THE WARNING A Novel of America in the Last Days (The End of America Series Book 2) (19 page)

CAMP
CHARLIE - FEMA RE-EDUCATION CAMP

KANSAS
CITY, KANSAS

        
“Shape up, citizen and SHUT
UP.
Now!
This isn’t Club Med, if you
haven’t noticed. I’m
tired
of hearing
your whining. Complain. Complain. Complain. MREs were good enough for the military,
so why are you so much better,
huh
?”

        
FEMA Re-Education Camp Guard Dwayne Hatch was tired of
hearing Camp Charlie’s new detainees grouse about the food, about the housing,
about why they were even there. Can’t they just suck it up and get used to the
fact that their country charged them with violations of the law, they were
convicted and now they have to serve their time? The FEMA Camp had been funded
by Congress, and re-built by RBK, in order to provide housing for Americans
adversely affected by natural catastrophes. The camp’s capacity, fully
populated, was twenty-thousand. Camp Charlie now had over sixteen-thousand
five-hundred residents, over twenty percent of whom were children. All held
under ‘protective custody’.

        
Camp Charlie was originally a retro fitting facility to
re-build Amtrak trains. As such, it was served by connecting train lines from
all areas of the country. Thus, transporting guests to the facility was easy
and cheap. The federal FEMA camp was surrounded by ten foot high fences topped
with coils of razor wire, facing inward. Oversized industrial-sized
incinerators had been newly installed. Visitors were only allowed during a two
hour period on Sunday afternoon. No local media were allowed inside the
facility and all cameras, laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices
were seized from residents upon their admission to Camp Charlie. National media
had no interest in reporting on the camps.

        
Bill Benner still couldn’t believe that he was there. How,
he wondered, could I be charged and convicted of violating the law, just
because I’m a church leader and for joining my city’s Tea Party organization? I
wasn’t even an officer of the group. I only went to two or three meetings. I
regularly received Tea Party e-mail solicitations for funds and announcements
of meetings, which also encouraged me to turn out and vote in elections. Since
when did being an elder in an evangelical church constitute a hate crime? He’d
heard rumors that such arrests were happening to pastors and church leaders of
certain churches around the country. How could any of this violate the law?

        
Though he still couldn’t believe it, he’d heard the official
charges when the federal judge in his case issued his ruling from his elevated
bench in the federal building the day Bill was convicted. As bad as the bogus
charges were, though, Bill was much more agitated by the fact that he was
convicted in a group of defendants. Bill’s best friend, a lawyer, told Bill the
bad news that the Department of Justice had convinced a federal appeals court
that charges, trials and convictions of groups of associated domestic terrorist
defendants and their mass sentencing were all constitutional. Thus, Bill’s
trial was conducted in a large assembly room in a federal government building,
along with over two hundred and fifty other defendants. The trial lasted two
days. All two hundred and fifty defendants were represented by only one
attorney, selected by the judge.

        
The U.S. District Attorney argued that each defendant had
violated the Lawrence McAlister Hate Speech and Hate Weapons Elimination Bill.
The government alleged that the defendants, by joining the Tea Party, receiving
communications over the government-regulated internet and on occasion attending
meetings had violated the hate speech provisions of the law. Words criticizing
the President contained in the e-mail to Tea Party members and recorded at
their meetings by undercover federal agents were offered as proof of hate
speech. The law prohibited criticizing public officials, including of course,
the nation’s Chief Executive. Bill’s pastor’s sermon in support of the Biblical
view of traditional marriage was offered in evidence to show that his church,
of which he was a leader, violated the McAlister Act.

        
The presiding federal judge had earlier ruled that a jury
would not be allowed to try the defendants, as the jurors “might be needlessly
confused” by the charges. At the conclusion of closing arguments the judge
motioned to his bailiff to hand him a dark green file folder in his possession.
Not looking up at the defendants, the judge opened the file and read to the
defendants the contents of a prepared Order.

        
“This Court having heard the evidence proffered to it by the
United States, by the U.S. District Attorney, and by the attorney for the
several defendants, Mr., uh, Mr….I don’t have that name here….you know who you
are….the Court now rules that the burden of proof has been met by the
government. Therefore, the Court finds and rules that the defendants,
each
of you, has violated the Lawrence
McAlister Hate Speech and Hate Weapons Elimination Act. I find that each
Defendant has engaged in illegal
hate
speech by either participating in the unlawful criticizing of public officials
or by participating in hate speech against protected groups in their respective
churches, or both, in violation of the McAlister Act. “

        
Laying aside the prepared order, the Judge finally looked up
at the convicted Americans packed into his Court Room, “Uh….I should say for
the record. Actually, this isn’t for the record. Madam recorder, please turn
off the device….It’s off?.... OK….I will just say….Some defendants were guilty,
I would say, to a greater extent than others. I must also say that it troubles
me that we are trying you all together as a group. I have multiple problems
with that procedure. But, nevertheless, under new Department of Justice
guidelines and recent court of appeals opinions, I appear to be
required
to try you together and to rule
on your guilt or innocence as a group. This somewhat unusual procedure does
have the advantage of
saving
the
government a great deal of money, as well as complying with the speedy trial
provisions of the law. If that’s any consolation, that is.

        
“Having been convicted, you are all bound over to the U. S. Marshal
to be transported to the nearest FEMA Re-Education Camp. You are ordered
restrained and detained under a form of protective custody at said federal
facility for a period not to exceed twenty-four months, unless new evidence of
anti-government activity is produced. If that should occur your sentence could
be extended and your place of incarceration could be changed to
a federal prison
, which I can assure you
will not be as hospitable as the FEMA Camp. We are
adjourned
.”

        
Five hours later Bill Benner and his fellow defendants were
unloaded at Camp Charlie, each receiving in the left arm a subcutaneous GPS
micro-capsule. When asked its purpose, Camp guards assured the new detainees
that the device was “for your
own good
”.
The words were said with a wry smile, followed by, “it’s just in case you
should happen to escape and get lost, we can be
sure
to find you.”

Offices
of Pitkin County Sheriff Colton Armstrong

Pitkin
County Court House, Aspen, Colorado

        
Sheriff Armstrong was not amused. He had been elected the
Sheriff of Pitkin County by the resident voters of his county. The Sheriff was
well aware of the fact that the Colorado legislature recently enacted a law
allowing the federal Secret Service to usurp his authority as Sheriff. That
didn’t mean, though, that he had to like it. Sheriff Armstrong believed that he
was the one public official in Pitkin County authorized by law to enforce the
laws of the State and the County. Secret Service Agent Barrett, now towering
over the Sheriff’s desk holding a document out for the Sheriff to accept, had a
decidedly different view.

        
“First of all agent….whatever your name is….
sit down
. I will
not
talk with you until you….
sit
down
.”

        
“I’ll do what
I want
,
Armstrong.
Lower
your volume.
Now
.”

        
Sheriff Armstrong waited on the federal agent in his office
to comply with his demand.

        
Secret Service Agent Barrett waited on the Sheriff to take
the extended document.

        
Neither man was willing to move.

        
Finally, Agent Barrett dropped the document on the desk and
took a seat, barking out, “Armstrong.
Read
the paper
. We don’t have
all day
.”

        
The Sheriff waded up the two page document, turned and
nailed the waste basket behind his desk.

        
“Funny,
very
funny. So
that’s
how it’s going to
be, huh, Armstrong?”.

        
Agent Barrett punched the send button on his communication
device, immediately after which three Secret Service Agents pushed through the
door to the Sheriff’s office, two with guns drawn.

        
Sheriff Armstrong reached under his desk, pushed an alert
button and watched as four of his Deputies quickly entered his office. When the
Deputies saw the drawn guns each pulled his own service revolver.

        
“Well, Armstrong, looks like we got ourselves
a Colorado standoff
.”

        
The youngest Deputy, not much liking Agent Barrett’s
attitude and tone of voice, snapped, “That’s
Sheriff
Armstrong to you,
whoever
you think you are….and what are you two guys doing
aiming firearms
at our Sheriff?....Sheriff, what do you want us to
do with these
punks
?”

        
“Sheriff,” Agent Barrett said, using his title for the first
time, “I
seriously
suggest that you
shut down
your pit bull there, before
somebody gets
hurt
, or worse.”

        
“So, you gonna’
shoot
us all, Agent?
Is that it
?”

        
“We’re here for a simple reason, Sheriff, and it’s not to
shoot
you. I’ll leave that up to some
other
agency.”

        
“What’s
that
supposed to mean?”

        
“I’ll let
you
figure it out. Since you apparently won’t
read
the warrant I just served on you, let me
summarize
it for you. Under the law recently adopted by the Colorado General Assembly I
am officially
relieving you
of your
duties, title
and
office as the
Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. The basis of this warrant is that as
Sheriff you have
refused
to enforce
the law regarding firearms in this country and….”

        
“You don’t have
a clue
,
sir, what’s going on out here in the country,
do you?
Where
do you
think the
several million
firearms
that weren’t turned in under the McAlister gun grab bill
are located
? Don’t you know that just in this county
alone
we’ve still got probably a hundred
to hundred and fifty thousand
hidden
firearms
? Don’t you know that if you
actually
try
and kick me out of my office that
anyone
who tries to sit in this chair, to drive my police car, to try and act as a
fake sheriff, will be
gunned down
? My
office was created in 1876 under Article Fourteen, Section 8 of the Colorado
Constitution. Sonny, that was many years before your little office was set up
in DC. We take our history seriously out here, but we take
even more seriously
efforts to take away our sovereign rights. So,
pack
it up, get your sad selves
out
of Pitkin County and
leave us alone
.”

        
“Sheriff, you are making a
really
big mistake. We know you’re an organizer of the National
Sheriffs and Police Chiefs for the Constitution, which is a bunch of
rabble-rousing
law enforcement guys
trying to make
trouble
. But your
buddies
won’t
help you any. You may
not know it, but Texas adopted a similar law. The Colorado General Assembly’s
new law allows our office to
replace
sheriffs who don’t….”

        
“OUT. I’m done.
Get
out, sir
. Our Colorado Constitution can’t be tossed so easily. Go back to
DC and talk to
your lawyers
. We’re
not buying your President’s plan to shut down our God-given rights to
defend ourselves
. Anything about what I
just said that you
don’t understand?
”

        
“Sheriff….Because of your obvious
threat
to commit violence, I am authorized by federal and state law
to
arrest
you
as a domestic terrorist
. Stand up to be cuffed.
Now
.”

        
Earlier over five hundred American Sheriffs and city Police Chiefs
joined together to inform the world that they were supporters of the U.S.
Constitution and would not voluntarily surrender their offices just because
their states’ legislatures bowed to the White House and adopted laws allowing
the Secret Service to assume the offices and duties of local law enforcement
officials, if the Service chose to do so. Agent Barrett’s Secret Service team
was the first in the U.S. to attempt to supplant an elected Sheriff. Therefore,
Sheriff Armstrong was the first U.S. Sheriff to resist, though unsuccessfully.
He also wasn’t the last to do so, as over the next few weeks four hundred and
forty-two law enforcement officers belonging to the organization were removed
from office and sent to FEMA re-education camps. Those not yet sent to Camp
FEMA knew that they could easily lose their elected positions if the powers
that be said so.