Suspect Detained Over Extremist Bumper Sticker
'Don't
Tread on Me' (Historic US Revolutionary War Flag) puts driver in
'watch' category in DHS report
Despite
Statement of the department of Homeland Security that they have pulled this
memo and policy against Conservatives and Christians we see field evidence that
these directives are in effect.
Posted:
May 07, 2009
10:45 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
A Louisiana
driver has been 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
It followed by only a few weeks the release of a Department of Homeland
Security "Right-wing
Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in
Radicalization and Recruitment" report, which prompted outrage
from legislators and a
campaign calling for the resignation of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The report cites individuals who sport certain bumper stickers on their
vehicles as suspect, and it 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, too.
According to the relative, the situation happened this way:
Her brother-in-law was driving home from work through the town that has a local
reputation for enhancing its budget by stopping speeders and ticketing them. 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 that was on the car 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.
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 cited 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
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."