Abby suffers from a rare connective tissue disorder that causes progressive pain, fatigue, and more. She tells me, “In college, the physicality of going to class and studying in the library really started to take a toll on me. My doctors didn’t know how to treat me; it was a disease that they didn’t know much about.” She adds, “Now they know so much more, but at that point they didn’t.” Abby clarifies that at this point in her early college experience, she was confused and suffering without guidance or understanding from many. “I was really stressed out and struggling to keep up with everything when I met Eapen.”

A mutual friend suggested that Abby talk to Eapen and that is when she first considered medical cannabis. “Eapen was one of the first people to talk to me about medical cannabis and some of the options that other states were starting to legalize. I learned about things I grew up being afraid of because there is so much social construction around cannabis; especially negative connotations that have been made about it. He was someone that gently pushed me to educate myself because he thought I might benefit from medical cannabis.”

It did benefit her. In fact, she eventually got off the other drugs that she says, “I didn’t need anyway,” and that were lowering her standard of living, causing her to live in a haze. She replaced those drugs with medical cannabis. Abby credits Eapen with being the first person to seriously recommend medical marijuana, but shortly after, a doctor told her she needed to seek alternative medicine and suggested she move to Colorado.

Abby had to leave the state she loved so she could seek the medical care that she desperately needed. She recalls that people called her a “medical refugee” when she moved from Missouri to Colorado around 2013. After five years, she then moved to New Hampshire, where she has been for nearly two years.

She found legal and safe access to medical cannabis in a different state, but Abby looks forward to coming back to Missouri once marijuana is accessible. Abby’s voice softens in a dream of the past and hope for the future when she recounts, “Missouri is a special place; it has so much to offer as far as parks and amazing places to explore outdoors. When it comes to our cities: jazz, sports in KC and St. Louis, museums, food, and Missourians themselves who really care about their community and each other.”

Abby’s story of medical cannabis, advocacy, and justice coincides with Eapen’s. She reminds me that in over ten years of knowing him, she’s seen him work tirelessly and passionately on the things he cares about. “I really don’t think that the state needs to worry about him reoffending. He’s got a lot of things that matter more to him and is goal focused and cares more about the other projects he’s working on.”

Abby’s story doesn’t end here. Eapen’s journey is not complete. Neither has cannabis’ future been determined. Life moves ever forward. Missouri recently legalized medical cannabis and is slowly making progress. Abby hopes to come back to the state she loves once her needs can legally be met. Eapen continues to advocate for others who find themselves marginalized by the criminal justice system with Crossing Paths PAC, and works with The Weldon Project to bring attention and solutions to those suffering under cannabis laws. Both hope for the day when people will be free to choose.

Image: O’Dea at Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The post Forced to Become a Medical Refugee, Abby Rowe Can Finally Come Home appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

In “Patriotic Dissent: America In the Age Of Endless War,” Sjursen writes about never-ending wars, the culture of disinterest in foreign policy amongst the American populace, and what true patriotism looks like. Sjursen graduated from West Point and is an 18-year veteran who served multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan before being medically retired. He previously authored “Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge” that told the story of his first deployment to Iraq.

Sjursen makes the point that “patriotism and nationalism” are not the same, and that questioning the current wars and America’s foreign policy is the patriotic thing to do. He further explores how “nationalism” is a blind obedience to the state and disregards the good of the individual—and even the collective community that makes the country.

Here’s the thing about Danny– he’s not a right-winger or conservative, but he is consistently antiwar. Watching the death and destruction of a decades-long conflict that doesn’t seem to be any closer to a possible “winning” scenario, has something to do with his perspective. Sjursen was in the Army long enough to be against the war.

Military and war-time service has that effect on people. Sjursen mentions the famous antiwar General Smedley Butler and his notorious pamphlet War Is A Racket. Butler was a career military man and spent his short time outside of the military arguing against war and the indecency of sending American soldiers into harm’s way for corporate interests that do not serve the country as a whole.

If Americans are truly concerned about patriotism and supporting those who put their lives on the line, maybe they should be less concerned about waving the flag at sporting events, and instead pay more attention to the caskets that come home draped in that flag. The caskets of American soldiers that are less than 1% of our country and the majority of them are from poor, rural, Southern areas. They often have military legacies in their family. They found opportunity in defending their country. But can most Americans point to where these soldiers died on a map or explain what they were fighting for?

Sjursen goes through the history of the antiwar movement in America and notes the largest organization devoted to ending America’s global expansion and policing was The Anti-Imperialist League that, “at its height, had hundreds of thousands of members, making it one of the largest antiwar organizations in American history.”

America’s storied history of questioning the government’s wars and foreign interventions is one of the major points of “Patriotic Dissent.” Sjursen mixes a historical record of America’s past wars with a plea to stop the never-ending war machine in a way that only a veteran can. Occasionally, the liberal-leaning and professed romantic former Army officer reveals personal details that give a depth to his perspective.

“Patriotic Dissent” was informative and interesting as the bookish, Phd-holding author is revealed as a historically astute antiwar activist. A firsthand account of life in the Army at home and in overseas wars, it will make you laugh, smirk, and cry. Although it is written somewhat like a college textbook, it feels more like an elaborate journal kept for years. “Patriotic Dissent” is a soldier’s plea for strength and peace in his republic.

Read more from Daniel Sjursen at www.skepticalvet.com and follow him on Twitter @SkepticalVet.

The post Book Review: “Patriotic Dissent” by Daniel Sjursen appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

This isn’t the first time that presidential elections have been less than picture-perfect. Abraham Lincoln got the Republican nomination by locking his competition’s delegates out of the convention and packing the event center full of Lincoln supporters admitted with counterfeit tickets (read more here and here). And then, in the 1960 election, many historians believe it highly likely that JFK’s win was stolen by ballot rigging in Illinois and Texas.

Honest Abe, 1860

The questionable tactics of the convention of 1860 are ironic because Lincoln was known as “Honest Abe”, and we have all been taught this to be true of him. How could he make shady deals that promised political appointments to everyone’s brother and favorite son in exchange for their delegation’s vote? Or print fraudulent tickets to fill the event center with people who shouldn’t be there in order to deny a seat to those who legitimately should be there (delegates with actual tickets)?

First, it wasn’t Lincoln himself, but rather his team that implemented the questionable tactics at the convention. Second, all is fair in politics and war. We know politics is dirty, as is war—so we should limit the scope and occurrence of both. Shrink the government and end the wars.

JFK vs Nixon, 1960

Richard Nixon and the Republicans of the time knew immediately there were sketchy things that happened in the election and did (privately and without seeking attention) consider court challenges. However, Nixon quickly conceded the morning after voting day, and oversaw the peaceful transition of power to President Kennedy.

Why did Nixon so easily roll over when he was credibly wronged and the Presidency was stolen from him? He would later claim it was a valiant act of falling on his sword in order to keep the country together and functioning. Arguably, if citizens of this fine country do not believe in the fairness of elections, then we will crumble into civil war because it will prove that the ballot box is not where our political arguments are peacefully settled.

Nixon chose to not have a hissy fit about the presidency being stolen from him, and it possibly kept us from falling into neighbor-hating-neighbor anarchy. But it also caused some people to lose faith in the legitimacy of the federal government.

Aftermath

Liberty principles will not perish because of one presidential election. Many of us wanted the election to go differently and we voted for candidates other than Joe Biden. We knew one of two non-libertarian candidates would be elected President of the United States and we’ll live—even with Biden in the oval office.

Liberty policies may even thrive and grow stronger during the reign of a Democrat tyrant. Republicans will resurrect their fiscal conservatism and “come and take it” pro-2nd Amendment stance. Nothing will get passed without Representative Jim Jordan raising holy hell about it, and Thomas Massie will no longer be one of the only Congressmen to raise concerns about an unvetted multi-trillion dollar spending bill.

Then, a red wave of Republican legislators washes over the House at midterm elections. Historically, the opposite party of the President gains power in the House of Representatives during midterms; so, it is well within precedence.

However, one factor must be considered—the upcoming runoff elections for the two Senate seats in Georgia. If Republicans lose them, they lose control of the Senate. That is a blow to divided government. A divided government that inhibits the federal government’s ability to slide through spending bills, nanny-state dictates, and any legislation that will inevitably chip away at individual liberty is the silver lining on the cloud of a Joe Biden Presidency.

The Republicans of 1960 went on living their lives after losing the Presidential election because the federal government was not the end-all-be-all. The party of limited government that promotes individual’s rights and liberties as more important than a possibly corrupt, nefarious, and always bumbling government is only helped when the force of government looks illegitimate and fraudulent. So, loud and proud Republicans have brighter days ahead even without Trump at the helm.

Elections are temporary, but principles are forever.

Image: Gage Skidmore

The post Elections Are Temporary: Liberty Will Thrive Even Under President Biden appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Nineteen years of war means some of the soldiers fighting this never-ending war were not even born when it began. President Trump is currently reducing the number of troops in the country known as “the graveyard of empires.” Bringing American soldiers home is gaining popularity and it is long past time.

General Mattis writes about how the US military was caught off guard by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in his book Call Sign Chaos. He recalls how, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he expected the military would be sent to Afghanistan because it had been known to be a terrorist hotbed housing the likes of Osama bin Laden and Islamic extremists for years.

There is never going to be a perfect solution to any issue in the imperfect world that we live in. The best we can do is carefully look at a situation and prescribe solutions that minimize harm. An unprecedented 19-year war with a poorly defined and ever-changing goal of winning is looking more like a failure.

Over 2,000 American service members and over 1,000 American contractors have lost their lives in this conflict. The US has spent billions of dollars in their efforts to defeat the terrorists and stabilize the country. Yet, Afghanistan is still plagued by violent attacks. They had over 3,000 attacks in 2010 and over 1,000 in 2018. The deaths of Afghans from domestic violence caused by Islamic extremists and collateral damage have reached into the tens of thousands during the time we have been there spilling blood and treasure.

The Washington Post published a previously secret government report called The Afghanistan Papers. It sheds light on something that many of us have recognized over time—the war in Afghanistan was flubbed. The US government knew fairly quickly that it was a failure, yet we kept spending money and blood in the “graveyard of empires”.

James Dobbins, a former US diplomat, is quoted in the Afghanistan Papers as saying in 2016,

“We don’t invade poor countries to make them rich. We don’t invade authoritarian countries to make them democratic. We invade violent countries to make them peaceful and we clearly failed in Afghanistan.”

General Mattis felt that the military’s role was to kill a specified enemy and leave. Whatever happened after that was not proper for him as a military man to worry about. However, Mattis watched increasing destabilization, a vaguely defined enemy, and a murky definition of “winning” coming from Washington.

He recalls working toward one of the first basic goals of the Afghanistan war, which was to take control of Rhino Base, that would give US forces a stable starting area to fight Islamic terrorists in the country. He was thrown a confusing comment from a commanding officer that sternly told him they were not conducting an “invasion” of Afghanistan. That comment was, at best, a game of semantics that only hindered the military on the ground from having a clear vision of what they were doing. At worst, it was an indicator that higher-ups in the military and civilians back home had no idea what they were getting into.

General Douglas Lute served as the Afghanistan war czar for both the Bush and Obama White House. He said in 2015,

“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan – we didn’t know what we were doing.”

The US didn’t have a clear end-goal to work towards in the Afghanistan war. Without realizing what winning looks like, there never was a chance to plan an organized invasion and withdrawal. The military was blindsided by what was being asked of them after entering Afghanistan – organize a functioning civilized society complete with free markets and democratic government, in the desert that had no history of systems like this. In other words, they were asked to nation-build a democracy in one of the most dangerous and unstable places in the world.

Trump has not been serious about governing in many ways and has not ended all wars. However, he has NOT started a new war. In addition to the war in Afghanistan, America is providing funds to Saudi Arabia as they fight a war in Yemen. Since 2015, the US has assisted the Saudis in a campaign of death and destruction that can only be described as genocide. But Americans boots are not on the ground in Yemen.

Under Trump’s leadership, Republicans are regaining the correct mantle of anti-war or —at least skepticism of never-ending policing of the world. The Conservative Political Action Conference in February of 2020 was bursting with enthusiasm for less war. During Trump’s speech, the room chanted “bring them home” in reference to American troops fighting forever-wars on far away foreign soil. That is a welcomed change from the war-hawk neocons who dominated DC Republican policy 15 years ago.

The Afghanistan War has been fought for 19 years. It’s too long. We can’t keep asking soldiers to die in a war that is older than they are. Bring them home.

The post 19 Years in the Graveyard of Empires: Bring Them Home appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Many self-described anarchists do not advocate “no rules”, but rather “no under-performing, dangerous, and arbitrary rulers.” AntiFa are not anarchists. They are authoritarian socialists. The overly-woke mob in Portland don’t want the current rulers, but they most assuredly do want rulers to tell you what to do.

Anarcho-Capitalists in the vein of Murray Rothbard are motivated by the belief that properly regulated  government with a respect of individual liberty is a thing of the past in the US. The only answer is to start over because the oppressors (i.e., elites) are using the current system for their own gain. The bad actors use the current system to justify their tyranny, and use authority as leverage for themselves to maintain power. Therefore, destroying the current government is the only way for a properly regulated Constitutional government that respects individual liberty to flourish again.

Capitalism is an ordered system that allows individuals to live peacefully while trading necessary goods that advance life. Individuals have a mutually beneficial desire to not hurt each other when trading goods and services that both sides value. In short, I’m not hurting my supplier.

Because no one wants to be hurt, there is a selfish reason to live peacefully. It’s the basic principle of treating others how you want to be treated. Regardless of whether people are nice because of common decency or fear of reprisal, society maintains order and respect in anarchy.

Anarchist communities are routinely made up of individuals being polite to each other without force. When governments and third parties are not pushing them together, people tend to live together peaceably—or they leave.

Michael Malice makes the astute observation that, for most Americans, grade school is the only place that you will witness physical abuse. Government schooling forces children together whether they like it or not,  creating conflict or, at the very least, fostering an environment where violence can flourish. Sometimes governments are simply incompetent as opposed to having nefarious intentions. For example, schools are not a completely bad idea and are not meant to be harmful.

Notorious for being disgusted by the mob and especially mob rule, H.L. Mencken was amused by the masses who were unwittingly used and abused by the ruling class, and judged them with harsh eloquence. Democracy represents the lunacy perfectly.

“The fact is that the average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary, exactly like his love of sense, justice and truth… Liberty is not a thing for the great masses of men. It is the exclusive possession of a small and disreputable minority, like knowledge, courage and honor. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty – and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.” –A Mencken, Crestomathy

Of course, those who are sick of tyrannical authority can check out of society and refuse to abide by conformity, like Henry David Thoreau. He lived in rural Massachusetts and made astute observations of ants. In one of his rare dealings with governmental authority, he refused to pay a tax on the grounds that he believed the government was unjust for allowing slavery. They threw him in jail and he describes laws in this way:

“Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.” –Civil Disobedience

In Rothbard’s opinion, it is up to us to awaken the masses out of their obedient slumber. It will take a popular movement to excite the people into throwing off the elite’s shackles. It would be a meeting of populism, anarchy, and capitalism, if you will.

“I would like to ask: How long are we going to keep being suckers? How long will we keep playing our appointed roles in the scenario of the Left? When are we going to stop playing their game, and start throwing over the table?” –A Strategy for the Right

Sex Pistols infamously sang, “don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it” in the song Anarchy in the UK. Maybe anarchists do know what they want—they just don’t know how to get it. AntiFa and those who took over blocks of a major US city and turned it into a police-state shockingly quick are not anarchists. Anarchy is not tearing down statues and looting stores. Anarchy is order without oppression.

The post Anarchy is Not Oppression by Lawless Chaos appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Angelos launched the Mission Green initiative to bring attention to those imprisoned for cannabis offenses and to assist in getting them released through executive clemency from the president or the governor if they are state offenders. “We’ve got a few prisoners released from federal prison via executive clemency and compassionate release that was amended with the First Step Act.”

The Mission Green team brought a list of offenders that they believe deserve to be commuted to the White House. Angelos tells me that one of them is, “my friend Luke Scarmazzo.”

Scarmazzo is serving a 22-year sentence in prison for owning and operating a cannabis dispensary in California. Angelos adds, “he was following state law.” He notes that Scarmazzo’s operation was similar to many others in the area that were not targeted by law enforcement.

The team was well received by the White House when they hand delivered the list in February. They established a good rapport with senior advisor Jared Kushner. Angelos points to Kushner as one of the best hopes for the future of criminal justice reform. “This administration is being pulled in different directions by different individuals in the law and order Republicans and this Attorney General; Jared Kushner has a tough job balancing that out and getting more reforms.”

The fact that Mission Green is necessary shows that reforms are still necessary. The system now leaves room for extreme discrepancy based on judges’ personal beliefs. According to Angelos, one of the major flaws with the First Step Act is that it allows a judge to be merciful if they want to, but “when it comes to people applying for release, they should be released on a consistent basis rather than having judges in California and New York granting many releases whereas, judges in Texas grant few even though the cases are similar.”

Some opposed the First Step Act because it would give politicians an excuse to not advance any further on criminal justice reform. Angelos admits that concerns about progress slowing have come to fruition, but he still firmly supports the initial reform. “Thousands of people have been released because of it.”

“What we really need is cannabis reform; we need an end to prohibition”, says Angelos. However, not everyone feels that way and some of the disagreement about what should be the next legislative target is why progress has slowed. “No one agrees on what needs to be changed next.” But he is hopeful. “I think new reforms will happen in the next 2-4 years.”

Regardless of who is President, Angelos knows that states will keep legalizing cannabis and will take the lead in reform. He adds, “I’m not particularly confident in either candidate” because of Biden’s past of worsening the system and Trump’s inconsistencies on the subject. But his positivity is due to reform progressing through the states and Congress no matter who is in the White House.

The problem, as he sees it, is that federal cannabis prohibition gives authorities an excuse across the country to abuse their power. Angelos tells me that until cannabis is removed from the federal code of illegal drugs, “police are going to continue to use the odor of cannabis to justify exploratory searches. They’re going to continue wasting money in arresting people for cannabis where one state over, you’re an entrepreneur and the next you’re a criminal.”

Weldon Angelos was an emerging and compelling music producer when charged with selling marijuana in 2002. He suspects that authorities in Salt Lake City, Utah investigated and prosecuted him because of his connections to celebrities like Snoop Dogg. “They thought it would lead to an arrest of a famous rapper, which didn’t happen.”

Angelos hesitates when asked if he has any qualms with his defense attorney. “Here’s the thing: the government made it tough for us to mount an effective defense because they suppressed evidence that we didn’t see until years later; they indicted me on one factual narrative and we prepared a very effective defense to that narrative.”

The narrative was changed unexpectedly as they entered court. Under normal circumstances, he tells me, for 900 dollars of marijuana being sold over 3 transactions, “I wouldn’t have got any prison time.”

After the stacking and enhancement provisions, Angelos was facing 105 years in prison. His defense fought some of those and won, “we got it down to 55 years.”

The prosecution trumped up the charge with “gunstacking” enhancements. Something that Angelos adamantly argues was based on “fabricated” evidence. The original reports never said he had a gun on him during the drug trade and he says that is the truth. The legally owned firearm was found in a locked safe when the police raided his home.

He laments, “Although I wished it would’ve gone better, my attorney didn’t have much to work with.” Angelos is confident that if his trial hadn’t been manipulated, he would have walked out as a free man.

Angelos’ assets and money were seized by authorities shortly after charging him. “They took all my stuff that I had bought with my music industry money.” It left him with little to pay for his legal defense and the lawyer finished by working for free.

The prosecution was so aggressive, it caught the ire of a fellow attorney in the Utah DA’s office, Mike Lee. “When Mike Lee was elected to the Senate in 2010, he became one of my number one advocates.”

Angelos gives Senator Lee (R-UT) much credit for getting him released and helping pass criminal justice reform so far. Senator Lee and Koch Industries were instrumental in changing the political landscape of criminal justice reform and enlightening conservatives on the need for change on the issue.

Early into his appeals process, the only hope for legislation that would free him was Democrat control of both houses of Congress and the White House because Republicans were not allies of criminal justice reform. Angelos recounts, “In 2009, we got that and we didn’t get a thing; we got a band-aid approach.” It wasn’t until Republicans began to consider criminal justice reform as a conservative issue that substantial progress started. “Were it not for Republicans coming over on the issue, we would not have had criminal justice reform.”

Weldon Angelos has seen the progression of criminal justice reform from the inside of a prison cell and as a free man. He has been a benefactor of advancement on the issue, but he has been an advocate for those who are still hurt by the system. The First Step Act was a step in the right direction, but Angelos realizes that more is needed and he plans on being part of the progression.

Weldon Angelos – New Beginning from Arnold Enrique Huaiquil on Vimeo.

Image: screenshot from Weldon Angelos – New Beginning

The post Inmate to Advocate: One Man’s Fight For Victims of The War On Drugs appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

He explained that the name comes from an essay by Albert Jay Nock, “Essentially, it is about the truth teller who is out there finding people and bringing them to the cause.”

“The [line’s] logo has a cavernous feel to it; there’s a scholar and a warrior on it. That’s the message I want to send; it is going to take both.” Rivera explains how the remnant’s job is to carry the message of truth to the people who will make a difference. Those people are a minority, but “changes happen on the margins.” Rivera intends to speak to those liberty warriors.

“Invade the culture with liberty stuff that looks good.”

The brand’s first flag is a memorial to those killed by the state, including Duncan Lemp; but Lemp is far from the only victim of state-sanctioned violence. Rivera finds fault with increased police militarization, government overreach, and abuse of power. Specifically, “one of the best examples of this is the no-knock raid.”

He points out that Lemp was killed in a no-knock raid for an accused weapon offense, but Breonna Taylor was killed in similar government overreach during a no-knock raid connected to the drug war. Bringing light to these injustices motivated him, but he admits “I am a Rothbardian Libertarian; so, I generally have a hatred for the state.”

The Lemp case exemplified what his brand was trying to bring awareness to. “That case should be brought to people’s attention because the state murdered a man. It is why I made the Facebook frame that says “his name was Duncan Lemp. People should remember those like him.”

The newest liberty movement that Rivera is appealing to are “patriots –  they love their country, they just fucking hate the government.”

The media and establishment attempted to label the movement as racist and extreme. Rivera answers that hateful label by pointing out with a tinge of pride, “I have seen a proactive and natural recalcitrance to it.” Rivera reminds me that liberty is completely antithetical to racism and therefore, incompatible with the movement.

The Hawaiian shirts referenced by I am the Remnant is a stance against tyranny. The Hawaiian shirt clad bois standing in solidarity with the anti-police brutality protesters, “are saying this is an injustice no matter who it happens to.”

In his words, his brand represents, “hope and a deep desire for a peaceful revolution.”

“I believe in liberty because I believe in peace.”

Rivera told me, “I think we should have a Ron Paul revolution. We have to do everything we can to make this peaceful because no one wants a bloody revolution. I want a peaceful revolution and I’m willing to do everything I can to make it happen.”

Both the killing of Breonna Taylor and Duncan Lemp are reminders that the state is violent and Rivera’s brand wants to remind people of that and motivate movement towards liberty.

“The remnant is a call to people; it means you should be hellbent and hypervigilant on bringing people to the movement.”

However, he has no intention of placating those who want to ridicule the liberty movement. In other words, Rivera and his brand are unapologetically about liberty and not bending a knee to trends.

“The future of the line is going to be about keeping a consistent message.” The message is a devotion to human liberty from the words to the images of all the merchandise. It started with a flag, but they are now offering patches. Shirts will be coming soon.

One of the images used for the line comes from a picture of Harriet Tubman. One of the shirts will memorialize the Haitian Revolution in a picture of the liberation that tells of the struggle for human freedom between the lines of images. “Some of these images took over 200 iterations to get them right.”

When asked about where his merchandise is made, Rivera answers, “the clothes are made somewhere in the US.” But he makes it clear that the point is somewhat moot, “I love America, but I understand economics.” In other words, he is not a protectionist.

Diego’s line brings deep philosophical concepts in an artistic and accessible package. A hardcore Rothbardian will appreciate it, but it is visually appealing even for those who are casual observers of human freedom.

Find it at iamtheremnant.com

“Working in the remnant means working in impenetrable darkness” 
-Albert Jay Nock

The post I Am the Remnant: Liberty That Looks Good [Review] appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

We don’t need to replace our current system with anything other than a Constitutional Republic. The answer to our woes is to strengthen our commitment to individual liberty, limited government, and capitalism.

The US has unbelievably high incarceration rates. Many Americans that are in prison are there for nonviolent drug crimes that carry draconian mandatory minimums. Many judges vocally lament the prison lengths they are forced to sentence defendants to due to mandatory minimums.

Weldon Angelos

One famous example is Weldon Angelos who was sentenced to 55 years without the possibility of parole for selling small amounts of marijuana to a police informant three times in 2002.

This harsh sentence is due to something known as “gun stacking”. The informant saw a gun in Angelos’ possession when the drug trade went down. It was never used or brandished in a threatening manner. During the first trade, the informant simply saw it in Angelos’ car. During the second and third trades, the gun was in an ankle strap.

Therefore, Angelos qualified for a 5-30 year mandatory minimum for being a first-time drug offender with a gun. For the first instance when a gun was in his car, he received five years tacked onto his sentence. For each subsequent drug deal where a gun is present, 25 years are automatically added. He never used the gun in a violent way, but he did exercise his legal 2^nd Amendment right while selling a plant.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was murdered in her home after police broke down her door in the middle of the night because of suspected nonviolent drug activity. She wasn’t the suspect, but her boyfriend dared protect her against the unknown intruders by firing his own legal weapon at them. The police shot and killed Breonna in bed while they were serving a no-knock warrant for a nonviolent drug crime that she was never even accused of being a part of. The authorities initially charged Breonna’s boyfriend with attempted murder for firing at the intruders, but then recanted (nice of them).

Steven Sutherland

In Steven Sutherland’s case, he was sentenced more harshly because he had a gun in the house. He never used it in a threatening or violent way in any instance that the authorities were involved in. He was merely a dying man that had a gun and marijuana in rural Missouri. He died in prison for it.

Duncan Lemp

A Maryland man named Duncan Lemp was shot and killed in March when a SWAT team entered his home in the middle of the night. They were attempting to serve a no-knock warrant for accused gun crimes. His family and their lawyer claim Lemp was sleeping when the officers killed him. The authorities argue that they were met with violence and a deadly booby trap that forced them to shoot Lemp. However, they have not released body camera footage from the raid despite calls from the Lemp family attorney and civil rights groups.

Police raided his home in the middle of the night for allegedly owning a rifle that he was banned from owning due to a juvenile offense—not because he was an immediate threat, but because he was allegedly practicing God-given rights and they had told him not to.

Charles White

Charles White was sentenced to 10 years in prison for growing marijuana plants in Missouri. He was sentenced to prison in 2017 and soon appealed under the First Steps Act because he was elderly and in bad health. However, the judge denied him release citing his health issues as not severe enough. The judge felt it was in the best interest of everyone involved to keep the nearly 80-year-old man with worsening macular degeneration (which made him legally blind) in prison for a plant.

There is good news. Early in 2020 as Covid-19 fears ramped up, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines for prisons across the country to release nonviolent, low-risk prisoners. White met the criteria for release and thus, is now a free 80-year-old man. Christina Frommer of The Canna Convict Project tells me, “If it wasn’t for Coronavirus, Charles White would not be out of prison.”

Marvin Louis Guy

Marvin Louis Guy was in his home in the wee hours of the morning when police raided it. They were serving a no-knock warrant for drugs and Guy met the unknown invaders with gunfire from his legal weapon. He claims he did not know the intruders were police and that is why he fired on them, but the authorities still charged him with attempted murder. The drugs that the police were searching for were never found. They did find a 9MM pistol, walkie-talkies, three cellphones, a laptop, a safe, a glass pipe identified as drug paraphernalia, and a grinder. Sound like sufficient findings to justify putting civilians and police officers in deathly danger while violating 4^th Amendment rights?

Corrupt Police or Systems?

There are many good individual police officers and, as a whole, they do a good job. There are legitimate purposes for police officers—like keeping the community safe from outside threats to their businesses and personal lives.

Read True Blue: Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them. Some stories will make you laugh, some will make you cry, and almost all of them will make you realize that it is a tough job to see the worst 20 minutes of individuals’ lives day-in and day-out. The stories in that book are written by police officers who have a love for people of their community that they are protecting.

Then, read The New Jim Crow and you will see a systemic problem with criminal justice laws. But the problem is that our system has forgotten respect for individual liberty and has replaced it with an ideology that government needs to nanny individual behavior.

The system needs reformed, but only in the way that American principles need to be restored and revered.

The post Criminal Justice Reform: What System Needs Replaced? appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Charli got to the Kansas City Plaza on Saturday afternoon just before 5:00 p.m. to participate in the march. However, official forms and regulations had not been submitted and followed, “so it wasn’t a lawful protest –whatever that oxymoron is.”

Earlier in the day, the protests were filled with police genially talking to protesters, joining in on chants, and holding signs that said “end police brutality”. The later protest, however, had instances of violence that escalated over time.

Charli told of the thousands of people there, many of them hurting and there out of a “community need to mourn”. Charli tells me the issue that motivated her to participate in the movement is larger than the Minneapolis issue, although, “George Floyd was a good example of how everyone could look at a video and be outraged. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you watched the video of that man be murdered, and it hurt.”

Defund the Police

Charli said, “I think the way things could be better is by defunding the police and rebuilding the police department into a much smaller section of a broader societal system of people who are specialized to handle the problems that we force police to handle.”

I brought up that local funds are some of the least frightening parts of the police department—for example, militarized equipment and increasing harassment of non-violent drug criminals are motivated by federal funds and grants. Charli responded that “is a concern of mine, as well.” She summarized the notion that less should be asked of the police in that,  “all we want you [the police] to deal with is the violent stuff. Just the violent stuff.”

Charli noted that a great example is Camden, New Jersey. The city “completely rebuilt their police department like 7 years ago. They reduced their police and they changed the function of the police in their city. It has completely changed how their community interacts with the police.”

When dusk began to settle, Charli decided it was the best time to leave because she thought the crowd was changing, and she was concerned, stating “98% of us want to be heard and mourn together, but 2% wants to f#*! some sh!* up and I didn’t want to be in that.”

She left at just the right moment. “I wasn’t even to my vehicle, yet, because it was parked a few blocks away and I turn around to see a plume of teargas floating over the protest.” In disbelief, she added, “I was in the middle of that area fifteen minutes ago”.

As Charli was leaving, she walked past the officers getting up from taking a knee and putting their gasmasks on. She points out that they didn’t warn the protesters about the impending teargas, “but maybe they did after I left. Maybe they did give a thousand people ten minutes of warning to get out of the way of teargas.”

The violence Charli saw from protesters were a few throwing partially empty water bottles at the police. “I did not see frozen water bottles or rocks being thrown, but I did hear that happened later in the evening.”

The only act of vandalism that she can recall was a man spray painting the street with the words “this is our street”. Charli mirrors the sentiment of Houston Police-Chief Art Acevedo who said, “those little white guys with skateboards start all the shit.” She hints that the vandal matches that description.

Economic Tyranny

I noted that George Floyd lost his job weeks before he was arrested and was subsequently murdered for using counterfeit payment. She recognized that economic shutdowns did probably hurt underserved people the most, and noted that, “I grew up in a paycheck-to-paycheck household.” Then with a laugh adds, “as extremist left as I apparently am, I agree with reopening the economy because it is our poorest people who will pay the most.”

Criminal Justice Reforms

Representative Justin Amash has introduced a bill to end qualified immunity for police officers, meaning that they could be held liable for misconduct on the job. However, Charli is not convinced that would fix the problem. “I think ending qualified immunity would be more plausible if we had smaller police departments and police had less of a burden put on them.”

She is aware and respectful of the difficult job we ask police officers to do, “as it is right now, we ask these guys [police officers] to do a job that we don’t give them the proper training to do and then, we’re going to take away any protection that we offered you.”

When asked about Shaun King’s comments about how Rand Paul is one of the most consistent defenders of criminal justice reform on Capitol Hill, Charli replied emphatically “that is so accurate.” A rush of pride in my man Rand came over me as she added, “If I see a Rand Paul headline, I’m reading the article. We don’t line up on everything, but I do think he is an interesting politician and he has a lot of good things to say.”

I find a lot more common ground with libertarians than either of us think we will when the conversation begins.
-Charli

Image: Facebook

The post Black Lives Matter Protest: A Conversation with an “Extremist” appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Floyd was murdered by an authoritarian brute who used his power to stand on Floyd’s neck for no good reason. Taylor was murdered by a systemic policy that is used far too often – no-knock warrants. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has introduced a bill in the United States Senate that would prohibit any law enforcement agency that receives federal funds from using no-knock warrants.

Taylor was shot in her bed by the police who invaded her home in the middle of the night on March 13th in Louisville, Kentucky. No drugs were found, nor did she have a record of drug use or possession. In fact, she was not the stated goal of the search warrant; her home was in the search warrant because the police believed another suspect had illegal drugs delivered to her home.

There are numerous examples of no-knock warrants ending in horrendous ways, including the case of Marvin Louis Guy. He faced murder charges after firing his legal weapon on invading authorities entering his home in the early morning hours. Guy claims he did not realize it was police entering his home in Killeen, Texas.

The Houston, Texas police department had a deadly experience with a no-knock raid which lead to 4 officers shot and 2 civilians dead. After that atrocity, they ended the practice of breaking into peoples’ homes unannounced—suspected drug dealers or not.

Sometimes they are drug dealers. Other times, it is questionable. In the case of the Houston Police Department, it seems extremely questionable in at least 164 cases of possible drug violations. The investigations were initiated by a former officer, Gerald Goines, who has admitted to falsifying accounts in order to gain search warrants, implement drug raids, and send people to prison. The District Attorney has already announced that the department will support reversals in at least 91 convictions.

Goines admitted to inventing a story of a drug deal at the home of a couple that Houston police killed when they invaded their home while serving a no-knock warrant. They found no illegal drugs.

In a separate case, Goines framed Otis Mallet for selling drugs. Mallet was found guilty and sentenced in 2011 to eight years in state prison. He was released from prison after serving two years. After an overwhelming amount of evidence shown that Mallet had not committed the crimes he was accused of and the District Attorney concluded that Goines had a history of lying, a court deemed Mallet “actually innocent” in February of 2020. s

Ending no-knock warrants is not a grand scheme to destroy America’s justice system, which is why it might not be enough for some. However, it is a big step in the right direction of reforming a corroded criminal justice system. It might be common sense enough to work in restoring some justice.

Image: Dana L. Brown

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