A Great Warrior is Layed to Rest (Part 1 of 4)

By Rick Dalton

 

Jack McLamb has passed away.  11 January 2014 was his last day in this life, and his first day in the next life.  Gerald J. “Jack” Mclamb has been described in various ways by many leaders in the Freedom struggle.  Sheriff Richard Mack, of CSPOA lauded Jack as a longtime mentor and "the original Oathkeeper (see Oathkeepers.org.  See that post here. 

 Pastor Chuck Baldwin calls him “Another Moses”.  His wonderful tribute to Jack can be found here.  

So many people loved and respected Jack McLamb.  This is because he was a man full of love, love for his family, his fellow man, his Savior, his profession as a true peace officer, and his country.  You may ask how I can say that.  It's not from simply reading those tributes of others.  This writer has been blessed to know Jack McLamb in a personal way for over thirty years.  Yes, I am an eye witness to greatness. 

In 1980, with just two years on as a member of the Mesa, Arizona Police Department, I was so excited to be on a team of dedicated people who wanted to serve their community and be peacemakers.  The oath we all took was meaningful to me, and my service style -was going to be just like the words on the doors of every patrol car in the fleet, “To Protect and Serve”.  But I didn’t realize that there was a struggle going on, even back then, to maintain that hallowed philosophy for future generations.                                                                            Jack was a candle in a dark world

The regional police academy in Phoenix was hard and rewarding, and I remember two instructors in particular.  The first, I only remember by his look – tall and thin with curly hair almost in an afro style – and the striking sentence he uttered early in his lecture.  He said distinctly “the Communist/Socialist  conspiracy is alive and well in the United States of America”.  That surprised me.  I'm not surprised any more.

The second was Captain Bennie Click, of Phoenix PD, who later rose to assistant chief, and then chief of the Dallas, Texas  Police Department.  Capt. Click would occasionally accompany us on our seven and a half mile runs, and often gave advice to my class of recruits.  He told us that the most important attributes of a good police officer were character and integrity.  I would soon see those attributes on full display in Jack Mclamb’s professional and personal life.

I first became aware of Jack Mclamb when I turned on a local public affairs television program.  This was in December of 1980.  He was being interviewed about his recently published booklet “A Lawman Speaks for Liberty”.  As you might have noticed, this is the title of the blog you are reading.  I  humbly have borrowed it as a small way to help carry on Jack’s legacy. 

That little tract, eight pages or so in length, was so inspirational and powerful to me, that I had to meet this cop who wrote it.  I called the TV station and demanded to get his address and phone number.  Of course they refused, but they did take my information and gave it to Jack.  When he called I immediately sensed the kindness in his voice.  Here was this imposing figure I had seen on TV with a gentleness that seemed unlike the stereotypical tough-guy police officer.  He invited me to visit him at his home in South Phoenix and I made the trip a day or two later.  As we sat in his living room and talked,  I was impressed by his candor, humility, and direct manner of speaking.  I knew that he meant what he said in the booklet.  After talking a while about the Constitution and the sacred nature of the oath that we took he reminded me about the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics.  This is the original one he and I promised to uphold.  It was a sort of oath of office.  The closing statement says:  "I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before to God to my chosen profession...law enforcement."  And Jack reminded me that as I left the briefing room each day, and headed out to my beat, God was watching me, and every peace officer.  That is the kind of man he was.

This code of ethics has been changed in today's world, and, as you might have guessed, that part that mentions God has been removed.  Instead of an oath, it's now just a statement of "ethics", and in our modern times, we now have "situational ethics".

After a while, he said, "Rick, come with me.  I want to show you something in the bathroom."  Needless to say I was a little surprised and perplexed, but I got up and followed him.  Once in the bathroom, he pointed to the bathtub, with it's closed shower curtain, and said "check this out", whereupon he slid open the screen, and introduced me to Ally Oop, a 5-foot alligator of the live variety.  Just as I gasped to see such an unlikely scene, the monster gave out a loud hiss and heaved himself halfway out of the tub, water spilling all over the floor.  Jack was standing between me and Ally Oop, I'm sure it was intentional, and pushed him back with a broom handle.  [TO BE CONTINUED]

It's Time for Law Enforcement to copy Walmart

By Rick Dalton

Rollback

Yes, just like the famous price "rollback" that has endeared the world's largest retailer to customers nationwide, it's time for America's law enforcement community to take a serious look at the disturbing - and deadly - trend of militarization, and to roll it back.

                                                                Sheriff's or Soldiers?

With an increasingly  frantic pace, the number of paramilitary raids on American citizens by militarized civilian law enforcement personnel has skyrocketed from about 3,000 in 1985 to more than 40,000 annually today. (source: Cato Institute).  Some estimates are as high as 80,000.

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf

These operations, which have resulted in innocent and unnecessary injuries and deaths to civilians and police as well, increasingly employ what is clearly overkill.  The use of excessive force is becoming more common, and in an alarming number of cases, the wrong suspects are targeted.

Military Hardware

The idea of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) came about in the 1960s in Los Angeles, and with increasing sophistication of criminal gangs and other like organizations, there is some justification when the suspects of the service of an arrest or search warrant are known known to be violent and to possess weapons.  But is there a need for over $500 million in military equipment - tanks, APCs, etc. -  to be transferred to civilian law enforcement in only one year (2011)?

Violence potential

Many of the raids being conducted, too often with tragic results, are to serve narcotics warrants, and manuy of the suspects are non-violent offenders, living with their families, including children.

                                         Citizens were subjected to military urban warfare tactics

                                         during the hunt for the Boston Bombing suspects.

Our first responders

The Alligator is Too Big for the Bathtub

by

Rick Dalton

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.  And to the Social Democracy for which it stands.

Did you notice anything different in this portion of our pledge that is recited in fewer and fewer schools each year?  One word was replaced by two.  One term by another.  So, as Hillary famously said at the congressional hearings on the Benghazi cover-up, "What difference does it make?"

I guess it makes a difference to Professor Lane Kenworthy, of the University of Arizona.  His newly released book Social Democratic America, (Oxford University Press) makes the case that America is, or should become a social democratic nation. In chapter one of his book, Kenworthy lists some problems America faces: 

"..too few ordinary Americans have adequate economic security, too few who grow up in disadvantaged circumstances are able to reach the middle class, and too few have seen their boat lifted when the economic tide rises". Kenworthy, Lane (2013-11-16). Social Democratic America (p. 1). Oxford University Press, USA. Kindle Edition.

So what is the key to a solution for these problems, according to Professor Kenworthy?

"The key to a solution? Government social programs." Ibid.

Government. Social programs.  So this is democracy according to Kenworthy?  The answer to our problems is government, more government, bigger government.  Those words might as well have been written by Barack Obama.  The ideas have failed wherever and whenever they have been tried.

Types of Government

We often hear the word democracy used to describe our form of government, but do we really think about it? Did you immediately think of the original term in the Pledge?

REPUBLIC.

That’s what America was when the writers of the U.S. Constitution emerged from the deliberations of that long hot summer in Philadelphia in 1787.  In fact, a woman actually asked Benjamin Franklin what the Framers had given to “We The People”.  His reply was “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

A republic is a system of elected representatives using elements of majority rule, but with the guarantee of minority rights.

 A democracy is basically rule by the majority.  It hasn’t brought freedom, prosperity and peace – the three basic yearnings of mankind – anywhere it has been used as  form of government.  Franklin said democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.  That’s why the Framers specifically rejected it.

A social democracy is something entirely different from these two terms.

.

so·cial de·moc·ra·cy

noun

1.    1.

a socialist system of government achieved by democratic means.  (source: Wikipedia)

 /socialism‎  a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled

  by the government rather than by individual people and companies .." (Webster's Dictionary)

Many of the socialist nations of Europe, for example, are social democracies. (For the best brief and clear analysis of the basic types of government in the world, click here.)

So What's in Our Future?

A new article by Kenworthy (pictured at left) predicts how the U.S. will be in the future.  The article appears in the January/February 2014 issue of Foreign Affairs, the main publication of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  Read the entire article by clicking here.  He says:

    "Over the past century, the United States, like other rich         nations, has created a number of public insurance                   programs. But to achieve genuine economic security,          equal opportunity, and shared prosperity in the new                economy, over the course of the next half century, the          federal government will need to greatly expand the range      and scope of its existing social insurance programs and        introduce new programs." (Foreign Affairs, p. 94)

 Equal opportunity, genuine economic security, and shared prosperity?  All this equality is going to come directly from the government?  Everyone will have a guaranteed income, government provided "public sickness insurance" and equality with everyone else?  Impossible without destroying liberty, property rights, and other Constitutional rights.

Now we get to the Alligator

I bet you thought I would never get to the alligator.  Jack McLamb, retired Phoenix Police officer and freedom warrior par excellence, is one of my heroes.  I met him in 1980 when I read a pamphlet he wrote entitled A Lawman Speaks for Liberty.  Yes, it's his title that I have placed at the head of this blog.  Anyway, the first time I visited him at his Phoenix home, he showed me something in his bathtub.  It was Alley Oop, his five-foot alligator that he previously used in his Officer Friendly presentations at elementary schools.  This monster was now too big to take into schools, and so he kept him in the tub!  As Jack pulled back the shower curtain, Alley Oop hissed and jumped halfway out of the tub.

Latest news:  Jack McLamb passed away yesterday after a battle with a degenerative disease.  My next post will be a tribute to my friend, brother and hero.

Jokingly Jack said "that's the problem with alligators.  You feed them and they get bigger. He's way too big for the bathtub.  Pretty soon he's gonna hurt somebody and I'm gonna have to cage him up or kill him."

Well, that's our problem in America today.  The alligator in the tub is the federal government, and to some degree the state governments.  Because we have fed it, it has grown larger than even the "cage" called the Constitution.  The chains spoken of by Jefferson have been broken and only We the People can repair them.  We must return to limited government in a republic.

The Council on Foreign Relations and Lane Kenworthy, along with many other socialist professors, or so it appears, are pushing for a bigger prize:  equality of nations.  The standard of living of the US and other so-called rich nations must reduced so that we can be comfortably be merged into a one-world government, which will trample on our liberties and reduce each individual (except the privileged few who administer this social democracy) to a minute cog in the machinery of socialism.  Is that what you want?  If not, what are you doing about it?  Kenworthy proclaims in his book that we, who oppose statism and support individual liberty are "fighting a losing battle".

Are you going to be just another sheep eaten by the wolves and alligators, or are we going to get us some alligator shoes?  The next post will outline concrete things you can do to increase freedom in America.

FRDMWRX