The Catwalk of Crime
It’s time for me to come clean with you. I confess. I used my law office Facebook page followers for a little experiment a la Zuckerberg. I posted a photo of a patch with the text:
“The day may come that even “this” is called “extreme.” For now, out pickin’ on a Sunday in the South to stretch my legs and uncramp my brain. Too many foolish words flying around Washington last week.”
Same photograph I’m using for this blog. The patch is a circle (smooth shape). White background and edge stitching (neutral). Clipper-type ship (evocative of our founding). Contains the word “Tea” (as in Boston Tea Party, the Tea Party). Contains the word “Men” (self-explanatory - LOL).
I used the words “day may come” and “extreme” and “Washington.”
And you fell for it.
Not one person who commented or DMed or spoke indicated they got my joke. I was laughing when I posted it. Were you when you read it?
The “New England Tea Men” were a soccer team. Look closely at the patch. There’s a soccer ball where, at first glance, you saw only a red star. Now, if you had asked me, “Where’d you find that?” I would have said, “At Poor Charlie’s Antiques in New Bern, NC, in a box full of patches, including Cosmos, Broncos, and Super Bowl II.”
Since January 6, 2021, the FBI and DOJ have been charging men and women basis the clothes on their bodies, from patches to caps to t-shirts, without any context or interview. The new approach by the FBI and DOJ goes beyond the use of clothing for personal identification. The FBI and DOJ are using clothing to ascribe an ideology and assign a threat level. No consideration of alternative or lesser explanations, and an active refusal to consider context as demonstrated by responsive court documents.
Example: Under the heading “Statement of Facts Supporting Probable Cause” is paragraph 17,
“A close-up of the badges on the vest of one of these individuals, seen just under the Oath Keepers emblem on his shirt, displays the Oath Keepers motto, “Not On Our Watch.”
This, from the “Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant,” in “United States of America v. Jessica Marie Watkins.” It was filed January 16, 2021 as part of the DOJ “Shock and awe campaign” to charge as many people as possible prior to January 20, 2021.
The FBI has been using the catwalk approach for decades. Imagine, if you will, 1908 (founding FBI) into the 1950s (McCarthyism). It was a time before manufacturers used people as walking billboards. If someone “wore colors” or wore an emblem, it may have had some preliminary value to personal identification, as distinguished from the general population. Now, everyone wants to “be stylin’,” based on the clothes they’re wearing, to the degree there’s little to no meaning behind it, other than capitalism has suckered us all. Clothes have little to no probative value.
The FBI has not evolved with the fads and the fashions.
Notably, in relation to events of January 6, 2021, the FBI and the DOJ are still charging people basis the shirt on their back. Wear a baseball cap given to you by the founder of Oath Keepers or sport a patch available for purchase on-line and you’re suddenly a key figure in an insurrectionist group that needs to be put on a list, and you’re facing federal felony-level charges and fines.
The difference in the January 6, 2021 prosecution documents is how heavily the FBI and DOJ spell out and rely upon people’s clothing to forecast future violent propensities.
I’ve set it all out in detail with supporting footnotes in my new book “The Events of January 6, 2021: What Impact the Second Amendment Movement?”
What does this all mean for our future?
Top of my go-forward discussion in Section E of my new book is ditch all the insignia wear. The NRA may be the bulk of it (most of it is made in China, anyway). Remember: LaPierre was dubbed a terrorist in 2015 by the New York Daily News, so we can’t be seen to be hanging with him, anyway. Buy some white, cotton, Made in the USA North Carolina-spun cotton t-shirts like S.O.S. From Texas brand, good old Levi’s, a new pair of classic Keds. If you insist on being branded, then get yourself an FBI, DOJ, USCP, or US Senate t-shirt to wear.
Me? On the rare occasion that I want strangers reading my chest, I wear my “Quantico” t-shirt. I live in a town, Census population 4,100, with a full-time police force of 17 officers, most of whom have been and continue to do training at Quantico. I’m assuming in touting their training on websites and in newsletters, they want us town folk to associate them with “smart.”
If I’m going to be arrested as an “extremist,” at least make the DOJ lawyers have to pen and publish “At the time she was arrested, Capanna was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the word QUANTICO.”
