Posse Comitatus Act

[Ozarker]

The flammable set around by the occupants was kerosene for lanterns since the power was shut off early in the operation. If that is suicidal, the world is full of suicidal maniacs.

How the fire managed to start is insignificant. What is significant is that the government decided to attack a building full of innocent children with tanks, pump it full of a gas, and fire ferret rounds (more gas) through the wooden walls. They had no idea where the children were and if they would be hit with the ferret rounds.

All that seems to have been OK because they were the children of non-politically correct undesirables.

Sorry but no half way intelligent law enforcement professional would fire into a building or start knocking the walls of a building down if there were innocent children inside that could be hurt by those actions. Only elitists who see themselves as superior beings would do such a thing.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color=red>Sorry but no half way intelligent law enforcement professional would fire into a building or start knocking the walls of a building down if there were innocent children inside that could be hurt by those actions. Only elitists who see themselves as superior beings would do such a thing.</font color=red>
Unfortunately, there are such people in this country, who fully believe their cause to be righteous, and who will naturally gravitate to the enforcement arm of the government to which we have conceded the most power.

 

[Ozarker]

Yes, but I believe they are still in the minority. I believe that the vast majority, particularly at the local level, are hard working honest men and women who try very hard to do a good job and treat people fairly under the worst conditions.

If local authorities had handled the situation at both Waco and Ruby Ridge, I doubt anyone would have been hurt. And McVeigh would have had no excuse to blow up a building.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color=red>If local authorities had handled the situation at both Waco and Ruby Ridge, I doubt anyone would have been hurt.</font color=red>
No doubt about it. The local people in both instances pointed out to the high-powered g-men that Randy Weaver and David Koresh came to town unarmed now and then, and with a little patience could be apprehended without a struggle. It's hard to picture how those two instances could be much worse except to imagine a handful of fanatics having the U.S. Army at their disposal. Unfortunately, not all fanatics are outside the government.

 

[RoyJackson]

I'm reading a lot of Ashcroft bashing...however, according to the Times, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) was the one pushing this idea:

<font color=blue>" Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Delaware Democrat, yesterday strongly endorsed giving soldiers the power to arrest American civilians.

Interviewed yesterday on "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Biden, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prevents the military from exercising police powers in this country, should be re-examined and "has to be amended."
Such a change will happen soon, he said.
However, Tom Ridge, director of the Office of Homeland Security, said in several appearances on political talk shows yesterday that the Biden proposal should be considered but that he thinks it's "very unlikely" such a change will be made.""</font color=blue>

I suggest you read the article before commencing on an Ashcroft bashing binge...

 

[ejb]

>>headed down one heck of a slippery slope

Headed for a slippery slope? Heck, I think its more like we are all ready sliding full speed down that slippery slope and are not sure what waits for us at the bottom...

 

[rmorgan]

Yeah, whatever you think about General Ashcroft (referred to by some as an "American Taliban" months before Walker Lindh was caught), you've got to give him credit, bouncing back from being the first person his history to lose a Senate seat to a dead man to devote $9,000 in federal funds to cover the breasts of naked Lady Justice!! /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif The similarities between his views on such things as nude statues and indefinite detention of citizens without charges and the conduct of the prior Afghan regime are undoubtedly mere coincidence unfairly compared . . . nonetheless (and a little more seriously), as an alumnus of the Department of Justice in the (admittedly radical) Smith/Meese years, I do find this AG's views on government authority to be more than a little scary--no matter what stripe of congressman buys into them. [need emoticon for worried]

 

[Ozarker]

<font color=blue>"bouncing back from being the first person his history to lose a Senate seat to a dead man</font color=blue>

That's really funny but don't forget to give credit where credit is due. The dead man couldn't have won were it not for the last minute efforts of dead democrats that managed to make it to the polls in St Louis. And the dead voters couldn't have voted were it not for the last minute illegal court order to have the polls remain open after they should have closed in St Louis.

 

[Wingnut]

<font color=blue>Unfortunately, not all fanatics are outside the government. </font color=blue>
that was certainly proved true by Ms. Reno!
And now she's running for office.
for the party that kept a dead man on the ticket and then awarded the seat to his widow ... knowing that the less devious people on the "other side" would not be so uncourteous as to contest that.
I find that very, very scary ...

 

[Wingnut]

Agreed!
There is a reason why the founders felt civilians should direct the government.
And those wondering why need only look at the wonderous things that've been done out there in countries that've been run by the military.
I'm not anti-military by any stretch of the imagination ... but they have no place as pawns of homeland politics!