Utah Fusion Center Warns Cops: Watch Out for Don’t-Tread-on-Me Flags

If you believe in the Constitution and liberty you are considered a terrorist by the Surveillance State and their 2nd responder thugs. I have a Gadsden flag from the Ron Paul campaign in 2008. I guess myself and Ron Paul are terrorists in their eyes.

Via Reason

With LaVoy Finicum’s funeral being held today, Utah police are on the lookout for “armed extremists.” What sort of advice are they getting?

Funeral services will be held today in Kanab, Utah, for LaVoy Finicum, the rancher killed last month during the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. In a bulletin distributed this week to cops across the region, the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center—one of the dozens of intelligence-sharing “fusion centers” around the country that get funds from the Department of Homeland Security—warns that “extremists may utilize such a high profile funeral for media attention or to further ideological beliefs.” Although “no credible threats to law enforcement are present at this time,” the authors still think police should be wary: “Caravans of individuals traveling to the funeral services may be comprised of one or more armed extremists. Law enforcement should remain vigilant and aware that confrontation with these potentially volatile persons, may include more than one individual. These individuals may adhere to a sovereign citizen ideology, and may not recognize law enforcement as a legitimate authority.”

The report includes several “visual indicators” to help police determine whether they’re dealing with “extremist and disaffected individuals.” These range from images associated with specific political groups, such as the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, to a more generic patriotic symbol, the Gadsden flag—a famous Revolutionary War banner featuring a coiled rattlesnake and the slogan “Don’t Tread on Me.” One of the “indicators” is a slightly altered version of a picture popular with fans of the Grateful Dead; the guide does not note this potential source of confusion, describing it only as “common sovereign citizen imagery.”


Although “some or parts of these symbols are representative of patriotic and American revolutionary themes,” the report says, “they are often associated with extremism.” There is little effort to apply even that much nuance to the individual symbols. The Gadsden flag is associated with several political movements, such as the Tea Party protests; it has also been adapted by apolitical subcultures, such as the fans of U.S. Soccer. But the bulletin simply declares that it is “commonly displayed by sovereign citizen extremists.”

One private-sector security professional who received the bulletin worries that it could lead to a kind of profiling. “I work with a young man, 24 years old, three associate’s degrees, volunteer fire fighter, dreams of becoming a police officer,” he says. “He’s also an Armenian-Russian immigrant who just earned his American citizenship. He sports a Gadsden flag on his car because of what it represents in our country’s history.” If a cop sees that car today, the security worker worries, the officer’s “thoughts will automagically flip to profiling him” as a violent extremist.

Mike German, a former FBI agent who infiltrated far-right groups in the 1990s, has a similar objection. “I always try to look at these alerts from the perspective of the police officer on the street,” he says. “What will the officers know after reading this that they didn’t before? Here all they know is to be afraid if they see a Gadsden flag, which could result in an unnecessarily hostile encounter that would increase the chances of violence. There’s nothing here that would help them correctly identify someone who held these beliefs, understand what might trigger hostile reactions, or how to talk to them in a way that would defuse any unnecessary tension.” He also worries that the bulletin “improperly implies holding such beliefs makes them dangerous”; most of the people involved in these movements are nonviolent, he says, and treating them all like budding terrorists just makes a confrontation more likely.

German, who is now based at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, thinks it’s “perfectly reasonable for the fusion center to make law enforcement aware of the situation regarding the Oregon standoff and police shooting, and how the upcoming funeral might make those out-of-state events more pertinent to local enforcement needs and officer safety.” But he feels the report’s approach is “is unhelpful because it is overgeneralized in describing a threat and lacking in any useful advice. It seems almost like CYA, so they can say ‘we warned ’em’ if anything bad happens.”

The Statewide Information and Analysis Center has not responded to my requests for comment. To read the full bulletin, go here.

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rhs jr
rhs jr

Funny, I fell the same way when I see the symbols for FBI, CIA, IRS, EPA, BLM, FEMA, etc.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Those flags and symbols fall under the 1st Amendment guarantee of free speech.

For the most part, they actually originated with our founders who wrote that amendment.

Not that I’d expect the government, the police agencies in particular, to have any respect for that.

kokoda
kokoda

This is a correction to above:

“Caravans of Law Enforcement traveling to the funeral services are comprised of armed Einsatzgruppen. Peaceful citizens should remain vigilant and aware that confrontation with these potentially volatile killers is highly likely.

Thaisleeze
Thaisleeze

Errr….is this the USA or the USSR?

Suzanna
Suzanna

We live in a police state. That is clear.

Stasi basterds!! The heinous murder of LaVoy Finicum

has/is upsetting many people. The law is “worried” because

of their guilt…and they are projecting their feelings on funeral

attendees. It is a battle between good and evil at this point,

and evil has the big guns behind them. No decent person is

going to disrupt a funeral of a fallen good guy!! Only the

rotten false flag ridden bad guys would.

Overthecliff
Overthecliff

Don’t put a target on yourself. Be stealthy.

IndenturedServant

“Symbols are for the symbol minded. —-Geo. Carlin

I had heard of the III% society in the past but largely ignored them after reading about their proposed Citadel Project in my back yard. I’ve learned much more about them over the last year reading Ken Lane’s “Knuckledraggin” website. So called III%’ers are predominantly decent people with their hearts in the right place but they have quite a few petty criminal types and morons among their ranks like the moron that stole a F&W truck to go to town for supplies in the OR standoff.

The III%’ers make loose pledges to help out other III%’ers in need and that’s all well and good. Some of them are currently helping Mike Vanderboegh get his property and affairs in order before he dies of cancer and they do many things like this displaying some of the best parts of American culture. However, many of them hold what I believe is the false belief that they will be traveling the country when TSHTF getting involved in various skirmishes and standoffs like the Bundy Ranch and more recent OR standoff. Many maintain “go-bags” and things to aid in assembling at a moments notice wherever the call may come from. They think of it as planning and prepping for “real world” SHTF situations.

When TSHtF, why would you leave your homes, families a friends to travel elsewhere? Chances are that travel my be restricted by any number of things like govt roadblocks, scarce fuel supplies or even other militia roadblocks. While you’re on the road going to fight someones else’s battles, who will be protecting your interests? As the article says, some of these people travel with their cars all decked out with symbols that TPTB use to ridicule and denounce them as dangerous nuts setting themselves up to be stopped and removed from the fight before arrival.

I’m not a leader OR a follower myself. I march to my own drum and always have so I’m rarely inclined to join organized groups of any kind. I’m also not inclined to wear any kind of advertising on my clothing or bumper stickers of any kind.

IMO, it’s ALWAYS better to keep the bastards guessing than to outright advertise you may be a problem child because it is the oppressors who get to decide who the problem children are……….not you. Just look at the advice being issued by the fusion center in the article above.

The so-called Patriot Movement has a huge amount to learn IMO if they want to have any hope of putting any kind of real fight when TSHTF. They should read The Art of War for one thing but a better start would be to abandon their “symbols” especially after the cluster fuck that was/is the OR standoff. LaVoy died for his own personal beliefs and while that can be admirable I can’t help but think he and his brothers in arms could have done something much more effective without earning the stigma that will now be thrust upon them for all time. Seems like a very poorly executed, waste of time and effort to me and an even greater loss of a very good father in the form of one LaVoy Finnicum.

Suzanna
Suzanna

@Overthecliff

I need a muzzle…stop excessive barking.

I. C.
I. C.

It is time to begin asserting our rights as Sovereign Citizens. Forget the g-man’s intentional phrase of “sovereign citizen extremist” — this is the propagandized version to keep citizens under the police state.

Every one attending Finicum’s funeral should have removed their license plates (temporarily or permanently) and forced their sovereign right of travel. That would have put the g-man over-the-top on how to deal with support/rebellion.

For those who don’t understand the right of travel, here’s a decent piece on it:
http://freedomfromgovernment.org/driver-licensing-vs-right-to-travel/#more-150

flash
flash

Watch out for those dangus’ white Christian domestic turrists’ while turning a blind eye to the mass invasion of stone cold killers.. i.e. stand against tyranny bad…murder for hire…good ,very very good….got it.

comment image

http://constitutionrising.com/archives/25725

The southern border with Mexico remains wide open with violent juvenile future and current gang members being welcomed into the United States with open arms by the Obama regime through their agent of national destruction, DHS Secretary Jihadi Jeh Johnson. Border Patrol Agents are under orders from top management including Johnson not to enforce US immigration laws, to let anyone caught entering the country illegally to do so. Jeh Johnson is committing treason with every violation his subordinates reluctantly allow to take place, with every violation of their oaths of office they are forced to commit.

MS-13 is a bloodthirsty Salvadoran street gang infamous for their level of violence and their savage nature. They are a dangerous criminal organization, one that is being expanded and nurtured through the efforts of Johnson and Obama, much in the same manner as the Obama efforts to expand ISIS.

DHS, Obama and Johnson Importing every type of violent offender onto American soil

Aside from the Islamic component, and the regions of origin, there are few differences in the type of individuals which populate the two groups. Obama and Johnson are quick to take advantage of having a source of domestic terrorists so readily accessible.

As reported by Judicial Watch, a recent bust involving MS-13 was quite revealing:

MickeyMouse

funny thing is that the state of Virginia offers the Gadsen flag as a state issued license plate, with the ‘don’t tread on me’ moniker and everything… so Everyone in VA with that plate would be considered a possible threat…

underfire
underfire

The Gadsen flag was also used by the locals in the Klamath Basin, which straddles the Oregon California border, in response to the Bureau of Reclamation irrigation water cutoff to Klamath Project farmers in 2001. I was involved in that issue, and came to view that flag as a joke. The govt. is truly the gorilla in the room.

I came to believe in a couple things, breaking from the local consensus. One, that in the interim, a head on assault against the govt. is futile, and that in this instance staking out a defensible position with the hope to live to fight another day was going to be the best that could be done. This was in large part due the realization that the US govt is surrounded miles deep by those of different interests all clamoring for “theirs”.

Secondly, it’s all about who can pull for theirs the most effectively, which usually means money. Of course the end result of that is the hijacking and failure of this country.

Sovereign Citizen

Sovereign Citizen is an oxy moron. You can tell its made up by the media because the word literally contradicts itself. No one claims to be apart of this movement. Its just a way for the media to make freedom loving people look evil. Its a smear campaign against real freedom. Sovereign means king whereas citizen means subject. Its literally an oxymoron. Contradiction and proof of propaganda in America.

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