Anti-American Terrorist Leader Arrested At The Border...

[Lord Jim]

FBI Arrests Leader Of Right-Wing Anti-Immigrant Militia In New Mexico

FBI agents arrested a leader of a heavily armed right-wing militia on Saturday in New Mexico just days after the vigilantes posted a video of members “detaining” hundreds of immigrants, many of them children.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, of the United Constitutional Patriots militia, [That is of course a completely Orwellian name for this band of unpatriotic anti-Constitutional terrorists] was arrested on a “federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition,” according to an FBI statement.

“This is a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families,” New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement following the arrest. The FBI action “indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes.”

The FBI busted Hopkins in Sunland Park, where the militia is headquartered, with the help of local police, NBC reported. Balderas identified him as a member of the militia detaining immigrants. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hopkins has identified himself as the “national commander” of the UCP. According to court records, Hopkin has been convicted of felony firearm possession and impersonating an officer, The Daily Beast has reported.

Hopkins, a sometimes performer, also goes by the name of the late singer Johnny Horton Jr.

“Johnny” often runs the militia’s radio program. In a segment last month, he appealed for more “boots on the ground” to “capture” immigrants. He pleaded for donations for the group. “We’re down to nothing,” he said.

His arrest came just two day after the American Civil Liberties Union alerted Balderas and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a letter that an “armed fascist militia organization” was working to “kidnap and detain” asylum-seekers at gunpoint in the state. The group had posted a video Tuesday showing hundreds of detained immigrants, many of them children. A woman with the militia can be heard telling others not to point guns at the migrants as they wait for U.S. Border Patrol agents to arrive.

The governor on Friday called on the militia to stand down. “Regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone,” Grisham said Friday.

The militia and its members have posted a number of videos on Facebook showing detained immigrants. Members are seen in fatigues and carrying what appear to be semiautomatic rifles and handguns; some wear black masks to hide their identities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that CBP “does not endorse private groups or organizations taking enforcement matters into their own hands.” It added that interference by civilians “could have public safety and legal consequences for all parties involved.”

Hopkins’ initial appearance in U.S. district court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, is scheduled for Monday, The Associated Press reported. Hopkins could not be reached for comment.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/larry-mi ... 05e3ef5d81

[liberty]

Jim, all I know of this group is what I saw on the news, but what makes them unpatriotic or anti-Constitutional? Jane Fonda was unpatriotic because she chose North Vietnam over her own country. She knew or should have known that her propaganda could have resulted in the death of US soldiers in Vietnam. She was anti-constitutional because the conduct of foreign affair is the responsible of the US national government. A US citizen can support the foreign policy, but they can’t oppose it overseas.

And off subject, Fonda could have avoided being a traitor by surrendering her citizenship before going to
North Vietnam.

[Scooter]

Please quote the words in the Constitution that forbid a U.S. citizen from criticizing U.S. foreign policy while abroad.

Try holding your breath while you search for them.

[RayThom]

Poor Larry, I think he missed his morning bottle of vodka.

[Lord Jim]

Lib, you'll not get any defense of Jane Fonda from me, but nor will you get any discussion at all about her oranges case from me in this apples thread...(I realize you seem to have a "thing" about wanting to bring Jane Fonda in to just about every discussion, but I'll not be joining you down that rabbit hole...)

Now, regarding the questions you ask that are actually relevant to this discussion:

The grotesquely misnamed "United Constitutional Patriots" are nothing but a terrorizing band of criminals, who are violating a whole host of laws (impersonating federal agents, unlawful detention, etc.) enacted by the elected representatives both of the US generally and the state of New Mexico; laws enacted under the authority of the Constitution . Also, the Constitution explicitly makes the enforcement of borders the responsibility of the government; Article IV Section 4:

The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiv


These facts put this outlaw gang in direct opposition to the Constitution, and hence makes their actions "anti-Constitutional". People who genuinely respect the Constitution do not seek to impose their personal judgement over that of the law-based elected representatives of the people, nor do they willfully violate it's specific provisions. These criminals have done both.

Genuinely patriotic people do not do those things either...

Now, this next bit that I'm going to say should go without saying, but since you have a demonstrated penchant for drawing some pretty bizarre comparisons and equivalences, (the equivalence you attempted to make between Oskar Schindler and contemporary American Neo-Nazi thugs being one that immediately springs to mind) I'm going to go ahead and say it, and try to preempt any of that sort of thing:

Perhaps you would like to argue something like, "Well yes, technically they're breaking the law, but what they're doing is "civil disobedience"; they're breaking what they believe to be unjust laws. They're like the protestors during the civil rights movement who broke the Jim Crow laws in the south"...

Laying aside the multitude of ways in which such a comparison would be grossly inappropriate (laws against impersonating government law enforcement agents and kidnapping can hardly be compared to laws denying people the right to public accommodations based on race) let me point out that those folks were ready to (and in fact in many cases did) get arrested go to jail for their law breaking...

I don't see any sort of similar willingness on the part of the members of this gang of terrorizing vigilante criminals...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Farrago - you've seen the movie! Now see the hit TV series!

X was unpatriotic - being unpatriotic is not a crime

A US citizen can support the foreign policy, but they can’t oppose it overseas - a US citizen can oppose any policy of the USA whether foreign or domestic whenever and wherever they choose. What they can't do is break the laws, all of which are functional dependencies of the Constitution and grounded only in that same Constitution.

. . . could have avoided being a traitor by surrendering her citizenship before going to North Vietnam - didn't work in 1861 and wouldn't now