There is a big news story hitting today about three anarchists and their alleged plans to attack President’s Obama’s office among other targets. It’s way to early to draw any conclusion but I find myself quickly on the skeptical side of this one. I hope that I’m wrong and that the timely police action saved lives.

The thing about the case that struck me from the very first news stories was the mention of Molotov Cocktail making machinery. Machinery? Really? Don’t you just sort of need a jug of alcohol, some rags, and a lighter?

The criminals also reportedly had a device that could fire mortars, swords, “ninja-like” throwing stars, and trench knives (called brass-knuckle knives in the articles). Assuming the device that could fire mortars was a spud gun the other weapons are actually fairly reminiscent of what my fellow Dungeon and Dragon/Renaissance Fair going friends have laying about their homes.

I’m certainly not saying the alleged criminals are innocent but I’ll continue to follow the case with interest to see what further evidence arises. Others who were not eventually charged were held for 18 hours and some apparently not allowed to use restrooms and verbally abused by the police officers. Now, it is legal to hold someone for various amounts of time, depending on the state, without charge. A lot of this falls under the U.S Constitution Habeas Corpus in Article 1, Section 9 which was not enacted for states until Reconstruction after the Civil War.

However, I do have a problem with people not being allowed to go to the bathroom and police officers being disrespectful to those detained who are not otherwise abusing the officers in question. Again, we don’t know what those others were saying to the officers so it’s impossible to come to any conclusions at this stage of events.

In any case, it is very early in the proceedings but the case caught my eye for a number of reasons. Let me know what you think!

Tom Liberman
Sword and Sorcery fantasy with a Libertarian Twist