When I comb through local news stories the way I imagine a politician might comb through his flattop hair, I don’t often learn new and important things, but with everyone so upset over the use of Federal resources in the guise of ICE agents killing people, perhaps knowing a little more about “Operation Stonegarden” would be helpful, and LORD KNOWS I love to help.
What is Operation Stonegarden? Glad you asked. Here’s a description from the link:
Operation Stonegarden is a federal grant program administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as part of the State Homeland Security Grant Program. Operation Stonegarden provides funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to enhance their capabilities to “support joint efforts to secure the United States’ borders.” Funds are to be used for additional law enforcement personnel, overtime pay, general purpose equipment, and travel and lodging for the deployment of state and local personnel – among other applicable activities – to “improve overall border security.”
I discovered this program earlier today as I read about a “Muti-agency” drug bust in Lewistown. The name of the funding source was tucked away at the bottom of the article, where only assholes like me will read it and go HMMMM…
A coordinated criminal interdiction mission on Jan. 26 resulted in significant law enforcement activity across several Montana counties.
Agencies involved included the Phillips, Fergus, Judith Basin, Wheatland, and Golden Valley County Sheriff’s Offices, Fort Belknap Police Department, US Border Patrol, Bureau of Land Management, United States Fish & Wildlife Service, Montana Highway Patrol, Central MT Dispatch, Phillips County Dispatch, and Fort Belknap Dispatch.
The operation aimed to target high-crime areas within each jurisdiction to disrupt and stop criminal activity.
The mission led to 62 traffic stops, two arrests, 19 citations, three K9 deployments, and the seizure of illegal narcotics and drug paraphernalia.
The majority of the operation was funded by Operation Stonegarden.
While Democrats across America are ready to go to war with ICE–which will require their collective hive mind to allow even MORE stupid emotions to erode even MORE of their critical thinking capabilities–it should be noted the DEMOCRAT Jon Tester, back in 2019, co-sponsored the reauthorization and funding increase of this amazing pork chops for cops program:
Senator Jon Tester is co-sponsoring a bill to reauthorize and increase funding for Operation Stonegarden.
That’s a federal program focused on border safety.
The new bill would increase funding to $110 million.
Operation Stonegarden is what’s known as a force multiplier.
The federal government gives local agencies money to work with border patrol.
Before Tester got his political ass handed to him to give him the free time to ensure Democrats will keep losing in Montana as he helps push the Seth Bodnar Independent LARP, he was getting Byrne-JAG money for local law enforcement. Here’s what that money is supposed to fund:
The Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. The JAG Program provides states, tribes, and local governments with critical funding necessary to support a range of program areas including law enforcement, prosecution, indigent defense, courts, crime prevention and education, corrections and community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, planning, evaluation, technology improvement, crime victim and witness initiatives, mental health programs and related law enforcement and corrections programs, including behavioral programs and crisis intervention teams, and implementation of state crisis intervention court proceedings and related programs or initiatives including, but not limited to, mental health courts, drug courts, veterans courts, and extreme risk protection order programs.
Conceivably this kind of money would help teach Missoula police officers–let’s say a group of FOUR of them responding to an altercation at Charlie B’s–how NOT to be so terrified of ONE man and his stick that they end up taking him down to the sidewalk, punching him, tasering him, and injuring him before our brave County Prosecutors charged him criminally for…not putting his stick down fast enough?
Going back to the all-important MONEY, if local elected officials are so horrified at what coordination with Federal authorities yields, then take a REAL step and GIVE BACK THE MONEY! And I think City Club on February 9th would be a great time to let those local law enforcement agencies know.
City Club–where unintentional comedians pretend to have “new ideas” and a “free exchange of thought”.
Thanks for reading!
“Going back to the all-important MONEY, if local elected officials are so horrified at what coordination with Federal authorities yields, then take a REAL step and GIVE BACK THE MONEY!”
Brilliant idea! On reading this, I had the mental image of someone visibly angry and raging, shaking a fist in the air with one hand, yet extending the other out, palm up, ready to have a stack of Benjamins placed into it.
Ah, yes. This is the solution for most of the trouble that government gives us. Simply refuse to take the money. Do without. Go without. Make the sacrifice. Learn what it means to become independent of someone else’s “charitable benevolence” and the strings that come with it. Go ahead. I double-dog dare you. Yet, most won’t. They are too accustomed to living with the system and cannot conceive anything else. They love the money.
“For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)
“Please sir, can I have some more?”
Amen!