http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sheriffs-SWAT-and-Assaul-by-Michael-Stedman-121031-878.html

Sheriffs, SWAT, and Assault Rifles -- A Foreclosure Story
By Michael Stedman (about the author) Permalink (Page 1 of 2 pages)


Idaho Springs, Colorado may seem like a quiet, peaceful, and even quaint little town off I-70 in the mountains west of Denver. However, in the early afternoon of October 30, 2012, the Clear Creek County Sheriff's office proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that looks can be extremely deceiving. Make no mistake; this is not a kind-hearted Mayberry RFD type of law enforcement. This was a tactical, military-style assault against unarmed, peaceful protesters.

But first, let's go back a bit in order to give you a little better understanding of the events leading up to, as well as during, their demonstration of excessive use of force.

Sahara Donahue has lived in her home for over 20 years, has been a volunteer in her community, and was a decent law-abiding citizen. She suffered injuries from a near-fatal accident, including a head injury that was not properly diagnosed until over a year after the accident. She could no longer perform the duties of her job, and therefore was forced to rely on the generosity of friends to help pay her mortgage for several years. She made every attempt to communicate and work with the banks, and even retained the services of an attorney, in the hopes of finding some resolution to keep her home. However, the banks (as well as a corrupt Realtor) apparently had different plans.

Near the end of her financial resources, she reached out for help and Occupy Denver along with Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition (CFRC) responded. People began sending word out via phone calls, emails, social media, and any other means possible to spread awareness of the situation. Some even responded by travelling to stand with Sahara at her home. A potential eviction on Thursday (Oct 25) did not occur, so even more people began to heed the call to protest the next expected eviction on Tuesday (Oct 30). Also, several of us gathered in front of the US Bank building in downtown Denver at noon on Monday to support Sahara as she attempted to gain entry into the building to physically speak to someone, and request a 60-day extension in order to find other living arrangements.

After she was given a run-around by US Bank, several of us made our way up the canyon to stand with her and support her in case the eviction went through the following day. Later in the day we were informed that the only compromise offered to Sahara involved her immediate eviction -- BUT -- they would be magnanimous enough to store her things for 30 days. Those of us at the house began planning our course of action for the remainder of the night as well as for Eviction Day.

We barricaded the driveway with fallen trees to limit access to the house, and held several impromptu meetings to discuss our tactics. Sahara's wishes were for us to be respectful when the Sheriff arrived, since she has a history with this community. We agreed that we would all respect her wishes and approach the situation in a peaceful manner. We were led to believe that the Realtor would be arriving with a crew of workers to remove items from the house, and that the Sheriff would be there to "keep the peace." Sahara had also asked one of the group's members to be a spokesman. He would speak directly with those who arrived and deliver legal letters to the Sheriff. This way things would proceed smoothly and help eliminate any unnecessary escalation.

As night closed in we shared stories, discussed ideas, and enjoyed each other's company in a very peaceful, positive environment. Eventually people began to settle down for the night. Most were sleeping in the house on couches or on the floor, while I and another went out to sleep in our tents beside the barricade in case of any unexpected late-night surprises.

The following morning we all began to stir as coffee was brewing. There seemed to be an overall sense of optimism among the group. We received word of some more people coming up to join us, and we had another meeting to determine tactics regarding the expected arrivals for the eviction. Several of us collected more timber to fortify the barricades, others were making food, and everyone was ready for whatever was coming (or so we thought).

The first arrival of the day was a truck hauling a dumpster that was apparently to be left there for the workers to put her things in. Seeing the barricades, he got out and spoke with us. He was very friendly and supportive towards us, and then called his supervisor who after several minutes instructed him to bring the dumpster back. We had our first victory of the day and the excitement filled the air.

A while later a white van filled with workers from a "day labor" company pulled up and stopped. These were the men who were supposed to remove her belongings from the house. They needed to wait for the Sheriff to arrive, and since there is no cell-phone service in the area, they just relaxed and spoke with us for a while. We even tried to recruit a few of them to stand with us, but to no avail. Finally they decided to leave in order to go back down the mountain to find a place with better reception to make calls. We all began a second celebration as we filled the air with singing, "Na na na na, hey hey hey, GOOD-BYE!"

Things were really starting to look up for us. We felt we had made some incredible progress. Then we heard a vehicle coming. Around the corner I saw a Sheriff's vehicle through the trees as it was approaching. Then I saw behind it another, and another, and another. About 10 vehicles filled with men in what appeared to be full battle gear (and assault weapons already in hand) began to fill the road in front of the house. In all our planning and meetings, we never expected this kind of response. After all, we were led to believe that the Sheriff was only going to be there to "keep the peace." And don't forget that we were unarmed, peaceful demonstrators.

The spokesman of our group got on the megaphone and began trying to get everyone to converge up at the house, but it was already too late. The Tactical Response Team had already reacted. As we were rushing up the driveway, we were cut off by several men gripping their assault rifles as they began shouting at us to get on the ground on our knees. To my left, the spokesman was coming up, shouting on the megaphone, attempting to discern who was in charge since he had the letters to deliver. The officers didn't care; in fact as the spokesman was telling them he had letters, one of the officers shouted back, "No, you don't have letters!", and they continued ordering us to get on our knees. We remained standing and continued trying to open up some kind of conversation.

At this point, I was standing there with the spokesman, and a few others. I am about 6'2" tall and about 200 lbs. The others standing with me were as big, if not bigger, with the exception of an older gentleman to my left. Since none of us would get on our knees, these fully armed, militarized officers decided to arrest the smallest and oldest person there. With all their firepower and intimidation techniques, they targeted the least imposing person there. They put him face down in the dirt and gravel, and cuffed his hands behind him with their zip-tie handcuffs.

Finally, the man in charge came forward, but when he was presented with the letters, he informed us that he would take them but it didn't matter. He then folded them up without even really looking at them. It was obvious that those with the money and the guns couldn't have cared less about the injustice taking place, and they were ready and willing to do whatever was necessary to shut us down.

I was offered a ride by one of the activists, since the Sheriff was so gracious to let some of us go without further incident. As we made our way down the private drive, we saw at the bottom of the hill the bulldozer that was just waiting to tear through our barricades, and the van of day-labor workers ready to fulfill their job descriptions. After a couple turns down Hwy 103 another realization occurred to me. There on the shoulder of the road was an ambulance waiting on stand-by. Maybe I am mistaken, but it would appear that the Sheriff's Department was prepared to do, and had every intention of doing, whatever was necessary to obey their bank's wishes.

We pulled into a local convenience store after making it into town. As we sat collecting our thoughts, and trying to decompress after the events that had transpired, I was struck by something else. I watched the people of the town as they nonchalantly passed by and it occurred to me that this was a sort of metaphor about our entire society today. Just up the hill, innocent people were having guns shoved in their faces, people were being evicted from their homes, and much more. At the same time, the rest of the town went about its daily routine, completely oblivious as to what was going on just around the corner.

1 | 2



Michael Stedman is an activist, actor, singer, writer, photographer, and all around artist. He was born and raised in Boulder County, Colorado. He spends most of his time pursuing self education, as well as looking to find ways to educate, inform, (more...)

And people wonder how law enforcement will act in a shtf situation

Hmmm, so much for her history with her community. Apparently she misjudged her community. Although, with that crowd, it's probably a good thing they were prepared to be respectful.

And look where that got them.

After all the News and Video available of what happens to "Peaceful" People - Why is it that so many still think that if they just be nice to Uncle FED, that all will turn out just wonderful with butterflies fluttering around everyone's heads & chirping birds?

The FEDs only know one thing - That is FORCE.

Freedom is won by FORCE - Not a piece of hemp with some signatures on it. It is well documented that those in "Power" don't give a shit about what is on that piece of hemp and are very happy to use FORCE to do as they wish.

If you want your freedom you have to meet those who come to take it away with equal or greater FORCE to keep it. You don't go out with a BB Gun to meet those with M16's - You go with a M16 or a FAL and Stop them.

The ways of Gandhi are over.

Just once I'd love to see a crowd of 'peaceful' protesters shoot the bastards who want to act like nazi's.

Homeless people living in cars and RVs get pulled over, arrested for things like expired tags or no insurance, and then "homeowners" cheer it on as those vehicles are impounded and auctioned off by corrupt tow yards.

We are not even talking about the poor getting reduced to nothing, we are talking about someone who is middle to upper middle class refusing to deal with reality and thinking that they alone or they and their family will continue to live as an island in a declining economy.

In the late 1800s, there were "penny auctions" when an economic crisis hit. A community would get together and hijack control of the foreclosure auction.

What you are seeing on something like this is all those people pitching in as a community to try and take down a bank for the mortgage money they lent out, but would not take in additional residents on the property to help pay it off, or take that family in on another property and run the remaining place like a village.

Show me surprise evictions in the middle of the night or something like that and then maybe we talk armed response, show me something with several months notice, and cascading levels of 90,60,and 30 day notices, I mean come on. Renters in most states can pay rent for years and at one month plus three days late, its about cops tossing your stuff on the lawn.

The real issues coming up that might be worth fighting for is after people wised up to the modern economy, grouped up, got on property they own, and then greedy real estate interests are trying to take control of property that they have absolutely no right to.

If I remember correctly, that's where FALSarge and his crew heroed up in Pennsylvania after a township decided to to a "public needs asset seizure" on a farm that had a paid for mortgage, but someone wanted to develop it into a golf course without paying market rate for the property.

The sooner the economy does the big crash and rewrite, the sooner we will not be dealing with this absurdity, but since it would be so painful for the slick, sick, lame and lazy, Heaven and Earth is being held back to prevent the economy from the inevitable crash.

In the meantime, young people and those whose personal economies already did crash and are attempting to recover are faced with housing prices based on the speculative values demanded by those who bought during the falsified "boom" years of the late 1990s.

Most of our citizens only react when it is their family or them in peril..

As long as the banks or Feds for that matter do it in small steps and people don't think it affects them, they will not come to their neighbors aid...

The Sheriffs and other JBT's will do the banks and NWO's bidding and think nothing of killing men, women, children, and any other life form they have a chance to do...

Absolute evil is what we are dealing with and evil only understand force as resistance...

If your not prepared for a long fought battle with people who have become the definition of evil, your not being realistic..

Greywolf

Just this week 6 local families are being evicted for failure to pay property taxes.

A local church offered to pay their back taxes but the county refused payment. County put the property up for auction and didn't receive one single bid on any of it. So, now the county has transferred the property deeds to the local government and are starting eviction procedures.

More proof that you are a renter and that those you "Elect" become part of the system and don't give a rats ass about you or anyone outside their system.

KumBya.

There is one worth fighting for, paid-for property but the people became poor and the government sought to loot them for being poor even when the church stepped in with a peaceful payoff situation.

You can legally jerk a mortgage holder around for years, especially when it is discovered that the mortgage holder is a bank that manipulated several economic conditions through criminal actions.

I know a semi-professional stock trader who discovered that the same bank that was manipulating the markets and artificially driving his stocks down had also been in the business of using the same brokerage firms to buy groups of mortgage paper without properly buying and transferring the titles to the properties. I think he is going on three years of no house payments and had cleverly been borrowing the equity out all along anyway. If/when the eviction happens, he is still a winner, but if/when it goes to court, he is holding enough documentation to prove the bank committed fraud in several other issues, that being far in excess of the value of the property. So the stalemate is he gets the place, just can't sell it. The bank is even stuck with paying the taxes since they really don't want to be in court with the guy. The guy won't show up and testify on anyone else's mortgage dispute cases unless someone guarantees that he could still have a place to live elsewhere since the bank would probably retaliate and he would be expending his bargaining chips so to speak. Lots of people would say they would appreciate the help, none are offering him a place to live indefinitely...

I believe that we all know the truth and what is needed to stop this crap.

We also should know that peaceful protesting and resistance is garbage and the only way things in this Fu*ked up Country will ever get better is through the use of force. The enemy uses force including deadly force to get its way so the People also need to use force including deadly force.

Fight Fire with Fire, Force with Force, and Violence with Violence, do unto the Enemy what the Enemy does to you and show them NO MERCY.

People need to help their neighbors protect their homes and if that doesn't happen and a person loses their home there should be payback.

The president or CEO of the bank, the corrupt Realtor, and the Basta*d of a Sheriff should have their homes destroyed by any means necessary, their Homes for the Home that they took, and that is the minimum that should be done to those Basta*ds.

One solution would be to bring charges against the Elected Sheriff who swore and oath to defend the State and American Constitution by violating them when he disposed the owners for failure to pay a debt.
I believe it is Title 5, 147.
They have the Civil Right to "quiet Enjoyment" of their land. Taxation at market value is not a lawful value unless the Taxing authority can prove a like property of same size and construction was sold for that value in last year under like conditions. (ie: sale between two human people , not transfer of title between banks.)
These states in past 2 years have all adapted the right of the Municipality to not only attach property till paid, but to foreclose on property.
The need is for a group to challenge these state laws.

Everyone,

The truth of the matter is these coward cops and all the coward assed lawyers, bureaucrats, banksters and realtors have gotten away with all they've stolen, all the more they're stealing now, and all the rest they plan on stealing is because SUPPOSED Americans are TOO COWARDLY to STOP these COWARDS. By any means necessary.

Of course that's why that truth and the attitude needed to properly exercise that truth against the enemy in the name of Freedom and Justice have been bred out of most 'murikans. Obama's reelection can empty the shelves and racks at the gun shows and gun shops and a junk Remington 770 can go for 3 grand in six weeks, but all that does is make the signers of all the 4473 forms targets in the next round of raids and setups-because they've been BRED TO BE COWARDS.

Blame education. Blame the TV. Blame government created problems and false flags. They're all at fault but when you know about the problem and DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, then you become the biggest part of the problem.

One of the lessons of history is that peace through weakness fails always and fails abysmally.


Show up to a gunfight with nothing but their mouths?
LMAO. Talk about a foregone conclusion.


I don't get why people insist on thinking the System will work for them. Maybe if you're a black lesbian or some such bullshit, otherwise forget it.