What Would Happen if "Battle of Athens"
Round Two Ever Becomes Necessary?
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By David Codrea, July 25th 2014
JPFO writer contributor, © 2014.
"Local Police Stockpile Weapons of War," News Channel 5 Nashville reported. "A massive military build-up is underway right here in Tennessee." Local law enforcement agencies are snatching up huge amounts of weapons -- from the Department of Defense -- used in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan," the report elaborates. "Items include grenade launchers, mine-resistant vehicles and guns that have been deemed as surplus by the Pentagon." And where is this militarization of police taking place?
"McMinn County ... boasts beautiful scenery, but its sheriff's department can boast something else," the report explains. "The department received more military surplus guns than any other local department in the state last year."
The McMinn County Sheriff? Does that ring a bell for anyone?
It should for longtime JPFO members and supporters.
"As recently as 1946, American citizens were forced to take up arms as a last resort against corrupt government officials," JPFO related in "The Battle of Athens, Tennessee."
Battle? Who were the combatants?
GIs, returned from WWII, who were left with no choice but to take on sheriff's deputies. "These Americans wanted honest open elections. For years they had asked for state or federal election monitors to prevent vote fraud (forged ballots, secret ballot counts and intimidation by armed sheriff's deputies) by the local political boss," the JPFO report explains. "They got no help."
Sheriff's deputies? Like the kind now getting "weapons of war"? Where did this take place, anyway?
"These Americans were residents of McMinn County," the JPFO report reveals.
Some of the GIs attempted to challenge the existing corrupt political regime in the 1946 election, it continues, establishing the build-up. The FBI did not respond to requests for monitors. The Justice Department ignored requests to investigate election fraud complaints.
"To intimidate voters ... some 200 armed "deputies" were brought in during the primary. GI poll-watchers were beaten and detained. An African-American man was told he could not vote and beaten, and a deputy shot him when he persisted.
Long story short, the sheriff "took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting," which raised clear objections. GIs were fired on and returned fire, with many obtaining and then using firearms they'd obtained from the local armory. They finally used dynamite to force the deputies to surrender.
Citizen patrol groups were then formed to restore order (with "not a single mention of an abuse of power on their behalf"), the ballots were able to be legitimately certified, and the general election was able to be held the following November without further incident.
As an aside, why is it that you didn't hear about this absolutely relevant historical tie-in from the CBS affiliate reporting on the McMinn military build-up, "Your News and Information Leader, Only News Channel 5"?
Imagine how much differently the Battle of Athens might have turned out had the corrupt sheriff's department then been able to rely on the military largesse enjoyed by McMinn authorities today. Imagine what citizens everywhere now must face, with Eric Holder's Justice Department, and with what is effectively the standing army feared by the Founders occupying police and sheriff's departments throughout the Republic.
Still, there may be unintended consequences where not everything will prove as "Resistance is futile" hopeless as they are intended to appear. The Oath Keepers movement may provide some prospects for isolated repeats of what happened in 1946, when the state guard was not deployed because authorities feared units might not follow orders to fire.
Another factor may be something Mike Vanderboegh has pointed out more than once on his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog. "Now I'm on record that this is a goodness thing, since it takes military assets and puts them out in the hinterlands where the armed citizenry can get their hands on it if, as and when," he maintains. "So I say, procure away!"
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David Codrea is a field editor at GUNS Magazine, penning their monthly "Rights Watch" column. He provides regular reporting and commentary at Gun Rights Examiner and blogs at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. David Codrea's Archive page.
