I was moved watching Air Force Captain Nicolas Aquino's video above, where our United States Air Force had him make a video about the cyber warfare career field, and where he discussed how important freedom was to him. He shares that he is a first generation American, and that his father was arrested by the military in Paraguay and his family was then exiled from the country.
The Naval Post Graduate student was living in Monterey, California when a neighbor called the police on him for "suspicious" activity. The problem is Captain Aquino was on his own property, in his own house, when his suspicious activity was called into the police.
When the cop showed up, Captain Aquino identified himself, provided ID, and informed the officer that he lived in the house. That didn't keep him from being taken to the ground in a choke hold by the cop, and it didn't keep Captain Aquino from later having a warrant for his arrest issued.
According to a local NBC affiliate, the sheriff's deputy reported that he subdued Captain Aquino because he was not being cooperative. Aquino was then charged solely with "resisting arrest." Tyranny in the modern police force can be easily seen by asking two simple questions. Cooperating with what and why? And resisting arrest for what?
A nation that empowers armed men to arrest anybody who doesn't cooperate with any demand, is not a free nation. The sheriff wrote in his arrest report that he considered pulling his weapon on Captain Aquino.
Captain Aquino was told by the Naval Post Graduate School that he could not return to class until he got this matter sorted out with the local police.
I believe Captain Aquino is well on his way to learning that tyranny is alive and well in the United States, and that the evidence increasingly shows that we are not served and protected by our law enforcement or the men with guns to include our military, but rather we Americans are increasingly occupied by them. We are an occupied people.
The good news? Freedom, like the video above says, is not free. It's not free because it takes great Americans and great officers to put skin in the game to continually earn it for themselves and for others. I hope Captain Aquino is ready to go the distance, though if he does I predict he will learn about the character of his peers in uniform. He will learn how his words are valued when they come to reinforcing the illusion of character, but if he continues to go the distance he will learn that making those words a reality is not condoned. I hope I am wrong.
One thing I am sure he has learned, is how easy it is for the police state to leverage your military service against you, while they violate your rights.
I know of a Army specialist who was charged with a dui, and later found not guilty. In the interim he was denied reenlistment. He was eventually reinstated in the Army and retroactively promoted at the earliest date. He came back as a Staff Sergeant. Is this not a similar situation?
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