Are we about to be in the new American Revolution? Let us pray for our nation.
And so it starts.
Number of hands of anyone surprised by this.
BuellerâŠ
BuellerâŠ
BuellerâŠ
Amen brother we need to pray for our nation and its leaders.
Iâm still waiting for all the details to come out.
From the story I read this morning, the shooting happened âdown the streetâ and away from the statue where the rioting/protesters were damaging/defacing public property in their attempts to pull the statute down.
We have no clear understanding at this point why those shots were fired.
I do find it ironic that the Gov called out the armed citizens as being their to âmenaceâ protesters, from the pictures Iâm seeing and what weâve seen over the last couple weeks these rioters didnât need any agitation and were the ones menacing the statue (by attempting to destroy it).
Note: protesters cease being protesters the moment they begin damaging property and threatening people at which point they are rioters. IMO
Protesters were tearing down a statue of Juan de Oñate, a 16th century Spanish governor, when shots were fired down the street. Apparently, 5 shots were fired by a single person when protesters advanced towards him. One person was taken to a local hospital in critical but stable condition.
All members of the NM âCivil Guardâ were detained by police and denounced by the governor. The statue has been removed.
So what happens when some really ballsy, well equipped ANTIFAâS decide to tear down the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty or any war memorial? Canât wait till they attempt to tear down the sign at Fort Bragg, or any US fort. Are we willing to stand down our soldiers, that would be embarrassing.
How close to our hearts does this have to come? Wait til they invade the Pentagon, storm the White House, the Capitol building?
Does anyone realize when an insurrection or terrorism is taking place in front of your eyes?
Are the well regulated militia really prepared to save our country, if our own elected officials, whom we voted in, wonât save our nation?
Really do have to question who has read the constitution and believes in it. This is not a black and white thing this is an American thing. AOC, and all her cronies are laughing at our weaknesses.
I remember a group of people on an airplane that said, âletâs rockâ! Have we lost our spine?
I debated making this a separate thread, my point below is less about the incident and more about media portrayal of the incident.
I have long said that we are losing the marketing battle, and this is just one recent example, but I found it pretty egregious from a source I used to consider reputable. They take advantage of most readerâs short attention span and the fact that most people never read an entire article. So lets have a look at their news article on this subject and see how it plays out.
Have a look at the headline:
Members of armed civilian group arrested, gunman identified after man is shot at Albuquerque protest
Have a look at the thumbnail image in preview, and the first thumbnail image in the video.
Have a look at the first two paragraphs in the article
Protesters in Albuquerque wrapped a chain around the neck of a bronze statue and began tugging and chanting, âTear it down,â shortly before sunset on Monday. Their efforts to pull down a monument of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate suddenly stopped as four shots rang out.
Most people instinctively turned toward the noise, videos from the scene show. A few screamed. Just yards away, a group of men sporting militarylike garb and carrying semiautomatic rifles formed a protective circle around the gunman.
So far⊠what are your impressions of what happened in Albuquerque? Hold onto those for a minute, most people have already stopped reading and formed their opinions.
A few paragraphs down, and the Governor speaks out
âThe heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a âcivil guard,â were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force,â New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said in a statement. âTo menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry â with an implicit threat of violence â is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.â
And then the MayorâŠ
âThe shooting tonight was a tragic, outrageous and unacceptable act of violence and it has no place in our city,â Keller said in a statement. âOur diverse community will not be deterred by acts meant to divide or silence us. Our hearts go out [to] the victim, his family and witnesses whose lives were needlessly threatened tonight.â
Next follow a video history of the statue, some photos of folks in tactical gear, references to the Floyd case, and confederate statues being pulled down elsewhere in the country.
So far⊠what are your impressions of what happened in Albuquerque? Remember, most people havenât read this far.
Now we are about half-way through the article that I can almost guarantee you very few people get this far.
Then, a white man in a blue T-shirt appeared to rile the crowd, according to video obtained by KOB4. People erupted in shouts, and the man took a few steps back.
Baca, wearing a blue shirt, appeared to be protecting the statue in the video, police said in the criminal complaint. An undercover police detective saw protesters pursuing Baca, who used pepper spray on the oncoming people, the complaint adds. âThe group appeared to maliciously pursue [Baca],â police state, hitting him with their hands and legs.
In the video obtained by KOB4, a masked protester swung what police identified as a longboard and struck Baca in the shoulder. The man backpedaled out of the crowd but continued to exchange shouts with protesters.
Someone in the video encouraged people to follow the man and get his license plate number. Several people followed him, and one tackled him to the ground.
According to the complaint, Williams â the gunshot victim, dressed in black â can be seen on the video retrieving the board and swinging it toward Bacaâs upper body and head. Then, the complaint says, Baca fired several shots. The crowd scattered.
So far⊠what are your impressions of what happened in Albuquerque?
And now we get what the actual involvement of the militia in this shooting is:
In a second video that captured the moments following the shooting, the gunman sat in the middle of a road as the New Mexico Civil Guard members formed a circle around him. One man carrying a semiautomatic rifle, and wearing camouflage fatigues and a military-style helmet, kicked the handgun away from the man and stood with his foot on top of the weapon.
Police responded to the scene with tear gas and stun grenades to force the crowd back. Officers detained several members of the armed group, according to reporters and witnesses at the scene. Video showed officers placing the apparent gunman into a cruiser.
Police wrote in the criminal complaint against Baca, which give his name as âSteven,â that the man was recorded holding a black semiautomatic handgun like the one eventually recovered from the scene along with four spent shell casings. Baca could be seen firing and then placing the weapon on the ground, sitting away from it and using his personal cellphone, the complaint states. Baca did not appear to be injured in the video but was taken to a hospital and declined to speak to law enforcement, the complaint saysâŠ
Now⊠what are your impressions of what happened in Albuquerque?
Now after that brief interlude on actually relevant information to the incident, we get more background on the âfar-rightâ or âright-wingâ group.
The New Mexico Civil Guard, which identified itself to a New York Times reporter covering the protest Monday, has a controversial history. The right-wing group has repeatedly shown up at Black Lives Matter protests in recent weeks with guns and in quasi-military garb.
On Facebook, the group has shared materials encouraging people to arm themselves, promoted military training on infantry tactics and âambushing,â and shared multiple posts opposing the leveling of monuments to Confederate figures in the South and Oñate in New Mexico. Members of the group recently told the Eastern New Mexico News that their aim was to protect businesses from damage during protests. They said they had been in contact with police and were following guidance given to them by officials.
They have repeatedly shown up⊠and not done anything. Maybe coincidence, but no looting while they were around including and up to the statue in question.
Groups such as the New Mexico Civil Guard and other armed far-right counterprotesters, often referred to as âmilitias,â have been a controversial presence at Black Lives Matter protests across the United States.
In every scenario I have seen pro-2A folks at a protest, the protest was peaceful. Every. One.
âThis is not the first report of heavily armed civilian militias appearing at protests around New Mexico in recent weeks. These extremists cannot be allowed to silence peaceful protests or inflict violence,â Heinrich said on Twitter on Monday night.
The militia didnt stop any peaceful protest, nor did they inflict any violence on anyone.
Some critics have drawn contrasts between police response to largely peaceful and unarmed Black Lives Matter protests and the heavily armed demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions in April and May. Mondayâs shooting also led some critics to note that the armed civilians and alleged shooter were taken into custody by police without incident, but the Black Lives Matter protests are responding to incidents in which police have fatally shot unarmed black men.
âNotice how calmly theyâre all being detained,â former housing secretary JuliĂĄn Castro tweeted Monday night. âDonât tell me George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks and Eric Garner â who did not harm anybody â couldnât be treated differently.â
In my opinion, the article starts out sounding like the Militia just started shooting into a group of protesters trying to take down a statue of âa 16th-century despot who massacred indigenous peopleâ, but what it actually ended up as was someone defending themselves from a mob beating. The militiaâs only actual contribution to the incident was to separate the shooter from his firearm and the shooter from the crowd⊠until the police finally show up.
Then there is a bunch of commentary about being âarmedâ and âfar-rightâ. Tying the circle of crazy gun wielding maniacs looking for a fight and conservative viewpoints and racism. They fail to note that every âprotestâ by pro-2A has been peaceful, while the âunarmedâ (except for skateboards, bricks, pipes, molotav cocktails, etc) protests have resulted in entire swaths of communities being burned to the ground. They portray the issue as if the very act of being armed is reason for the police to tackle you.
This is what Pro-2A groups are up against. Almost every major news media outlet does this.
Itâs almost as if we canât trust the press corps.
Hereâs some video. They are labled as
Graphic
Of course, the Governor seems to have reacted to the headlines instead of actually learning something about the situation, but thatâs basically what I expect from her. Additionally, now Albuquerque is going to send social workers instead of police to some 911 calls. I think weâre going to have a spike in dead social workers in Albuquerque.
I like Albuquerque. I hate seeing what these bozos are making of it. I can tell you, I wonât be back for quite some time.
Iâm not sure about the social worker plan, but I can tell you that the average social worker is overworked and underpaid in a depressing, stressful job that usually has too many vacancies. Many social workers burn out after just a few years. State and local governments donât take social services seriously, they just create positions to make it look like theyâre doing something. If weâre now going to ask them to do even more, perhaps even hazardous duty, then I believe many of them will quit, too.
I hate 2020. I vote for a do-over.
Hell no, Iâm not starting this year over again @LordDeinonychus âŠImpeachments, Bloomberg backed States gun rights restrictions, COVID, Quarantines, Riots,âŠpush through man, push throughâŠweâre half way through itâŠletâs wrap it up already and move onâŠâŠof course 2021 could come along with a big ol âhold my beerâ and make me regret those words, lol
Glad to see others arenât buying in to the anti-militia headlines.
The militia kept the peace. They didnât do anything wrong at all. The war on cops is succeeding and they know militias will step up to defend people in a society without law enforcement so weâre the next target.
After militias it will be all firearm owners. When will it be enough for people to stop sitting on the sidelines?
Like Iâve asked before, how do I fight the war from my doorstep?
Everyone said, write your congressman, senators, call them, email them.
Well we can see how well that works, they caved!
Mark my words, they will be burning the constitution shortly. So maybe we should rally somewhere and stop Rome from burning! Or I could Google it or ask AlexaâŠ
More are stepping up and putting pressure on politicians, but there arenât enough people doing it yet. We still need more. Encourage others to join in. If you need to hold rallies at your capitol, do so. This is a fight we canât afford to lose.
I might need to be talked down, but it seems that itâs ok to destroy and tear down monuments. It like âallowingâ someone to break into your home, steal and destroy and then report it to police. Why are we asking the police to solve crimes we could have stopped? Why do I have to allow the bad guy to do his thing, while I watch? Maybe itâs the extend to which the bad guys are pushing that I think itâs time to push back.
No I donât search out confrontation, but I donât plan on hiding either.
Seeing the USCCAâs ads all over YouTube is irony incarnate. Sane gun owners everywhere are appalled. Making comparisons to 1776?? Jesus wept, you clowns never did your homework anyway. Keep at it, youâll get your civil war one day and learn a terrible lesson again.