm.”
“You don’t have to live in Colorado.”
I’ve been on a jury twice, and both times we acquitted because the prosecutor did not prove his or her case. My sister, on the other hand, sat on a jury in which the judge admonished them all that a hung jury was not acceptable at all, and at least one juror said in the deliberation room that the guy must be guilty since he had been arrested.
My sister caught a testifying officer in a lie (or at least a misremembered fact) and wanted to acquit, but the rest of them bullied her. She shouldn’t have caved in, of course, but there you are.
Shorter me: talking to the police has been a really bad idea for a very long time. These days it’s even worse.
a couple of RHINO’s go wobbly on illegals and you throw in the towel … this stuff won’t survive the courts … buck up … hold the line … and QUIT crying about what someone else is doing …
QUIT crying about what someone else is doing …
Hah! Good advice thedorsai . . . you should take it.
Seems to me I’ve heard that before.
That vid is compelling, particularly the point that when you talk to the cop and he “remembers” what you said differently than you do, you’re hosed.
Who’s crying? I’m describing, and as a result, preparing.
Meanwhile, you sound like Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House.
Who the fuck is this “thed” guy? We’ve got documentation of the GOP’s descent into statism going back to Gingrich’s ouster, and he’s pretending that the problem is just a couple of RINOs who’ve gone wobbly?
Hey, thed — where have you been? Have you not noticed that the GOP leadership has started caucusing with the Dems? Have you not noticed that “stalwart conservative” John Roberts blessed the Obamination? Have you not noticed that Rove set up a fucking PAC to keep people like us from spoiling his gravy train?
It’s not a warm summer rain you feel falling on your head, jackass — it’s your “handful of RINOs” pissing all over you. Wake up, already.
“thedorsai” is rhinoceros for “turd blossom.”
After discussing states’ rights issues with some constitutional scholars, and learning how extensively the courts – considered by many to be the arbiter of last resort (even though that is FAR from what the founders intended) – have been captured by the statists, I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that our national contract, the constitution, has been rendered null and void. That not only those who propose to rule us are no longer bound by it – which they have realized for many years now – but we American citizens as well.
Those in positions of power have known this for a long time. They’ll continue to use the constitution to cudgel us into submission even while knowing, themselves, that it no longer has any validity; and as long as Americans continue to believe in this now-failed contract, the tyrants will continue to use it against us.
I’d love to hear a differing opinion. Up to this point, I had high hopes in the triumph of states’ rights as envisioned by the founders; but have been educated that a now-tyrannical federal court system will in no way allow any such construct to succeed.
America has no more rule of law, of checks and balances, as the founders envisioned it. The constitution has been superseded by tyranny, and is now merely a pretense that is being used to keep us in line. .
Yes, I know some lonely voices on the political fringes have been saying this for a while. Up til now, I had laughed at them.
Outflanked, indeed.
They’ll continue to use the constitution to cudgel us into submission even while knowing, themselves, that it no longer has any validity.
The irony being that a valid Constitution cannot be used to cudgel the States or the People. The actual Constitution as signed by the early States was a cudgel to be used against the Feds.
I still maintain that our best hope is for California and Illinois to go tits up, forcing a Constitutional crisis when the other states refuse to bail them out. I also maintain that the crisis will come from a handful of state legislatures and governor’s mansions, and not from the Senate. Because while the proposed bailout would help 4 Senators at the expense of 96, I’ve little doubt that 50-60 of those Senators represent states that are following their spendthrift cousins to ruin, and would like to pretend that there will be a safety net for them when their time comes.
Or the dollar could simply collapse, and we’ll go the way of Argentina. Who’s to say what comes first?
If that were true, would they have bothered to do away with the Articles of Confederation?
It’s still useful, I think, to maintain [or at the very least, mention] that states’ rights isn’t properly a device the Founders and Framers would recognize. They would, however, instantly accede to the phrase states’ powers, powers being what have been given over by the possessors of rights, namely, people, which is to say, individuals, to the states or to the Federal government, in order to have a government of any sort.
The Constitution was a grant of power to the feds with what were intended to be clear limits on the use of that power. It replaced the Articles which granted almost no power to the confederation.
Imagine the outcome of the crisis begun in 1812, under the Articles.
I refer, when I refer at all to the concept, to “states’ prerogatives.” That I think conveys that the states have the sort of claim against federal power that individuals have against all government — without confusing the states’ claim with rights as properly understood.
Rights are balanced against powers; the question between the feds and the states is a question of authority, which some characterize as power tempered by right (not rights).
Iraq War Hero With Brain Injury Is First Man Charged in NY Safe Act (Video)
That’s a pretty good term McG, prerogatives (I’m amused to think about “afterrogatives” too).
There’s a new term tossed about nowadays when people talk about their jobs: my “lane”, or lanes, as in “I don’t want to get outside my lane”, they say. This is also the kind of thing we mean, I think.
Juan Williams either rakes muck out of nothing or polishes turds until they seem to gleam. How do you live like that? He knows that he is and what he does. How do you wake up and realize that you can accept being a cynical reactionary shill?
“I don’t want to get outside my lane”
Bailiwick probably has too many syllables. And “field” sounds like you’re some dirty inbred farmer.
What’s ol’ neighbor Juan up too now (beyond his usual routine, that is)?
Not sure if anyone linked this.
One of the thought things that seems to have disappeared in the transition from the ancient world to the modern, is the ineluctable association of tragedy and liberty. It’s almost as though the moderns decided (decided!) they could have it all.
The key to that whole video came at the very end.
“we are allowed to lie in interviews” said the policeman. And they do, all the time, even when the “interview” has nothing to do with anything, and may just be a situation where you think he’s a buddy in your home bullshitting in the garage while the wives are in the kitchen baking cookies.
Never forget that, and never trust anything a cops says, writes or promises, ever.
Unless you are a cop of course. Then, you can be guilty of pretty much anything, and the brothers in blue will lie for you.
When he said he doesn’t want to convict an innocent person…that was a lie. If he can’t find the guilty person, he will try and hang it on anyone he thinks he can…by lying.
I told ya Californians weren’t your problem, it’s them New Yorkers you need to run out of town.
Careful handling: power, law, and right — or, lanes.