re welcome to police state usa in article c si g hx dscomsa desy de hallam dscomsa desy de phill hallam baker writes in article apr cc usu edu slp k cc usu edu writes the batf should have left at the beginning they should have looked at koresh s personality instead they thought they have guns we have bigger guns let s go get em they botched it from day one they shouldn t have been there in the first place the above conveniently ignores the murder of four batf agents by the branch davidians in an unprovoked ambush as you re no doubt aware phill there are probably five or six different mutually contradictory versions of the events in waco on feb all of which are from reputable news sources ranging the the associated press to time to newsweek some of the earliest reports issued by the ap were not at all flattering the to batf and produced some question as to who fired first now for all i know you were there to witness it but i kind of doubt that any government that allows tinpot dictators to set up shop and declare a private state has drifted into anarchy there are laws to control the ownership of guns and the batf had good reason to beleive that they were being violated they set out to obtain a legal warrant and attempted to serve it only to be met with gunfire when they rang the doorbell the batf in a letter they ve been sending out to people says both that they were ambushed because they lost the element of surprise and that they went up and knocked on the door and had it slammed in their faces it strikes me as kind of strange to rely on surprise to serve a warrant by knocking on the door there are at least questions that need to be answered the paranoid assertion that the batf fired first in an unprovoked assault assumes that the batf were on a death wish this paranoid assertation was made by witnesses to the original assault who stated that the batf initiated hostilities by throwing concussion grenades and reported by the associated press had they expected the b d to be anything other than peacefull citizens who would accept a search authorized by a court they would have turned up in a tank and broken the door down on day one phill the batf were in a firefight with the bd for forty five minutes i find it hard to believe that if they were expecting peaceful citizens they wouldn t have shown up in live stock trailers and would have retreated immediately if they were expecting peacful citizens why show up with over a hundred officers some of which clearly visible on video to be carrying sub machineguns and national guard helicopters i don t know who did what but as i said there are questions that need to be answered david veal univ of tenn div of cont education info services group pa utkvm utk edu i still remember the way you laughed the day your pushed me down the elevator shaft i m beginning to think you don t love me anymore weird al
