The Town the Militia Took Over

[WilliamPitt]

The Town the Militia Took Over
By Josh Horwitz, Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

The Huffington Post
02 August 2013

"You know why there's not more residents here? The threats. That's why. Because they're afraid. They're afraid they're going to have their windows shot out." - Lifelong Gilberton resident Rose McCarthy speaking about Police Chief Mark Kessler and his supporters on July 31, 2013

National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre once famously told a CPAC gathering that "the guys with the guns make the rules." In the town of Gilberton, Pennsylvania, he might have finally found the perfect test case for his insane vision of America.

What is happening in Gilberton should be a warning to all those who value our basic, inalienable rights to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The story there centers around Police Chief Mark Kessler, who drew attention by posting a series of profanity-laced videos to YouTube in which he attacks "libtards," fires fully automatic assault weapons, and threatens, "If you f***ing maniacs want to turn this into an armed revolt, knock yourselves out."

This is no idle threat the chief is making. Kessler is the head of a private militia called the Constitution Security Force (CSF) whose members swear an oath to "respond to the call if... needed to resist tyranny that seeks to destroy our republic." Kessler recruits CSF members at his website ChiefKessler.com, combining his personal and professional identities in one neat little package.

CSF openly affiliates with anti-government extremist groups like Oath Keepers and the "Three Percent" movement, which was founded by former Alabama militia leader Mike Vanderboegh. Vanderboegh made his own headlines in 2010 when he urged supporters to throw bricks through the windows of Democratic offices nationwide following Congress' passage of health care reform. Many offices were vandalized in response, including that of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

The rest: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-horwitz/the-town-the-militia-took_b_3694293.html

[phantom power]

1. "Too many of our leaders have indulged insurrectionists as if they were bullying in-laws"

These people are fucking thugs.

[PM Martin]

2. Why is Kessler allowed to have this job?

He should be fired and barred from any law enforcement activity.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I signed the petition. Do you think I'm safe 1200 miles away?

[starroute]

7. I'm only 50 miles away

Not a happy camper.

[rdharma]

4. You'll be surprised to know that Kessler is a "birther"........

..... and a big fan of Joe Arpaio.

[PM Martin]

5. Say it isn't so! Another racist teabagger!?!

We were told the tea party had nothing to do with the race of the President.

[Saviolo]

13. Haven't you heard?

Racism is -over- because there's a black president!

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Pennsylvania’s Screaming Parody Of A Wingnut Police Chief Now Too Radical For ‘Oath Keepers’

So you remember that charming young man, Mark Kessler, the police chief for Gilberton, Pennsylvania? He’s the guy who wants to “cleanse” America of all the enemies of liberty, like libtards who all “take it in the ass.” He also posted a video where he shot up targets that he labeled “Nancy Pelosi” and “John Kerry” and so on, but he also says he’s not in favor of armed rebellion, at least not just yet. That guy. Well since we are in the mood today for updates, how about an update on Chief Asshat? Yes, please, Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald, we would read that! We bet this guy just has a million wingnut supporters coming out of the woodwork…

Meanwhile, a group of pro-gun law enforcement and military officials with whom Kessler has aligned himself say they want nothing to do with the chief. “Chief Kessler is not working with Oath Keepers, nor is Oath Keepers working with him,” Elias Alias, who sits on the Oath Keeper’s board of directors, said in an email to Salon.

http://wonkette.com/524058/pennsylvanias-screaming-parody-of-a-wingnut-police-chief-now-too-radical-for-oath-keepers

[rdharma]

8. Kessler had his krazy krew surrounding the council meeting .... with guns!

Check this out! http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/video-making_gilberton_police.html

[Matariki]

12. Those are some seriously evil looking human beings

Seriously. They look like stock villainous character actors.

[Nevernose]

17. I see something totally different

I see a bunch of wusses, wrapped up in their own insecurity that they don't even know that they're insecure, and posing & posturing to seem tougher.

They seem eerily like my many of my high school students. It's like they've physically aged, but mentally they're a bunch of scared, irrational children.

[Aerows]

19. Half of them are probably federal agents

infiltrating the group. A quarter of them are reporters and one seventh of them are trying to figure out what the hell is going on with whoever goes there. The rest are nut jobs, but the ones there to figure out who are the nut jobs can't figure it out because they are sanctioned nut jobs.

[theHandpuppet]

9. Good article but scary as hell

I've always felt these domestic terror groups were much more dangerous to this country than any outside force.

[rdharma]

10. Kessler followers showed up at council meeting with guns!

[muntrv]

20. Where are their brown shirts?

[Matariki]

11. I wouldn't complain if the FBI were reading these fuckers' emails

with a warrant of course. In fact, they had better be...

[Fla Dem]

14. Very, very small township NE of Philadelphia. Ripe for RW militia to take over.

Gilberton is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, four miles west by south of Mahanoy City.

Extensive deposits of coal are in the region, and coal-mining had been practiced by many of the 4,373 people who lived there in 1900.

Population: 765 (2011)

1.5 sq miles (3.885 km)

Looking at Bing Maps, it looks like most of the 1.5 square miles is covered with coal sludge.

[KrazyinKS]

15. These guys are scary...

I remember the news just after the OK city bombing. The talk on the local news was blaming it on "foreigners" or Islamic radicals. I remember saying out loud to be careful, it could very well be a white US citizen, as it turns out I was right. Someone is going to have to refresh my memory. Was it the FBI that put out a list of dangerous groups and it was folks like the above names that topped the list?

[MisterP]

16. Loving County, TX, too

"Dueling, Gambling, Incest, Price-Gouging, Cannibalism, and Drug Handling ... Drug Trafficking, Prostitution, Obscenity, Organ Trafficking" (and also plain gunrunning and money laundering)
and they can't come back or the Sheriff'll take them

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Why we have a constitution: "The guys with the guns make the rules":

We have a constitution so that the guys with the guns DO NOT make the rules.

The People employ a police force to enforce their rules, not the gun owner rules or thug rules or bully rules.

[PM Martin]

21. +1