Suspect detained over 'extremist' bumper sticker

[Thor]

Suspect detained over 'extremist' bumper sticker
'Don't Tread on Me' puts driver in 'watch' category in DHS report

A Louisiana driver was stopped and detained for having a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker on his vehicle and warned by a police officer about the "subversive" message it sent, according to the driver's relative.

The situation developed in the small town of Ball, La., where a receptionist at the police department told WND she knew nothing about the traffic stop, during which the "suspect" was investigated for "extremist" activities, the relative said.

It followed by only a few weeks the release of a Department of Homeland Security report, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment", which prompted outrage from legislators and a campaign calling for the resignation of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The report, which cites individuals who sport certain bumper stickers on their vehicles as suspect, was delivered to tens of thousands of local law enforcement officers across the nation.

WND is withholding the driver's name and the relative's name at their request.          

However, the situation was described on the American Vision blog.

According to the relative, it happened this way: Her brother-in-law was driving home from work through the town, which has a local reputation for enhancing its budget by ticketing speeders. He was pulled over by police officers who told him "he had a subversive survivalist bumper sticker on his car."

"They proceeded to keep him there on the side of the road while they ran whatever they do to see if you have a record, keeping him standing by the side of the road for 30 minutes," she told WND.

Finding no record and no reason to keep him, they warned him and eventually let him go, she said.

The company that sells the bumper sticker is The Patriot Depot, where Chief Operating Officer Jay Taylor told WND the woman had told his staff about the situation while ordering more bumper stickers.

"It's rather shocking," he said. "We supposedly have freedom of speech in our country.

Proclaim to everyone: "Don't tread on me!" Get your own Gadsden Flag here!

"We joke around every now and then how our spouses will come to visit us in jail," he continued, citing his products that say, "The Audacity of Nope," "Taxed Enough Already," "Born Free, Taxed to Death," "Bring Home Our Troops: Send the Democrats" and "I'll Keep my Guns and Money, You Keep the 'Change'."

"We hope people realize this is serious," he said.

American Vision noted the "background check" that was done on the driver.

"Why? [He] had purchased and displayed a conservative 'Don't Tread on Me' bumper sticker.""

The commentator wrote, "The bumper sticker is based on the famous flag designed by American Revolution era general and statesman Christopher Gadsden. The yellow flag featured a coiled diamondback rattlesnake ready to strike, with the slogan 'Don't Tread on Me!' underneath it. Benjamin Franklin helped make the rattlesnake a symbol of Americans' reluctance to quarrel but vigilance and resolve in defense of their rights. By 1775 when Gadsden presented his flag to the commander-in-chief of the Navy, the rattlesnake was a symbol of the colonies and of their need to unite in defense of threats to their God-given and inherited rights. The flag and the bumper sticker symbolize American patriotism, the need to defend Americans' rights, and resistance to tyranny's threats to American liberty. Those threats included-and include-illegal taxation, profanation of Americans' rights, and violation of the fundamental principles of American law."

American Vision continued: "The notorious Department of Homeland Security memo, which was apparently based on the infamous Missouri State Police Report that described supporters of presidential candidates Bob Barr, Ron Paul, and Chuck Baldwin as 'militia'-type potential extremists and potential terrorists, is not the first effort of leftist radicals to slander their political opponents as 'extremists.'"

"'Liberals' and other leftists have been calling defenders of traditional American limited, constitutional government, free enterprise, and individual liberty 'extremists' since at least the 1964 election," the Vision America statement said. "Small town police misled by phony left wing 'reports' are bad enough. Federal government agencies and their armed agents under the direction of leftist radicals are exponentially worse."

WND reported earlier on the DHS report, which advised about the "extremism" that could be expected from returning veterans, those who support homeschooling and oppose abortion, post certain bumper stickers on their vehicles and other factors.

The DHS not only issued that report, but also an earlier memo defining dozens of groups, members of animal rights organizations, black separatists, tax protesters and others as "threats."

That item, the "Domestic Extremism Lexicon" reportedly was rescinded almost immediately, but Benjamin Sarlin of The Daily Beast recently obtained and published online a copy of the unclassified memo, dated March 26, 2009.

It defines the "tax resistance movement" – also referred to in the report as the tax protest movement or the tax freedom movement – as "groups or individuals who vehemently believe taxes violate their constitutional rights. Among their beliefs are that wages are not income, that paying income taxes is voluntary, and that the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed Congress to levy taxes on income, was not properly ratified."

It states that tax protesters "have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals."

Apparently, the DHS analyzes the "threat" level of Internet news websites like WorldNetDaily, for the lexicon defines "alternative media" as "a term used to describe various information sources that provide a forum for interpretations of events and issues that differ radically from those presented in mass media products and outlets."

Link

Folks, this is REAL!! One of my friends on Facebook posted about this violation of the 1st Amendment on Wednesday. One of her friends told her about it.

[makattak]

Link

Folks, this is REAL!! One of my friends on Facebook posted about this violation of the 1st Amendment on Wednesday. One of her friends told her about it.

I'm having a hard time judging whether that is a serious statement or not.

You want us to believe you can confirm this because an internet friend told you her friend told her about it.

Please tell me you're joking.

(Please note, I am not saying it didn't happen. I'm saying I need far more evidence to believe it did.)

[mtnbkr]

You know, I wonder what else happens in these stops to make them into the "event" they become.  I have some fairly "extreme" and pro gun stickers on my car, yet I've never been pulled over for them, nor have they gotten any extra attention when I was pulled over for speeding (no ticket BTW).  Why do my stickers not cause me problems, but other people's stickers cause them grief?

Chris

[Werewolf]

Why do my stickers not cause me problems, but other people's stickers cause them grief?

May hap it has something to do with the attitude of the cops where you live vs the attitude of some cops in some other places?

[BryanP]

Find a reference to it that doesn't come from or refer back to WorldNutDaily and then I'll pay attention.

[Werewolf]

Find a reference to it that doesn't come from or refer back to WorldNutDaily and then I'll pay attention.

WorldNutDaily 

Man - I wish I'd thought of that. A better description of that organization may not exist.

[mtnbkr]

May hap it has something to do with the attitude of the cops where you live vs the attitude of some cops in some other places?

Maybe, but this is Northern Va and near DC.

Chris

[Jimmy Dean]

friend of mine knows one of the Ball PD officers, he is awaiting a call back from this officer for some confirmation.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

You know, I wonder what else happens in these stops to make them into the "event" they become.  I have some fairly "extreme" and pro gun stickers on my car, yet I've never been pulled over for them, nor have they gotten any extra attention when I was pulled over for speeding (no ticket BTW).  Why do my stickers not cause me problems, but other people's stickers cause them grief?

Chris

i drove around with a "cocaine leads to hard drugs" bumper sticker on my 1970 vw camper from 74 to 82 and never got rousted for the sticker

[DJJ]

I doubt that. I'm going to need to see some proof.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

call the ex wife  her dad hated that one as much as the don't laugh it might be your daughter but he died in 81.  wait a min i can pm you a number of a couple guys i went to high school with that would remember it. and i was actively using back then . only time i got jacked up was when i was somewhere i shouldn't be or speeding. i wasn't some clean cut kid either hair down my back.  i did work a lot but i worked late was on the road going home through pg  and charles county md after midnight 5 nights or more a week

[French G.]

http://www.thetowntalk.com

Local paper. I can't find anything on there but maybe I 'm dumb. No matter how much I want to believe something, if it came from WND I regard it about the same as I would life advice from Nancy Pelosi.

[LadySmith]

An NRA sticker on my car caught the attention of one cop during a traffic stop.
He asked if I had any guns in my car.
I asked him why. He said, "You have an NRA sticker on your car."
I asked him if that was a bad thing. He didn't answer and didn't pursue it further.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

is our poor victim one of the lead stories?

[mtnbkr]

An NRA sticker on my car caught the attention of one cop during a traffic stop.
He asked if I had any guns in my car.
I asked him why. He said, "You have an NRA sticker on your car."
I asked him if that was a bad thing. He didn't answer and didn't pursue it further.

I have an NRA sticker, a blatant anti-Obama sticker, and one that is anti-Socialism (anti gun control, anti nationalized healthcare, etc), a CCW that comes up when your drivers license is run, etc.  Not once has a cop asked me if I was carrying.  I've been pulled over for various reasons 4-5 times since I started carrying in 2000 and most recently in February (speeding, no ticket).  It never came up.

Chris

[K Frame]

"May hap it has something to do with the attitude of the cops where you live vs the attitude of some cops in some other places?"

Or, just mayhap it has something to do with the alleged victim's attitude after he was pulled over for something else, like speeding, a broken tail light, whatever?

I've seen several totally innocuous situations escalate all out of proportion simply because of the attitude of the driver.

Is that always the case? Of course not. But it's the FIRST thing that pops to mind when I see these claims of someone saying they were pulled over for expressing an opinion on a bumper sticker...

[Firethorn]

You know, I wonder what else happens in these stops to make them into the "event" they become.  I have some fairly "extreme" and pro gun stickers on my car, yet I've never been pulled over for them, nor have they gotten any extra attention when I was pulled over for speeding (no ticket BTW).  Why do my stickers not cause me problems, but other people's stickers cause them grief?

Chris

One in a million chance, per sticker, per year, but millions of vehicles with stickers on the roads means that an incident will occasionally occur. Doesn't mean we shouldn't jump down the officers/department's throat when this happens, in order to KEEP it rare.

Cop in question needs constitutional law training.

Mtnbkr, they probably didn't ask and just assumed 'yes'.

[LadySmith]

Why do my stickers not cause me problems, but other people's stickers cause them grief?

Chris

You're not a member of the club. 

[mtnbkr]

apparently not.  Maybe I should fling shoes at the cop. :D

Chris

[LadySmith]

apparently not.  Maybe I should fling shoes at the cop. :D

Chris

Please don't. That would get you a lot more than sticker hassles.
Trust me on this.

[209]

Maybe I should fling shoes at the cop. :D

Chris

Careful with that.  Especially if you happened to be in a "Shoe Free Zone".  I don't think you can possess shoes in those places, even with a Shoe Wearing Permit. 

I don't put a lot of stickers on my cars, but I'm almost thinking of getting one of these flag stickers.  I've been bored lately. 

[LadySmith]

Or, just mayhap it has something to do with the alleged victim's attitude after he was pulled over for something else, like speeding, a broken tail light, whatever?

I've seen several totally innocuous situations escalate all out of proportion simply because of the attitude of the driver.

Funny, but the incident where the cop questioned me over my NRA sticker was one of those times where I didn't have an attitude.
I forgot what I was stopped for, but I think it was because I'd forgotten to put my new tags on the car.
He was with the sheriff's dept. and was very professional, but I just thought his question was odd.

The times I did have an attitude was with city cops. They'd been pulling me over several times in one week as I was going to and from work. They got a bit rude just because I wouldn't let them search my car for no reason, and this in turn made me a little cranky.

[Strings]

Officer: "May I search your car?"

Citizen: "May I pee in your boot?"

Should be all the farther THAT conversation goes...

[Kwelz]

People still take Worldnetdaily seriously?

[mordechaianiliewicz]

No confirmation here, though it wouldn't surprise me.... granted, there is a big difference from some podunk cop doing something on his own, unauthorized and approved government policies.