Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Politics, Society

Bring Out Your Reds, Bring Out Your Reds: Florida Sheriff Invites Neighbors To Turn In People Who “Hate The Government”

Home_Bradshaw140px-Palm_Beach_County_Sheriff_OfficePalm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has reached $1 million for a new violence prevention unit and has used it to call on neighbors to inform the police if any neighbors have been saying hostile things about the government.  “We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him . . . What does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything OK?’ ” I have no problem with calling police if someone says that they are going to shoot someone. However, expressing hate for the mayor or government is a core part of free speech and the visit by the police can be viewed as having an obvious chilling effect on speech. He wants $3 million to expand the program.


The launching of the hotline suggested that neighbors should report anti-government neighbors. The hotline is designed to have police knock on doors of any citizen viewed as anti-government and potentially violent. Bradshaw insists that “Every single incident, whether it’s Newtown, that movie theater, or the guy who spouts off at work and then goes home and kills his wife and two kids — in every single case, there were people who said they knew ahead of time that there was a problem. If the neighbor of the mom in Newtown had called somebody, this might have saved 25 kids’ lives.”

That may be true but there are millions of people who express a hatred for the government or their local mayor. There are also millions of neighbors who have problems with other neighbors over local issues or political views or religious affiliation. The hotline is viewed by civil libertarians of encouraging neighborhood monitoring and databases identifying “problem” citizens.

What do you think?

73 thoughts on “Bring Out Your Reds, Bring Out Your Reds: Florida Sheriff Invites Neighbors To Turn In People Who “Hate The Government””

  1. This kind of “leadership” makes it to the top during war daze.

    I have been watching Oliver Stone’s The Untold History of The United States (Show Time). The Episode I watched last night was “The Bomb”.

    I don’t want to be a spoiler, so I will just say during that time our President constantly and consistently called African Americans the n word, and Japanese Americans he called … well … never mind you can imagine since they put them in concentration camps.

    The nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan to try to bring Russia into line, not to save American lives.

    Propaganda was very strong then.

    1. Dredd, While I am a fan of Stone, he is not a good provider of real history. It is more like reel history. The fact is that I once thought the use of the nukes were to deter the Soviet Union. The problem with that scenario is that the Soviets were our VERY good friends and the US was shipping massive amounts of war material to them at that time with the promise from them that they would join in the war on Japan. I have done extensive reading on this from all sources, and points of view. The fact is that Truman used the weapon based on the recommendation of the committee he appointed to make recommendations on its use.

      The use of the bomb WAS absolutely necessary in fact, and one has to remember that it took not one but TWO bombs to convince them to accept the Potsdam declaration. After reading the Lord Privy Seal diaries, it turns out that even after the second bomb, the cabinet STILL did not want to surrender. It took the unprecedented action of Hirohito to declare his verdict in favor of surrender. The Emperor was NOT supposed to speak or do anything in such meetings, but fortunately he did so that one time.

      The other problem for the theory you advanced is that Stalin knew more about the bomb than Truman did since he knew the exact yield, how much PU was in the core of the second bomb, and what it took to refine U 235. The only effect of the Trinity test shot was to spur Stalin to make his bomb quicker. The Soviets had some doubts about the figures Klaus Fuchs sent them, but when the Trinity bomb was sucessful, they took all his intel as being gospel.

  2. Someone better tell the Sheriff to make sure his thought police are reading the wacky birther and tenther websites. He could fill the jails under his concept of freedom.

  3. Having lived in that toilet with palm trees for a few years I know that there are people there that would be very very happy to call the cops & say their neighbor needs a visit. We had neighbors who called CPS on each other for the same reason – to cause pain.

  5. Ric Bradshaw is a very suspicious guy. Seems like he’s up to no good. I don’t know what his thing is. Yup. Sounds like he’s on drugs or somepin.

  6. I’m sure I’m on a list or two. re: Boston martial law. I wonder what would happen if grandma insisted on seeing a warrant and, if they couldn’t produce it, insisted that they leave. ok, she gets arrested for refusing to obey their illegal orders. then what?

  9. Rick Geissal 1, May 3, 2013 at 11:31 am

    I was once “interviewed” because of my “anti-government” bumper stickers: 1. “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” (Voltaire) and 2. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” (Jimi Hendrix)
    ======================================
    LOL!

  11. The sheriff of Nuttingham.

    “We want people to call us if the guy down the street says he hates the government, hates the mayor and he’s gonna shoot him …”

    Uh oh, right wingers just caught themselves in their own trap … Ted Nugent is going down …

  12. This man does not deserve the Honour of being called a Sheriff.

    This man is trampling on the rights of the citizenry generally AND creating the infrastructure of a police state like was seen in East Germany.

  13. Hell’s bells…Most of us who post here would be doomed in this guy’s district. With that said, I think this bird brain is ‘battschitt’ crazy & should be fired. I watched the video post by Steve Fleischer & it blows my mind. I knew they searched from house to house but did not realize they were storming people’s houses and ordering them out while they entered with assault weapons, etc. That’s scary stuff.

  14. I was once “interviewed” because of my “anti-government” bumper stickers: 1. “It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” (Voltaire) and 2. “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” (Jimi Hendrix)

  15. Wonder what will happen when someone calls the hotline to report the sheriff “hates” the US Constitution and civil rights? Gonna be interesting.

  16. Well, I NEVER thought that I would live to see the thought police actually be sanctioned by law. It has always gone on in the US to some extent, but this is outrageous.

  17. Steve,

    Martial Law…. Coming to a town near you….. This is just a preview….

  18. Rally now…. Palm beach…. You have to be kidding me….. Well the thought police need to control the elite to keep the rest of US in line….

  19. If you want to see what a police “visit” looks like, watch this video from Boston. Looks a lot like martial law to me.

  20. I suspect that most readers/commentators of your column would qualify for a “visit” under the proposed guidelines.

    The U.S. has a history of passing bad laws with the best of intentions. This looks to be another program that we will come to regret.

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