A Declaration

The news and imagery coming from Portland is horrific. Secret Police, without identification or name badges walking around the streets tear-gassing and sweeping people away to undisclosed locations, without being Mirandized (which is legally required, by the way, in all 50 states - there was a big Supreme Court decision about it a few DECADES ago). But just because you're not seeing it (yet) in other cities doesn't mean it isn't happening. 

It just means it isn't yet being filmed.

Welcome to the Fascist States of America. I don't want to live here - I was born and raised in a country very different from this one, and I will do what I can to get us back there as long as I live within the geographic confines of this nation. That said, I want a few things noted:

1) If anyone without proper identification attempts to pick me up and remove me from a city street, a public place, or a private one, I will resist. Forcefully. Lethally, if I must. There is no unmarked force of any kind that I will not resist. I will assume you do not have the power or authorization to detain me - and that qualifies as kidnapping. I will fight that until the very moment I cannot, and I promise you I will draw blood.

2) The same applies if this is something I witness. If I see this happening to anyone else, whether I know them or not, I will defend them with the same force, voice, and ferocity. I won't be filming - I will be fighting.

3) I do not carry a gun. In this setting most of us have the right to carry one but I choose not to. I have my wits, which will hopefully be swift. I have my fists, raised in solidarity with our Black brothers and sisters, as well as any human being whose skin tone isn't the same as mine. I have my back, which I will use to help burden the load. I have my voice, which is loud. I have my cane, which I will use to help me walk and to smack you down.

4) I will do my best not to raise a hand to someone that didn't raise a hand to me first. But a violent reaction must be seen as understandable against a government, or anyone else for that matter, that is intent on seeing violence happen. If I need to use violence, I will use a little as I must. That might be more than you want though.

5) Nazis get punched. I can live with the disconnect between this rule and the previous one. We sent over 100,000 men to their deaths in an effort to wipe Nazis off the face of the Earth, so you don't get to be one. Not today. Not ever.

If you cannot follow these 5 simple rules, your are complicit. You are part of the problem.

That is MY Declaration of Independence from the Fascist States of America.

Signed,

James Christopher Reed

There. Singed in big enough type so that King Donald can read it without his glasses.

Please sign on.