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””

  2. Once again we see how the morons sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States have never read and obviously do not understand the concept of free speech.Like the Nazis they are they would harass and [persecute anyone who does not share their simplistic belief that the government is always right. Vote this fascist out of office when you have the opportunity. Jomo

  3. RANDYJET:

    I did not know the UN had anything to do with WWII. can you elaborate please?

    1. Bron, the UN is the name for OUR side in WWII. It was first coined by Churchill and FDR at the Atlantic meeting before the US entered WWII. Then FDR made it one of his main goals for the post war world, and at Tehran and later Yalta, they formalized its founding with a conference in San Francisco before Japan was defeated. The UN is FIRST and foremost a MILITARY alliance which as its old preamble stated had as its goal the defeat of Japan. That is why Switzerland refused to join for decades because it would compromise its policy of neutrality.

  4. Arthur Randolph Erb 1, May 3, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    Dredd, While I am a fan of Stone, he is not a good provider of real history. It is more like reel history.
    =======================================
    The videos of the President, Cabinet, Foreign leaders, and Japanese cables do not lie.

    They are walkie talkies and are there for everyone to see.

    Have you watched that episode?

    You might also want to read the book “Kill Anything That Moves” based on papers produced by the Pentagon that were placed in the National Archives and not read until recently.

    You won’t believe them either.

    I am only an fan of the facts, reality, and the truth.

    Thanks for the counter argument though.

    1. Try using some logic and reasoning for a change Dredd. SImply calling them Japs, niggers, etc proves nothing at all. In FACT, Truman desegregated the US military and ran on a desegregation platform in 1948. Now if you come up with a clip or document from Truman saying that ” I think my commission is full of crap, and I overrule them. The bomb WILL be dropped on Japan,” THEN I will buy that Truman had ulterior motives for using the bomb. Absent any such documents or proof, you show NOTHING at all. As I recall, only Adm Leahy was opposed to using the bomb without warning who was on the committee. The father and main brain behind the bomb, Oppenheimer voted IN FAVOR of its use in warfare as was done. He later paid a bitter price for trying to stop the immediate building of an H bomb program. He thought the US should negotiate with the Soviet Union and put in international controls before proceeding to develop the H bomb.

      The Japanese did NOT agree to surrender before the bombs were dropped. In FACT they wanted to negotiate which the United Nations had said was NOT an option.I have read all of the cables that are used in this debate and NONE of them meet the demands of the UN. The only course open was to unconditionally surrender in the SAME way Germany had. Think that Germany was trying to make peace because Himmler was trying to negotiate a surrender? Think that the nasty Russians had NO need to take Berlin?

      What the hell Vietnam has to do with dropping the A bomb is a mystery to any rational person.

  5. IndyRes 1, May 3, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    So according to the “sheriff” people like Thomas Paine, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson et.al. should have been reported to the British government.

    Using his logic anyone who has a grudge against someone will be calling the sheriff. How much time will that leave the sheriff’s department to investigate real crime?
    ===================================
    That is how a lot of innocent people got to Gitmo.

    Sherrif Oilah Akbar of Afghanistan …

  6. Didn’t they have a program like this in the 18th Century: The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights? Rumor has it that there is even an amendment process with that program. So why are they asking for $3 million?

  7. I hate government!

    Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who on pretence of managing the public only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill acquired, and then that they may engage the poor to toil and labor for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please. ~ Thomas More Utopia

  8. I repeat, this is the Supreme Sheriff of Palm Beach County. As I’ve mentioned before on Prof’s Pages… this is the same Sheriff whose army has shot and killed 13, at last count, of our citizens on their own properties, places of business, etc., and NO ONE has demanded an independent investigation into these likely crimes. Bradshaw has yet to ask for, or initiate such a process (let alone, in good faith). A Sheriff dedicated to the relief from life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

  9. Is this guy any relation to McCarthy? Maybe there is something in the belief of reincarnation

  10. Our local government is close enough to control, it’s the state & federal ones I hate….but then I wouldn’t shoot or blow up innocent people…Geez they are in the same boat as me!! LoL

  11. anonymous:

    I called the guy and he said they are only concerned with people talking about shooting other people. Its ok, they are the government.

    he specifically told me, when I asked if a neighbor could use it for a grudge, no they couldnt it isnt allowed.

    so I hope you feel better.

  13. Using his logic anyone who has a grudge against someone will be calling the sheriff. (IndyRes)

    True.

  16. rafflaw:

    you are wrong, I called and the guy said you can hate the government as much as you are able just dont shoot anybody.

  17. Absolutely love Robin’s comment – the real heart of the matter – government servants hating their own oath of office!

  18. Headquarters
    Map – Driving Directions
    3228 Gun Club Road
    West Palm Beach, FL 33406
    (561) 688-3000

    Dial 0 and ask for the person who is taking hate the government calls. He is a nice young man and says that this is only for people making threatening statements. It is perfectly OK to say you hate the government and that your neighbor cannot just call and say you hate the government. You also have to say you want to shoot the mayor or the sheriff before the police will take action.

    I feel so much better now.

    The sad part is that the kid thought he was doing something good for society.

    if someone is talking about shooting someone, call 911.

  19. So according to the “sheriff” people like Thomas Paine, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson et.al. should have been reported to the British government.

    Using his logic anyone who has a grudge against someone will be calling the sheriff. How much time will that leave the sheriff’s department to investigate real crime?

  20. I recall this was happening in a lot of states in the 1960s and 1970s. The postmaster in our small Oregon town felt it was his patriotic duty to report suspicious magazine subscriptions and was even opening packages containing books to monitor the reading material of local residents. It was common knowledge in our community that those of us who expressed opposition to the Vietnam war, were on a list and we knew who the informants were–members of the ver conservative churches. (The Presbyterians and Catholics were already marked as being suspect by these “true” Christians.) So the Sheriff of Nuttingham is simply going back to what they started a few decades ago.

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