Journal einhverfr's Journal: Ruby Ridge and Waco, So Many Years Later 1
I thought about not writing this since the OK City Bombing occurred on the anniversary of Waco. However, in doing additional research into this topic, things have come up that must be said, and I believe that it is the patriotic duty of every American to consider these problems and strive to get our elected representatives to fix them. And whatever McVeigh's motives in the Oklahoma City Bombing, even if he was outraged at the atrocities committed by our government (which I doubt), he has hurt the cause of reform more than anything since.
First let me make one thing very clear. I have no inherent sympathy for white racists like Randy Weaver, nor do I have a great deal of sympathy for David Koresh. Neither man would be eligible to be my friend though for different reasons. Each I would have the sense to stay away from. However, as long as we strive to live in a nation ruled by laws, we must strive against the sort of excesses that were perpetrated against them by the government of the USA. Rampant lawlessness on the part of the FBI and BATF, and a military approach to domestic law enforcement have done great damage to my country, and threaten to do more as the "war on terror" slowly blurs the lines between domestic and international police actions.
Rule of law means that everyone, no matter how troublesome of character, is not subject to arbitrary and capricious attempts to deprive them of life, liberty, or property. Every American should read everything he/she can on these incidents and lobby Congress to make appropriate reforms. Furthemore this is not and should not be a partisan issue. The same problems that occurred at Ruby Ridge when George H W Bush was president occurred later at Waco when Bill Clinton had assumed that post.
A second important point is that while I find white racism (of the Aryan Nations type) very much a problem, it is well established that Randy Weaver was a law abiding citizen who never so much as got a traffic ticket prior to attempts by a government informant (who was paid per conviction) to railroad him. David Kopel has argued in his book, "No more Wacos" that one of the fundamental problems here was that the government was frequently paying informants on a contingency basis, and that this was encouraging entrapment of the sort that the jury found to have happened during the trial (Randy Weaver was acquitted on all counts except one count of failing to appear to stand trial). Kopel details abuse after abuse of government power in the Ruby Ridge incident. In the freely available chapter, however, a number of important details are missing which makes the incident even more problematic. In particular he glosses over the shoot to kill orders which were apparently to some extent already in place before the FBI arrived at the scene (given that the dogs were shot at by marshals prior). He also glosses over the allegations prior to the stand off that the Weavers fired at news helicopters (which was denied by everyone other than law enforcement).
Overall the picture that Kopel draws is of a law abiding citizen, albeit a white supremacist, who was railroaded for crimes he didn't commit, and improperly advised by judges and law enforcement, so that the fatal confrontation became inevitable. Unfortunately, as Harvey Silverglate documents in his book, "Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent," this approach to federal law enforcement is quite common regardless of the type of crime alleged. The feds want convictions and tend to apply enormous pressure to get them even when they are clearly wrong, or have to stretch laws to the breaking point to get them. Silverglate is a veteran civil libertarian having done prestigious work at the ACLU and EFF, as well as founding FIRE.
On to Waco. Waco still stands as the largest massacre of Americans by Americans since Wounded Knee. In this case, 82 individuals, including 25 children, lost their lives in a military assault on a civilian compound in Texas, in 1993. The problems were the same, however: trumped up charges (many of which were fabricated out of whole cloth), excessive force including substantial evidence that law enforcement officers fired from helicopters prior to the ground raid commencing, and the overall conviction that military tactics were the appropriate method for dealing with domestic law enforcement situations.
In an Akron Law Review article, Can Soldiers Be Peace Officers, Kopel again takes up the issue of Waco and discusses the use of military tactics, as well as the close and in some cases illegal connections between the military and law enforcement agencies in that raid. In particular, it's worth noting that both Bradley and Abrams tanks were used by the FBI in this raid. Kopel's clear-headed evaluation of the situation, concluding that Koresh was probably mentally ill, and evaluating the issues in terms of how both sides reacted.
Of particular importance here though is Kopel's discussion of the evidence that the BATF officers began the raid not by approaching the front door but by strafing the roof of the dwelling with machine pistol fire from helicopters. The evidence is well discussed in Kopel's piece is interesting because it comes from a number of different sources and suggests that a military outlook was at issue even from the start. Assuming this is the case, then after already being fired at with no initial option to surrender, the Branch Davidians could have reasonably feared for their lives and assumed that the BAFT agents were coming in with lethal force.
The picture Kopel paints here is once again the same FBI unit which caused the problems at Ruby Ridge making the same mistakes all over, but with much larger stakes and with much more force.
I agree with Kopel that we need to work on demilitarizing our law enforcement, returning them to a proper "officer of the peace" status. This is becoming more important as the "war on terror" progresses. If you want to do something about it, write your congressmen urging reform of the Posse Comitatus Act, asking for a clear barrier where no military personnel or equipment can be used for domestic law enforcement, whether borrowed or rented from the military, and urge that the act be expanded to prevent use of the Navy and Marines in domestic law enforcement as well.
Chaos is their Plan (Score:1)
These confrontations were deliberately constructed to advance a military/police state agenda.
Much like the laughable "Islamic terror cells" that have been netted in the past 7 years, these groups and individuals were cultivated through informants, covert operatives and provocateurs. Look deeply into McVeigh and you find that he was steered all the way. I won't go deeply into the matter of the number of explosions, and their directions in the Murrah building. That degrades into pointless arguments - but th