Recently a great deal of fuss has been made about the police department in Concord, New Hampshire applying for a grant from the US Department of Homeland Security to obtain a tank. The military apparatus in question is a Lenco Bearcat, an armored vehicle with gun ports. The police, of course, claim it is only a rescue vehicle, as evidenced by their use of several such vehicles to rescue Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a wounded, unarmed, 19 year old, boy.
Much of the controversy centers around the application for the grant, in which police say they have a domestic terrorist problem, including, but not limited to “Free Staters”. Now, I can certainly see why people would get upset about that. After all, in the 12 year history of the Free State Project, I’m aware of exactly zero incidents of Free Stater initiated violence, and the FSP website says rather clearly “Anyone who promotes violence, racial hatred, or bigotry is not welcome.”. I can personally attest to the aversion Free Staters have to any sort of violence, because I was practically run out of town for simply suggesting that people have the right to defend themselves against government agents, and the inevitable outrage that this article will invoke from libertarians may serve as further proof.
On the other hand, we have no shortage of violence involving Free Staters. Government agents have repeatedly harassed, assaulted, and kidnapped Free Staters. The next logical step is for police to begin killing these peaceful activists, and the acquisition of military hardware in the name of this group is a rather obvious sign that this is their intention.
More @ Cop Block
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