The article shown above is well worth reading (link). It is about a man named Ian Rogers. The article, by Mike Spies1, was published on the anti-gun violence website The Trace and also in Rolling Stone. It prompted this blowback on a the website Bearing Arms: Rolling Stone Unintentionally Gives Masterclass In Media Bias.
Here’s how Spies’ article begins:
By November 3, 2020, the day of the presidential election, 44-year-old Ian Rogers had been preparing for the implosion of American civilization for so long that it seemed like a foregone conclusion. He could see the coded signals, the power-grabbing, and he was confident it would all culminate in the Democratic Party stealing the White House for Joe Biden and establishing a police state. Rogers, who had spent most of his life in California’s wine country, where he owned a car repair shop, expected to lose cherished freedoms — in particular, gun rights. A feeling of profound, imminent loss had settled over him. If armed resistance became necessary, Rogers considered himself a man of action. When the election results came in, he decided it was time to move.
Between November 25, 2020, some two weeks after most news organizations declared a Democratic victory, and January 13, 2021, court records show Rogers initiated a series of domestic terrorism planning sessions with his best friend, 37-year-old Jarrod Copeland. Over text message, they discussed how to carry out an attack against institutions they saw as liberal. Among the targets discussed were Twitter and Facebook, both of which had recently banned Donald Trump; the California governor’s mansion, inhabited by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom; and the Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento.
I’ve been thinking about Trump’s Amazing Alligator Alcatraz. Even though it could be the name of an amusment venue, it is a far cry from being a Florida theme park with thrill rides, unless you consider making taking a journey through the Everglade swamps to be thrilling. (In fact, the Alligator Alcatraz would not be impossible to escape from. Click here: 2
Trump, of course, wants you to believe his ICE thugs have a dangerous job rounding up people who would like nothing better than sneaking up behind you with a baseball bat and bashing your head in. In case you missed it, this is what he said:
Trump, if you recall, has an affinity for baseball bats being used to threaten people Read article:
Trump seems to feel baseball bats are an extension of his manhood:
But I digress…
There are thousands of people who are like Ian Rogers. They are White ideologues who may be loners or may belong to far right groups. Some may be apolitical people who unleash their personal demons and become mass shooters. After a shooting it is frequently revealed that many of them them telegraphed their violent intentions on social media.
It is, or ought to be, the role of law enforcement to try to find these people before they kill anybody. If they do locate them, consider what’s more dangerous for law enforcement personnel, arresting immigrants, even those who may appear to have gang tattoos, or arresting these well armed people. Many of the latter group not only have an arsenal of weapons which they practiced using, but they have fantasies about getting in shootouts with the police.
Ian Rogers was arrested in 2017 without violence. He plead guilty to conspiracy and illegal weapons possession and received a nine-year prison sentence. This was before he could act on threats like the following: I think I’ll do a drive by and unload a couple drums into that commie building. He was referring to the Democratic Party’s headquarters in Sacramento.
Rogers was not a major right-wing militia member, but he did have an affiliation with the 3 Percenters. Below is from from the article:
Trump won the election, and around then Rogers joined an offshoot of the Three Percenters, which he later told police was “basically a prepper group” that interacted on Facebook, held weekly phone meetings, conducted field-training exercises, and hosted barbecues. Rogers told investigators that he’d tried to join the official militia, applying through its website, but never heard back.
This is just one person. How many others more or less like him are there? I venture to guess thousands. Some, as I write this, may be actively plotting to commit acts of violence.
It would be a far better use of law enforcement resources to go after them.
Alas, I doubt that very many people, except those in the pre-Trump and Kash Patel FBI assigned to anti-domestic terrorism, have the ability to do this.
Let’s not forget who David Fugate is (see Wikipedia). Trivia points if you guessed this before reading further.
Read this and weep:
Thomas C. Fugate III (born 2002 or 2003) is an American political appointee serving in the United States Department of Homeland Security whose responsibilities were expanded to include serving as the director of the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3).
He completed an undergraduate degree in Politics and Law from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2024 and worked as an intern at the Heritage Foundation. He succeeded counterterrorism scholar Bill Braniff, who resigned following the cutting of staff at the center. Fugate had been a "special assistant" at the Department of Homeland Security in an immigration office. He had also worked on the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign and attended the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Do you feel more secure now?
Arresting armed criminals is generally left to police or federal SWAT teams. Does any objective person think that the typical ICE agent could accomplish this task? Furthermore, should this even be something they are ordered to do?
ICE, it could be argued, ought to be entirely disbanded. Instead, when Trump’s Big Beuatiful Bill is passed it will be expanded. (See: ICE’s $175 billion windfall: Trump’s mass deportation force set to receive military-level funding.) I doubt the elimination of ICE would have a detrimental effect on the everyday lives of anyone except those who now live in fear of being arrested and deported. They are not like the police who we count on to be there when we need them.
This brings up the unfortunately hypothetical question as to what these 20,000 (that’s how many there are) people would do if they lost there jobs.
I don’t see jobs that include “lack of empathy” in the list of qualifications. I wouldn’t want them in jobs that involved human interaction, or even dealing with pets. I’m racking my brain over this. They have a right to work someplace. Since so many factory assembly lines are robotic, the only suitable occupation I can think of is working in a slaughterhouse.
Recent:
Spies was interviewed on MSNBC this morning.
In fact much of this is a crazy fantasy from Trump. This actually isn't at all like Alcatraz which was close to impossible to escape from. Yes, three inmates—Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin—successfully escaped from Alcatraz on June 11, 1962. Their fate remains a mystery, as they were never found after their escape. Making it though the Everglades seems to be quite possible. It would be easy to avoid pythons. Alligators can run at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour in short bursts on land, but they typically average around 11 miles per hour over longer distances. In water, they can swim at speeds of about 20 miles per hour. We luck and skill someone could avoid them. They not interested in attacking, let alone eating, anything as large as a person. Alligators can attack people, but such incidents are rare and often occur due to human behavior that provokes them, such as swimming in their territory. Most alligator attacks are preventable with proper awareness and caution around their habitats.December 2024 report on islands.com states, the Florida Everglades is home to 200,000 alligators, specifically, Everglades National Park: "The park, spanning 1.5-million acres, is a vast subtropical eco-system that includes swamps, wetlands, and mangrove forests that form the only place where you can see wild alligators and crocodiles in one spot." This may seem like a lot but the area is big so they have to be spread out.
