A key tactic of The Left is to demonize their political opponents. They have become increasingly sophisticated at this since the turn of the 21st Century. Most recently they have assembled voluminous databases on “Right Wing”, “Alt-Right” , and “Hate Groups.” But by lumping together legitimate conservative political activists (such as Tea Party groups) and right to life groups in the same lists as racists, bigots, the KKK, and assorted anti-Semites, they have besmirched the reputations of nearly everyone who opposes the socialist agenda. Some of the latest generations of databases can safely be called Vindictive Databases.
A new article in Wired magazine describes the level of database automation that The Left are now employing: Meet Antifa’s Secret Weapon Against Far-Right Extremists. This article reveals a large database called Whack-a-mole. This tool automatically mines data from Facebook, based on keywords like “patriot” and “anti-Obama” without applying human analysis. Therefore, a considerable percentage of the 400,000 “far right extremists” flagged by this system are surely false positives. And even more alarmingly, the key creator of Whack-a-mole publicly admitted that she has shared some of the database information with the Antifa radicals.
Vindictive Databases
Although some of the development of leftist databases can merely be ascribed to over-enthusiasm or political zeal, much of it is truly vindictive. Some of it crosses the line into indiscriminate mudslinging. Their “special reports” and databases employ a mix of fact, fiction, supposition, and innuendo. Their reports and web sites often include often spurious “hate maps” that erroneously pinpoint conservative Christian groups, pro-family groups, and Right to Life advocates. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)‘s widely-publicized Hate Map is truly a conglomeration of fact and fantasy. Looking at the heavily-pimpled map, an outside observer would easily assume that the Inland Northwest region is on a par with the racist hatefulness of the Deep South in the 1930s. But that is far, far from the truth! We get along just fine here, and we tend to judge people as individuals–not in “race” groups.
The leftist databases are often used in attempt to blame and shame people who are actually innocent and blameless. Much of the “research” (with tenuous connections) that the SPLC and other groups have complied has been parroted verbatim by the ADL, and in multi-jurisdictional Task Force “extremism reports”–at the local, state, and Federal level.
Police databases–already plagued by internal errors–are made even worse by injecting SPLC data. By mixing facts with unsupported surmises, the SPLC and other “extremism researchers” have cast a wide net. In fact this net is so wide that it extends to guilt by non-association. It goes so far as to group together anti-racists (such as the American Redoubt movement) with racists. Similarly, it attempts to make genuine supporters of Israel seem somehow connected with anti-Semites. Another bad boy list even put a Muslim anti-jihadist in a list of “anti-Muslim extremists.” This shows just how convoluted the logic of The Left has become. Some of this data is so absurdly false or exaggerated that it has been denounced even by other leftist researchers.
Flawed Databases: Garbage In, Garbage Out
The truly frightening thing about these flawed leftist databases is that they are accepted as near gospel by naive law enforcement officials. The Intelligence Fusion Centers and Task Forces routinely use SPLC-supplied data to fill their own databases. From what I’ve read, this has been going on since sometime before 2009. It is often a case of “Garbage in, garbage out.” (A database that includes tainted data can only dispense tainted data.) The same thing has happened in Great Britain. Today, all across America, police departments–large and small–have this bad data pushed down to the patrol car level. Some of that data is from vindictive databases, so it includes false accusations, slanted descriptions, fictitious memberships, incorrect locations, and merely assumed allegiances.
This widespread erroneous information might sound fairly innocuous, but it could actually be a matter of life or death, for motorists. This is because it is now standard operating procedure to “run a plate” for any car that is pulled over, before approaching it. In fact, many departments now use automated plate scanners–so it doesn’t even require a conscious decision. With automation, license plate numbers are quickly associated with Registered Owners. Then, in turn, many departments and agencies flag the names of registered owners from multiple databases, including lists of registered CCW permit holders, Social Security Numbers, and cross-correlated with those “lists of Potentially Dangerous Individuals.”
The Police Officer Training Mantras
After being supplied spurious information (via a flawed database) a patrol officer is naturally on high alert. Say, for example, that a database flag warns an officer that you are associated with the Sovereign Citizens movement. Whether this is true or not, the officer has visions of a shootout running through his head. After all, he’s received training about how “incredibly dangerous” those people can be. He regularly reads about their threat to his safety in police magazines. He has been trained: “Officer Safety is Paramount.” So, whether consciously or unconsciously, he treats what would have otherwise been a routine traffic stop as a felony stop. Therefore, he starts out the encounter with an itchy trigger finger. Why? Because of a mantra heard every day in locker rooms, training rooms, and briefing rooms. It is: “Go home safe to your wife and kids tonight.”
The SWAT Factor
There have been dozens of incidents in recent years wherein police officers have over-reacted. Granted, the majority of the roughly 1,000 killings by police each year are justified. But a few are not. Actually, more than just a few. And this doesn’t only happen in big cities. Some of the shootings have been out in ranching country. And it isn’t only blacks who have been singled out. Nor is it just random traffic stops where police over-react. It also happens when police are maliciously called to a scene, in what is commonly called SWATting. It its this SWAT factor that concerns me the most.
One Likely Scenario
Here is one all-too plausible chain of events: 1.) A leftist erroneously puts “John Smith”–a law-abiding and peaceable right winger–into a Hate Database. 2.) That database is subsequently shared between multiple law enforcement agencies. 3.) Someone gets drunk and decides to make a prank “Anonymous Tip” call to the police about John Smith. This happens either because he simply dislikes John, or because he has read that John is one of those people. One Saturday evening, he calls the local police department from a burner cell phone. He falsely reports that he has heard a “loud domestic dispute, breaking glass, and shots fired”, at the home of John Smith, at 123 Main Street.
Then it gets ugly, as the chain of events plays out, and as the Law of Unintended Consequences kicks in: 4.) Before the police arrive, they are warned that John Smith is a Potentially Dangerous Individual. So they send in a SWAT team, on high alert. Meanwhile, John is at home watching a movie on television. He is cleaning his AR-15, after a day at the rifle range. 5.) Looking through a window, a SWAT officer sees John holding the AR. Then John sees a strange red light and instinctively turns in that direction. 6.) With the aid of a laser aiming light on his department-issued AR, the SWAT officer shoots John six times, in rapid succession.
The Likely Aftermath
End result: John Smith is dead. The Anonymous Caller is never charged or even identified. The police officer is exonerated, after he testifies that he felt that “his safety was endangered.” The FBI national death statistics increment by one digit. The statistics for “a crime involving an ‘assault rifle'” increment by one digit. A leftist group adds a mention in their monthly magazine that “another extremist was killed, in a shootout with police.” They put another dot on their Right Wing Extremist Incidents map. John’s family attends a somber funeral.
If the foregoing hypothetical SWATting description sounds far-fetched to you, then read this. The police never even saw a gun, but yet they shot him without hesitation.
As time goes on, the leftist vindictive databases will surely continue to grow. They will continue to be shared. And, unfortunately, there will be an increasing chance that they will be either innocently misapplied, or maliciously used as a political cudgel. SWATting may become more commonplace.
It Happened to Me
I can write with authority on the subject of lying leftists. This because I’ve personally been their victim. Starting in 2011, the SPLC misidentified me as a proponent of the Sovereign Citizens movement. Even though I contacted them by mail and have made repeated public denials and clarifications on my stance, they have continued to fallaciously include me on their lists. (Or should I say maliciously, since they’ve long known better.) Later, they tried to somehow lump me in with a group that had a convicted felon as its leader. And this was immediately after I had denounced the man!
I believe that the SPLC’s mis-identification stemmed from my use of a comma to distinguish my Family’s name from my Given name. This was just an affectation, partly as a way to make my name memorable in the publishing world. I was simply following the advice of H. Ross Perot. (He advised friends in the business world to use distinctive presentations of their names, to make them unforgettable.) All of my books have been published under “James Wesley, Rawles”. While that was successful for my name recognition, it also got me falsely pigeonholed as part of a group with whom I have no affiliation.
Echoed and Amplified
My own experience shows that the SPLC’s distortions and lies are preserved and often perpetuated in cyberspace. For example, a 2014 article published by the ADL echoes the SPLC’s assumptions about that now notorious comma. Take a minute to read this: Murder Suspect Fan Of “Patriot” Movement Survivalist Guru. Notice how it includes this line: “Rawles, though more well-known as a survivalist, has also been an adherent of the anti-government ‘sovereign citizen’ movement.” Once a lie gets started and spread via the Internet, it is hard to stop. In this case it was even amplified. They attached “anti-government” to my name. I hope that readers can see how dangerous these trends are.
Where I Stand
Once again, for the record: I am a proponent of the American Citizenry being well-read on both history and the law. But I DO NOT support the so-called Sovereign Citizens movement. From all that I’ve read, the courts have routinely shot down their pleadings. Virtually every time that someone has tried to assert their rights as a “Sovereign” in any court of law, they have failed. This has been true of tax protestors, those attempting to establish allodial title to land, those attempting to impanel “Citizen Grand Juries”, and even folks claiming a right to travel without a Driver’s License. Time after time, they have tried and failed.
UCC Silliness
I believe that attempts by “Sovereigns” to misapply the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in their legal defense has been one of their biggest mistakes. A lot of this ill-conceived legal maneuvering can be traced back to Howard Freeman’s flawed pamphlet cum book The UCC Connection. He also published a shorter piece titled: The Two United States and the Law.
Sadly, Freeman’s writings have something in common with the leftist reports and databases: The mixing of fact and fiction. Freeman used a mixture of some historical truth with a hefty admixture of unsupported assumptions and pseudo law fancies. They were written by a layman. (Freeman is not a Juris Doctor. He had no formal legal education.) In my estimation he put an entire generation of folks down the wrong path. Some of them got themselves into a heap of trouble. By using the UCC as the basis of their pleadings, they actually cemented themselves to the same Federal statutory jurisdiction that they were attempting to avoid.
I’m Not Alone
I am sure that my situation with the SPLC is not unique. The SPLC and other pressure groups are well-known to throw innocent individuals and groups into their reports. They have shown a disregard for truth and accuracy. And, as I described, the potential misuse of their data could have huge implications for the privacy, reputation, and safety of those named. This is not conjecture, on my part. There have already been two documented incidents: The man who attempted to assassinate several Republican congressman including Steve Scalise had previously posted a “like” on the SPLC. And the domestic terrorist who tried to shoot up the Family Research Council building claimed that he picked his target because of SPLC data. Further, the advent of the Whack-a-mole database illustrates just how indiscriminate these vindictive databases can be.
In summary, we should beware the growth of vindictive databases. Their potential for misuse is enormous. Please encourage your legislators to enact guidelines for law enforcement agencies, sharply limiting their use of any data that is compiled by private pressure groups or by foreign organizations. Legislation that holds SWATters accountable for their actions would also be appropriate. – JWR
Note: Permission is granted for re-posting of this entire article, but only if done so in full, with proper attribution to James Wesley, Rawles and SurvivalBlog, and only if the included links are preserved.)
I was SWATted.
Fourteen Law Enforcement Officials == including members of the SWAT platoons == came to my work, put everybody on the ground at gunpoint.
They claimed they were given information I robbed a bank. Huh?
Five hours later, my boss bailed me out of jail with US$450 from petty cash.
After thousands in lawyer fees and three years of court appearances, the charges were reduced to ‘prohibited camping’. Huh?
By that time, I was care-taking my elderly mother in another state, so I pled no contest to an infraction.
Oh, and the Law Enforcement Officials kept my seized driver license all that time, only returning it after I discussed this with three sergeants and two lieutenants.
PS:
I re-paid my boss her $450, but that money was never returned from the court… better known as Bureau Of Justifying Their Existence.
Rev Buck :
Let me guess?, this all sounds like it might took place in Kommunist Korruptifornia? Maybe?, possibly?
Weather or not it was I am glad you were able to get out of dodge.
Good luck in the future.
I too was falsely labeled by a group of people who were friends of local police. They made my life and my family’s a living HELL for about 3 years. Think entrapment doesn’t happen, think again. I was never charged with a crime nor given due process. All it took was 3 people hell bent on running us out of our home. The system is severely flawed when all it takes is accusation to mislabel someone as a BG. Given enough time Karma does take care of evil people. But they can certainly impact your life.
BG?
Bad guy?
I recommend everyone interested in the SPLC watch the following video with African American professor Dr Carol Swain. She explains what a hate group the SPLC has become and how they attacked her for researching hate groups in America. the SPLC is basically a direct mail fundraising hate group that raises money via fear mongering and race baiting to raise millions of dollars, it is estimated they have over 300 million dollars in offshore accounts, none of which they actually use to fight poverty in the south or anywhere else except maybe in their own lives. They have been banned as a source of credible information by the FBI. The local newspaper has twice run an expose on the shady dealings of the SPLC. Please watch the following video. More people need to know about the SPLC hate group.
Dr. Carol Swain criticizes SPLC for their hate of pro-American organizations
https://youtu.be/XrBdiLgmfdc
Robb :
Two things;
1) After watching that video I feel like I need a shower.
2) And that the SPLC has become a Mercenary for higher thug and/or bully based lowest common denominator hate group.
Oh golly I remember when they were considered the ” we fight for all little people, poor people, and/or forgotten about you do not matter people.
Now just like the BLM, EPA, the SPLC has become nothing but a weapon to put against anyone who does no toe the Socialist Facist Agenda.
What a crying shame. Once again another formerly good institution has been corrupted by pure evil!
Our police forces have evolved into one of our Founders greatest fears: A Standing Army.
Isn’t it ironic that so-called conservatives and their beloved Republican Party turned America into 1938 Germany, complete with a Nazi Police State.
And this is the problem with our nation.
Far too many people are prioritizing political parties over our nation as a whole. If we are democrats we ignore slave labor and sex trafficking crossing the borders, we ignore WACO, and Ruby Ridge. We ignore government agencies being used to target conservative groups.
If we are republican, we ignore people like Timothy McVeigh, or the patriot act.
Instead of recognizing that we have different views in this country, and attempt to find some kind of middle ground or compromise we shout, we vilify, through out words like NAZI.
Political parties change positions all the time. JFK could never be elected as a democrat today because he promoted militias. Political parties will change their position on about everything if it helps keep them in power.
As long as we continue to put political parties and political correctness over our country as a whole, we get what we deserve.
Robert, NC :
Very true sir!
Many of our founding fathers railed against political parties. Many said it would wreck the country.
Political Correctness is Tyranny with manners.
A Republic if we can keep it ,and I say we keep it!
The right ALWAYS makes this mistake. The left are NOT like you. They don’t simply want to have their world view and to be left alone. They aren’t poor misguided souls. They want you dead. The bosses and controllers DON’T CARE about truth. The police are not your friend they are the instrument of state power and they enjoy it. You can’t change the left’s mind about any of this. They know it and they LIKE IT. You can’t change their mind because it’s not about right and wrong…are you ready…it’s about power and money. Your life is inconsequential. Period.
Some of your neighbors and countrymen want to pay other of your neighbors and countrymen to round up and kill millions of you. This is not an intellectual exercise from which you can reason your way out or ‘expose the truth’ in any consequential way.
The left wants you dead. Right in down, read it daily.
This will be settled by might at arms. I pray that you are not among those who understand otherwise.
(For that matter, half the politicians on the right are knowing and willing accomplices.)
Right on Fred. Sad, but true. My wife and I have leftie relatives and having me gone would please them no end.
Fred :
YYYYYEEEESSS!!!! Tell it like it is sir! This one drum that everyone shoul be beating the living h— out of with no end in sight!!!! I also believe that there is a lot of foreign influence involved here, UN, New World Order, Globalization, what ever name you want to give it, it all boils down to lying to the general public to get them on there side and money and power, of course when everything hits the fan all the sheeple will realize that it’s to late and they been turned into mindless slaves and there is not anything they can do about it!
As far as ” by might at arms ” you sir might very well be very correct in that assessment, and in fact as already begun, case in point, SWATing, the Socialist Facist have started using our police against its own citizens! This leads me into a perfect segway into what Mr. Anonymous was saying about his in laws, and while I agree will him that it is ” sad but true ” I to have most of my family members who are die hard members of the Democratic, Socialist Facist, Party that when I grew a brain and got the h— out of Kommunist Korruptifornia 15 teas ago some of, them threatened me and my brother with physical violence and even death, we have not had any form of communication since then. So when I say sympathize I can and do!
I would also go so far to say that the next civil war we have in the U.S. will not be a race war but war against both the politicians who falsely led us into war and against the leftist socialist fascist you can not and will not see the forest for the trees!
Ladies and Gentlemen arm yourselves and standby for what comes next!
I just pray that Gob will forgive us for being….well….stupid.
Fred, I agree !
Unfortunately, this is true. I have had several people who assumed I was left wing (I love tie dye) tell me flat out, in calm voices, that they would like for all of the conservatives in this country to be dead. They were different ages, male and female, different occupations. All liberals. No radicals. Just nice, normal liberals.
Not that they themselves would shoot anyone, of course. But I think they will back any state power that does, as long as it is done neatly, quietly, and out of view.
JW :
Those would be the sheeple I was talking about above in my previous post. I can almost promise you that when the SHTF they will be the ones wondering were they and/or what went wrong with their plans for world domination/globalization because We The People, the Sheepdogs, the Patriots actually give a dam about what happens in this country and that most conservatives have and use common sense and more importantly We Will Fight Back!!!! For now let them eat dirt AND pound sand!!!! Semper Fi!!!!
Sadly, you are correct. For those that don’t believe it, here are two paths to confirm the validity of these assertions:
1. Communist doctrine itself. Read Marx, Lenin’s writings and speeches, historical documents from the COMINTERN (Communist International), which the Soviet Union funded and led with the explicit goal of gaining control of all other nations and peoples.
2. Basic, raw history. Cambodia. Hungary. The Soviet Union itself, including the Katyn Forest and a series of forced starvations in the Ukraine. China — The Cultural Revolution should be better nicknamed The Blood Ran in the Streets Revolution. EVERYWHERE communist regimes have taken hold of the reins of government power, the organs of the state have been organized and directed toward the extinction of ANY dissenting views…and the people holding those views. Check out the FBI infiltrator that got into a Communist front at Columbia University back in, what, 1968 (?); they were figuring out the number of body bags needed to process remains of all the “deplorables” that would have to be executed to cleanse the new state they intended to govern.
I wish it wasn’t true…but it is. Communists believe in One Person – One Vote – but only until the Communists gain power.
I’m with Pop above in that I’m not sure what BG is but I do know B.S.is when I see it and the Southern Poverty Law (yeah right) Center is full of it.
Republicans and Democrats, working together have caused…..
Pick a problem, any problem, in these united States today and put that phrase in front of it. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about racism, the indiscriminate use of SWAT teams, antisemitism, or any other “ism” you can imagine.
The one thing I really don’t get is the use of CCW databases to label someone as a “bad guy” and a danger to others. If you go through all the hoops and permissions necessary to get a CCW or CPL (Michigan), you are by definition one of the GOOD GUYS. You have a clean criminal record, you are not on anybody’s watch list, you have obeyed the law and are a good citizen. Somehow this one just does not compute. And even this lunacy has been caused by Republicans and Democrats working together.
Thank Mr. Rawles for putting a spotlight on a very pertinent topic . I have the great misfortune of having to work is Seattle in a very left leaning environment. To put it bluntly the Left wants you and I dead . They are currently gathering gigs to come at you with Glocks . Anti-Fa is their natural offshoot of activist violence turn into their militia .
When the Rose parade in Portland Oregon was abruptly canceled last year it was because Anti-Fa threatened to pull the Republican group out of the parade and kill them . When the professor was held hostage at Washington’s Evergreen State college it was at the bidding of Anti-fa . Whether it is shooting up congressmen on ball fields or giving a beat down to a senator mowing his lawn or Kathy Griffith severing Trump’s head for laughs this is the left party .
We in Seattle have known this for years so much so that the left is totally out of control . Former Oregon governor Katzenburg called his state “ungovernable” because of the radical left’s militia .
This will not have a pleasant end , so folks please prepare.
Let’s hope they don’t cull the jury pools with their databases. Trial by a jury of peers was the safeguard for many, like Cliven Bundy.
Reading these comments tonight, I can only conclude that we are in much trouble. Sixty-six years of age here, and I’ve never seen the simmering anger and rage as is evident in America today. In the past folks have disagreed, settled, and moved on. Not so anymore, the country is so bitterly divided that I must conclude that 50% of the country hates the other 50%. When half the country hates the other half, well, we know the consequences. And I blame much of this on our former president, Mr. Obama never ever sought to unify, he sought to demonize the opposition and divide. Mr. Obama was smooth and was a master at manipulating the masses, and he succeeded beyond his dreams. The country is now so bitter and divided, that, well, all I can say is to be prepared. I am.
So true
I don’t remember all this hate and race problems before Obama. class and race warfare happened the whole time Obama was President. It just keeps on being played out. Big cities seem to be the main place. Now everyone seems to be after Trump.I don’t think he could do anything to please these people full of hate.
Well with such an emotionally charged subject only one poster used “sheeple” that’s progress.
The soverigns, and I include the Bundys ,are in my viiew, treasonous. They are also stupid people who make up phony laws, phony judges and phony grand juries.
I have read Mr . Rawles and exchanged correspondence with him. I don’t agree with all his opinions but I think he is a good and significant citizen. The SPLC et al can go pound sand. They are a bunch of sheeple. And so are the sovereigns .
Praise Jesus, and pass the ammunition! If the radical left try to kill me, I will send them back to the dust that they were Created from! This brainwashed group is under the influence of the dark powers and when the “light” of the world hits their eyes, they will scatter like the cockroach!
Two recent events from the local, conservative, ‘big city’ in our area:
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article196916289.html
http://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article192244734.html
This is why I planned for 10 years with the bunker. 2 years pre-rapture where things get bad enough to need to take shelter before Christ calls. Then 7 years for tribulation saints to find shelter once we’re gone (hopefully they find it!). And 1 year as Christ’s kingdom becomes established.
People have been waiting patiently for the rapture for at least 2000 years.
Isn’t it Hubris to believe it will come during YOUR lifetime?
It seems very clear that if someone set up an organization and called it “Anticom” and then used Antifa’s tactics on them, they would scream blue murder about unfair treatment…