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The Town the Militia Took Over

By Josh Horwitz
Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Posted: 08/02/2013 6:41 am

"You know why there's not more residents here? The threats. That's why. Because they're afraid. They're afraid they're going to have their windows shot out." - Lifelong Gilberton resident Rose McCarthy speaking about Police Chief Mark Kessler and his supporters on July 31, 2013

National Rifle Association (NRA) CEO Wayne LaPierre once famously told [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqAWQ-TMF3I (next below)]

a CPAC gathering that "the guys with the guns make the rules." In the town of Gilberton, Pennsylvania, he might have finally found the perfect test case for his insane vision of America.

What is happening in Gilberton should be a warning to all those who value our basic, inalienable rights to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The story there centers around Police Chief Mark Kessler, who drew attention by posting a series of profanity-laced videos [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/23/pennsylvania-police-chief-fck-all-you-libtards-out-there-you-take-it-in-the-a/ ] to YouTube in which he attacks "libtards," fires fully automatic assault weapons, and threatens, "If you f***ing maniacs want to turn this into an armed revolt, knock yourselves out."

This is no idle threat the chief is making. Kessler is the head of a private militia called the Constitution Security Force (CSF) [ http://chiefkessler.com/ ] whose members swear an oath to "respond to the call if... needed to resist tyranny that seeks to destroy our republic." Kessler recruits CSF members at his website ChiefKessler.com, combining his personal and professional identities in one neat little package.

CSF openly affiliates with anti-government extremist groups like Oath Keepers [ http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2013/07/25/oath-keepers-rally-reveals-radical-politics-of-group/ ] and the "Three Percent" movement, which was founded by former Alabama militia leader Mike Vanderboegh [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/michael-brian-vanderboegh ]. Vanderboegh made his own headlines in 2010 when he urged supporters to throw bricks through the windows of Democratic offices nationwide following Congress' passage of health care reform. Many offices were vandalized in response, including that of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

After receiving intense criticism for his videos, Kessler escalated his threats. In a Facebook post [ https://www.facebook.com/chiefkessler?fref=ts ] on July 23, 2013, he declared:

I will not stand idle while tyrants attack the constitution ... If they want to fire the first shot let it begin right here in Schuylkill county ... Every militia , every csf member who can attend please do ... So come with your flags n your firearms. MOLON LABE ... democrats are the true enemy of our country, our freedoms, our constitution, along with liberal news agency's , liberal news reporters, much like hitlers nazis , time we clean these antiamerican thugs from office.


Kessler at Borough Meeting
[ http://www.flickr.com/photos/9503666@N08/9417247037/ ]

On Wednesday, during a meeting of the Gilberton Borough Council to consider disciplinary actions against Kessler, his supporters answered his call. While a State Police helicopter circled overhead, more than 100 people gathered outside the borough hall, many of them armed. CSF members patrolled the area with AR-15 assault rifles, telling one reporter they were there to provide "security [ http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/video-making_gilberton_police.html ]." As John Luciew described [ http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/video-making_gilberton_police.html ] it, "When it came time to open the small borough building for the public meeting, these armed men blocked the doors and prevented people from going inside."

They also angrily confronted Michael Morrill of Keystone Progress, who delivered petition signatures from 20,000 Americans who want Kessler fired. In an email Morrill told me, "I have been organizing for four decades. I have faced Klansmen in Kentucky, Ustase in Bosnia and police indiscriminately beating demonstrators in Italy. [Wednesday] night in Gilberton was more frightening than any of those situations."

Inside the meeting, two individuals (a councilman and right-wing blogger) wore Oath Keeper t-shirts. A small number of residents were allowed to express their opinion about Kessler. Several expressed fear. "He's a nut. I do not feel safe with him around at all," said Wade Greg Necker, who lives just outside the 700-resident town. Gregory Grove said of his wife: "She's afraid of him. Kessler is a detriment to this borough."

Ultimately, however, the council saw it differently. They decided to only suspend Kessler for 30 days without pay. Immediately after the meeting, Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told the media, "I hope he comes back to work for us. I hope it does not leave a bad taste in his mouth."

In 2009, I co-authored a book called Guns, Democracy and the Insurrectionist Idea [ http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Democracy-Insurrectionist-Joshua-Horwitz/dp/0472033700 ]. In the book, Casey Anderson and I exposed the threat of insurrectionists -- those who believe that they have an individual right under the Second Amendment to shoot and kill elected officials, police officers and military service members in response to what they see as "tyranny." We warned the nation that insurrectionism was anathema to our democratic society and, if allowed to spread, could lead to serious violence.

Some thought our warnings were overblown or alarmist. Even as Congressional offices were vandalized and Gabby Giffords was shot during an assassination attempt, the conventional wisdom held that we were too advanced as a country to succumb to political violence. But now -- out of the same state where rebellious farmers launched the Whisky Rebellion in 1791 -- we have seen the true face of "Second Amendment remedies." A one-man police force and his private militia -- accountable not to the local government, but to him -- appear to have taken over the small town of Gilberton.

Too many of our leaders have indulged insurrectionists as if they were bullying in-laws -- unpleasant but not really dangerous. Mark Kessler has shown us a grimmer reality: How democracy is compromised when access to the political process is blocked through brute intimidation and dissenters become an endangered species. Thanks to the gun lobby and its minions, armed political violence is no longer just something we see in the news in some far away third world country, but a contagion that is beginning to infect our culture right here in the United States.

In response to the Whiskey Rebellion, the retired General [ http://www.mountvernon.org/educational-resources/encyclopedia/presidency/whiskey-rebellion ] who led our nation to victory in the Revolutionary War literally put his uniform back on, got in his saddle, and physically confronted the "insurgents" threatening our young nation. What is true then is still true today. Our democracy will not survive if we allow "the guys with the guns to make the rules."

[My organization, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, has launched a petition with CeaseFirePA calling on the Gilberton Borough Council to fire Chief Kessler immediately. You can sign it here [ http://csgv.org/action/tell-gilberton-borough-fire-police-chief/ ].]

[embedded video "Gilberton Borough council suspends police chief" ( http://video-embed.pennlive.com/services/player/bcpid2444116368001?bctid=2577711255001&bckey=AQ~~,AAAAQBxUw0E~,DELAM66vw4wD0qIn2xyBIS9vbw9hgk6W )]

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-horwitz/the-town-the-militia-took_b_3694293.html [with comments]


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Militia-forming police chief lashes out at critics


Mark Kessler
(Credit: chiefkessler.com)

"America's scariest police chief" lashes out as allies abandon him, calls critics "fat f*cks" and "f*ggots"

By Alex Seitz-Wald
Monday, Jul 29, 2013 01:15 PM CDT

Hemorrhaging allies and local goodwill, Gilberton, Pennsylvania police chief Mark Kessler says he expects to lose his job over a profanity-laced YouTube video in which he discusses shooting “libtards.” “I’ll probably be out of a job by the time I get home,” Kessler told [ http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/24/19660346-police-chief-in-profane-gun-video-uproar-im-not-a-delusional-lunatic ] NBC News while on vacation in Texas. Since we first wrote about Kessler last week [ http://www.salon.com/2013/07/24/americas_scariest_police_chief_shoots_libtards_and_forms_militias/ (next below)], dubbing him “America’s scariest police chief,” the lawman has received national attention for his antics, which include forming a right-wing paramilitary organization called the Constitution Security Force.

Meanwhile, a group of pro-gun law enforcement and military officials with whom Kessler has aligned himself say they want nothing to do with the chief. “Chief Kessler is not working with Oath Keepers, nor is Oath Keepers working with him,” Elias Alias, who sits on the Oath Keeper’s board of directors, said in an email to Salon.

Kessler sometimes sports [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxp8tRatw-A (next below)]

a black Oath Keepers t-shirt and has earned praise [ http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/01/10/police-chief-seeks-nullification-of-unconstitutional-gun-control/ ] from the group’s leaders in the past. His militia-style organization and the Oath Keepers share a similar ideological agenda and have at least some overlapping membership [ https://www.facebook.com/oathkeepersbucksmontco/posts/297636580372546 ], but Alias made clear that Kessler is not a member of his group.

The police chief has largely eschewed media interviews since the controversy broke (he did not respond to a request from Salon), but addressed the controversy on his radio show today [ http://www.spreaker.com/user/chiefkessler/the_chief_kessler_show_9?autoplay=1 ]. “What a week,” he sighed, bewildered at the attention he’s received and the degree to which he’s “pissed off a lot of libtards.” “It’s about to get very ugly, I can tell you that,” he said, explaining that he has received death threats and calls for his children to be taken away from him.

He was completely and totally unrepentant, and called out his critics by name: The local school board president is a “fucking fat fuck,” detractor radio hosts are “faggots,” and the sheriff is an “illustrious piece of shit.” Noting that his father fought in Vietnam, Kessler added: “He killed better people than these fucking scumbags that are attacking me today.”

Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told [ http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/police_chief.html ] the AP that “the profanity and violence in [the video] was a little upsetting,” but said that Kessler has been a “loyal” public servant. The chief is also a member of the North Schuylkill school board, which released a statement Friday saying that it doesn’t “condone or agree” with Kessler, but has little power to remove any of its members.

Still, when Patriot-News opinion editor John Micek visited [ http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/07/locals_stand_by_potty-mouthed_schuylkill_co_police_chief_john_l_micek.html ] the tiny coal town of Gilberton this week, he found a number of residents willing to defend Kessler. “He’s a good guy. He’s good to the town,” one man remarked. And Kessler had enough clout to get the borough council to unanimously pass a resolution he authored in January that authorized him to take “any and all measures” to prevent the enforcement of gun control laws.

Since our first story on Kessler last week, we’ve been deluged by people sending us other comments that they find offensive. For instance, there’s this instructional video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3iT1ii1NFM (next below)]

Kessler posted on YouTube, where he teaches viewers basic pistol technique using “Nancy Pelosi” as a target. The image is of a deranged clown with a hammer. “This is what most of our congressmen and women and senators look like without their plastic surgery and makeup,” he quips, before riddling “Pelosi” with bullets. “We’re going to give two to Nancy [bang, bang]. Then we’re going to put two in her face [bang, bang],” he explains, repeating the exercise several times with glee.

There’s also his apparent belief [ http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2013/06/bombshell-obama-not-kenyan-or-american.html ] in the conspiracy theory that President Obama was not born in the United States. He interviewed Orly Taitz in June [ http://www.blogtalkradio.com/chiefkessler/2013/06/26/chief-kessler-interviews-orly-taitz-esq ], calling her “the real deal,” as opposed to fellow birther activist Mike Zullo (they’re on opposite sides of the birther civil war [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/orly-taitz-mike-zullo_n_3402725.html ]). Kessler endorsed much of what Taitz had to say, questioning the president’s eligibility to serve and calling him a great liar. Previously, Kessler endorsed the notion that most of Obama’s past is fictitious [ http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2013/06/bombshell-obama-not-kenyan-or-american.html ], including his enrollment at Columbia University.

In other interviews, Kessler ruminates openly about insurrection against the federal government. “We have to be able to match — all law-abiding citizens and freedom lovers across this great nation — need to have the same implements that the oppressors have. How do you fight somebody that has firepower like an AR-15 or M-16, which our government carries, with rocks? It’s just not going to happen,” he said [ http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/01/10/police-chief-seeks-nullification-of-unconstitutional-gun-control/ ] once.

He had planned a march [ http://www.westernjournalism.com/sworn-officers-plan-to-march-on-dc-sept-9th/ ] on Washington in September, but it’s unclear if the rally will go on, given the controversy.

Copyright © 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/29/militia_forming_police_chief_lashes_out_at_critics/ [with comments]


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America’s scariest police chief shoots “libtards” and forms militias


Mark Kessler
(Credit: chiefkessler.com)

Meet Chief Marc Kessler: Liberal hater, M-16 carrier and founder of armed group to defend the country from tyranny

By Alex Seitz-Wald
Wednesday, Jul 24, 2013 06:44 AM CDT

Mark Kessler really loves guns. “I carry an M-16 at work,” he says. He can do that because he’s a police officer — in fact, the chief of police in the tiny borough of Gilberton, a hamlet of less than a thousand in the coal-rich hills of Eastern Pennsylvania. But even in a profession where carrying a gun is part of the job description, Kessler is an outlier. Last month, he told a story [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6a23wxaA-Q (next below)]

to a local Tea Party group about how he was stopped by police officers in a neighboring town for displaying his machine gun to a friend, even though he was in full dress uniform. And that, Kessler said, is the problem with law enforcement today in a nutshell.

“They want to kick butt and take names, and ruin lives, over nonsense. They terrorize people over a turn signal,” he said, wearing an Oath Keepers [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/oath-keepers ] t-shirt. “I’ve got better things to do with my time than worry about somebody who’s got a broken taillight. Seriously, I really do.”

Better things, for Kessler, include opening new chapters of the paramilitary militia group he founded, pushing legislation to fight the encroaching tyranny of the federal government, and making flamboyant YouTube videos that portray him “shoot[ing] a libtard out of a tree [ https://twitter.com/chiefkessler/status/356903459267690496 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DglbrMU6-YM (next below)]”

or taunting the United Nations, but always shooting lots and lots of souped-up guns.

It was that last activity that caught the attention of the local press this week. “Coal region police chief posts profanity-laced video on YouTube,” was the headline [ http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/mc-gilberton-police-chief-tirade-0723-20130723,0,205560.story ] in the Allentown Morning call Tuesday. “Well, I guess I upset a few people the other day when I made a video,” Kessler says in the video in question [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQakPtOQCJo (next below)],

referring to a previous video about the U.N. and John Kerry, which he has since deleted. “Well, I’m here to say I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset anybody… So please accept this as my sincerest apology.”

The police chief, who is also a member of the North Schuylkill school board, then disappears off screen for a moment and returns with what appears to be an AK-47 affixed with a drum magazine. “Yeah, I don’t think so. This boy don’t roll that way. For all you people out there who cried and cried about, ‘Oh, I used profanity,’ fuuuuucckkk you! Here’s what I got to say, if you didn’t get enough the first time around, go fuck yourself and get some more!” he says, before unloading the automatic weapon.

After the magazine is empty, he steps off screen to grab an M-16 rifle with a drum magazine. “Go fuck yourself again!” the police chief says before squeezing. Afterwards, he disappears and returns a third time, this time with a handgun, also loaded with a drum magazine. “All you fucking libtards out there, all you fucking crybabies, grow a pair of balls and man the fuck up. Alright? You’re a fucking bunch of pussies,” he says, before discharging the third weapon.

“What he does in his private life, we have no control of,” Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon told [ http://republicanherald.com/news/gilberton-police-chief-posts-profanity-laced-video-on-youtube-1.1524509 ] Frank Andruscavage of the Pottsville Republican Herald when asked about the video.

In 2011, while off duty in a bar, Kessler intervened in a fight and drew his weapon. He shot himself in the hand [ http://republicanherald.com/news/handgun-not-yet-recovered-in-girardville-bar-fight-investigation-1.1197433 ]. “We’re not finding anything that leads to another gun being there,” a state police commander said at the time. “We’re finding there was one gun there and it was (Kessler’s).”

Kessler seems to have some sway in town. In January, after the Sandy Hook school shooting led to a renewed push on gun control, Kessler successfully lobbied the borough council to adopt a resolution nullifying any federal or state laws that restricted firearm usage, “past, present or future.” The measure [ http://chiefkessler.com/index.php/csf-information/legislation/gilberton-resolution ], which passed unanimously, authorized Kessler as the town’s police chief to take “any and all measures as may be necessary to prevent the unconstitutional enforcement of any federal, state or local acts, laws, orders, rules, or regulations in violation of the 2nd Amendment.”

It’s a job description also taken up by the Constitutional Security Force [ http://chiefkessler.com/index.php/csf-information/mission-statement ], an armed group Kessler started that prefers not to call itself a militia, though it supports such groups and has partnerships with some. “[WE WILL] DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION OUR COUNTRY FROM TYRANNY ONLY IF NEEDED,” the group’s mission statement explains. “We are NOT advocating or promoting the overthrow of any government,” nor are they “advocating violence,” the website states. The bylaws specifically state you’ll be banned from the group if you speak of or commit violence against the government “without just cause.”

You must also “be willing to supply your own ammunition.”

The January resolution has made Kessler a bit of national celebrity in certain circles, with appearances on broadcaster Alex Jones’ TV show [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-BeCqW37fc (next below)],

and writeups in Before It’s News [ http://beforeitsnews.com/u-s-politics/2013/04/civilian-militia-expands-to-38-states-to-protect-consitution-2446340.html ] and the New American [ http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/14153-police-chief-seeks-nullification-of-unconstitutional-gun-control ], the magazine published by the John Birch Society.

He’s caught the attention of [ http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/01/10/police-chief-seeks-nullification-of-unconstitutional-gun-control/ ] the Oath Keepers (who say he is not a member, nor collaborating with them), a group of current and former military and law enforcement officers who have sworn to defend their interpretation of the Constitution. The chief also hosts [ http://www.spreaker.com/user/chiefkessler/the_chief_kessler_show_6?autoplay=1 ] a regular radio show. The Constitutional Security Force now has at least 38 [ http://beforeitsnews.com/u-s-politics/2013/04/civilian-militia-expands-to-38-states-to-protect-consitution-2446340.html ] different state chapters, according to the group, and is looking to expand.

All this success is scaring the powers that be, or at least his allies think so. In April, he told Before It’s News [ http://beforeitsnews.com/scandals/2013/04/spooks-threaten-to-assassinate-patriot-police-chief-mark-kessler-2431132.html ], a hub of conspiracy theories and libertarian-leaning news, that he was getting death threats, which he said he believed were coming from the Schuylkill County Sheriff’s Department, which was “very agitated” with his resolution. “I believe the sheriff has something to do with it, because the Sheriff has been trying to shut me down and shut me up. He is a gun grabber, he’s not for the Constitution, he’s anti-Constitution,” Kessler said in a YouTube video. “I believe that’s where it’s coming from, I can’t prove it yet.” He’s also reported seeing suspicious helicopters flying over his house and car, and that there was a military Stryker vehicle outside his police station to intimidate him.

“If necessary, there will be people coming from all over America to Gilberton to back up the chief,” a masked blogger who goes by the name Arch Angel said while interviewing Kessler for Before It’s News. “So if you think you’re going to pull another Ruby Ridge, or another Wilco, or another 7/7, or another 9/11, you got another thing coming. Because there’s going to be hundreds of not thousands of us there to back up the chief.”

UPDATE: Elias Alias, a member of board of directors of the Oath Keepers, told Salon that Kessler is not a member of his organization. “[O]ur records at Oath Keepers do not show a membership identification or membership number for Chief Kessler,” he said in an email. “Further, Chief Kessler is not working with Oath Keepers, nor is Oath Keepers working with him.”

Copyright © 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc.

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/24/americas_scariest_police_chief_shoots_libtards_and_forms_militias/ [with comments]


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