ATF Lies To A Judge, Gets Search Warrant And Goes After Customer Lists (Which Was NOT Part Of The Warrant.) Another Police Power Abuse!

2nd Amendment / Gun Control / Surveillance & Privacy

Feds Now Collecting the Names of Gun Part Buyers

On March 15, the ATF broke into four different Ares Armor stores in San Diego, California. The ATF claimed the purpose of the raid was due to the sale of AR-15 lowers. TeaParty.org reports:

Federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided four Ares Armor gun-parts stores in San Diego over the weekend and now criticism is being lobbed that the primary purpose was to collect the names and addresses of customers, reported WND.

According to San Diego’s KSWB-TV, although there was a temporary restraining order in place, the ATF agents obtained a search warrant by privately going to a judge and claiming that it was investigating alleged violations of federal firearms laws stemming from the sale of a new plastic version of the 80 percent lowers of AR-15 rifles.

As the TV report explained, building a rifle with specific versions of the 80 percent receivers is legal, however, the ATF claims the polymer lower receiver appears to be manufactured differently with two parts. According to the ATF that makes them a firearm and illegal to sell.

Here’s the video of the ATF raid in National City, California:

What makes this story so unusual is that Ares Executive Officer Dimitrios Karras has been cooperating with authorities from the beginning.

As soon as the legality of the polymer lower receivers was called into question, Karras locked them up to prevent any illegal sales.

Furthermore, he offered to turn over all the parts in question to the ATF until such time as a resolution could be reached. Based on the ATF’s initial justification for the raid, you would think they would have accepted this offer, but they did not.

So if the ATF was not really interested in the polymer lower receivers, then why did they raid the Ares Armor stores?

When federal ATF agents raided [Karras's] stores, agents demanded the lists and confiscated computers, which may hold records, he said.

“I offered to give them keys to the room [containing] the product,” Karras said. “They didn’t want that. They wanted the customer list.”

“Outrageous,” said Michael Hammond of Gun Owners of America about the San Diego raid.

“Obviously, the ATF could have gotten the parts if it wanted them. What it wanted was the customer list,” said Hammond.

In this day and age of government overreach, police brutality, and unconstitutional searches and seizures, customers of Ares Armor have a real reason to be concerned.

A local Fox affiliate reported one customer who said, “I’m on that list, and I’m waiting for the knock on the door to tell me they are here to remove my Second Amendment rights.”

More Of The Same--Police On A Rampage! When Police Cannot Be Trusted--Civil Society On The Edge

Police State: Watch Iowa Cops Go SWAT On Family Home During Fruitless Warrant Raid

February 6, 2014 by Ben Bullard 

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An Iowa family is confused and angry in the wake of a recent brush with America’s highly evolved military police, who executed a search warrant on their home by suiting up a dozen officers in tactical gear, battering down the door and generally treating everyone as though violence was an expected outcome. The police were looking for someone who had used a credit card to fraudulently buy stuff. They found nothing like that.

Thankfully, a surveillance video captured a significant portion of the raid. It doesn’t bear out the cops’ claim that they knocked on the door and gave homeowner Sally Prince adequate time to open it. It does show a cop destroying one closed-circuit security camera outside, and another attempting to cover up a camera inside the house.

Iowa’s WHO-TV reported on the shock raid Monday, including plenty of surveillance video that clearly illustrates the extent of the SWAT-style overkill.

“Sally Prince is afraid to stay in her Des Moines home,” reported the station’s Aaron Brilbeck. “She isn’t afraid of burglars breaking in — she’s afraid of the police.”

“I’ve been so traumatized. I don’t sleep at night,” Prince says.

On Thursday, Ankeny police executed a search warrant looking for someone they suspected of using stolen credit cards to buy clothes and electronics.

The whole search was caught on surveillance video.

Ankeny police tell us they knocked first, but the video shows one officer pounding on the side of the house and seconds later, officers use a battering ram to force their way in.

The video also shows an officer destroying a security camera outside the home.

Two people in the house were arrested on unrelated charges, and the family says none of the items listed on the warrant were [sic] found.

The raid, although conducted by police from the town of Ankeny, took place at a home inside the Des Moines police jurisdiction “because the alleged theft took place in Ankeny, but the suspects live in Des Moines.”

Ankeny police captain Makai Echer said the squad made a tactical decision to use force to gain entry because the department believed the occupants’ criminal records justified it. Here’sWHO-TV’s report on the occupants’ criminal past:

Monday, we reported one of the four people listed, Richard Forestier Adair, had no real criminal record.  But the name on the warrant is apparently wrong. Adair’s middle name is Foster and he does have a long criminal record but very few violent arrests. Adair has two assault convictions about 14 years ago and a domestic assault conviction in 2002.

A police spokeswoman also said officers believed there was a gun in the home.  The man [Justin Ross] who lives there, who does not have a criminal record, does have a weapons permit.

Ross, Prince’s son, was in the bathroom and was legally armed at the time. A cop kicked the door once; it didn’t open. He got it on the second try. The time between those two kicks may have made the difference between Ross living and dying, because he realized the situation as the cop was kicking away, and went from a defensive stance, with his weapon drawn, to a submissive one.

“I stood up; I drew my weapon; I started to get myself together to come out the door,” explained Ross. “I heard somebody out in the main room say ‘police’ — and I re-holstered my weapon, I sat back down and I put my hands in my lap.”

If he hadn’t quickly holstered his gun, said Ross, “I would’ve been standing there with my weapon drawn, pointed at the doorway, and they probably would’ve shot me.”

“This was over… property purchased with a stolen credit card,” said Prince. “It doesn’t make any sense that they would go to such extremes for something that simple.”

The search yielded nothing named in the search warrant. Two people living in the house, Miranda Scigliano and Richard Adair, were arrested on unrelated charges. Scigliano was taken in for probation violation; Adair for possession of drugs with intent to deliver.

Child Protective Services Using Storm Trooper Tactics

It appears as if Child Protective Services (CPS) can employ the police to break into your home, take your child and then avoid talking to the press due to "privacy" concerns. The following case occurred in California, however, in March in New Jersey, the CPS department took away a child after his parents posted a picture of him holding a gun. (See Conservative Musings, March 21, 2013, "Tyrannical New Jersey.)

In both case, CPS barged in with the assistance of police and took away the child. It appears as if in neither case was the child abused.  We are hopeful that the case in California will have a happy outcome at the hearing today.

When a government agency can stomp all over the Constitutionally guaranteed rights (no search warrants for example) of a parent, there is a big problem.  As far as we are concerned neither couple did anything wrong and everything they did was in the best interests of the child.  Whereas there are drugged babies that are placed back with their drugged out mom because "it is best for the baby" by the same CPS departments. This does not make any sense.

Yes, we understand that the Constitution gets in the way of doing their job, however, as we understand that musty old document, that is the reason we have those rights.  Government bureaucrats make mistakes and having to jump the hurdle of getting a search warrant might illuminate their error.

It is time that we get back to the Constitution!

Conservative Tom

‘I’M GOING TO GRAB YOUR BABY, AND DON’T RESIST’: COPS BARGE INTO CALI. PARENTS’ HOME, TAKE THEIR BABY AFTER THEY SEEK 2ND MEDICAL OPINION — AND IT’S ON VIDEO

Apr. 29, 2013 1:30pm Erica Ritz

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Anna and Alex Nikolayev with their baby, Sammy. (Photo: Facebook/Bring Sammy Home)

A California couple had their five-month-old baby “snatched” by police after they took the infant to get a second opinion on a medical procedure, they claim. 

Anna and Alex Nikolayev are described as loving parents who took their baby, who has a heart murmur, to Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento when he started exhibiting flu-like symptoms.  The family has undergone plenty of doctor visits in the last five months for the their son’s heart, and were unsettled by the treatment he was receiving. 

At one point, Anna says, a nurse came in and started giving the baby, named Sammy, medicine.  When she asked what it was the nurse allegedly replied, “I don’t know.”

“I’m like, you’re working as a nurse, and you don’t even know what to give to my baby…?” Annasaid in an interview with ABC’s local affiliate, News10/KXTV. 

They later found out that medicine was antibiotics, which Anna claims the doctor told her Sammy shouldn’t have received. 

After doctors started discussing heart surgery, the Nikolayevs decided they wanted a second opinion.  They weren’t categorically opposed to the procedure, but they wanted a different doctor. 

“If we got the one mistake after another, I don’t want to have my baby have surgery in the hospital where I don’t feel safe,” Anna explained. 

Anna Nikolayev and her son Sammy. (Photo via News10/KXTV)

(Photo via News10/KXTV)

The doctors at Sutter Memorial allegedly argued against consulting other health experts, pressuring her to stay put. Anna remained firm.  She took her baby from the hospital without a proper discharge, and went straight to Kaiser Permanente Hospital. 

Doctors there said the baby was safe to go home with his parents, one writing in the paperwork: “I do not have concern for the safety of the child at home with his parents.”

But while they were at the hospital, police showed up. 

“They told us that Sutter was telling them so much bad stuff that they thought that this baby is dying on our arms,” Anna recalled.  But when police saw the doctor’s evaluation, Anna says they said, “Okay guys, you have a good day,” and left. 

But the family wasn’t at peace for long. 

The next day police showed up at the Nikolayev’s home with representatives from Child Protective Services (CPS).  Alex went outside to meet them, where he says he was “pushed against the building.”  When he asked if he was being placed under arrest, he said they “smacked me down onto the ground [and] yelled out, ‘I think I got the keys to the house.’”

Seeing the scene outside, Anna set up a camera in front of her door. 

Video shows police letting themselves in without a warrant, and taking the baby. 

“I’m going to grab your baby, and don’t resist, and don’t fight me okay?” one officer can be heard telling the mother in the video.

Anna described it with tears in her eyes: “He’s like, ‘okay let your son go,’ so I had to let him go, and he grabbed my arm, so I couldn’t take Sammy.  And they took Sammy, and they just walked away.” 

Anna Nikolayev set up a camera before police came in. (Photo via News10/KXTV)

News10 has video of the incident in its report (there’s also an interview with the family):

A number of news agencies have reached out to police, the hospital, and child protective services, but none has spoken out on the issue.  News10, which has worked on the story at length, says police and the hospital both referred questions to Child Protective Services, which said it can’t comment on specific cases because of privacy laws. 

Anna says she was told by a CPS worker that her baby was taken because of “severe neglect.”

The couple can’t believe the rationale, saying: “We did everything…We went from one hospital to another. We just wanted to be safe, that he is in good hands.”

“It seems like parents have no rights whatsoever,” Alex said.  Originally from Russia, he said the situation reminds him of a “communist regime.”

The couple’s attorney, Joe Weinberger, remarked: “It’s absolutely amazing to me how a government can reach out and snatch a child after a doctor said there’s not an issue…As we’ve seen, there is no emergency situation in this case…I can’t imagine having my baby ripped from my arms.”

He acknowledges that the couple erred in taking their baby from Sutter Memorial without a proper discharge, but it has now been roughly two weeks since the situation began.  Anna says she was able to visit her baby for an hour last Thursday. 

A court date has been scheduled for today, Monday April 29.  TheBlaze will keep you posted as the story develops.