Tag: police state

As Govt Employees Kept Paychecks, Bar Owner Gets 90 Days in Jail for Opening During Lockdown to Survive

In April, police officers located Lisa Hanson in Clear Lake, Iowa about 40 miles south of the restaurant she owns.

Officers placed her under arrest and transported her for booking. Hanson, who had not appeared for a March 10 court date, was released a few hours later. She admitted to one local news station that the experience was “unpleasant and scary.”

Hanson’s crime? She kept her restaurant—The Interchange Wine & Coffee Bistro—open in December against the order of Governor Tim Walz, who in mid November had issued a new lockdown on bars and restaurants, gyms, sports, and social gatherings. Walz’s order did not prohibit liquor stores, barber shops, salons, and retail businesses from operating.

Hanson publicly said she believed the order was unfair and a violation of her constitutional rights.

“We knew right away that it was wrong what the government was doing to us,” Hanson said following her arrest.

Eight months later, Hanson had her day in court. Last week the jury, after deliberating for an hour, found her guilty of six criminal misdemeanor charges. Judge Joseph Bueltel handed Hanson a 90-day jail sentence and fined her $1,000 in a blistering denunciation.

“You wanted to make money over the interest of public safety,” he said. “You don’t recognize the law. You don’t think you’re subject to the law.”

Keep reading

Retired Generals Urge Military to ‘War-Game’ Against US Citizens

With the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 incursion into the United States Capitol less than a month away, three retired Army generals  called on leaders to take preventive measures, including to “war game” a “post-election insurrection or coup” attempts.

“The potential for a total breakdown of the chain of command along partisan lines – from the top of the chain to squad level – is significant should another insurrection occur,” former Major Gen. Paul Eaton, former Brigadier Gen. Steven Anderson and former Major Gen. Antonio Tagubathe wrote in The Washington Post on Friday in an opinion column raising the disturbing prospect of the U.S. military training for a confrontation against fellow Americans.

The generals went on to write, “The idea of rogue units organizing among themselves to support the ‘rightful’ commander in chief cannot be dismissed.”

Their comments come in light of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by a mob mostly made up of supporters of then-President Donald Trump seeking to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election by disrupting the joint session of Congress assembled to count electoral votes that would formalize then-President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

The incursion proved deadly for five people, including Ashli Babbit, 35, who died from a gunshot wound after being shot by a Capitol police officer while trying to climb through a door inside the Capitol near the House chamber.

Keep reading

Grandmother Who Violated Mask Mandate to Spend Christmas Behind Bars

An Irish grandmother who violated the nation’s mask mandate is to spend Christmas behind bars after being sentenced to a year in prison.

Margaret Buttimer, a 66-year-old grandmother, will spend this Christmas behind bars after being sentenced to one year in prison for violating Ireland’s mask mandate, with six months of the sentence being suspended.

The grandmother was initially imprisoned last week after breaching her bail terms by going Christmas shopping, having been ordered to stay away from stores.

According to a report by the Irish Examiner, Buttimer was sentenced after being found guilty of not wearing a mask in a restaurant.

The judge presiding over the case made reference to what he called the grandmother’s “absurd selfishness” and “willful disregard of others”.

He also refused to hand down community service to the woman, claiming that it would be contradictory to do so as she was engaging in “persistent community disservice”.

The 66-year-old now has multiple convictions for breaching public health guidelines, having been jailed twice for her actions.

Buttimer had no previous convictions prior to the pandemic, according to the Irish Independent.

Keep reading

New York Legislation Provides for Indefinite Detention of Unvaccinated at Governor’s Whim.

In the next legislative session beginning January 5th, 2022, the New York Senate and Assembly could vote on a bill that would grant permissions to remove and detain cases, contacts, carriers, or anyone suspected of presenting a “significant threat to public health” and remove them from public life on an indefinite basis.

Bill A416 presents a serious risk to the basic liberties of all Americans in the state of New York, including their right to choose whether or not to receive medical treatment and vaccinations related to thus far undetermined contagious diseases.

The bill gives the Governor of New York, his or her delegates – including but not limited to the commissioner and heads of local health departments – the right to remove and detain any individuals or groups of people through issuing a single order. The orders only have to include the individual’s name(s) or “reasonably specific descriptions of the individuals or groups.”

The department can decide to hold a person or group of people in a medical facility or any other they deem appropriate. The language is purposefully vague.

Though the bill attempts to state that no one shall be held for more than 60 days, the language allows for court orders to waive this maximum detention time. After 60 days, the court is allowed an additional 90 days to consider the detention of an individual, a cycle that can last indefinitely per the opinion of the department.

Keep reading

Attract Government Attention and Get Your Name Run Through a ‘Terrorist’ Database

In 2021, it’s unfortunately not surprising to learn about routine federal surveillance of people who attract official attention. We live, after all, at a moment when freedom looks haggard and unloved even in liberal democracies and a record number of journalists are behind bars. That the practice of running people’s names through multiple government databases appears to be routine doesn’t bode well for the United States, let alone the world beyond.

“Documents obtained by Yahoo News, including an inspector general report that spans more than 500 pages” expose snooping by Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Counter Network Division, Jana Winter wrote in a December 11 report. “The division, which still operates today, had few rules and routinely used the country’s most sensitive databases to obtain the travel records and financial and personal information of journalists, government officials, congressional members and their staff, NGO workers and others.”

CBP agent Jeffrey Rambo was initially implicated for inquiries about Ali Watkins, a reporter at The New York Times. That included “pulling email addresses, phone numbers and photos from passport applications and checking that information through numerous sensitive government databases, including the terrorism watchlist.” But it quickly becomes apparent that he’s been hung out to dry for doing what he was told by means that are considered normal within the federal government.

“According to records included in the inspector general report, such vetting was standard practice at the division,” Winter adds.

Given the range of tools available to the feds, it’s not a shock that their use has become rote. What’s the point of having vast (if unreliable) databases on people’s activities if you’re not going to use them? To the databases, add geotagging data and information scraped from social media by contractors. Running background checks as a matter of course may be creepy, but it’s difficult to imagine it not becoming standard practice when that information is available at agents’ fingertips.

Keep reading

Rand Paul Warns COVID Mandates Are “About Conditioning The American Individual To Submit To Government”

Senator Rand Paul has warned that as long as Americans continue to submit to government on coronavirus restrictions, the mandates and further erosions of freedom will never end.

Speaking with Dan Bongino, Paul responded to comments made last week by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who compared “anti-vaxxers here in this chamber” to “flat earthers” from 400 years ago.

Paul noted that “Schumer left out one thing, when they were denying that the Earth went around the sun. It was the government denying that and it was an independent scientist trying to set them straight.”

Paul further explained “the danger is when you let science be controlled by government, or by one sort of monolithic individual like Fauci, it really doesn’t have anything to do with science. Science usually discovers the truth eventually. But when science is dictated by the government, that’s when you get, you know, Flat Earthers.”

Paul continued, “I don’t think it’s been about science for a long time,” adding “It’s really the about conditioning the American individual to submit to government. And you’re right, it never ends, the goalposts will continue to change. And ultimately, more and more of your healthcare will be controlled.”

“You know, under socialized medicine, when we centralize all controls, most of these decisions are made by government bureaucrats like Fauci,” the Senator further urged.

The Senator also painted a grim picture of where this could all be heading, stating “If you love the dictates on vaccines, you’ll love it when Fauci is in charge of who can be dialyzed.”

Keep reading