Chapter 22
“ The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
President Johnson made a short, pointed videotaped statement from the Oval Office. “My fellow Americans, events over the last several months have forced our nation to look at how we protect the American public, our elected officials and our military from domestic threats of terrorism.
“As we learned from 9/11, terrorism is not confined to some distant country. We must realize that terrorism and terrorists can and do operate within our borders and, as much as we would like to ignore this fact, it could be your neighbor right down the street.
“I have listened to law enforcement officials and the American public. They are tired of the old arguments of the past that have encouraged the rise of violence here at home. It is unacceptable for groups that present a clear and present danger to our country to be allowed to purchase, obtain and own firearms.
“I have signed an executive order, effective today, that prohibits those groups from obtaining and owning firearms. Make no mistake; this is NOT an attack on the Second Amendment. By definition, the types of groups and members of those groups that have been identified can be considered enemy combatants. In the same way we would limit enemy combatants’ access to firearms and the ammunition of those firearms, we will do so under this executive order.”
Pausing for effect and looking sternly into the camera, the president continued. “My most cherished responsibility is to protect every man, woman and child in America, and I will do so unashamedly.”
The administration, buoyed by poll numbers showing the majority of Americans supported such actions, underestimated the ferocity of the opposition mounting from the typical places, and from some places not so typical, to oppose the administration.
Immediately, the president of the National Rifle Association conducted a press conference calling Johnson’s executive order, “The most serious frontal attack on American liberty and the Second Amendment in the history of the United States Constitution.”
Even the ACLU expressed concerns over the combination of the NDAA with the order. It was apparent that rage over the order was building within various caucuses of Congress. The Tea Party Caucus, which had largely gone silent since election night, was back in front of the cameras as a group, stating concerns about how the government might classify a terrorist organization, especially the Tea Party.
* * *
Chuck and Stan were wrapping up their Tea Party executive committee meeting at the lake house of one of the members. It was almost as if the cell phones of all twelve members of the executive committee started going off at once with a cacophony of ring tones and text messages.
Colton had sent a text to his dad. “Dad—get home right now. Police are here.” Chuck dialed home, his wife’s cell, and his son’s cell and got no answer.
The rest of the small group was in a panic. It was clear homes of the executive committee members were being raided at the exact same moment.
Mumford was especially agitated. When he got a call from his wife, it was clear there was a scuffle before the phone went dead.
The executive committee members sped away from the lake house. Now their homes and families were under attack.
When Mumford got to his street, he saw that it was sealed off by the ATF and local law enforcement.
“I live down this street, and I want to get to my family right now,” Mumford yelled at the ATF officer who came to his driver’s side window.
“What is your name, sir?”
“Stan Mumford,” Mumford replied, clearly irritated.
“Step out of the vehicle, Mr. Mumford.”
“Why?” Mumford demanded.
“Just step out of the vehicle now,” shouted the officer. Several others surrounded Mumford’s F-250 truck, with weapons pointed towards the ground but clearly ready.
“Where are my wife and children?”
“Just get out of the vehicle,” the officer repeated.
Mumford put his hands where the officers could see them, and the ATF officer opened the driver’s door. Mumford stepped out.
As an officer put his hands on Mumford’s arm as if to fold it behind his back for handcuffs, he pulled back violently.
“What the hell? You have no right to handcuff me. I am just trying to get to my home and my family.”
“Mr. Mumford, put your hands behind your back now,” screamed several officers at the same time. Just then, Mumford saw his wife and three children sitting in the back of a van on bench seats four homes down from the intersection.
“Why is my family in that goddamn van? What the hell is wrong with you people?”
Mumford noted that his wife and kids turned to see the commotion down the street, not knowing until then that Stan’s arrival was causing the commotion.
Glancing at his house, Mumford saw agents carrying guns, files and computers out of the house into another waiting van. Mumford began walking toward his house as agents drew down on him, yelling at him to stop and put his hands behind his head.
“Are you freakin’ kidding me?” Mumford roared. “Let me go see if my wife and kids are okay.”
Mumford, who was six foot four and about 320 pounds, was wearing an untucked oversized Hawaiian button-down, short-sleeved shirt.
“Put your hands up and get on the ground!”
“I have a bad back,” Mumford said, putting his hands up like a touchdown was just scored and then lowering them to about three-quarters of where he started. “You can handcuff me, but I want to see my family, please.”
“Put your hands behind your back, now!” shouted one of the ATF agents. By now, seven agents had guns openly drawn on Mumford.
“Okay, okay, okay... Jesus!” Mumford whimpered.
He slowly put both hands behind his back so he could be cuffed. As he did, his right hand edged his shirt up over his belt, exposing the holster containing his Ruger .380 handgun. He tried to pull his shirt back over the weapon.
“He’s going for his gun!” shouted the original ATF agent who got him out of his truck and was now positioned behind Mumford.
Shots rang out and for a few seconds, Mumford stood motionless with a look of disbelief on his face. Then he crumpled, his head and face smacking the concrete street with a sickening noise. Screams came from the van holding Mumford’s family.
The agents shot Mumford six times. He was dead before he hit the ground. They began shouting orders and incoherent epithets at Mumford’s motionless body, now lying in a spreading pool of blood.
* * *
The situation at Chuck’s house mirrored Mumford’s, and was apparently going down in the exact same manner all over Texas and several other states where Tea Party members had been targeted.
As Chuck pulled onto his street, he was pulled from his vehicle and handcuffed. Unlike Mumford, however, Chuck was allowed to talk to his wife and son before he was put in a separate van. He witnessed federal agents as they carried files, computers and guns from his home to waiting vans, where each item removed was apparently inventoried.
The lead ATF agent opened the rear door to the van holding Chuck. “I need the combination to your safe,” said the agent.
“Where’s your warrant? Let me see your search warrant!” Chuck was furious; none of the agents had offered him a warrant, and he damned sure wasn’t going to give them the combination to his twenty-five gun safe.
“I don’t need a warrant, Mr. Dixon. You’re part of a terrorist organization, an enemy of the state. You are an enemy combatant who doesn’t get the rights of a U.S. citizen. Now give me the goddamn combination!” The agent’s voice rose angrily.
“Go fuck yourself,” Chuck roared. “I want an attorney. Let my family go!”
“We’ll just be here that much longer and your family will be held in detention for as long as it takes,” yelled the agent. He slammed the rear cargo doors.
The agents huddled to discuss options regarding the safe. Chuck hoped his wife and son could read his lips as he tried to reassure them through the van windows they would be okay.
About thirty minutes passed before a heavily-armored SWAT vehicle with what appeared to be a gun turret showed up. The agents got together with SWAT officers on Chuck’s front lawn.
As Chuck watched, the armored vehicle went over the curb right for his house. His memory flashed back to images of Waco, where tanks punched holes into the compound that eventually caught fire and so many died at the hands of some of these same agencies.
The armored vehicle punched several holes right into Chuck’s study. It went back and forth, tearing down brick, mortar, windows and framing. He glanced over at his wife in the next van. She raised both hands over her face as if to block the carnage, but peeked through her fingers, unable to keep herself from watching as her home was destroyed.
To Chuck’s horror, the vehicle’s protruding arm ravaged the beautiful built-in cabinetry that he’d had a carpenter custom build to fit around the large safe. In a matter of two minutes, the entire cabinetry and wall around the safe were gone, and people on the street could see all the way through the house to the rear door. Pieces of the ceiling and load-bearing structural framing started to fall.
Two SWAT personnel in full riot gear entered the huge hole and wrapped a heavy link chain around the safe. They pulled the chain until there was no slack, then hooked it onto the armored vehicle.
The vehicle backed up. As it started to pull the safe through the rubble, the safe turned over on its side. The destructive vehicle continued to pull the safe all the way to the street, gouging the lawn and the sidewalk. Within a few minutes, the long protrusion arm and ten agents positioned the safe on the lift-gate of a waiting Ryder rental truck. The lift-gate was activated, and the safe was raised and pushed inside for transport.
Fox affiliates in Dallas and Houston were the first news outlets to broadcast news about the raids. Local officials, including some law enforcement officials, blasted the federal government for conducting the raids only hours after the executive order was made public, for not keeping local law enforcement informed of operations in their jurisdictions, and for the nature of the raids.
In addition to Stan Mumford, two other Tea Party members were shot and killed. Two ATF agents were wounded in gunfire, one who died several hours later. The mainstream media pounced on this news as clear indicators that Tea Party members were heavily armed and dangerous.
At 10:10 p.m., Governor Cooper issued a statement:
“The federal government, particularly the Justice Department, has conducted unprecedented and unconstitutional acts tonight in the sovereign state of Texas. Not only were warrantless searches and seizures conducted on our citizenry, but three Texans lost their lives at the hands of government agents.
“Texas will not stand for this treasonous overreach by the executive branch. I have reached out to both President Johnson and Atty. Gen. Tibbs for an immediate explanation for the illegal operations conducted tonight. I have not had the courtesy of a return phone call or an explanation of federal government activities into the private affairs of Texans. This is not acceptable and the good people of Texas will NOT stand for it.”
* * *
The DOJ conducted coordinated raids in other states—Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, South Carolina—on the same day as the raids in Texas. One Tea Party member in South Carolina was killed and a federal agent was shot and wounded in Arizona.
The administration, which had now identified the Tea Party and any faction, group or organization with pro-Tea Party ideologies as terrorist organizations under the NDAA, was now engaged in full-scale warfare against these groups. The Justice Department authorized wiretaps, surveillance, and confiscation of firearms, computers, and records. It even went so far as to freeze the personal and business bank accounts of Tea Party members.