ATTENTION

all state and local law enforcement personnel

You took an oath



     "... to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of

the United States [and of your state] against all enemies,

foreign or domestic."

     But what does that oath really mean in your personal and

professional life? More than you may realize. And that oath

may, in the months and years ahead, be put to a test that you

neither expect or want. This paper is to help you prepare for

that test.



Who are the enemies?



     Foreign enemies are easy to understand, and require little

discussion. What about domestic? Spies? Terrorists? Criminals?

How about corrupt officials? Or overzealous officials who ride

roughshod over the Constitution and the rights of citizens in

pursuit of a mission they think outweighs all other concerns?

What about corrupt or overzealous officials in your chain of

command, who may try to use you for their criminal purposes?

What about top civilian leaders, who may decide to overthrow

the Constitution and establish a new regime in which there are

no limits on governmental powers or guaranteed rights, and use

you to carry out their plans?

     At this point you may be thinking "Nonsense. Nothing like

that will ever happen in the United States of America. The

people running our government are nice guys who can be trusted

to try to do the right thing. They would never try to do

anything like that. This is just some kind of paranoid anti-

government propaganda."

     Don't be too sure. A lot of people thought the same thing

a few years ago who became aware of evidence that is extremely

alarming, evidence that would be incredible if it didn't come

from people inside government who are extremely troubled by

what they are seeing or being asked to do.

     One of those things is making preparations for a general

warrantless search of every site in the United States, using

military and law enforcement personnel, to confiscate all

firearms and shoot anyone who resists. A clear violation of

almost all of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution. Don't

rely on this flyer. Check it out for yourself through channels.

Then think about what it means.

     No more elections. Not for some time. The people would be

outraged. They'd vote all the incumbents out if elections were

held. The government might offer some justification for their

action, something that might seem convincing to many, but not

to everyone.

     In the meantime citizens throughout the country are

organizing independent local militias, to resist assaults on

the Constitution. At some point, you may be called upon to

choose sides.



Assaults on the Constitution



     The Framers of the Constitution made it very clear:

Government was not to exercise any power not delegated to it by

the Constitution. But for many decades now, it has been

assuming more and more powers for which there is no

constitutional basis, often in response to demands from the

public to "do something" about some problem or another, without

bothering to adopt amendments that would make such powers

legitimate. Courts have, for the most part, gone along with

this, often resorting to imaginative sophistry to try to make

it seem legitimate.

     If this weren't bad enough, these new powers are

increasingly being abused to serve purposes and interests that

were never intended by the original legislation. The result is

an increasing crisis of legitimacy, and increasing alienation

from government on the part of an ever growing part of the

population.



Illegal Orders



     Any order which you may receive that is contrary to the

Constitution of the U.S. or of your State, or to a

constitutional law, is illegal. Compliance with such an order

is not only not required of you, but may be and probably is

illegal, and the issuance of such an order may be a crime,

which obligates you to make an arrest of the person issuing it.

     Under federal law, 42 USC 1983, 1985, 1986 and/or 241 and

242, it is illegal for anyone under the color of law to deprive

any citizen of the rights, privileges or immunities secured by

the U.S. Constitution. It is a felony punishable by up to 10

years in prison. This could be applied to local, state, or

federal law enforcement or military personnel who abuse the

rights of citizens. Every state has a similar law.

     The key point is this: You not only have the right to

disobey an illegal order, but you may also have the duty to

apprehend the parties issuing such an order if such issuance is

part of the commission of a crime.



The Principle of Nuremberg



     After World War II, Nazi war crimes were prosecuted at

Nuremberg, and those trials established an important principle:

that is the responsibility of every individual to make an

independent determination of the legality  of any law or

official act. No one may delegate that duty to others, not to

superiors, not to legal advisers, and not even to judges. It is

no defense that you were "just following orders".



Some Constitutional Limitations



     Be aware of what are the constitutional limits on  federal

powers. The Constitution allows criminal prosecution under

federal laws on state territory only for (1) treason, (2)

counterfeiting, (3) piracy or felonies on the  high seas, or

(4) crimes against the laws of nations. It does not allow

criminal prosecution for violations of any regulations, such as

those passed under the interstate commerce clause, or for

failure to pay taxes. Therefore, most such federal criminal

laws apply only to acts committed on federal territory,

including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin

Islands, several other islands in the Pacific, land ceded to

the federal government by a state legislature for military

bases and public works, coastal waters, U.S. flag vessels on

the high seas, and the grounds of U.S. embassies abroad.

     Furthermore, the Framers intended that "interstate

commerce" include only transactions that cross a state border,

not all the things that it has been extended to cover, such as

anything that has ever crossed a state border, or anything that

ever might cross a state border, or anything done by someone

who does business some of  which crosses a state border, or

anything that is "part of an aggregate" of  activities that

cross a state border, or anything that may "affect" interstate

commerce.

     During the last several decades Congress has been

"federalizing" many crimes committed on State territory, and

State and local authorities have been going along with this.

But except for the four categories of offenses listed above,

all of these extensions of federal authority are

unconstitutional.

     Now, any citizen may investigate and enforce the law, and

that includes federal agents.  Under our system of government,

all citizens are policemen. You as a regular law enforcement

officer may outrank ordinary civilians, but they have the same

authority to enforce the law against felonies and more serious

misdemeanors that you do, and that authority should be

respected. When the offense is one of those four that the

federal government has jurisdiction over on state territory,

federal agents have the prior authority.  However, in all other

cases, your authority is superior to theirs. They may assist

you, conduct investigations, and make arrests, with your

consent, but then they are obligated to turn over the evidence

and the suspect to you for prosecution under state or local

law.

     Lately several situations have arisen in which federal

agents were seen by local or state law enforcement to be

abusing the rights of citizens, and the federal officials

attempted to prevent those local or state law enforcement

officials from doing their duty to protect those citizens by

"deputizing" them as "federal marshals", thus supposedly

putting them under federal authority. This is illegal. First,

you cannot be appointed to any office without your consent.

Second, in most states it would be illegal to serve as both a

federal and state or local officer at the same time. Check the

law. If an attempt is made to "deputize" you, refuse.

     Some law enforcement officers say that if they are put in

the position of having to obey an illegal order or law, they

will resign. That is wrong. Once you take an oath to uphold the

law, you are obligated to resist all efforts to turn law

enforcement organizations into criminal enterprises. Don't

resign. Arrest the offender, just as you would arrest any other

offender. Make him resign.



What you can do



     Investigate what is going on within your organization and

in other law enforcement and military organizations operating

in your area, regarding violations of the Constitution and laws

pursuant to it. Then contact local patriot groups. You can find

them through gun shops, American Legion or VFW posts, radio

talk show hosts, alternative newspapers and bookstores, or your

local militia unit. If you find yourself in conflict with

federal authorities on a matter of constitutional principle,

you may have no alternative but to call up the militia in your

area to assist you in upholding the Constitution. You have the

authority to do that. Any citizen may call up the militia,

including you. But they are not going to respond effectively

unless they have been previously organized, armed, and trained.

You need to work with them to get them into a high state of

readiness.