Seems as how you are hell bent on stirring the pot then let me elaborate on the last page and a half as you obviously did not read everything that I have wrote. None of use wanted to disarm anyone. Do you know what Posse Comitatus is?? if not, then I suggest you read up on it. It was temporarily suspended therefore martial law was invoked.
I thank you for bringing this overall matter into the light of day, and I only thank you for that, and that alone. I can say that your above statement that I quoted has caused me some anxiety, because it does not work in the instance you describe. The Posse Comitatus Act was a Congressional Act, not an Executive Order. The office of the POTUS approved of it. You were well within your right to refuse an order for a contract that you didn't have from any agency of the U.S. government, for a situation that you had no legal basis or precedent to be involved with anyway. You had no jurisdiction from anyone, and that was based on everything you have said so far.
Plenty of people have hurt other people thinking that all they were doing was helping. Sad, and true. Phrases like "The Greater Good" often get repeated at this time, and attitudes like "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." A great danger lies in that thinking, and history has already shown that more than once.
I will agree that there has been and continues to be a huge distortion by the media on what they term as "mercenaries"(I prefer private security personnel as the historical definition is of a big difference). Inaccurate reporting is more prevalent then not, with more opinion being given then fact. I could go on with this for an entire page, and give my own personal experiences, and my other opinion that a slave level warrior caste system currently exists, but that would be entirely off topic, as this is about a book, but this is a relevant topic that was participated in by the book's author.
I would like to make these points too...
The first branch of the Army that George Washington created was the JAG Corps, out of respect for the rule of law.
The National Incident Command System doesn't authorize any violation of any of the Bill of Rights, or the violation of the Constitution. It's a system to properly manage emergency assets on a large scale. How it made it into this discussion, as a talking point, I haven't a clue, but it was used incorrectly. I've set up command at some incidents before, and as with any command, you will answer for everything you, or the team members under your command do. The idea of any command during a critical incident is to create, and maintain a semblance of order among the chaos. Someone will try and twist my words in this regard, and they would be incorrect in doing so, as it doesn't give you any right to disarm any peaceful law abiding citizen during any major emergency if no hostile intent or action is given. You might be okay if you were in an instance where a tornado had completely demolished a group of homes, and you spotted a firearm lying in the middle of a public street, unattended, and took possession of it, with the intent of returning it to it's rightful owner and providing some security for the property from theft. Even then it is still a grey area, as with any command or action you will give, you will answer for. The NICS does not make anyone above the laws currently in place.
Lincoln, and the Congressional Session at the time, during the Civil War, suspended Habeas Corpus, and the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional.
I, in my final closing(may the impatient rejoice), have this to say...
This is clear proof that we need to make American History mandatory in grade schools across the country first and foremost before World History. Our own failings at understanding our own laws are becoming more prevalent, and the weeds of our own ignorance will strangle the garden of our liberty.
Don't you find it tragically ironic that our country will allow citizens in foreign countries, where there was an insurgency against our own troops, to own, keep, and operate fully automatic AK-47s to defend themselves against armed thieves, and terrorist groups, but yet a similar instance occurs on U.S. soil out of the wake of a natural disaster, and American citizens are disarmed and their 2nd Amendment rights, and Constitutional rights, and liberty and freedom, are violated for the sole reason of security, and.... It's o-fucking-kay?
