PERRY CO.—Rarely these days do we read a quote by by a public official whereupon we automatically think: “Why did the reporter not smack you upside the head for saying that?”
But the headline is one of them.
This was spoken by Percy, Ill., interim mayor Randy Aldridge this week in an article featured today in The Southern Illinoisan. He was defending his police department’s former possession of several high-powered weapons obtained through LESO (Law Enforcement Support Office), the innocuously-named, yet highly-questionable program that enables little bergs all over the country to receive military-grade weapons, tactical gear, vehicles and other items via GRANTS (your tax dollars). The weapons, including ten fully-automatic M-16 military rifles (among “other weapons”), are no longer in the possession of the police department of the village—which has only 950 residents—but are now in the possession of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department. Who probably doesn’t need them, either….but hey, they had a hostage situation a few years ago, so apparently, that justified them in the minds of the local yokel cop force.
The weapons were discovered by a new hire in the department, David Rednour, who was going to be chief until a “controversy” arose in his hire, this according to another Southern article. Of course, no one fully explains the controversy. Think it has to do with the weapons cache discovery? Oh, possibly. No one will come right out and say so, though.
The problem with weapons like this—and the program that provides them—is the mentality of the paramilitarization of the police, as we at Disclosure have been warning about for YEARS. Little places like Percy (and like Elizabethtown in Hardin County, whom we FOIA’d two years ago over this very program and the weapons and items the village obtained through it) have NO NEED for such weaponry IF THE PEOPLE AREN’T ALLOWED IT AS WELL. And like the sentiment of the temporary mayor, the powers-that-be are a little overt in the fact that they don’t WANT the citizens to be well-armed. Only the POLICE need to have the “superior firepower,” right, Randy? You idiot.
It’s the mentality of such “leaders,” as well as the programs like LESO, that are an ongoing and encroaching abuse of our Second Amendment rights. They work in concert with each other to surreptitiously provide such firepower to those THEY believe “deserve” to have it (surreptitiously because, who knew? The citizens of Percy didn’t until Rednour spoke up), while at the same time denying it to the citizens—who are supposed to be the “well-armed militia.” Instead, you have long-time deputies like Lawrence County’s Dennis York having access to such weapons in what would be dubiously considered an “emergency” or “crisis situation” (who decides that status? People like Jess Angle??) and deploying them unnecessarily and illegally against the disarmed populace. Don’t think that’s a stretch. We believe that’s exactly what all this posturing over weapons bans and trying to keep the citizens of Illinois illegally disarmed is all about. And it starts in little villages the size of Percy…or E-town…or even more the size of a county like Lawrence.
But to have something as overt as the quote this temporary mayor gave…well, that proves that point. If someone (the police) is shooting an automatic weapon at me, you’re DAMNED STRAIGHT I’d like to “have one.”
It’s just a shame that the coverage on the matter is going to be as limited as it is…because this is truly a rally cry for those of us peaceful, law-abiding gun owners if anything ever was. So share this story and all the links; raise awareness. This is what your little bergs have access to, and what they’re doing. Submit FOIAs to them, like we have in the past, asking for an inventory of every piece of weaponry and equipment in the possession of your local police department, and see what you find. Then go to your board or council meetings and make sure that there is a modicum of responsibility behind those who are taking extreme advantage of the LESO program…before it’s too late for you to do so.
