TheAgitator.com
Leon Lott’s Big Toy
Thursday, February 5th, 2009When I first read that Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff Leon Lott was planning to pursue charges against Michael Phelps, I thought the sheriff’s name looked familiar.
Then I remembered, I wrote about him in the Citings section of our December issue.
In March the sheriff and SWAT team of Richland County, South Carolina, posedfor a photo with an impressive new piece of equipment: an M113A1 armored personnel carrier. The vehicle, which moves on tank-like tracks, features a belt-fed, turreted machine gun that fires .50-caliber rounds.
The sheriff, Leon Lott, obtained the $300,000 vehicle through the 1033 program, named for a 1997 federal law streamlining the Defense Department’s transfer of surplus military equipment to local police departments…
Charles Earl Barnett, a U.S. Marines veteran and retired police major who has served on several United Nations and NATO military and peacekeeping missions, says a .50-caliber machine gun is “completely inappropriate” for domestic police work. It “causes mass death and destruction,” Barnett says. “It’s indiscriminate. I can’t think of a possible scenario where it would be appropriate.”
Sheriff Lott has named his new acquisition The Peacemaker, explaining in a press release that the name is fitting because “the bible refers to law enforcement in Matthew 5:9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.’ ”
Let’s just hope God helps the next kid who lights up at a University of South Carolina frat party.
So will the next no-knock raid conducted under his watch be called “Operation: The Lord’s Prayer”?
His interpretation of “blessed are the peacemakers” seems rather novel. Does anyone know if his interpretation is shared by many?
I’m not entirely sure that Jesus would consider shooting people with a 50-cal machine gun to be quite within a strict definition of “peace.”
Wow. Most of my Christian Theology is in the nature of opposition research (it’s fun to talk to “Christians” about their theology, which most of them don’t know), but that is the most warped interpretation of Matthew 5:9 that I’ve ever seen. Just to borrow from one commentator:
As an aside, it really is sad that, in the age of the internet most putative Christians lack the basic intellectual curiosity to learn about their religion and its theology. I mean, I’m an atheist and I still find it fascinating. If you really believed it, wouldn’t it be MORE fascinating?
“If you really believed it, wouldn’t it be MORE fascinating?”
Nah… once you have faith, who needs facts?
Maybe Lott and this guy go to the same church? ;-)
The picture of Lott, his toy, and his SWAT team is here:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/09/01.html#a2999
John-
Keep in mind that most people–be they Christian, atheist, or Bahai–are intellectually lazy. As a Christian myself, I am often surprised when people jump from a church of one denomination to a church of another simply because they like the pastor better, they have better fellowship activities, or their church has a jumbotron. Having grown up in the Lutheran church, I was taught a lot about the doctrinal differences between our church and other Christian denominations, and I take those differences seriously. However, watching my friends leave for “feel good” megachurches has made me realize that others don’t have the same priorities. I have far more respect for those who have disavowed their faith all together than I have for those who see their church as nothing more than a community rec center.
That’s the most mangled interpretation of that passage I’ve ever seen, and one of the worst interpretations of any part of the Bible I’ve ever run across. It is in direct opposition to the context: consider this from later in the same chapter:
Did he also mention that the 4th amendment allows unlimited search and seizure, and the 1st blocks all free expression?
I’ve been trying to follow the “Peacemaker” since Lott obtained it last year. So far, I have been unable to determine if:
a) They’ve actually used it for anything, even once.
b) If it still has the 50 mounted to it.
I assume that they just leave it parked on the lot, mentally masturbating to it and reinforcing their hard ass, “We’re the law, and they aren’t” attitude.
sheriff Lott’s gonna pull up in his armored personnel carrier and Phelps is gonna be standing there with a stone in a sling…
Once again, it’s a fun joke but there’s no way in hell Lot tries to actually arrest Phelps. Smoking pot isn’t a crime, even if there’s proof he did it. Otherwise, failing a drug test for employment would be grounds for arrest. POSSESSION is a crime, USE is not a crime.
“As an aside, it really is sad that, in the age of the internet most putative Christians lack the basic intellectual curiosity to learn about their religion and its theology. I mean, I’m an atheist and I still find it fascinating. If you really believed it, wouldn’t it be MORE fascinating?”
Religion can only survive in an environment completely bereft of reason, John. Religion cannot withstand serious scrutiny. It is founded on denial of reality.
But I agree, religion is fascinating to a rational person like you and me — in a cultural anthropology sort of way.
“Sheriff Lott’s gonna pull up in his armored personnel carrier and Phelps is gonna be standing there with a stone in a sling…”
More like “Phelps is gonna be stoned in a sling (hammock).”
Maybe he’s planning to raid the dog pound?
Thanks for just neg karming me. “Debating” you religious whackjobs is tedious beyond description.
Get ready for massive collateral damage from domestic police actions.
The .50 will shoot through most buildings – it’s not safe to use in inhabited areas.
It’s not the heaviest weaponry militarized US police forces are preparing to deploy against Americans.
Of course one wonders how well it will be reported. Given that many police can’t do anything more than spray and pray with their sidearms – watch any “real” cop show – it’s already strange more bystanders aren’t reported wounded by their gunfire.
Adding to nathan @ 9
The slap on the right cheek would be a backhanded slap. Such an act indicates the slapped person is the inferior party. To turn the other cheek toward the assailant, forces their next slap to be a forehanded one, thereby placing the two on an equal footing.
It’s not an invitation for more punishment, but a way to force the assailant to treat one as an equal.
Or so goes my understanding of the exegetical commentaries on the passage in question.
I’m a Christian, but I rarely go to church anymore, partly because of people like this who can twist any scripture to mean whatever they want it to mean.
This “peacemaker” seems to not of heard of another quote from Jesus: “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword”. Try as I might, I simply cannot find any exhortation by Jesus to commit violence, even in self defense.
Bronwyn: How does your interpretation square with the entire verse? One does not need to be a scholar of Aramaic or Greek to understand that it’s talking about non-resistance, NOT equalizing social footings. Don’t resist evil, give him your cloak as well, walk and extra mile, etc.
grr comma splices
#4 | John Jenkins | February 5th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
…that is the most warped interpretation of Matthew 5:9 that I’ve ever seen. Just to borrow from one commentator:
“…Christ is the great Peacemaker.”
Well, to be fair, anyone who hears that thing open up is going to invoke The Name….
“The slap on the right cheek would be a backhanded slap. Such an act indicates the slapped person is the inferior party.”
Biblical bitchslapping.
Priceless.
If I were a resident of Richland County, I would love to see, via a FOIA request, a breakdown of the costs of maintaining and training on The Peacemaker. My guess is that just keeping the thing from rusting solid probably costs a couple of grand a year; actually taking a 10-ton vehicle on the road for a spin costs god knows how much in diesel (and asphalt repairs); and firing the 50-cal is probably in the neighborhood of $3 a round– on full auto, that’s gotta be pricey.
Maybe the sheriff just takes it out of the inmates’ meal allowance.
Peace officers are now “piece” officers, as a .50 cal machine gun will cut you to pieces.
Here is what should scare the hell out of Richland County: if this cop is dumb enough to own a 50 cal, it means that he does not understand the first thing about any of the weapons in his dept. He is too stupid to own a kitchen knife. He should not have a permit to drive a car.
I actually read it as “Blessed are the cheesemakers.”
@t.reed,
Maybe he needs some education.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLyAc0n6Wec&feature=related
On first reading I thought this was about the ex-Dallas Cowboys D-Lineman.
I wonder if Lot(t)’s wife will turn into a pillar of chronic? Then, as in the Bible, he can get drunk and screw his daughters!
Sheriff Leon Lott probably still believes that “The War on Drugs” wasn’t invented by Donald Rumsfeld & co. to keep getting those fat payments by the drug company lobbyists to keep us all in “terminal guinnea pig” status so that we won’t use what Mother Nature provides us for free in order to “let down” naturally from time to time from the merciless stress that our society has placed upon us.
“Hold your head high, young Mr. Phelps. For I believe that you want to keep athletes free from performance enhanceing man made drugs, not nature’s best fridge-raiding, sofa-breaking, happy grass from the back pasture, or most anywhere in the world that it grows, and has been allowing us small moments of relief for thousands of years!” “Chill out, Leon!”
Seems like the Sheriff is a threat to the community and country itself. A .50 cal to subdue whom? Pot smokers? And the fact that he is claiming Jesus has his back reeks of insanity. Seperation of church and state right? Well unless you have a .50 cal that is.
@ #24:
I paid attention to the Frederick case pretty closely and never once saw the cost issue brought up. I think there were 16 officers. At 3 hours per officer and $25 per hour (both pretty lowball IMO), that’s $1200 without including gas, overtime, etc. just to arrest and search (search and arrest? who knows) some dude who lives by himself and may have a few pot plants. Hell, I’d do it by myself, and safer, for $100. And in the meantime, I’m getting held up at gunpoint, can see exactly where the guy is going, have a good description of his car, and it takes me 5 minutes to talk to 911 and when the cop arrives 20 min later, there’s still no APB for the guy I described.
I’m not yet a reflexive cop-hater like most of you guys, but the prioritizing of pot busts, petty traffic stops, and overtime in the name of “officer safety” over actual crimes is getting real fucking old.
I guess the Christian never heard of the only New Testament commandment. “Love your neighbor as yourself” That would pretty much preclude using a 50cal on them! This guy is really twisted. And, as the person above alluded to, knows little about Christianity. He sure has not read his Bible very much! (One preacher I talked to said atheists know the Bible better than most Christians.) I wonder if he feels the same way about people who use alcohol (tea total er?)! Neither it or cannabis are prohibited in the Bible. In fact alcohol is encouraged in certain instances, like mourning. Strong drink is discouraged, but not forbidden! Most of what we hear from religious people is man made legalism. My Bible said you can’t buy your way into Heaven! In fact, it is my understanding you can drink all you want, if you truly understand Christianity! That is, until you start beating up the neighbor or attacking his wife! Guess that is why they warned about it!
God knew he could not keep man from alcohol. He couldn’t even keep them from the only (one) prohibited fruit in the Garden of Eden! Now man, in all his glory, thinks he can enforce prohibition that God could not! Good luck with that!
@31:
Er…you do know that the “War on Drugs” has been around since the Nixon administration, right? People were doing bad things before George W. Bush existed. I mean, he wasn’t a good president, but he wasn’t the Antichrist either.
No, Rightshu, the “war on drugs” has been around since the Wilson administration.
That’s when the Harrison Act was passed (1914). Note that its full name was the “Harrison Narcotics Tax Act.” In other words, they were just going to tax the stuff, not make it illegal.
Right.
Of course it, like most of the so-called “gun control” measures, was a strictly racist thing, but we shouldn’t worry about that, eh?
“The drafters played on fears of ‘drug-crazed, sex-mad negroes’ and made references to Negroes under the influence of drugs murdering whites, degenerate Mexicans smoking marijuana, and ‘Chinamen’ seducing white women with drugs.”
Wikipedia on the Harrison Act
Welcome to the land of the free.
RE: “war on drugs”
OMG, calm down, I wasn’t trying to go back that far in history, to “tricky Dick”, or The Wilson era!
I was keeping it fairly recent and voicing my opinion as a medical professional who sees the first hand legal drug pushing on a daily basis, and one of the more recent vocal receivers of this type of “payola” from the drug companies is “Rummie” himself, and his chief henchman and profiteer of the expensive “grass raids” that the DEA perfoms is Gen. Wesley Clark.
…Read on all you children under the age of 58!
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway;
It is enthroned in the heart of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. ”
William Shakespeare; The Merchant of Venice
The Finns taught the Red Russians during the 1939 Winter War what a wine bottle full of petrol and tar with a simple wick can do to expensive mechanized armor. The world has never forgotten the lesson of the ‘Molotov Cocktail’…except Sheriff Lott, of course.
Military arms used against the populace by the local police.. Does that bother anybody? Machine guns and armored carriers now, how long until the grenades and rocket launchers?
Your tax dollars at work….
And you people wonder why your country is falling apart!!!
this is crazy: Leon Lott was MY sheriff when i was in high school. i’m surprised that bible-thumping loon is still in office.
Where can I get one of those, teach my neighbors dog a lesson for crapping on my lawn.
Glad I’m not a tax payer where my Sherriff is spending 300,000 dollars to catch petty pot smokers and growers.
What a Jerk-off. LOTT ! Your Fired !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Leon Lott is clearly a what job. He and that selfish, self-serving baby machine who pumped out 8 babies should hook up. They’d be the perfect storm – two complete idiots who only think about their own personal gain, their own selfish desires and the many ways they can steal from other people to support their sick kinks.
Leon Lott should be locked up, based on his own views of society. He speeds all the time. The “act of speeding” is criminal, it’s dangerous and it kills. The terrorist-type effects of act of speeding are not affected by the person doing the speeding. So, in short, Lott is a dangerous person through his regular behavior. On the contrary, the “act of smoking pot” (regardless of the law), doe not kill. Prolonged use of pot, and acts performed while high might be dangerous, but, the simple act of taking a bong hit of pot is benign. Acts of speeding cause other people to die and is a terrorist-like behavior.
Jail Leon Lott and Save the world.