by David Clarke
Some Orders Aren’t Worth Following
Policing is local, and we certainly don’t need bureaucrats from on high condescending to us with their meaningless recommendations, policy changes, or mandates. And speaking of mandates, I made headlines when I told former prosecutor and judge Jeanine Pirro that I would not participate in helping the feds compromise states’ rights. If the federal government began a gun confiscation program, I’d refuse. (Yes, even if the White House issued an executive order.) Why? For one thing, I wouldn’t want to get shot. The American people are only going to put up with so much intervention from the federal government before they push back. If the feds try to disarm this country, you will see the second coming of the American Revolution.
The fact is, most Americans believe the federal government has grown too big and don’t want it meddling in our local affairs. Bureaucrats in some dusty Washington, DC. office won’t make the decisions those of us close to home would make. Most Americans actually agree on that point. A poll of both Republicans and Democrats had shocking results. According to Washington’s Blog:
• 84% of all Americans believe political leaders are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than doing what is right.
• 81% believe the power of ordinary people to control our country is getting weaker every day as politicians of both parties fight to protect their own power and privilege.
• 80% believe the federal government is its own special interest primarily looking out for itself.
• 79% of all voters believe we need to recruit and support more candidates for office, at all levels of government, who are ordinary citizens, rather than professional politicians and lawyers.
• 78% believe that the Democratic and Republican Parties are essentially useless in changing anything, because both political parties are too beholden to special interests to create any meaningful change.
• 76% of Americans agree with the statement that America cannot succeed unless we take on and defeat the corruption and crony capitalism in our government.
• 75% believe that the US government is NOT working for the people’s best interest.
• 75% believe that powerful interests have used campaign and lobbying money to rig the system for themselves.
• 74% see the biased and slanted coverage of the media as part of the problem.
• 72% of Americans believe the U.S. has a two-track economy, where most Americans struggle every day, where good jobs are hard to find, and where huge corporations get all the rewards.
• 72% believe that the reason families in our middle class have not seen their economic condition improve for decades and economic growth is stalled is because of corruption and crony capitalism in Washington.
• 71% believe our government is not only dysfunctional, it is collapsing right before our eyes.
• 70% believe the government in Washington does not govern with the consent of the people.
• The majority—56%—say they wish there were a third party with a chance of success to fight for their interests.
• Only 15% say the “values and principals [sic] of my political party are so important that I strongly prefer to vote for the candidates of my party.”1
Constitutional activist Mark Meckler wrote, “Unless some political force outside of Washington, DC, intervenes, the federal government will continue to bankrupt this nation, embezzle the legitimate authority of the states, and destroy the liberty of the people. Rather than securing the blessings of liberty for future generations, Washington, DC, is on a path that will enslave our children and grandchildren to the debts of the past.”2
But the question remains. What do you say to your neighbors and friends? What can an average man or woman do to fight back against a government that seems to be spiraling out of control? I look forward to seeing how Trump will go in there and shake things up. But I’m more and more convinced that the necessary solution for permanent change is restricting the size, scope, and power of the federal government by using a tool that the Founders gave us, Article V. The Founders, being the wise people that they were, saw this government overreach coming way back in 1776. They knew one day the federal government would grow so large and powerful that it would never voluntarily give up power.
To combat this inevitability, the Founders gave us a tool that Forbes magazine called “a Constitutional emergency cord.” The last time you read Article V of the US Constitution may have been in high school, but read it with fresh eyes today:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
Most of us were taught one rather difficult way to change the Constitution: if two-thirds of both houses of Congress agree on an amendment, Congress can propose it to the Constitution. However, right there in plain sight is another way—one that does not require the permission of Congress or even the president. Reread it to see if you can spot it. I’ll wait.
Okay, so did you see it?
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments …
In addition to going through Congress, our Founding Fathers gave us—normal, everyday people working through our state legislatures—the power to dial this out-of-control federal government back: it starts by passing an application through two-thirds of the state legislatures. Doing this will force Congress to call a Convention of States where we can propose amendments that deal with the same issue: taking back the power from the federal government.
Most Americans don’t know that this is a possibility or that the Founders gave us this power. They certainly don’t realize that a committed group of people are already getting these applications passed through their legislatures. By mid-2016, eight states had passed the application—Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Indiana—and many more are to come.
The actual application looks like this:
CONVENTION of STATES ACTION
Application for a Convention of States under
Article V of the Constitution of the United States
Whereas, the Founders of our Constitution empowered State Legislators to be guardians of liberty against future abuses of power by the federal government, and
Whereas, the federal government has created a crushing national debt through improper and imprudent spending, and
Whereas, the federal government has invaded the legitimate roles of the states through the manipulative process of federal mandates, most of which are unfunded to a great extent, and
Whereas, the federal government has ceased to live under a proper interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, and
Whereas, it is the solemn duty of the States to protect the liberty of our people—particularly for the generations to come—by proposing Amendments to the Constitution of the United States through a Convention of States under Article V for the purpose of restraining these and related abuses of power,
Be it therefore resolved by the legislature of the State of______:
Section 1. The legislature of the State of ______ hereby applies to Congress, under the provisions of Article V of the Constitution of the United States, for t
he calling of a convention of states limited to proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and limit the terms of office for its officials and for members of Congress.
Section 2. The secretary of state is hereby directed to transmit copies of this application to the President and Secretary of the United States Senate and to the Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and copies to the members of the said Senate and House of Representatives from this State; also to transmit copies hereof to the presiding officers of each of the legislative houses in the several States, requesting their cooperation.
Section 3. This application constitutes a continuing application in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States until the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the several states have made applications on the same subject.
That might not be the most exciting thing you’ve read this week, but it is definitely the most revolutionary. Upholding Article V is the only way things will change. But it will happen only when the states seize their rightful position in this representative democracy. By calling a Convention of States, we can stop the federal spending and debt spree, the power grabs of the federal courts, and other misuses of federal power.
And, yes, I may sound like a Republican, but I’m not one. People often are confused about my political party, and I don’t blame them. Usually when you hear a black man talking about politics, he doesn’t sound like me. I never joined the Democratic Party, though I ran as a Democrat for the nonpolitical office of sheriff. I didn’t want to abandon the party of my family, but the Democratic Party certainly abandoned them and me. I’m a loyal guy but not to a fault. I tell people I’m a conservative. To me, that means the following:
1. Limited government and restrained federal bureaucracy are needed.
2. Military superiority and safe streets at home must be maintained.
3. The rule of law must prevail.
4. The Constitution is about individual rights, not group rights.
5. We need more rights for the states.
The great thing about a Convention of States is that it’s not partisan. Americans of all stripes want the federal government to back down. It’s going to require hard work to get there. It reminds me of the hard work of parachute packing.
In Vietnam, Captain J. Charles Plumb flew an F-4 Phantom jet on seventy-four successful combat missions. Only five days before he was scheduled to come home, he was shot down, captured, tortured, and imprisoned for 2,103 days as a prisoner of war in a communist prison camp. After he made it home, he was at a restaurant when a young man came up to him and extended his hand. “You’re Captain Plumb, right? You’re the man who ejected successfully from your F-4 Phantom jet into enemy territory and were a prisoner of war, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “But how’d you know all that about me?”
The man responded, “I’m the one who packed your parachute the morning of your capture.”
Overcome with gratitude, Captain Plumb asked, “Do you keep track of all the lives you’ve saved?”
“I don’t keep track of all the parachutes I’ve packed,” he responded. “It’s enough gratification for me just to know that I served.”
His answer left Captain Plumb speechless. Later, he described why he was dumbfounded. “Here’s a sailor well below the line of the aircraft carrier. The guy stands at a long wooden table and folds the silks of these parachutes, while the jet jockeys, the Top Gun pilots are zooming around the sky at twice the speed of sound. They couldn’t have cared less about the guy down there in the hole,” he said. “But I cared that day when he packed the parachute for me.”3
When it comes to life, and even to saving this nation, it comes down to serving others.
I have to believe that Americans share this sailor’s desire to do the rather unglamorous work of saving this nation for their kids and grandkids. No, your friends at the barbecue or at church probably won’t be on Fox News. They won’t be asked to testify at Congress. But the triumph of our Constitution is that ordinary people gave the power to preserve this nation to a group of other ordinary people. Those ordinary folks had the courage and the conviction to defy a king.
Did you know that three times as many colonists supported King George during the Revolution than support our Congress today?
America is a resilient country. It has been through a lot. Think about it a minute. We’ve been through a revolution, a civil war that nearly tore this country in two. America has been through two World Wars, a Great Depression, and the turbulent 1960s. We’ve been through 9/11, and we not only survived but came out stronger. Human nature has us believing that this current time is the worst it has ever been. John 14:1 (KJV) reminds us, “Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me.” I have traveled all over this great country, and I have met Americans of every color, gender, and religion. I have seen the greatness of America in those travels. I believe that America will survive our current challenges because I believe in the ability of American people to overcome anything that confronts us. I feel a revolution coming on. And this time, it will once again come down to ordinary Americans deciding that they’ve had enough and that freedom and liberty are worth fighting for.
16
War Has Been Declared on the American Police Officer
ON DECEMBER 20, 2014, a call came into the 70th Precinct station house in East Flatbush in the middle of Brooklyn. The call came not from a citizen, but from the Baltimore Police Department. They were concerned after seeing an Instagram post from one of their city’s residents, Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley, who’d posted a photo of a silver Taurus pistol with this caption: “I’m Putting Wings on Pigs Today. They Take 1 of Ours … Let’s Take 2 of Theirs. #ShootThePolice #RIPErivGarner1 #RIPMikeBrown This may be my final post. I’m putting pigs in a blanket.” The post included a gun emoji.
The Baltimore police saw this post at 1:30. Within forty minutes, they’d discovered the twenty-eight-year old Brinsley was heading to New York and consequently alerted the East Flatbush police. Acting quickly, the Flatbush police issued a warning to their officers.
Meanwhile, Brinsley placed his Taurus pistol inside a Styrofoam container and put that container into a plastic bag. Then he boarded a bus that took him to Midtown and then on a subway train to Atlantic Center Mall. There, Brinsley saw a police cruiser at the corner of Tompkins and Myrtle Avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Two partners—forty-year-old Officer Rafael Ramos and thirty-two-year-old Officer Wenjian Liu—were sitting in the cruiser. They wouldn’t have time to receive warning from headquarters. At 2:47 p.m., Brinsley walked up to the cruiser and fired his weapon through the front passenger window. He hit both officers in the head. It happened so fast they could not draw their weapons. It’s possible they didn’t even see him. After this execution-style double murder, Brinsley fled to the Myrtle-Willoughby Avenues subway station and shot himself on the platform.
Lie of the Year
The Washington Post’s fact checker awarded 2015’s “Lie of the Year” to the “hands up, don’t shoot” mantra that spread over the nation like a bad case of flu after the death of Michael Brown. A grand jury in Ferguson refused to indict police officer Darren Wilson because the DNA bloodstain evidence and witness accounts did not support the “hands up, don’t shoot” version.
Also, you recall reports of Eric Garner’s death were riddled with inaccuracies. When the NYPD approached him illegally selling single cigarettes on the street in Staten Island, they put him in a headlock. “I can’t breathe,” he said before dying. Counter to prevailing media myth, the medical examiner determined his acute and chronic bronchial asthma, heart disease, and obesity were factors in his death. The windpipe of the four-hundred-pound Garner was not damaged.
After these incidents, you’d think that America’s top cop, Attorney General Eric Holder, would be on th
e side of the police instead of the criminals. However, that wasn’t the case. On Tuesday, December 9, 2014, Holder delivered remarks at the My Brother’s Keeper Summit in Memphis, Tennessee:
In recent months, with the tragic deaths of Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in New York City, we’ve seen the beginning of important national reflection and conversation. These incidents have brought long-simmering divides to the surface. They have sparked widespread public demonstrations. And they have focused a spotlight on the rifts that can develop between police officials and the citizens they are entrusted to serve and protect.
None of these concerns are limited to any one city, state, or geographic region. They are American issues that are truly national in scope. They demand a constructive response from our entire country. And, at their core, they are far larger than just the police and the community—implicating concerns about the fairness of our justice system as a whole, and the persistent opportunity gaps faced by far too many people throughout the nation—and by boys and young men of color in particular …
