Jennifer wrote:
It sounds like you’re suggesting that you feel/have felt physically threatened by governmental law enforcement… in other words, that law enforcement at either the local or federal level has given you an indication that they have the power to take over our country in some sort of coup d’etat. Most of our law enforcement is comprised of civilians—do you really believe that they are a physical threat to you? If you want your sons to engage in target practice, why can’t they use something that’s less potentially lethal than bullets? If you want to kill animals, that does not require any sort of hand-held weapon. And if you believe that the only thing that stands between democracy and a military dictatorship is arming civilians, then you clearly place little stock in the efficacy of our legal system, constitutional or otherwise.
Jennifer Squires
Jennifer, I would like to respond to your letter to Robert. I’m a fellow Nobanner, a woman, and seven months pregnant. I also have a small child. I have had nightmares about being burned alive like the two pregnant women were in Waco.
Has our government engaged in acts of tyranny? Why yes, it has. It took a woman being shot in the head with her baby in her arms (Mrs. Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho) to see the FBI treat the Freeman with such careful respect. I don’t think the Freeman, Randy Weaver, or the Koresh folks at Waco were all that sympathetic. I don’t hold their beliefs. I find their views offensive and loathsome. But I don’t believe they should be executed by our government without due trial.
Let’s go further back, to World War II and the Japanese-american camps that were set up and run by our government. Do you believe Japanese-americans deserve the same rights as other americans, Jennifer? How about the American Indian massacres? You say “do you really believe they are a physical threat to you?” I say, “Do you read and understand history?”
Now let’s address the issue closer to home, as it were. The Boston case where the two girls called 911 and the police failed to respond. The girls were raped and sodomized. The police never showed up for the 48 hours of their ordeal. The young women sued. The response was the following:
“… there is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect its residents against such predators but it does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or, we suppose, any other provision of the Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: it tells the state to let people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order.” [Bowers v. DeVito, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 686F.2d 616 (1882) See also Reiff v. City of Philadelphia, 477F.Supp.1262 (E.D.Pa. 1979)].
Jennifer, you are your only protection. I protect the child within my body and my seven year old with responsibility and care. I don’t depend on a police force to keep me from harm. If you do, you are committing a tragic error. In addition, I don’t regard my government as my protector and master, but as my servant. George Washington said that governments are like fire, a good servant and a fearful master. I’m probably getting the quote wrong, but the idea is there. Don’t depend on your government to somehow “know” that you’re a good citizen. Read up on some of the cases where completely innocent citizens are held at gunpoint by Ninja-suited drug-busting BATF agents. It really could happen to you. Please consider your vote carefully in the next election.
And most importantly, please take care of yourself. I always think of my friend Jennifer when I hear the name Jennifer, and a sweeter person never lived. She’s alive and fine; no horror stories here. I just think of you and how helpless and without protection you are, and I hope that you wake up. Woman to woman, I say, the cops aren’t around to defend us. Men aren’t around to defend us. We have to do the job ourselves, always have. My mother carried a pistol her whole life, as her mother did before her, and her mother before her. I carry my grandmother’s pistol with pride. You can find that same pride. Let me help!
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