WBUR On Point Conflating Gun Violence Today at 10:00

[Midnight412]

On Point today on WBUR radio 90.9 FM with Tom Ashbrook will be talking about anti police mentality and gun violence.

During the intro this morning, Tom conflated the recent Shooting of two NV police officers by a couple nutjobs with the patriots at the Bundy Ranch. I am disgusted with that comparison!

If I can get on the air, I will call him out on that garbage statement.

Here's my comment posted as DL412 in the discussion section.

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/06/11/anti-government-extremists-las-vegas-killings#disqus_thread

@Tom Ashbrook. Why are you conflating the shooting of two police officers, committed as cold blood murder by a pair of nut-jobs, with the American Patriots that were standing ready to defend Liberty from an over-reaching government agency that has no charter for using the threat of force to stop an American family from allowing their cattle to graze on a certain plot of land? Your introduction to this segment on the show this morning disgusts me.

The people who shot and killed those police officers obviously had some severe mental health issues. No shots were fired at the Bundy Ranch, and thankfully, no one was killed. The only ones injured were civilians (including a pregnant woman) who were not "respecting the authority" of the BLM and the anti-Constitutional "1st amendment zones"

@liminalx : We are not Terrorists. Look up the definition.
@disqus_D8DLzFXjPi: Nice picture. Don't forget to post the ones of Federal agents who were there first, pointing their sniper rifles at the Bundy family, including children that are at play in and around the house.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

Good luck. Some media outlets have reported the two were at the Bundy Ranch, whether it's true or not. Also, gun restrictionists will never be able to discern the difference and don't want to do so. In Ashbrook's world "patriot" is a euphemism for nutjob. A call--shrieking or not--will be ineffective at the least and harmful at the most. You will lose Ashbrook and everyone who listens to that show at "American Patriots."

I am emotionally invested in neither the Bundy Ranch nor the NV shooters, so I don't care about Ashbrook conflating the two. There are plenty of more important hills relevant to this subject on which to die, including, I'm sure, many that will be occupied on the show.

You may recall Ashbrook getting so worked up about the Gabby Giffords shooting that he went on another show as a guest pleading the case for "doing something" to stop "gun violence." The guy is not even going to hear a non-gun-restrictionist point of view. Too bad, because he is otherwise a sharp radio show host, who, if swayed more organically--such as by being taken shooting and exposed to normal gun owners--could be a useful convert. But that assumes such exposure would even work on someone immersed in a world in which the party line is guns Я bad.

 

[Jason Flare]

I read where the Las Vegas couple was asked to leave the Bundy Ranch once their criminal past was found out.

 

[MetalgodZ]

There's going to be a lot of conflating.

Jared and Amanda Miller finally gave the feds the excuse they were looking for to put all of us "domestic terrorists" on notice. It was bound to happen wasn't it? And now the post I made only yesterday asks the question of today. Do we have the ability, as a movement, to stomach the sort of thing the Millers did and still stand by our previous statements? Who knows if they were white supremacists, how can anyone know for sure? They draped the cops body with a Swastika, does that say something about them, or the cops? Who are the Nazis in this scenario?

See, how do we, as a community, deal with this act? We know who the cops are; what they are willing to do to innocent citizens. I don't agree with white supremacy. I don't agree with racism. I don't agree with flash-banging a baby in his crib either.

[...]

The feds have put me in association with the Millers, because they want me there. It gives them a reason to kill me and my family without regret, remorse or anything, except a high five. If that is you, if you recognize yourself in these words, you do not deserve my respect and I will not feel sadness at your passing.

You cannot continue to take citizen's lives so lightly and expect them to cherish yours. The police department is supposed to be a cooperation between citizens and those expected to enforce the laws the people have designed to order a civil society. When the police turn their power against the people they cannot expect and do not deserve the support of the people. If that manifests itself in acts as committed by the Millers, only the police have the ability to reverse the trend.

http://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-miller-dilemma.html

I read where the Las Vegas couple was asked to leave the Bundy Ranch once their criminal past was found out.

This was mentioned immediately post-Bundy, so I have little doubt that this is correct. If you're the tinfoil type, you might consider the current lack of FBI and DHS manufactured security threats, and think about the fact that, at least according to Mike Vanderboegh, the Millers expressly and openly discussed their felony conviction:

At this date, Jerry (and especially his conduct since the failed coup attempt by Ryan Payne --if that is his real name), remains a puzzle to me. An impressive former Marine NCO, he had a real command presence, the absolute loyalty of those who came into contact with him and, like most NCOs, an absolute inability to delegate responsibility and tasks. I include Stewart Rhodes in that critique as well. Both men took on too much themselves, got little to no sleep and made bad decisions as a result.

Example: One afternoon a couple showed up at the camp: a young tattooed white male wearing a holstered pistol and his girlfriend toting a shotgun. In the entrance interviews, which Jerry insisted upon mostly conducting himself, it developed that the guy was an admitted felon, but he didn't believe that it was constitutional to deny him his firearm rights. This came with a long, sad story about how they had quit their jobs to volunteer for the Bundys and do their part. Both Jerry and Stewart were inclined to accept their help until I called them over and explained the ramifications of accepting a self-admitted, armed felon into camp. They were impressed by the man's "honesty and sincerity," in admitting up-front that he was a felon. I said, among other things, that of course he admitted it. If he hadn't, then they would have plausible deniability when later confronted about it. By stating it up front, it was actually worse for them because they could not later deny having known that fact.* "How do you think that is going to sound in the grand jury?" I asked them. They changed their minds and sent the couple on their way with gas money. I am convinced that neither man would have needed any assistance from me to take that decision had they been in their right minds.

Emphasis added. The conflating is (obviously) intentional, and it's likely partly manufactured. It's going to convince more people in New England than it does in other areas. Don't get railroaded.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

Christian Mercenary?

 

[MetalgodZ]

Christian Mercenary?

As quoted by an athiest who does a lot of reading, even when I don't completely align with the source.

Take from it what you will.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

This segment just started at 11:00. They played audio from interviews in which the Millers participated at the Bundy Ranch.

The 10:00 segment was about Cantor's defeat by Brat.

 

[saltydude]

Meh. Thought it would be a more heated discussion. I loved the anti who advocated the gov slaughtering pro 2A groups who defend their rights however. Yeah antis make me laugh.

 

[gene]

I read where the Las Vegas couple was asked to leave the Bundy Ranch once their criminal past was found out.

This, plus the people that were in their right minds at the ranch knew and reported these two as screwed and they were interviewed and invited to leave up from what I read. Nothing more than domestic skin head insurgents!

 

[DispositionMatrix]

#include http://tinyurl.com/pok6pfn

Yesterday's OnPoint on the militarization of the police as evidenced by recent events in Ferguson was rather well-done until about the last five minutes. Guest Radley Balko, author of Rise of the Warrior Cop, gave a rough history of police militarization and later mentioned the decline in crime involving firearms and the rarity of mass killings (22:28). However, near the end of the show, a FB poster and a caller derailed the discussion by suggesting the reason cops had to be armed more heavily is because of 2A. Ashbrook and guest Kara Dansky of the ACLU immediately though only briefly jumped aboard (41:40).

http://audio.wbur.org/storage/2014/...-military-ferguson-shooting-michael-brown.mp3