-By Warner Todd Huston
Saying “this is the beginning of the revolution,” a couple gunned down two Las Vegas police officers as they ate lunch last weekend. The pair killed themselves in a WalMart not long afterward. As this incident was reported, it occurred to me that I have been warning of this horrible state of affairs, and I am afraid this is not going to be a one-off incident.
As we learn more of the pair of shooters we find that they have a history of seeing government as an enemy to the people. But they aren’t alone.
In the after math as police talked to the media about the shootings, Sheriff Doug Gillespie told the media, “What precipitated this event, we do not know. My officers were simply having lunch.”
But is the sheriff right? Is this incident really such a surprise?
The shootings that ended inside a Las Vegas WalMart with a pair of murderers insisting that they were killing “law enforcement” officers as a means to start a revolution is exactly the sort of thing I have warned about many times.
Firstly, we need to realize this is not a “gun” problem. This is a government problem.
This incident did not happen in a vacuum. It occurred after a decade of police militarizing themselves, after years of police treating we, the people, as enemies, it comes as police everywhere are turning their departments into miniature armies replete with their own air forces, and armored tanks. It comes after a wild rise in the number of SWAT teams and as so-called “law enforcement” agencies have increasingly developed an attitude that they are more important than we lowly citizens.
In fact, these two nuts that killed the Vegas officers–and make no mistake, these two were nuts–were directly affected by Obama’s militarization of the US government. The pair was supposedly in attendance at the Bundy Ranch (though I haven’t seen direct proof of that) when Obama sent his jackbooted government thugs to destroy a single ranger’s livelihood.
As a result of actions like Obama’s–and these actions are happening by law enforcement all across the nation–more and more people are seeing our various American governments, whether they be city, county, state, or federal, as an enemy force oppressing us all and destroying our freedoms.
The problem is, this interpretation isn’t really that far off base. It is an all too reasonable interpretation of the way our governments are abusing their authority. Sadly, this isn’t a groundless reaction to the growing police state in which we live.
We are edging past a healthy and quite American skepticism of government and into the out right hatred and literal fear of government. And Americans aren’t as weak willed as the people of other nations. When we feel oppressed we fight, we don’t just bend over and take it. Eventually we rise up.
So, as our various governments continue to erect barricades between the people and the elites in government, it is only natural that more people like these two in Vegas will begin to see “law enforcement” as an enemy and begin to target them for death.
I am loathe to say this but I am very much afraid this will not be a lone incident. It is likely to become a more common occurrence.
Unless something is done to reverse the trend our governments have started, it will become open season on anyone in authority. Worse, a real revolution just might occur.
Do I want this to happen? Certainly not. I’d rather see the power of government decreased the proper way, via the ballot box. I’d rather see government agencies disbanded and disarmed. I’d rather see the power of government muted and military hardware taken away from police departments (This hardware will only be abused and misused to oppress the citizens, anyway).
But if that doesn’t happen, if government continues down this path of putting itself above the people the way it is now doing, it will only be natural that more cops are targeted like they were in Las Vegas. And eventually, if it continues to get worse, it won’t just be policemen targeted. It will be clerks in offices, government workers, and politicians.
We need to disempower government while we still have time. We need to put an end to this growing hatred of our government by putting government back in its place. But we need to do it peacefully, not at the point of a gun.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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