Western Rifle Shooters Association

Do not give in to Evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it

Monday, February 28, 2011

Reports From Saturday's Protests in ATL and RDU


Verbatim reports from the field via FreeFor counterprotesters in opposition to Saturday's union/fellow traveller demonstrations in Atlanta and Raleigh:

ATL:

Gentlemen, here's the accounting of saturday's encounter. I'll have to burn copies of the vids I already have and am meeting with James Brown (the guy who taped wednesday and saturday's encounter) to get a copy of saturday's encounter to add to ours.

Since we couldn’t let Wednesday’s SEIU counter demonstration by the Restore the Constitution group stand, we headed back out on Saturday to the move-on-dot-org protest. This time I was not only armed with my sidearm, but also a copy of SB-308 gun law signed by Governor Purdue back in April 2010. The night before the demonstration, I re-read the law just to be extra certain we were acting within the law.

Four of us ventured out to the Rally at high noon; three open carrying and one carrying a video camera. We were gratefully joined by a videographer who also taped Wednesday’s encounter. I’ll not mention his name because I’ve not asked for clearance to do so as of yet but let me assure you, we genuinely appreciate his talent and coverage of the encounters. Immediately upon arrival at the corner of MLK and Washington St., seemingly the corner of choice for counter demonstrators by Georgia Capitol Police, we were approached by a Capitol Police Officer who told us he couldn’t allow us to carry our sidearms there. I spoke up saying I’m glad he mentioned that because I had a copy of SB308 gun law that I’d like to show him to prove that is an unlawful order and low and behold, Lt. Mitchell walks up. I immediately greeted him, shook his hand and started discussing the situation. He commented that he knew we’d be back, by the way.

Before I go any further, I have the utmost respect for Lt. Mitchell; he’s a former Marine, a man of honor and integrity and has a difficult job to do. While his order was unlawful, he showed us the utmost respect. Bear in mind he gets his orders from those above too. Of course, Lt. Mitchell took the same stance as Wednesday night, saying we could not be on State Property, Capitol Grounds nor at a Rally with sidearms and had to leave. We also took the same stance as Wednesday night saying we were absolutely within the law and the constitution and offered to review SB-308 with him because our first and second amendment rights and the law were being violated by telling us to leave. He refused to look at the law stating this was not the time nor the place and we should make an appointment with management to discuss this. I countered with this is absolutely the time and the place because we were not leaving nor putting our sidearms in our cars.

We debated the situation for a good 45 minutes. I repeatedly mentioned sections of SB308, reiterating what we were doing was lawful and told Lt. Mitchell that we in contact with Congressmen Sean Jerguson and Tim Bearden (Chairman of the Public Safety Committee) who confirmed our action was legal. Both of these Congressmen have written and/or co-sponsored gun laws.

Somewhere around half way through, I stated we basically had two choices here; 1) let us return to peaceably demonstrating and exercising our first and second amendment rights or, 2) he could arrest us. The first officer we met, who was patiently standing by listening to the entire debate immediately motioned for a State Trooper standing across the street to come over and I thought we were about to get “hooked up.”. I quickly added that we would not resist, however there would be consequences should we be arrested. I told Lt. Mitchell we’d take legal action against him, the Capitol Police and the State of Georgia for violating our 1, 2 and 4th amendment rights and we’d seek criminal charges for kidnapping (unlawful arrest and detention) and theft because I doubt he’d let us keep our sidearms during all of this. I also added that I did not want to do that to him, but was prepared to do so. He asked me if I had any idea of how often he hears people say they were unlawfully arrested and I countered that I highly doubt those other’s had done their homework like I had. He also commented that he could lawfully remove the weapons and while the conversation drifted from this point, I’ll add here that he could legally collect the weapons only if we were breaking the law, which of course, we weren’t.

The good news is we didn’t get arrested, the State Trooper evidently had something better to do and left and the other Capitol Police Officer had to go on a call of some sort. As things were winding down, Lt. Mitchell said we should contact Capitol Police Division Director Captain Rhodes to discuss this. He also stated he had a copy of SB308 in his vehicle and while not admitting this, I’ll bet he’s brushing up on it. We also concurred that the Capitol Ground Rules require updating for two reasons; 1) SB308 was signed into law in April 2010 and the Ground Rules are dated 2008 and 2) I say the Ground Rules are unlawful.

I offered to go ahead and leave if Lt. Mitchell promised to attend the meeting I’m intent on coordinating. I’m not quite certain he agreed to this, however I hope he attends because he witnessed first hand our intent and our character and would provide valuable input into the meeting. As we were leaving, many of the moveondotorg people were leaving too so we pretty much attended the entire demonstration and accomplished our goal.

As a side note, someone from some Tea Party group came up and disavowed any connection to us. I have no clue who this was, however my comments to him are as follows. As a Tea Party member, I demand our government absolutely protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic and make laws that are constitutional. It so happens that SB308, while not perfect, closely adheres to the Constitution and we were not in violation of the law by open carrying at this rally. This shows the absolute, complete ignorance of this man about the law and the Constitution and as far as I’m concerned, he can lick the boots of his oppressors!



RDU:

Rally in Ashville didn’t materialize, as Ashville Tea Party didn’t organize one so I went to Raleigh. Drive was about an hour shorter each way, so I guess that was for the better.
A few observations:
1) We had about 100-150 by my estimation, all from the local (read Central and Eastern NC) area. Our opposition had about 3 to 5 times that number, but when the out of state buses left with the “professional” protesters leaving only the local idiots, our numbers were equal.
2) We were angry, they were rabid. They used different forms of provocation, all without success. One of the most common was to send ultra rude, aggressive females over to our side of the street to stir up trouble. Whether this was simply rabid behavior or intentional, it was hard to tell. I suspect both.
3) They deployed a new tactic. They sent a female protestor to barge through our group from behind and then she charged that some of our people “assaulted” her by elbowing her. The police put that BS to bed fortunately, but they may not always do so.
4) Almost everyone I talked to there on our side knows that this was just a low pressure warm up for things to come. As such, the majority that I talked to are stockpiling food, ammo, etc. and, in fact, some are ahead of me in that area. It’s kind of funny talking to a 60 something year old lady who is pointing out the necessity of water storage and saying that the opfor has no clue about how bad things are about to get.
Based on this, I don’t feel quite as bad. We put up an OK number on relatively short notice. Most were 40 to 50 something with a fair number of 30 somethings, without so many elderly. The opfor’s age demo was only about 10 years younger than we were for the most part. When it goes south, we will be able to at least hold defensively in some areas, and, very possibly, will have a solid majority after the famine hits. (The previously mentioned lady thought that less than 1% of our opfor will survive the upcoming festivities).


More video to follow, but here's part of the footage from Wednesday's events in ATL, courtesy of Restore the Constitution.

Resist.

UPDATE 28 FEB 2010 0060 EST: Another county heard from; see section 3.

17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Even though outnumbered, it sounds like you had superior quality.

February 28, 2011 at 5:13 AM  
Blogger Brock Townsend said...

Thanks, I'll add this to the posted video.

February 28, 2011 at 5:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good info...

Awesome!

February 28, 2011 at 5:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've been fighting a federal civil rights lawsuit against county government for 4 years now. In August 2009 I won a unanimous jury verdict that my 1st Amendment rights had been violated. Guess what? The county appealed to the federal judge who conducted the jury trial. The good Oil boy judge THREW OUT the jury verdict! I'm now on appeal.

My point is that if you think for a moment you can legally counter government's violationns of the law and your rights well, you are sadly mistaken. One has two options....spends years and thousands of your dollars fighting the gun of government ie, unlimited financial resources. Or you can implement the 2nd Amendment.

The bottom line is that government scum at all levels have no care for your rights or the law. They ARE the law. Prepare for the worse.

DAN
III

February 28, 2011 at 8:41 AM  
Anonymous Mark Matis said...

Once again, this is why you REALLY do not want me at one of these rallies. I do, however, continue to wish you well in dealing with this swill.

February 28, 2011 at 11:58 AM  
Blogger Alvie D. Zane said...

Put the "hell" to the "yeah."

Massive stones.

Love Pravda's description of the event and the members of WRSA. If only you were a "union" instead of an "association", CA. They'd bow down and worship you then. And we'd all need union cards.

February 28, 2011 at 12:51 PM  
Blogger Alvie D. Zane said...

Put the "hell" to the "yeah."

Massive stones.

Love Pravda's description of the event and the members of WRSA. If only you were a "union" instead of an "association", CA. They'd bow down and worship you then. And we'd all need union cards.

February 28, 2011 at 12:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sorry I missed it, but we had already had the team scheduled to be out in the field, working on ranging and camouflage.

--hollywood

February 28, 2011 at 2:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Reflections from the "front line" in Raleigh (RDU) last Saturday.

http://ncrenegade.com/editorial/wwfmd-2/

Hans

February 28, 2011 at 3:02 PM  
Anonymous TPaine said...

The Washington Times conveniently left out the fact that in the past week or so, the left, the unions, the protesters have been assaulting peaceful counter-protesters over and over. The violence has been perpetrated by those who call us violent.

And they love to use the "violence begets violence" motto, so they shouldn't be surprised when they finally get a pay-back. In modern parlance, what goes around comes around. Their day will come.

February 28, 2011 at 3:46 PM  
Blogger jon said...

43 million on food stamps. you're going to need a lot of elbows.

February 28, 2011 at 3:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"When it goes south, we will be able to at least hold defensively in some areas, and, very possibly, will have a solid majority after the famine hits. (The previously mentioned lady thought that less than 1% of our opfor will survive the upcoming festivities)."


Be aware that they are not the opfor.
They are just expendable decoys that the opfor send out to play politics, to draw you in and keep you distracted.


Remember...............Barack Hussein thinks it is knee slapping funny that he has employees that will do murder at his command with remote control air craft.


"Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming." – Barack Hussein Obama

WWalker

February 28, 2011 at 4:20 PM  
Anonymous Ed said...

So... if someone in authority utters a threat that they will unlawfully violate your 1st, 2nd, and 4th Amendment rights and arrest and disarm you because they have been ordered to do so by someone that employs them, that is OK? If you must immediately modify your legall behavior to avoid the promised illegal action on their part, your rights have not been violated?

When someone holds a knife to your throat and threatens to rape you, and you tell him not to hurt you, that he may do as he wishes, then have you just consented to sex? If he then walks away without raping you because you also pointed out someone nearby that knows you, is armed, and will assist you, then nothing has happened?

In either case, someone has illegally asserted power in an attempt to control you, with an associated threat of violence to you, but has desisted when they have been informed that unexpected and unwanted harm will come to them as well. In either case you have been harmed in the process and have been made to feel insecure in your safety. In either case you have been assaulted.

February 28, 2011 at 4:41 PM  
Blogger Alan W. Mullenax said...

Very ballsy. I commend all of you. You make me very proud.

I have one suggestion though. Please be a little more cognizant of the people around you when carrying open. While the cops are bad enough, there are others who are worse.

Again, good job!

February 28, 2011 at 4:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

First time poster, long time lurker. I am not even sure if my words can correctly convey my meaning, but first off the intestinal fortitude, the risk on your part and the others who participated, it took to counter demonstrate, to not be arrested, not be pushed off the sidewalk and clearly state your purpose and terms with no back pedaling cannot be over emphasized.

Secondly and perhaps more importantly is the fact that something was done at all. I cannot help feeling distressed when I see and hear the outrage of fellow Americans albeit unfocused on what the next step is and what it will take for them to make that leap.

Frankly I have never been to a rally, I have never demonstrated and have only I written my state congressman once regarding a right to carry issue. However, reading these events I am compelled to action. I am also conflicted. Conflicted in that it should have been before now that I acted, conflicted in the sense that if recent events do not speak to the least courageous of us what else will it take and conflicted by fact that despite preparations, despite taking the needed precautions of gathering the necessities which we will surely need, it will not be enough. Possibly others can related when they think of survival in this sense measured in the weeks or months they can hold out with no resupply. How on earth this great nation ever allowed itself to get to this point will be a matter of debate for those who come long after we are gone.

A somewhat well know firearms trainer said stockpiling ammo is not training. To be sure it can be said going to the range is not training either unless it is done with purpose. You and your band managed to triumph through purposeful action without a shot ever being fired.

I cannot help but ask myself the question then, If I am not ready to take purposeful action now how can I say I am ready act with purpose in the future? Any purpose. The purpose here being to save our nation. The very life of every American is at stake. Even though I may have a couple more supplies than the average American, sadly I am still the average American. Concerned, but uncommitted. This has to change, not only for myself, but all the others out there like me.

A profound speaker I once had the pleasure of hearing said If not you then who, if not now then when and if not here then where?

The burden of liberty has always been carried by the many for the few. If this republic is to continue, we must reintroduce the meaning of fair share.

February 28, 2011 at 5:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

1st. any connection to moveon.org unintentional or not, is despicable. They are a bunch of nutcases. 2nd. Lt. Mitchell, while "following orders from above" displayed the same "lockstep and footmarch" that led to genocide in the 40's. Study your history. Look up the trials.
Texred

March 1, 2011 at 1:26 AM  
Anonymous Mark Matis said...

For TPaine:
There will be NO payback until the filthy maggot pigs who ENABLE them to assault counter-protesters rot in hell where they belong. Or do we STILL call the "Lt. Mitchells" "honorable" men even as they dishonor their oath of office?

March 1, 2011 at 1:59 AM  

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