Accused leader of plot to kidnap Michigan governor was struggling financially, living in basement st

[reACTIONary]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by applegrove (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post

Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf said he met Null several years ago when Null came to his office to vent about the Black Lives Matter movement. Leaf said Null wanted to start his own cause: My Life Matters, which he would eventually turn into what he called the Michigan Liberty Militia.

Leaf said he would periodically run into Null at gun rights rallies in the state, and he “seemed to be a very concerned, straight shooting guy.” During the Flint water crisis, Leaf said, Null told him he drove to Flint to pass out water bottles alongside those involved in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Leaf said that in May, he was invited to speak at a protest of Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions, and Null and others associated with him provided security. Leaf, who is opposed to the restrictions and what he views as government overreach, said he invited Null on stage to make a point about self-described militias being the last line of defense for people’s rights if government fails. Leaf said he had no indication that Null was plotting to kidnap Whitmer, or that he was capable of that.

“That’s why this is so shocking to me,” Leaf said. “I did not see this coming. Had I caught wind they were even talking about this, I would have stopped it immediately.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/kidnap-plot-whitmer-fox-militia/2020/10/09/ce81751a-0a65-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html

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I'm shocked, shocked I say, that an armed domestic terrorist who is introduced by law enforcement on stage as the "last line of defense for people’s rights if government fails" could be involved in such a plot! It is so unbelievable! It defies all reasonable expectation!

[packman]

1. Sheriff Leaf has fallen off the tree of reality

and needs to resign if he has no faith in the mechanics of government.

[XanaDUer2]

2. Leaf needs to be investigated

There's more there than meets the eye

[orangecrush]

16. Hopefully that is happening

As we speak.

[PatSeg]

30. Yeah, sounds really fishy

[Grins]

3. "I did not see this coming."

I did. And I live in Virginia.

I saw it the day those gun humping thugs showed up in the Mich. state legislature.

And at the Mall in DC during the Obama years where they carried signs saying they were unarmed “this time.” When they showed up armed and angry at town halls around the country over health care, or Agenda 21, or “Jade Helm-15”. And at the Bundy Ranch standoff, at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, in Las Vegas, and Tucson, and Charleston, and El Paso, and Dayton, and Kenosha, and when Palin spoke of “2nd Amendment remedies” that were echoed by Trump, etc.

If you, a Sheriff, didn’t see any of this coming, well, maybe you are really bad at your job. And should QUIT.

[genxlib]

5. It's been cooking for 30 years

Oklahoma City should have been a wake-up call but the GOP are simply happy to look the other way while they festered.

Anyone who didn't see it coming didn't want to see it coming.

[Sneederbunk]

14. Remember the Minutemen during the JFK era?

This country has always had meatballs.

[turbinetree]

22. How about the John Birchers, they are still around

[Salviati]

21. They aren't looking away, they're encouraging it.

This is a large part of the base that they've been courting.

[BusyBeingBest]

4. Why are civilians "providing security" for the sheriff?

What sort of fucked up place is Michigan?

[iluvtennis]

23. + agree. nt

[bottomofthehill]

6. This guy is a cross between Barney Fife and Beaufort T Pusser.

What a fucking moron.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Wait, is he the guy who hacked the DNC in 2016?

Sarcasm aside, you don't have to be brilliant and successful in life to blow up bombs and shoot people.

[paleotn]

8. Null...good name for him....

Like the contents of his brain. Null.

[paleotn]

9. And while we're at it...

Instead of tilting at windmills,...Null...., why don't you go out, get yourself some marketable skills and join the rest of us in the productive society. Bootstraps, buddy. Bootstraps. If you think that works for everyone else, than it works for you too.

[AllaN01Bear]

25. thats the first thing they tell us, pull yourselves up by your bootstraps .

[Sneederbunk]

12. Nil would be better.

[Laelth]

10. If I had known, "I would have shut it down immediately."

How, Sheriff? How could you possibly “shut down” what this terrorist organization was planning if you were not intimately involved in the organization? In fact, it appears that you were closely involved, and that makes you culpable. Presently, you are running for cover and trying to distance yourself from this criminal organization, but it’s clear that you were involved.

How else could you “shut it down immediately” if you were not involved?



-Laelth

[SergeStorms]

15. Unfortunately a lot of Sheriff's departments around the country...

are right up to their elbows in these "militias". They're members of these rag-tag groups of misanthropes, or at the very least friends of them. Town or Village PDs are also "friends" to these misfits. It's a serious situation that needs to be investigated completely, but the FBI just doesn't have the work force needed to keep up with all of them.

[AllaN01Bear]

26. yeah riggghhht sherrif. needs to be un elected if a electible post.

[KPN]

11. Sounds like Leaf needs to be investigated himself. No wonder he's shocked ... nt

[Sneederbunk]

13. Leaf is about to be scrutinized.

[Vinca]

17. There is something funny about these characters. I think they all are relying on the

demon government to provide them legal representation. Hope they rot in jail forever.

[yaesu]

18. The fascists repukes with the aid of the likes of Fox propaganda have these people blaming

"those people" for all their problems when its the top 1% owning 80% of all the wealth in this country who created their economic mess.

[IronLionZion]

19. No one could have seen this coming

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Further, Sheriff was using militia for security, not officers! . . . nt

[Roy Rolling]

24. Exactly!

A sheriff who hires domestic terrorists as bodyguards when he gives a speech.

Why is he scared that exercising his 1st Amendment right of free speech will provoke violence? Is he a “peace officer” or not? Because an armed militia threatening those who disagree with him seems a bit unpeaceful.

[Marcuse]

27. White Supremacist Links to Law Enforcement Are an Urgent Concern

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/white-supremacist-links-law-enforcement-are-urgent-concern

Of course, one doesn’t need access to secret FBI terrorism investigations to find evidence of explicit racism within law enforcement. Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia, among other states. Research organizations have uncoveredhundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement officials participating in racist, nativist, and sexist social media activity, which demonstrates that overt bias is far too common.

Law enforcement officials actively affiliating with white supremacist and far-right militant groups pose a serious threat to people of color, religious minorities, LGBTQ people, and anti-racist activists. But the police response to nationwide protests that followed the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, includes a number of law enforcement officers across the country flaunting their affiliation with far-right militant groups.

A veteran sheriff’s deputy monitoring a Black Lives Matter protest in Orange County, California, wore patches with logos of the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers — far-right militant groups that often challenge the federal government’s authority — affixed to his bullet-proof vest.

In Philadelphia, police officers failed to intervene when mostly white mobs armed with bats, clubs, and long guns attacked journalists and protesters. The district attorney has vowed to investigate the matter. The following month, however, Philadelphia police officers openly socialized with several men wearing Proud Boys' regalia and carrying the group’s flag at a “Back the Blue” party at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge.

But, however small, the presence of active white supremacists in law enforcement must be treated as a matter of urgent concern. As Professor Johnson has argued, the criminal justice system “can never achieve its purported goal of fairness while white supremacists continue to hide within police departments.”


[link:http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/402521/doc-26-white-supremacist-infiltration.pdf|

[pm_me_grey_paint]

28. Talk about white washing these white terrorists

Black dude sells some weed to make ends meet: GENERATIONAL POVERTY IS NO EXCUSE! OFF TO PRISON FOR YOU!

White dude tries to kidnap a sitting governor: Oh poor baby. Have a heart and some empathy, he's just suffering from some economic anxiety and besides his girlfriend dumped him.

[MrsCheaplaugh]

39. Exactly. Well put.

[cab67]

29. is this Leaf tosser up for re-election this year?

("Leaf tosser" is both a slight and, for birders, a play on words. There's actually a group of birds in South America called "leaf tossers." Your life has now been enriched with this useless knowledge. You're welcome.)

But seriously - if he's on the ballot, hopefully the voters will have the good sense to see to his replacement.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Sheriff Leaf tries to excuse the accused as "maybe trying to make an arrest"

Link to tweet

Sheriff Leaf said:

It's just a charge, and they say a plot to kidnap, but you gotta remember ... are they trying to kidnap? Cause a lot of people are angry with the Governor and, uh, they want her arrested. So are they trying to arrest or was it a kidnap attempt. Cause you can still, in Michigan, if it's a felony, you can make a felony arrest.[...] And it doesn't say that if you're in elected office that you're exempt from that arrest. So I have to look at it from that angle and I'm hoping that's more of what it is.

On Friday, Sheriff Leaf came back and said that he wasn't making excuses for their behavior, but rather that he was trying ensure they got a fair trial.

https://www.wonkette.com/maybe-attempted-whitmer-kidnappers-were-just-trying-throw-her-a-surprise-party-huh

[marble falls]

36. He's only a haircut, and three showers away from looking just like them. Who does his ironing ...

his Labrador? Who might his daddy be?

[radical noodle]

38. This makes me think he's on their side

Maybe it was just gonna be an "arrest."

[keithbvadu2]

40. Citizens' arrest? So he would support the Black Panthers or BLM doing the same thing, eh?

So he would support the Black Panthers or BLM doing the same thing, eh?

Right?

[Upthevibe]

32. reACTIOnary.....Thanks for this post....

Good Lord! How in the world could he have seen that coming?????

[keithbvadu2]

33. The 'sheriff' is either not very observant or is immune.

The 'sheriff' is either not very observant or is immune.

The basement dweller is 'anti-police".

Does the sheriff think that the militia/terrorists would hesitate to kill him if he attempted to follow the law?

[marble falls]

34. The really disturbing part of the Sheriff's comments ...

"Had I caught wind they were even talking about this, I would have stopped it immediately."

He'da buried it. Even money says he's one of them, card holding or not.

[marble falls]

35. Only the best people.

[GulfCoast66]

37. Does the governor in Michigan have the ability to strip a sheriff of their power? Like in Florida.

If so, the day after the election she should do so. For giving aid and comfort to a domestic terrorist.

[applegrove]

41. LOCKING

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