GET OFF MY LAWN!!

I would like to thank Senator Bob Jauch and Representative Janet Bewley for providing a few laughs yesterday--on what was a very hectic and stressful day for those of us in the local news business.  Jauch and Bewley are "horrified" that armed guards have been placed at the site of the Gogebic Taconite mine--and they want them removed before somebody gets hurt.

Nevermind that the armed guards didn't show up until AFTER the mine site was vandalized by 15-people wearing masks and scarves over their faces--and after workers on the site were threatened with personal harm.  Originally, G-TAC posted signs and had "friendly" unarmed security personnel on site.  But the protesters decided to up the ante by moving into the sabotage and threatening stage--forcing G-TAC to up the stakes even more.

It's really no different than the group of neighborhood punks terrorizing the old guy on the block.  It starts with the Doorbell Ditch--and the old guy yelling "GET OFF MY LAWN!!'--and then escalates to flaming bags of dog crap left on the porch--and the old guy coming out with his shotgun--sending the kids fleeing in a panic.  Except in this case, multi-million dollar equipment is being damaged as opposed to dog poop getting on the bottom of some slippers.

What makes me laugh is that once again, the Liberals are siding with the criminals in this case.  There was no howl of protest from Jauch and Bewley after the incident in June.  But now those who committed the crimes of damaging equipment and threatening to do harm to other people are hailed as "heroes--fighting against the injustice that has been wrought upon them"--while the security guards who are exercising their Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms and to protect private property are portrayed as "dangerous thugs intent on intimidating those who are 'peacefully' protesting".

Perhaps Jauch and Bewley would prefer that the local taxpayers pick up the cost of protecting the property and employees of Gogebic Taconite by posting an armed sheriff's deputy or two at the mine site 24-hours a day, 7-days a week.  It is the responsibility of law enforcement to not only investigate crimes that have been committed (which they did after the June attack on the site) but to also PREVENT crime.  And since the protesters have already demonstrated a lack of respect for the laws--and have threatened to do so again, the Sheriff would have a responsibility to have someone out there to keep that from happening.  And maybe, Jauch and Bewley should get rid of their own armed security force--the Capitol Police Department. 

I'm going to make a bold prediction: Nobody is going to get shot at the Gogebic Taconite mining site.  The security guards won't open fire on people holding signs on the road or outside of the G-TAC offices and they won't gun down the "reporters" for Indian Country TV and their "hidden" cell phone cameras.  In turn, the protesters will act like adults and no longer commit crimes against the company.