Enforcing an agenda, not the law. ATF displays tyrannical jackboots again, local butt-boy cops obsequiously polish them and AD Melson cringes.

Ever notice how dog owners resemble their dogs? Austin, Texas police dog demonstrates the fundamental state of the law enforcement universe with an ATF bomb sniffing dog.

ob⋅se⋅qui⋅ous
Pronunciation [uhb-see-kwee-uhs]
–adjective
1. characterized by or showing servile complaisance or deference; fawning: an obsequious bow.
2. servilely compliant or deferential: obsequious servants.
3. obedient; dutiful.

My thanks to Irregular Debo for forwarding the poster below. He writes:

A small firestorm erupted in the gun-owner community in Texas this past weekend. Visitors to the Austin gun show were met with this flier:

Calls to talk shows created a firestorm. Texas firearms forums are outraged that this could happen. Charles Cotton, attorney and head of the Texas State Rifle Association, is investigating. There is nothing illegal which would otherwise prevent selling a firearm person-to-person in Austin, TX without an FFL doing an NICS background check.

Darwin Boedeker, owner and promoter of Texas Gun Shows (http://texasgunshows.net/default.aspx), went on the radio today for more than 2 hours to tell his side of the story about what happened. I'm pasting the show in YouTube radio broadcast segments below.

The Austin PD called Darwin to have a 2 hour meeting last Thursday. The building housing the gun show is owned by Wal-Mart and the primary lease holder is HEB. The HEB employee responsible for that building was there. There were several APD detectives and an ATF agent there. They told Darwin that they would like for him to follow their suggestions, which were to ban firearms sales except through FFLs. The police then threatened Darwin that there were pending investigations into his business for activity over the last 10 years of allegedly allowing sales to ineligible buyers. However, Darwin's business just started operating in Austin after a different company, Saxet Gun Shows, quit putting on shows in Austin. Darwin responded by asking them if they were aware that his company, Texas Gun Shows, is different than Saxet Gun Shows, which is who they were talking about. APD didn't even realize this and were confused for a bit. Then APD put pressure on the HEB representative, and together the APD, ATF and HEB representative told Darwin that he would not be allowed to open the show if he did not follow their recommendations, which were to create the flyer you've seen and ban sales that didn't accompany an NICS check.

APD and the ATF have no statutory authority to threaten Darwin and order him around like they did. Two of Darwin's biggest vendors canceled and he expects attendance to be down by over 50% next month. This guy needs our support. He is a 2nd Amendment supporter and is running a family business. The ATF and APD are basically destroying his business with their unlawful "suggestions". Nothing that he is doing is illegal. He is not charged with any crime, but the police are unlawfully threatening outside a court to literally shut down his business unless he does what they want. He said that he will not be able to stay in business if this continues. If you are around Austin, we need to go to the next show February 20/21 and not let them kill the Austin gun show. If you are not in Texas, be vigilant for the ATF and local police trying to do this in your town.

The police also made a big scene at the gun show to intimidate people. A vendor was placed in handcuffs by APD and lead through the crowd for everyone to see. He was taken outside but was later released and not arrested.

The Alex Jones interview can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-gFyPV3Dw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMc4kptEOvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTC8S6LrzZM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOysmhE8jiI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciBeIf6piNY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9lulja1tTs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byqYad3NlPw

ATF Acting Director Melson, the poor man.

If you can put up with Alex Jones' sometimes factually-challenged ranting here, I urge you to listen to the substance of what Darwin Boedeker has to say about what went down. Orchestrated by ATF agent Daniel Jones (I am trying to find out if this is the same Daniel Jones who used to be SAC in Milwaukee, that is, Jody Keeku's supervisor at the time of the Olofson railroad), this exercise in extortion under color of law was carried out by Jones with APD Sergeant Fleming and Detectives Long, Russell and Vineyard (sp?) there to shine his federal jackboots. Unfortunately, although Boedecker says the gun cops taped the exchange, he did not. Big mistake, although the tape will be evidence subject to discovery -- a fascinating process that the ATF tries to avoid like the bubonic plague.

These uniformed thugs were not there enforcing the law, they were there enforcing an agenda. There will be, one can assume, all manner of blowback from gunnies in Texas and around the country about this travesty. Lawsuits beckon, I would imagine. At the very least, this is one more log on the fire of the prospects for ATF oversight hearings.

One wonders how long AD Melson will last, given this incessant drumbeat of public, private and legal agency idiocies. That forensics classroom has got to be looking mighty attractive to Melson right about now, as it increasingly dawns on him that his job consists of attempting to polish a very large and smelly turd. Indeed, the Augean stables look like child's play compared to the excrement he's being forced to shovel at ATF.

Poor AD Melson. As experienced and legally sophisticated as he thought he was, he didn't realize that he was asked to administer a "law enforcement agency" that is not governed by the law, or regulation, or common sense or even by its Acting Director, but rather by an anti-firearm agenda and the permanent mandarins of the ATF Chief Counsel's Office.

Poor man. Poor, poor man. If you listen carefully, you can hear -- in the background -- the sound of a tiny violin, playing ever-so-sadly.

AD Melson's tiny violin.