Desperate Hours Tick By in Ferguson as FBI Allegedly Thwarts Bomb Plot

In the desperate waning hours leading up to the grand jury verdict in the Michael  Brown shooting case there are multiple stories of ominous developments. School closings have been announced locally for the upcoming week and as reported by multiple news outlets gun sales are way up. There are stories that actual members of the Ferguson Police Department are encouraging citizens to arm themselves as well. 

Increasingly restive protesters are being arrested on a nightly basis again and local police are refusing to rule out the use of tear gas and rubber bullets on the day when the shit hits the fan. But the real indication that things are about to get truly ugly and escalate into Thanksgiving Day riots is the federal government’s dispatching of squads of FBI agents to the St. Louis area.

Things are getting very serious now and news has broken that the FBI has busted two members of the so-called “New Black Panther Party” who were allegedly planning to detonate bombs amid the coming unrest. Reuters reports in a story entitled “FBI arrests two would-be Ferguson bomb suspects: law enforcement source”:

Two men suspected of buying explosives they planned to detonate during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, once a grand jury decides the Michael Brown case, were arrested on Friday and charged with federal firearms offenses, a law enforcement official told Reuters.

Word of the arrests, reported by a number of media outlets Friday, came ahead of the grand jury's widely anticipated decision on whether the white police officer who fatally shot Brown, an unarmed black teenager, should be indicted on criminal charges.

The Aug. 9 slaying of 18-year-old Brown under disputed circumstances became a flashpoint for U.S. racial tensions, triggering weeks of sometimes violent protests in the St. Louis suburb by demonstrators calling for officer Darren Wilson's arrest.

He was instead placed on administrative leave, and Ferguson has been bracing for a new wave of protests, especially if the grand jury chooses not to indict Wilson. An announcement was believed to be imminent.

Against this backdrop of heightened tensions, according to a law enforcement source, two men described as reputed members of a militant group called the New Black Panther Party, were arrested in the St. Louis area in an FBI sting operation.

As initially reported by CBS News, the men were suspected of acquiring explosives for pipe bombs that they planned to set off during protests in Ferguson, according to the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

The foiling of a potential bombing plot really takes this to the next level in that such an act would represent a major escalation and result in a good amount of dead bodies. Then again, given the FBI’s fondness for “sting” operations in which they entrap morons and the mentally ill it could just be more of the same. The feds are rather adept at such setups where they can then swoop in to bust the dupes in order to justify their existence. These type of operations seem to have become common practice, especially in the era of the Global War on Terror (GWOT). So who really knows whether the story is legit or not although there are indeed many outside agitators descending on Ferguson like starved vultures dive bombing a freshly decomposing corpse.

Were actual bombs to be detonated it would give the feds a perfect opportunity to initiate a crackdown on legitimate political dissent nationwide. Such a thing would bode ill for many groups but in particular conservative or more flagrantly right-wing types that are routinely targeted when Democrat presidents are in office. A battered but unbowed Obama would probably like nothing more than to send his various alphabet soup Gestapo forces on a divine mission against domestic “terrorists” and wrap it in the flag. It’s not as though such groups haven't already been singled out by Obama in consideration of the infamous MIAC Report as well as the unleashing of the IRS against tea party affiliated groups. There is also something called the “Ferguson National Response Network” that is planning “events” in over 80 U.S. cities after the grand jury results are announced.

The perfect storm may be about to break in The Homeland.

Pentagon Announces Domestic Emergency Ebola Response Team

Living in the America of the post-September 11, 2001 era one must understand that the answer to pretty much everything is to call in the military. The ongoing wars in the volatile Middle East are one thing but such ideas are beginning to bleed over into the domestic realm. We already have the Pentagon underwriting the militarizing of the American police and the intelligence services working with locals law enforcement to set up Fusion Centers. Now the feds are kicking around the idea of a military response to an Ebola outbreak. Can an excuse for martial law be far behind?

According to a story that just broke on the website of the Los Angeles Times entitled “Pentagon announces Ebola rapid-response team for U.S. cases of virus”:

The Pentagon announced Sunday it is putting together a 30-person rapid-response team that could provide quick medical support to civilian healthcare workers if additional cases of the Ebola virus are diagnosed in the United States.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered U.S. Northern Command Commander Gen. Chuck Jacoby to assemble the team, which was requested by the Department of Health and Human Services, said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby.

The team will consist of 20 critical-care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease, and five trainers in infectious-disease protocols.

"Once formed, team members will be sent to Ft. Sam Houston in Texas for up to seven days of specialized training in infection control and personal protective equipment," Kirby said in a statement. "That training is expected to start within the next week or so and will be provided by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases."

Once the team is trained, they will remain in Texas in a "prepare to deploy" status for 30 days, available to be sent to other U.S. locations as required, he said. The team will not be sent to West Africa, where the Ebola virus is running rampant, or elsewhere overseas.

The creeping cat’s feet of American fascism continue to get louder and the introduction into The Homeland of the Ebola virus may be just that “serious crisis” that Rahm Emanuel would never let go to waste. It really is only a matter of time until an American president crosses the Rubicon and declares a state of martial law - you can bet on it.

The Posse Comitatus Act has pretty much been rendered null and void by the establishment of NORTHCOM several years back. This command ensured that the military would be properly equipped and legally authorized to deal with unspecified domestic issues in a time of national emergency. Whether it will be Obama, Hillary or some Republican upstart the power and ability now exists to implement martial law. Sadly, the public acceptance of it also exists.

Operations in Beantown in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing where militarized police conducted warrantless door to door searches were essentially a live drill for martial law. Now the government is no longer even bothering with the pretense that the troops won’t be called out on American soil when that “serious crisis” arises. It could be Ebola or it could be in Ferguson in a few weeks when a grand jury does not indict right-wing hero and rogue cop Darren Wilson for the murder of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown and the riots start but it’s coming.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower must be rolling in his grave now that his dire warnings of the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex went unheeded and have now become fully realized.

The proverbial camel’s nose is already under the tent if you have bothered to take a good look around.

Investigation Opened After Sadistic Texas Cop Lures and Executes Dog

In yet another sick story of a law enforcement officer shooting a beloved family pet another investigation is being conducted by authorities over an alleged dog murder.  The incident took place back in August in Cleburne, Texas and was captured on video by a police body cam. That video is now going viral on the internet. This particular incident is bizarre in that the shooter was apparently making sounds of a non-threatening and even accommodating nature in order to draw the animal closer before he pulled the trigger.

According to a story from the website of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that is entitled “Cleburne police reviewing officer’s shooting of dog”:

Cleburne police are reviewing an incident involving an officer fatally shooting a pit bull that appeared to be aggressive — an event that was captured on video.

On Aug. 10, police responded to a 911 call from a woman who said that she, along with an elderly woman and a baby, were trapped in their car by several pit bulls.

In a news release issued Friday, two months after the dog was shot, police spokeswoman Kelly Summey said, “The city is obviously concerned about the video showing an officer shooting a dog. As is often the case, the short video does not tell the whole story.”

Summey did not return phone calls late Friday afternoon.

Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said that the video was “bad” and that an internal investigation is underway.

“Obviously, the video is very disturbing, and I am very upset about the video,” he said. “We want to hear the officer’s statement as well as statements from witnesses, but I can assure you that if action needs to be taken, that it will be swift.”

When asked why information was released in October when the shooting took place in August, Cain said, “That is something I would like to know.”

The Cleburne shooting comes on the heels of a recent incident involving Fort Worth Deputy Chief Kenneth Flynn, who faces animal cruelty charges after he shot and killed a German shepherd with his city-issued weapon after the dog killed his cat.

“The officer was using his body camera. The dog was wagging its tail, but we need to look at the dog’s body language,” Cain said.

The dead dog’s owner, like Mayor Cain has questioned that why if the animal was shot in August did an investigation not take place until mid-October? Dallas-Ft. Worth television station WFAA 8 interviewed Amanda Henderson who states  "I see him murdering my puppy, our family... our dog". The likely answer is that the release of the video online made the shooting impossible for the city to ignore any longer.

The cop’s account is that the animal was aggressive but if that were the case couldn’t mace or pepper spray have been used to subdue the animal? Why didn’t the police - with the call being placed specifically over the behavior of the dogs – call in animal control professionals to deal with the situation? In America there are any number of professions where dogs are encountered yet you rarely if ever hear of mailmen, meter readers, appliance repair personnel, leaflet distributors, delivery service employees or pizza carriers opening fire on an animal.

Maybe it’s the uniform and the accompanying allure of being a government enforcer that a percentage of sociopaths and power freaks are drawn to. Such individuals are able to slip through the screening processes and when they inevitably act out cities and counties have a public relations mess and litigation on their hands. Such incidents and worse happen with such frequency now that it is obvious that there is a systemic crisis underway.

The most disturbing aspect is the video itself, where the dog appeared to be lured by the offending cop with kissy sounds and then sent to the great beyond. If that is the case then it is a vile and sadistic act and should result in not only legal action against the City of Cleburne but also disciplinary action against the officer himself.

The phenomenon of cops busting a cap into a furry, four-legged animal is a sign of the times in these days of moral and social decline. This type of behavior coincides with the rise of the American police state after 9/11 and it won't be stopping anytime soon.

This stuff should just not happen in America and fittingly belongs in a banana republic somewhere.

Ebola Victim's "Explosive Diarrhea" May Trigger Dallas State of Emergency

In the aftermath of the news of the latest domestic Ebola victim as well as revelations of  unsanitary procedures at the hospital where Thomas Eric Duncan was treated, Dallas is on the brink of a state of emergency. With 29 year old nurse Amber Vinson now a confirmed case and the probability of more on the way a state of dread is creeping through the DFW Metroplex. Stomach churning details of Duncan’s “explosive diarrhea” and “projectile vomiting” as well as the lack of any sort of suitable protective gear have caused Texas Health Presbyterian hospital to issue a public apology. With the infection of two of the health care workers who aided patient zero in his dying days it isn’t exactly a reach to expect that additional victims are coming soon.

According to a story from The Hill entitled “Dallas might seek emergency declaration”:

Dallas County officials are considering asking Gov. Rick Perry (R) to declare a state of emergency for an area that has reported three cases of Ebola.

The county commissioners will meet Thursday afternoon to weigh the option, the Dallas Morning News reported late Wednesday.

A state of emergency would activate "appropriate recovery and rehabilitation aspects of all applicable local or interjurisdictional emergency management plans," according to state law. 

It would also authorize emergency aid and assistance. Governors typically declare a state of emergency after a natural disaster.

Perry said Wednesday that he is in daily contact with state health leaders as regularly communicating with White House officials.

“This is the first time that our nation has had to deal with a threat such as this," Perry said in a statement Wednesday. "Every relevant agency at the local, state and national levels is working to support these individuals"

Dallas has reported two cases of Ebola since Saturday. Both patients are healthcare workers who had helped treat Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died from the disease last week.

Hospital staffers were not expected to be at risk of contracting the virus and were not being actively monitored by state or federal health officials. One of the nurses also took a flight into a Dallas airport just hours before she was diagnosed.

As for the hospital workers not being expected to get Ebola shows just how clueless local and national authorities are over the virus. The CDC still can’t make up its mind on whether it can be transmitted by air – sneezes etc. – but had better get a clue quickly considering the fact that Vinson flew on a commercial airliner this week. There is an ongoing effort to track down the passengers but they have had days to further spread the virus if they had been affected.

What a state of emergency would look like is anyone’s guess. The Democrat Governor of Connecticut Dannel Malloy has already laid the groundwork for the suspension of civil liberties in his state with his own declaration last week and God only knows what the feds are capable of. A wider geographic area of potential infection could lead to further declarations and even quarantines but thanks to the ongoing war on the Constitution and the militarizing of the police after 9/11 at least we are prepared for martial law if and when the time comes.

President Barack Obama continues to downplay the changes of a more widespread outbreak, calling the risk “very, very low”. This statement is coming from a man with an uncanny ability to lie about damned near everything with a straight face so the best bet is to prepare for the worst.  If there really was nothing to worry about Barry wouldn’t have cancelled his latest fundraising trip weeks before the critical mid-term elections with the fate of the Senate in the balance.

We are now sailing in uncharted waters with morons setting the course so the coming days will be a good time to stock up on hand sanitizer which is already flying off the shelves.

America's Failed Drug War: Georgia Woman Jailed for SpaghettiOs

In another tale of bogus meth madness, Georgia cops arrested and jailed a 23 year old woman because of a suspicion that a residue coated spoon in her car was evidence that she was a drug user. Ashley Gabrielle Huff of Commerce, GA was arrested by Gainesville City police officers during a routine traffic stop after one of the deputy dawgs overreacted in misidentifying the substance on the eating utensil. She was arrested, jailed and then ordered to attend mandatory drug counseling sessions. When she missed a session she was re-arrested and kept in jail for well over a month until the authorities had their Uh Oh SpaghettiOs moment leading to much embarrassment and a likely lawsuit.

Even though the suspected methamphetamine turned out to be one of America's most popular cheap food items, Huff was subjected to a nightmare of legal purgatory of the type that has become commonplace in this once great country. An innocent woman with no criminal record ended up stuck in in jail until  the inept and slower than a glacier crime lab discovered that the mistaken "schedule II substance" was actually dried tomato sauce from a can of Campbell's wonderful pasta treat.

According to the website Police State USA in a story entitled "Woman arrested for possessing spoon covered with dried Spaghettios":

An innocent woman had several months of her life destroyed when she was arrested and charged with a felony because of a spaghetti-encrusted spoon found in her possession.

Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, had no criminal history and insisted that “there’s no way in hell” that there could have been any drugs in her possession during a traffic stop in July. Nonetheless, a Gainesville police officer honed in on a spoon that was “on her or near her” in the vehicle in which she was riding as a passenger.

Suspecting that the spoon had drug residue on it, the officer arrested Ms. Huff and charged her with possession of methamphetamines. Even for trace amounts, the charge of possessing “Schedule II substances” Georgia is punishable by 2-15 years in prison.

After her July 2nd arrest, she spend an unconfirmed number of days in jail before she was released and required to attend a number of obligatory drug appointments. When she was unable to make all the appointments, she was rearrested and made to sit in jail from August 2nd until September 18th.

Ms. Huff insisted that she wasn’t a drug user, but had little means with which to defend herself. She relied on a public defender to represent her in court.

Finally in late September, a crime lab analysis revealed that the “residue” on the spoon was not an illegal drug. It was actually tomato sauce from a can of SpaghettiOs, as the woman had claimed all along.

The internet is replete with tales of cops abusing their power in perverse and violent ways these days but the Georgia incident is just rank stupidity as well as an example of Barney Fife style hayseeds who do not belong in the law enforcement profession.

The drug charges against Huff were dismissed according to the story "Meth charge dropped after only spaghetti sauce found on spoon" from the website of The Gainesville Times:

Drug charges have been dropped against a Commerce woman after crime lab analysis confirmed her claim that a spoon she had in a vehicle leading to her arrest did not contain methamphetamine residue but spaghetti sauce.

Ashley Gabrielle Huff, 23, initially was charged with possession of methamphetamine. She maintained the residue on a spoon was spaghetti sauce, not meth.

After the analysis agreed, the charge was dismissed. She was released from the Hall County Jail on Thursday night.

“I think she said it had been SpaghettiOs,” Hall County assistant public defender Chris van Rossem said.

Huff was arrested July 2 by the Gainesville Police Department, suspected of having meth residue on a spoon, van Rossem said.

“From what I understand, she was a passenger in a car and had a spoon on her, near her, and I guess the officer, for whatever reason, thought there was some residue,” he said.

According to the Hall County Comprehensive Justice Information System, Huff had not been charged with any type of felony or drug-related offense prior to the incident.

“She’s maintained all along that there’s no way in hell that’s any sort of drug residue or anything like that,” van Rossem said.

Attempts to obtain the original arrest report from the Gainesville Police were unsuccessful, and van Rossem was unfamiliar with other details related to the arrest. Gainesville Police spokesman Cpl. Kevin Holbrook said the department would defer to the district attorney’s office.

The story also stated that Huff was to have begun  the "process of a plea deal" which speaks to the rampant form of systemic prosecutorial misconduct that is an offshoot of our vast national for profit prison gulag. Chalk up yet another example of the abysmal failure of the war on drugs. The tale of Huff's bogus arrest and imprisonment is now a national story and will hopefully result in the type of shaming that leads to firings of local officials.

You just can't make shit like this up.

Dispatch from Ferguson: “They’re going to burn the city down”

The unrest is beginning again in Ferguson, Missouri - not that it ever really ended. Following up the shooting of a police officer on Saturday night there were eight people arrested Monday for allegedly throwing rocks and bottles at cops in a protest outside the police station. Despite what should have been a cooling off period after last month's protests/riots over the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, the tension remains and could explode into violence at any time. It is being predicted that the entire thing could blow if the grand jury investigating the shooting exonerates Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown. In an interesting development it was reported that Wilson is now the subject of a second grand jury investigation for alleged brutality during a 2013 drug arrest.

According to a story from the website of the Los Angeles Times entitled "A tense Ferguson fears the worst is yet to come" I excerpt the following:

A tense Ferguson fears the worst is yet to come

Beauty Town has an elaborate video surveillance system that displays 16 angles of the store, but the cameras are better at capturing crime than at preventing it.

The beauty shop has been looted multiple times since a white Ferguson police officer shot an unarmed black man Aug. 9. Last week, during another round of unrest on West Florissant Avenue, a group of young men broke the front windows and raided the shelves and cash register.

Owner Shawn Kim thinks 99% of the people who live around his shop are good people.

For the rest, he’s bought a gun. Just in case.

If the grand jury fails to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown, almost everyone here thinks things will get worse.

“They’re not going to be looting next time,” said Kevin Seltzer, 30, who lives at an apartment complex near where Brown, 18, was shot. “They’re going to burn the city down.”

AND

Tensions rose further Saturday night, when officials said a Ferguson police officer on routine patrol was shot in the arm during a foot chase behind the community center. The unidentified officer was treated and released; the shooter escaped.

A few hours later, not far outside Ferguson’s city limits, an off-duty St. Louis police officer was ambushed on the freeway by one or more gunmen, who shot his car multiple times and escaped, officials said. The officer was injured by broken glass. He was not in uniform and was in his own vehicle; it was unclear whether he was targeted or the victim of a random assault.

Ferguson fears the worst is yet to come, especially if the grand jury does not indict Officer Darren Wilson. A decision is expected in November.

It has been speculated that the grand jury is unlikely to charge Wilson and the objectivity of the group has already been called into question by some.  This sets the table for a conflagration of mayhem and violence of which the August turbulence after Brown's shooting was only a preview. Such a blowup will ultimately be futile, serving only to destroy the property of locals and bring about violence and death as well as to feed the enduring racial resentment in America. There is the question of whether a brutal response by the militarized police will be brought to bear after much criticism over their previous heavy-handed crackdown. This would be a lose-lose situation for all involved and in this writer's personal opinion is unlikely. Some names that come to mind are Rick Perry, Al Sharpton and Ted Cruz. 

There will probably be no choice other than to call out the National Guard to restore order but there is the timing of when the grand jury findings will be announced. The first week in November is when the mid-term elections will be held and with the Democrats fighting pitched battle to hold onto the Senate any ugliness in Ferguson will become yet another political football. Obama will do what he usually does which will be nothing and the resulting vacuum of leadership will rapidly be filled by demagogues and race-baiters of the worst type.

Then there is the outside chance that a failure to charge Wilson will spread beyond the St. Louis area into an ugly explosion of pent up anger nationally. We could very soon have a situation similar to the late 1960's and early 1970's where race riots plagued the country. Mix in the growing discontent with a system gone rotten and it could be the perfect storm.

Strange days indeed.

White House Petitioned to Declare Police Watchdog as Terrorist Group

The ongoing disintegration of what was once a free country into an authoritarian fascist police state under the helm of El Presidente Barack Obama is now evolving. With Barry exercising the divine right of a king in launching yet another war in the Middle East - without the approval of Congress - the forces of government must be free to operate with total impunity in The Homeland. The war on terror which is now well into its second decade has served to restrict civil liberties, enable a criminal government, justify the expansion of a massive surveillance state and transform a good number of our law enforcement personnel into thugs.

Now I am going to be right up front with my standard disclaimer that not all cops are bad. The vast majority are good people tasked with doing a dangerous and thankless job. But there are increasingly more exceptions in the post 9/11 era. The federal government bears a large brunt of the responsibility for encouraging the locals to militarize through the 1033 Program as well the exertion of fed influence through the proliferation of fusion centers.

With the increase in police brutality and misbehavior there has been a corresponding rise in citizens who are fighting back by telling their stories. This certainly doesn't make the government bullies with the badges happy. The logical conclusion to all of the government repression is that political dissent is going to eventually be criminalized. You can already see the early signs. Take for example the Obama regime's use of the IRS to go after groups affiliated with the so-called tea party or the heavy handed crackdown against the Occupy movement. The way that America is headed is best illustrated in the Ridley Scott science fiction classic Blade Runner.

In an early scene, police Captain Bryant makes the retired cop Deckard (played by Harrison Ford), an offer he can’t refuse in order to lure him back into the fold. Deckard appears to ponder it, tosses off the shot of whiskey that he had been poured and gets up. As he turns to leave, stating that he has had enough, Bryant angrily raises his voice barking “Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal! If you’re not cop you’re little people”. Understanding the gravity of Bryant’s words Deckard warily accepts his return to active duty as a replicant killer for one last job. It has come down to a few very basic but pitch black truths in our militarized fascist police state of the post 9/11 ruins of democracy. There are stark dividing lines between that haves and the have nots, there are elitists and peasants, victors and victims, vampires and cattle and cops and little people.

This mentality is evident in a scary story that police watchdog group, Cop Block at copblock.org is being subjected to a petition drive imploring the government to label it as a "terrorist" organization. According to the website Police State USA in a story entitled "Thousands petition White House to consider ‘Cop Block’ a terrorist group":

This week, anti-accountability agents have created an online White House petition to ask President Obama to “Officially label and classify any variation of ‘CopBlock.Org’ members as Domestic Terrorists with DHS.”

The petition alleges that Cop Block — a group which has evolved into a national grassroots network of activists — is “applauding and encouraging violence towards law enforcement officers and their families” as well as “committing terroristic acts by inspiring, inciting, or taking parts in acts that are designed to take human lives in cold blood for political gain.”

The majority of Cop Block affiliates’ tactics involve recording public servants while on duty and bringing awareness to various abuses committed by police around the country. While perceived as annoying to law enforcers, this author knows of no evidence to support the serious claims that Cop Block supports terroristic acts. The petition provides no examples of said behavior.

The petition might be brushed aside as a stunt, but as of this writing (9/22/2014), it has over received over 2,500 signatures. It has also been promoted by several large police advocacy pages, including Law Enforcement Today, which boasts 360,000 fans on Facebook. Its followers include a plethora of official police department pages.

This appears to be an effort to both encourage the federal government to suppress free speech and to demonize activism through baseless accusation.

Were it not for organizations like Cop Block and others there would not have been the appropriate attention paid to this scumbag, or this one, or this one, or this beating, or this dog shooting, or this incident. Groups like this perform a valuable service in shining a light on those cops who have managed to circumvent screening procedures to abuse their power. This not only is a menace to civil society and the traditional duty of the police "to protect and to serve", but such individuals who use their badges as shields to prey on the society only discredit the millions of good cops who are out there laying it on the line every day.

Once the federal government, particularly the tyrannical Obama regime is able to begin to successfully make it fully acceptable to label opponents of the state as "terrorists" there will be no end to it. 

This should serve as a wake up call to everyone who values the last vestiges of liberty.

Small Wyoming County Gets Grenade Launcher from Federal Government

The small rural county of Goshen in Wyoming didn’t take advantage of the U.S. government’s discounted military surplus program to buy an MRAP but they did decide that they wanted a grenade launcher. It must be one heck of a status symbol to have something like that out in the boonies along the Nebraska state line. This is yet one more example of how the feds are contributing to the militarized police madness in America.

As reported by a story on the website of the Casper Star-Tribune entitled “Goshen County buys grenade launcher”:

Three grenade launchers have been moved in and out of the Goshen County Sheriff’s Office in the past 65 years.

Yet not one of the weapons has been used by the county’s deputies.

Sheriff Don Murphy said the county bought its current launcher, which was made by Casper weapons manufacturer Defense Technology, for use in the county jail.

“We would use it in situations when less-lethal force is justified to get the situation under control,” Lt. Jeremy Wardell said. “That tool gives us an option not to use lethal force.”

AND

Wardell called the Defense Technology weapon, a 40mm single-launcher, a “less-lethal” option. He compared using the grenade launcher to utilizing pepper spray or a Taser.

“It’s just another option in that middle area between verbal and lethal force,” Wardell said. “We have the ability to use it in the jail as well.”

Murphy said the launcher would predominantly be used for riot control. If a fight broke out between 16 people in a pod at the jail, a deputy could fire rubber pellets at the ground in front of the brawl to get the attention of the inmates.

Wardell oversees the jail, which currently houses 25 inmates. He said there hasn’t been a large fight there in the past year.

“I’ve worked for the agency for 16 years, and we’ve never had a riot we couldn’t control,” he said.

The sheriff’s office also stocks non-lethal sponge grenades, which provide temporary incapacitation through blunt trauma, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Murphy said the launcher could be used for a long distance shot if deputies wanted to fire a tear gas round into a hostage situation.

Goshen County hasn’t had a hostage situation for at least 15 years, Wardell said.

Goshen County seems to have some sort of particular fetish towards grenade launchers with this one being the third in it's history. The question is that if the previous two were never used then why of all of the things available through the Pentagon military mega-mall that is the 1033 Program would the county choose a grenade launcher. According to the story:

 "Goshen County, population 14,000, is the only county in Wyoming listed by the defense department as having received a grenade launcher from the government.”

Lt. Wardell states that it would give his department the option to use non-lethal force in the event of a jailhouse ruckus but the small local pokey only houses up to 25 inmates. Not only is the jail small enough to not need a grenade launcher to control but has no history of prisoner uprisings.

But it sure must make the local cops feel like their dicks all grew three inches in length. 

Law enforcement authorities in Goshen County, Wyoming need to realize that Red Dawn was just a movie and there is not going to be any foreign invasion let alone a riot or an Ebola virus outbreak there. They must be watching way too much television which is understandable given the remote locale.

You just can’t make stuff like this up.