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The Spectacle Blog
My friend Ken Marrero, aka the Blue Collar Muse, reports on conservative/libertarian profiling. Have an inappropriate bumper sticker on your car and the cops are warned that you might be a threat.
Missouri State Police have been alerted to be on the lookout for subversive drivers who may be domestic terrorists or members of militia groups. How can Missouri Law Enforcement know the car in front of them might be carrying dangerous people? Why from their bumper stickers of course!
Among the bumper stickers listed as indicative of dangerous, anti-Americans behind the wheel are those supporting Ron Paul or other 3rd party candidates, the Gadsden flag, opposition to the North American Union, opposition to the President’s Mandatory Service agenda, the right to Keep and Bear arms and belief that the States are sovereign. All these and more are “identifiers” common to militia movements across the nation and should alert law enforcement to be cautious when dealing with occupants in cars displaying them.
In fact, they are told such people often consider police the enemy. To be fair, the report doesn’t claim that all people who hold such views are automatically terrorists bent on shooting cops at traffic stops. However, if you have such stickers on your vehicle in Missouri, tensions just went WAY up.
Sounds like a great case for the ACLU to take on. You know, individual freedom, civil liberties, and all that stuff.
View all comments (32) | Leave a comment
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Pingback| 3.22.09 @ 7:20PM
Better Take that Conservative Bumper Sticker Off Your Car! — But As For Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Jim| 3.22.09 @ 7:53PM
Jharp,
Aren't you one of the morons that are continually whining about how Bush stole your freedom.
You are nothing more than a shithead.
W. James Antle III | 3.22.09 @ 8:01PM
So it would be okay for a Republican-run state to pull over white liberals who have progressive bumper stickers on their cars? Or at least not worth "whining" about?
Bill Bailey| 3.22.09 @ 8:16PM
Remember that jharp and all the other bitch-trolls said just a few months ago when Bush was president that dissent was patriotic. Now that Obama is president questioning authority is subversive.
jharp| 3.22.09 @ 8:33PM
Yeah, Jim. I was and am one of the ones who strongly objected to the government monitoring my e mails and listening to my phone calls.
Still feel the same about it today. How about you?
Do you have any problem with President Obama monitoring your communications without a warrant.
Or throwing you in jail without charges, a lawyer, or a hearing. For as long as President Obama says so.
jharp| 3.22.09 @ 8:52PM
Bill Bailey| 3.22.09 @ 8:16PM
"Remember that jharp and all the other bitch-trolls said just a few months ago when Bush was president that dissent was patriotic. "
Finally an ignorant wingnut gets one right.
And it is still true to this day that dissent is patriotic. It's nice when dissenting to show a reasonable comprehension of the issue. Something quite rare here but hang in there. You'll understand some day.
Interested Conservative| 3.22.09 @ 9:03PM
Jharp - here's an easy one, and a simple one I've never understood. Since you raised the "driving while black" syndrome in your initial comment, how can that work at night? I mean, how can the police even see who they're stopping?
I've never understood that, particularly if you hen compare the stats between daytime stops, when it could conceivably be in play, versus night stops, which should be the control group.
Aware of any general facts or findings on this? I don't doubt loads of anecdotes, but the general claim always struck me as suspect.
jharp| 3.22.09 @ 9:30PM
"Sounds like a great case for the ACLU to take on. You know, individual freedom, civil liberties, and all that stuff."
Doug,
Are you so ignorant to not be aware that the ACLU would most certainly take up the case if peoples civil rights were being compromised.
I really wonder about the right wing brain. Are you guys really that ignorant?
jharp| 3.22.09 @ 9:34PM
"Aware of any general facts or findings on this?"
No. And why bring it up unless you have some.
I am aware of black people being pulled over for no reason other than the color of their skin. Just like you losers are whining about being under suspicion for a bumper sticker.
That was my point.
Interested Conservative| 3.22.09 @ 10:02PM
Second chance - Jharp - please note I didn't reply with the invective you launched and others have countered. Just a simple question or two.
You didn't answer them, and challenged me uselessly. Since you've admitted your ignorance there and we've established our shared reliance on anecdotal incidents, note that I'm also not whining about bumper sticker suspicions in this story.
If anything, I'd be ashamed to have signed the paper as linked, not for any civil liberty reasons, but simply the insulting nature of the assumptions underlying it. Are Missouri State police so dense as to need this guidance, and if not, is their leadership so dense as to give it?
FWIW, it seems cribbed or plagiarized from Morris Dees work.
bumperstickerz | 3.22.09 @ 10:45PM
wow, law enforcement has stumbled upon a breakthrough investigative technique - truly amazing.
jharp| 3.22.09 @ 10:52PM
Interested Conservative| 3.22.09 @ 10:02PM
I read your post twice and to be honest I don't know what your one or two questions are.
Lay it out there, buddy, and I'd be happy to respond.
Interested Conservative| 3.22.09 @ 11:46PM
OK - How real is "driving while black", aka police racial profiling? Sure, there are plenty of anecdotal instances, and plenty of older (40+ yrs. ago) history of discrimination set forth in law, but seriously, how real is it today as a problem requiring a legal remedy - legislative or judicial?
Compare that with this Missouri story, and while I'd remain more concerned about sporadic treatment of minorities, I'm less concerned about both.
Compare all that with the recent actions of Detroit city council, and these are non issues.
My point being I think we've largely solved racial profiling, which itself is a leftover of our largely having solved legislated racial discrimination, and we're more in danger of idiocy in Missouri officialdom than reverse discrimination fears this article highlights.
Now, the dangers to the second and tenth amendments are different matters, but my questions here are about the reality of profiling, either to the left or right.
jharp| 3.23.09 @ 12:12AM
Good grief.
Can you make it a little simpler? Still not sure I get it.
If your asking how real is racial profiling my answer is very real. I live in one of the most racist communities in country and it happens all the time.
Interested Conservative| 3.23.09 @ 12:47AM
You got it - but where do you live, how does it happen, and what is the solution to it? Federal, state or local? My point being that is no longer productive for the US DOJ to solve a bad cop, or even a bad department. That's a state problem, unless the state itself is the problem.
Curiously, I'm in Chicago, where it's arguable that the state is the problem, but somehow I don't see the present administration too interested in taking it on, other than leaving US Atty Fitzgerald on the case for a while.
The solution to racial profiling here is to profile everyone, bullet sensors everywhere, traffic cams all over, and so forth.
I guess that's one way to overcome, as it were.
jharp| 3.23.09 @ 1:22AM
Interested Conservative| 3.23.09 @ 12:47AM
"You got it - but where do you live, how does it happen, and what is the solution to it?"
I live in central Indiana and the ACLU has been prominent in fighting these injustices. A good start would be to make a contribution to the ACLU.
Jeremaih| 3.23.09 @ 1:44AM
Do you people honestly believe that people with McCain Palin bumper stickers or anything of the kind will be treated as terrorists in Missouri?
Come on. Read a little more critically. This story just seems like more paranoid nonsense.
As for the ACLU. Thing is, this group reactionaries love to hate, would take a case like this -- were it true -- at the drop of a hat. You all ought to be more appreciative.
Pkane| 3.23.09 @ 6:07AM
I don't know that I find anything so alarming about this report. Sure, lumping in pro-life or Ron Paul stickers may be a bit of a stretch, but there are plenty of crazy "right-wing" groups out there, and I see no reason why the state police shouldn't keep cops informed about possible threats. Also, to us political/history junkies information that seems obvious to us may be obscure to young cops just starting out.
And this doesn't only apply to cars driving on the highway. Suppose a rookie cop shows up at a home for a routine call and there is a car in the driveway sporting obscure white supremacist symbols and a copy of the Turner Diaries on the dash? I'd want the cops to have the knowledge to take that as a sign to be a bit more cautious.
As for you, Jharp. I find your reaction a bit more disturbing. If you are opposed on principle to innocent people being profiled for their race or political views, I'd think that concern would apply to all groups.
stefie| 3.23.09 @ 6:58AM
God, I thought it was a tongue-in-cheek article.
You know, a joke
Crusader| 3.23.09 @ 8:37AM
You can tell a lot about a person by what kind of stickers they have on their trucks or cars. That's why I have none.
Read "You and the Police" by Boston T. Party, or does that recommendation make me a terrorist?
Gregor| 3.23.09 @ 10:31AM
Hey Jharp, I think the point is that under a conservative leadership, the profiling did not happen while being ranted about daily, yet barely into a liberal one it is happening and is being lauded by the same “progressives”.
I remember when it was all the rage to rant about the draft as what the conservatives wanted, and now it is silly to think that it might actually happen even with the house passing a bill to mandate it not only for youth but for senior citizens.
Think they will give the SA spiffy uniforms?
Freebird| 3.23.09 @ 12:01PM
I can believe this. I was getting gas a a filling station one day and a police car there drove slowly by my car and read the 4 stickers on my car, one of which says "It's the Obama Recession, Stupid". None of my stickers have to do with any so-called militia groups. I wondered if the policeman next was going to look up my tag number. Or, a more likely scenario, an Obamabot will take down my number, send it to Obmam's enforcers and I'll be targeted.
notmypresident09| 3.23.09 @ 12:10PM
Hey (reparations boy) Jharp, You need to harness all that pent up rage and energy. Try exercising in line at the unemployment office. Please accept my sincere apologies from the man for keeping you from achieving your potential. Heres a suggestion. Get a GED, a job, and stop blaming everyone for your own failures. Didnt Obama's success teach you everything you need. You have his phone number like he promised. You wont be paying taxes soon, OH wait you dont pay taxes now.
Jeremy Jester| 3.23.09 @ 1:24PM
I suppose now that I *must* affix a Gadsden Flag sticker to my vehicle...in the words of a certain Founding Patriot, "If this be treason, make the most of it."
Daphne| 3.23.09 @ 4:16PM
Notmypresident09, you'll never find JHarp in no stinkin' unemployment line--the dude's a crack dealer--he's always flush with cash.
Pingback| 3.24.09 @ 12:30AM
The News Factor: News, opinion, current events — a rewarding news experience » Blog A links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
tarbaby| 4.15.09 @ 6:00PM
jharp still wants his 40 acres and a mule. If jesse jr. could've come up with maybe 6 million you might have had a chance.
oKsmell | 3.9.10 @ 9:19PM
your arctical is so amazing,keep on it!
pigment Red | 4.7.10 @ 10:02PM
Never frown, Ink Pigments
even when you are sad,because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.