Funeral services will be held today in Kanab, Utah, for LaVoy Finicum, the rancher killed last month during the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. In a bulletin distributed this week to cops across the region, the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center—one of the dozens of intelligence-sharing “fusion centers” around the country that get funds from the Department of Homeland Security—warns that “extremists may utilize such a high profile funeral for media attention or to further ideological beliefs.” Although “no credible threats to law enforcement are present at this time,” the authors still think police should be wary: “Caravans of individuals traveling to the funeral services may be comprised of one or more armed extremists. Law enforcement should remain vigilant and aware that confrontation with these potentially volatile persons, may include more than one individual. These individuals may adhere to a sovereign citizen ideology, and may not recognize law enforcement as a legitimate authority.”
The report includes several “visual indicators” to help police determine whether they’re dealing with “extremist and disaffected individuals.” These range from images associated with specific political groups, such as the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, to a more generic patriotic symbol, the Gadsden flag—a famous Revolutionary War banner featuring a coiled rattlesnake and the slogan “Don’t Tread on Me.” One of the “indicators” is a slightly altered version of a picture popular with fans of the Grateful Dead; the guide does not note this potential source of confusion, describing it only as “common sovereign citizen imagery.”
Although “some or parts of these symbols are representative of patriotic and American revolutionary themes,” the report says, “they are often associated with extremism.” There is little effort to apply even that much nuance to the individual symbols. The Gadsden flag is associated with several political movements, such as the Tea Party protests; it has also been adapted by apolitical subcultures, such as the fans of U.S. Soccer. But the bulletin simply declares that it is “commonly displayed by sovereign citizen extremists.”
One private-sector security professional who received the bulletin worries that it could lead to a kind of profiling. “I work with a young man, 24 years old, three associate’s degrees, volunteer fire fighter, dreams of becoming a police officer,” he says. “He’s also an Armenian-Russian immigrant who just earned his American citizenship. He sports a Gadsden flag on his car because of what it represents in our country’s history.” If a cop sees that car today, the security worker worries, the officer’s “thoughts will automagically flip to profiling him” as a violent extremist.
Mike German, a former FBI agent who infiltrated far-right groups in the 1990s, has a similar objection. “I always try to look at these alerts from the perspective of the police officer on the street,” he says. “What will the officers know after reading this that they didn’t before? Here all they know is to be afraid if they see a Gadsden flag, which could result in an unnecessarily hostile encounter that would increase the chances of violence. There’s nothing here that would help them correctly identify someone who held these beliefs, understand what might trigger hostile reactions, or how to talk to them in a way that would defuse any unnecessary tension.” He also worries that the bulletin “improperly implies holding such beliefs makes them dangerous”; most of the people involved in these movements are nonviolent, he says, and treating them all like budding terrorists just makes a confrontation more likely.
German, who is now based at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, thinks it’s “perfectly reasonable for the fusion center to make law enforcement aware of the situation regarding the Oregon standoff and police shooting, and how the upcoming funeral might make those out-of-state events more pertinent to local enforcement needs and officer safety.” But he feels the report’s approach is “is unhelpful because it is overgeneralized in describing a threat and lacking in any useful advice. It seems almost like CYA, so they can say ‘we warned ’em’ if anything bad happens.”
The Statewide Information and Analysis Center has not responded to my requests for comment. To read the full bulletin, go here.
https://reason.com/blog/2016/02/05/utah-fusion-center-warns-cops-watch-out
im going out and getting my entire tailgate painted with the Gadsden Flag on my lifted 2500HD
while im at it, the confederate battle flag too
suck on that and In your face ( quite literally too i may add)
why you cops so afraid of us ?
dam P8SSies!
I do just love how they bend and shape things hoping it will vilify them
not working A.H.’s
you know what this tells me? there really is something to this Sovereign Citizen deal, or why would they Give a S?
Right?
I’m pretty sure that no one who is attending this funeral will use it to make a violent statement. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the occupier in chief is the one who uses tragedies for personal political gain.
Everyone on the road should paste the back of thier cars and trucks with these stickers
Let’s freak the crap out of them
One person’s extremist is another person’s hero.
*** “Law enforcement should remain vigilant and aware that confrontation with these potentially volatile persons, may include more than one individual.” ***
In other words, the pigs might not always be able to use their standard chickensh!t tactics of ganging up on an isolated individual.
*** “These individuals may adhere to a sovereign citizen ideology, and may not recognize law enforcement as a legitimate authority.” ***
So these individuals might be smart, self-respecting men and women rather than lowly dogs.
“Law enforcement” is ONLY legitimate when it does nothing more or less than protect individual rights and property.
“Caravans of individuals traveling to the funeral services may be comprised of one or more armed extremists. Law enforcement should remain vigilant and aware that confrontation with these potentially volatile persons, may include more than one individual. These individuals may adhere to a sovereign citizen ideology, and may not recognize law enforcement as a legitimate authority.”
So THAT’S what they’re up to.
Must be some ‘drills’ going on in the area.
But he feels the report’s approach is “is unhelpful because it is overgeneralized in describing a threat and lacking in any useful advice. It seems almost like CYA, so they can say ‘we warned ’em’ if anything bad happens.”
Well yea, that’s the general idea. That’s what DHS and the elite want. They want the police and everyone else to be afraid of it all. The whole “See something, say something” brainwashing crap. I’m so sick of that damn Commie rhetoric. 😡
Heck… I wouldn’t worry about the “Don’t tread on Me” flags.
I’d be watching the guys with the “Don’t Sh!t on Me ! ” flags.
Or Don’t quit Sh!tting on me flags if you’re in the Bgay area.
Don’t tread on my “Johnson” !
Sorry… it’s Utah.
Don’t tread on my “Smith”!
Drama Queening, in hopes of creating a confrontation. The fusion center knows, that there are police and sheriff’s deputies out patrolling, with extremely limited training. They see a Gadsden flag, it immediately becomes their “probable cause” for a traffic stop. That was the intent all along.
Please avoid the misnomer “sovereign citizen”. You are either acting the role of the sovereign creation God made you, or you are acting as a citizen of the fictional CORPORATION.
While a sovereign can use the fictional STRAWMAN TRUST in the superior TRUSTEE role of “Primary Interest Holder” and conduct business within their fictional world; they MUST NOT identify AS that fiction, which is the “Beneficiary” of the TRUST. The fictional CORPORATION has stepped in as the TRUSTEE over the STRAWMAN TRUST, and that is how they claim the role of TRUSTEE over the living man…. BECAUSE HE DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS.
People are largely ignorant of how trusts operate, or that the damned STRAWMAN TRUST even exists as a means of capture and enslavement, therefore they go through life in the role of the fiction in Admiralty Commerce instead of the “Living Man on the Land”.
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
4 AND I HEARD ANOTHER VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING, COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, THAT YE BE NOT PARTAKERS OF HER SINS,AND THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES. (emphasis mine)
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Revelation Chapter 18
That warning is monumentally STUPID!!!! It is designed to get COPs to focus on the very people who really are for rule of law. It is what the Bolsheviks did in Russia. They are trying to get police killed, and start a civil war. Unfortunately the most police are too stupid to realize that they too are being manipulated and played.
The vast majority of people who are the most dangerous to police are the circumspect individuals who’ve suffered or had loved one’s lives destroyed by police and miscarriage of justice. They’re not going to put up signs or bumper stickers. On their own time I’d bet they will just work on the list of people that did them wrong. That is reality. That warning is simply Hollywood style fantasy. Unfortunately police will believe it because most of them are mean and stupid. The police also fail daily to understand that their actions are driving the anger and hatred against them from people who grew up liking and respecting them and who were there biggest supporters.