The Orlando Terror Attack - It's Not About Guns, It's about Radical Islam

I’ve been staring at this blank page for the last few days. I’ve felt an urge to write, but the words have alluded me. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, I am from New York City, after all, it’s just that I have too much to say and I am not even sure where to begin.

Now I know some of you will immediately want to know why I am not writing my latest book, but I promise you, I am. I just needed to get this off my chest.

The problem probably started where it always does, on Facebook. I’m not exactly sure what we did before FB, but I vaguely recall that it was a much more productive time. My quandary exists because I have what can best be described as very eclectic friends, who have posted a wide range of responses to the Orlando terror attack. What saddens me is the fact that there has even been a ‘wide range’ of responses.

In just over forty-eight hours I have heard some of the following diatribes play out in social media:

• The attack in Orlando was a hate crime.
• This has nothing to do with moderate Islam.
• We need to ban these senseless weapons of war.
• The police responded slowly because it was a LGBT club.

Let us set the record straight right from the beginning. This was, first and foremost, a terror attack committed by radical Islam. Anyone who wants to muddy the waters by mincing words is being disingenuous. When some try to claim that this was a hate crime, they are attempting to minimize the significance of what occurred at the Pulse Nightclub. While hate certainly played a role in the attack, it was part of a much larger picture that many are attempting to gloss over: Radical Islam.

This attack was carried out as a direct result of the theological beliefs of a particular group. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, a large majority of our politicians, pundits and ordinary people refuse to accept this. If I had a dollar for every time I heard: “These acts don’t reflect moderate Islam…” I’d be living on a tropical island, without Wi-Fi access, in a perpetual state of bliss.

The question then is: What is moderate Islam and what do they believe?

The answer to this question is one that many do not want to hear. They want to believe in this illusion that there is a moderate world that just chooses to remain quiet, yet when you pull back the thin veneer, you see a world that doesn’t seem all that different from the radical.

I see you in the back, waving your hand like a maniac, and yes, I know you know a Muslim who is moderate…… and I know a lot of Catholics who live their lives quite differently then what is taught in the Bible. Hell, I used to be one of them. I was even an altar boy…… stop chuckling. The fact is that there is a big difference between calling yourself something and actually being engaged. I am talking about those who actually believe in and follow the teachings of the Qur’an.

In considering political rights and civil liberties, the vast majority of countries in the Middle East are simply not free. At least not the ‘being free’ which those of us, here in The West, think of. I am often amazed when I see groups, who identify themselves as feminists or members of the LGBT community, come out in support of moderate Islam, yet in the majority of those Muslim countries they would face severe penalties and even death for their beliefs. It’s tantamount to seeing a ‘Jew’s for Hitler’ sign.

The simple truth is, that even in moderate Islamic countries, the penalty for being homosexual is: prison, punishment and / or death. I’m not talking about Iran, or one of the other hardline countries, but the moderate ones like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. If you are lucky enough to be a lesbian in Kuwait you get a free-pass, but males are still breaking the law…… don’t ask, I scratched my head on that one as well. These moderate nations have even used their influence to block advancements in LGBT rights at the United Nations.

Unlike the west, which enjoys a separation between politics and religion, the Muslim world does not. For some unknown reason, many people don’t understand or accept that theology is the driving force in Islamic government. Islam is not just a religious belief system, but a legal system as well. Sharia law is the religious legal system governing the members of the Islamic faith. And therein lies the real problem.

The lives we enjoy in western civilization are in direct opposition to the Muslim world. They don’t believe in our values and they don’t respect that we recognize individual rights.

In the United States we have the 1^st Amendment right to freedom of speech. It means that I don’t have to agree or even like what you say, but you still get to say it. What I find extremely funny is the fact that all of the real cutting edge comedians and Hollywood celebrity types have a field day mocking Jesus, yet those same folks are nowhere to be found when it comes to mocking Muhammad. Ever wonder why? That’s because death threats don’t seem to lose any of their significance when they come from moderates.  

The Avant Garde folks over at Charlie Hebdo decided to push those boundaries, it didn’t end well for them.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with Muslims. In fact, I’ve had the pleasure of working side by side with many of them during my career. I respect them, but I also understand that we have very different belief systems. If my path took me to a country where Islam was the rule, then I would act accordingly, but here in the United States, it is not, and that is what has always made us great.

Unfortunately for us, it seems the principle of America being one great ‘melting pot’ has been forgotten. Instead of people coming to here to become Americans, we have more and more people coming here who want to change us into something resembling what they left.

In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt made a speech regarding the assimilation of immigrants into American culture. It was true then and even truer now:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American ... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." 

Why is this important? Because America is different.

Contrary to what many ill-informed people believe, we are not a democracy, but rather a constitutional republic. What this means is that we are a country where the officials are elected as representatives of the people, and must govern according to existing constitutional law which limits the government's power over citizens. It is sometimes referred to as the rule of law, not man.

Why is this significant?

Because in a democracy, that is a political system in which the majority enjoys absolute power, the majority can vote to impose tyranny on themselves as well as the minority opposition.  Simply put, without the constraints of The Constitution, the majority can vote to elect those who will infringe upon our inalienable God-given rights.  Thomas Jefferson referred to this as elected despotism.

This brings us to the 2nd Amendment and the current argument that certain guns need to be banned; for our own good.

You might not like guns and that is your right, but you simply don’t get to choose that for me. That might not sit well with you. You might be one of those enlightened folks who believe that, by simply getting rid of all the guns, the world will be one big happy family and that is within your 1^st Amendment right to profess, but I also have my 2^nd Amendment right just in case you are wrong.

It’s like that old adage: Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn’t.

The truth is that we cannot legislate morality. 

I’m truly sorry for the loss of lives in Orlando, but if anyone believes that the sole responsibility for what happened resides with a mechanical object, I suggest you seek some immediate help. In over two decades in law enforcement I have had a front row seat to man’s inhumanity to man. In his desire to kill another, man has no limitations. I have seen baseball bats, hammers, steak-knives, cars, ropes, broom-sticks, machetes, rocks, handguns, dogs,  arson, poison, swords, rifles / shotguns, explosives, and planes, along with a few I have probably forgotten, used to kill other human beings.  This absurd belief that, by somehow removing one item from the inventory list, we will somehow be able to bring peace to modern civilization is not only patently false, but extremely dangerous.

We look for simplistic answers to complex questions that we don’t want to address, like thinking we can we hangone of those stupid little 'no gun' placards outside of or homes, schools and offices and think that we are safe.

Let us take the 1994 ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ as an example. This was supposed to cure everything. In fact, after the Orlando terror attack, many are calling for its re-instatement. The truth however is much different than what the politicians and pundits would lead you to believe. A number of academic studies determined that this ban had little to no effect on gun violence and that the re-institution of the ban would have no significant merit.

Now granted, when we have an attack like this, it does seem to grab the headlines, but is it the gun or the person wielding it that is the real problem?

There’s the complex question that no one wants to address.

Whether it was Adam Lanza, Nidal Hassan, Jared Loughner, Dylan Roof, James Holmes, and now Omar Mateen, each had clearly observable mental health issues that went unreported / unaddressed. These issues should have precluded them from having access to any firearm. In essence, they were already breaking the law long before they ever pulled the trigger.  Unfortunately, society does not have an answer for mental health issues, so they look to shift the blame to something else and that is most often guns. Guns can be banned and restricted. Politicians can pass more laws and the media can sing their praises, at least until the next shooting.

You know, it is kind of ironic.  After every terror attack I hear the admonishment that we shouldn’t judge all of Islam because of a few bad ones. When we have a mass shooting, the mental health community is quick to remind us that we should be wary of stigmatizing the many, in an attempt to stop the few. Yet if the NRA, or a responsible gun owner, protests, they are quickly attacked as being evil.

We don’t want to fix the problem; we simply want to pass the buck.

Which brings me to my final thought: Blame the police.

It seems that our men and women in law enforcement have become the political piñata when all else fails.  To aggressive, not aggressive enough, too militaristic, ill-equipped, and the complaints and accusations just continue to flow, ad nauseum. They speak of them in abstract, as if they are some foreign entity brought in to punish them.

I have a question for those who enjoy bashing the police: just where exactly do you think they come from?

In over two decades of law enforcement I worked with people from every walk of life: Heterosexual, Homosexual, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and the list goes on. The NYPD is comprised of well over fifty thousand uniformed and civilian members which covers the entire spectrum of the population of New York City.

We are not aliens, recruited from some distant planet, and brought here to subjugate the people.

We are the people.

We have just chosen to be that thin blue line which separates the innocent from the evil in the world. 

One of the best analogies I have ever read was Lt. Colonel David Grossman’s On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs.

Simply put: We hunt the evil that you pretend doesn’t exist.

This vilification and dehumanizing of law enforcement is done for one purpose and that is to pretend that the underlying problem is someone else’s fault.

I read a 2015 New York Times article that outlined a series of seventy-three (73) fatal police shootings, over the course of a 1 year period, from August 2014 to August 2015, throughout the United States. While the story strives to paint a picture of cops killing unarmed people, I could not help but note, that in all but three cases, the shootings where the end result of what started off as some type of criminal activity.

Look we have to be honest about things. Cops are not rolling down the streets of Chicago’s South Side doing drive-by shootings. Nor are they pulling up at playgrounds and schools to pop off a few rounds for giggles. In my twenty-two year law enforcement career I never worked with a cop that put on his gun belt and said ‘God, I hope I get to cap someone tonight.’ Yet, if you listen to the media and all the activists, you would think this nation was being patrolled by brutal mad-dogs Hell bent on killing everyone they encounter.

It should come as no shock to anyone that there are criminals in the world. If you engage in criminal behavior, eventually you will cross paths with law enforcement. There are unintended consequences of actions. Does that mean you should be killed for breaking the law? Of course not, but if it is 2 a.m. and you are coming out of a home, that you just burglarized, and you quickly reach into your waistband, as the cops approach you, there is a very good chance you are going to get shot. If it turns out you didn’t have a gun, well what can I say? Your mother raised an idiot.

I’m reminded of the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri. Here is someone who just robbed a store, then assaulted a police officer, while attempting to get control of his firearm, and then after running away, turned and charged back toward the officer. He was shot and killed.

The media and the political activists attempted to paint this picture of a mad-dog cop who gunned down an innocent child. The fact that the innocent ‘child’ was 6’4”, weighed 294 lbs., and had drugs in his system at the time of his death, seemed to somehow get lost in the translation.

• Crime 1 – Illegal Narcotics
• Crime 2 – Robbery
• Crime 3 – Assault / Attempted Robbery
• Crime 4 – ?

Well, let’s just say that I don’t think he was running back to surrender. Remember, “Hands Up – Don’t Shoot” was definitively proven to be a lie by eye-witnesses who testified that they believed Wilson’s life was in danger and that he fired in self-defense.

I’m sorry, but these are the unintended consequences of a criminal behavior.

Did Darren Wilson get up that morning thinking he was going to kill someone? No.

Did Michael Brown get up that morning thinking his illegal actions would lead to his death? No, and that is the problem.

We have turned a corner in society where we are abdicating personal responsibility. We are living in a new world, where it is always someone else’s fault for our actions and more and more people are buying into that premise.

• Bad grades in school: The teacher is at fault.
• Choose to pursue a useless degree program in college and now you can’t find a job when you graduate:  Greedy capitalism.
• Engage in bad behavior: The U.S. is a brutal police state.

I understand the allure. Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to enjoy all the benefits, but none of the responsibility for ones actions?  But this is the real world.  The politicians and activist’s lie to you, the media paints a narrative they want you to believe, but ultimately it is up to us to search for the truth.

In the aftermath of the terror attack some are claiming that the police were at fault, that they were slow to respond because it was only a LGBT bar.

I was not there so I won’t comment on the tactics that were used, unlike some self-proclaimed experts who jumped at the chance to promote themselves. I will say that the moment Omar Mateen took hostages inside the club, and claimed to have explosives that he was going to strap onto the hostages, the entire situation changed.

Imagine the headlines Sunday morning had the police immediately entered and he detonated a bomb killing countless people. The press would have crucified the entire police department as well as the mayor and everyone in city government.

The problem with Monday morning quarterbacks is that, in most instances, they have never actually played the game, but have the luxury of being right 100% of the time. This causes them to think they are smarter than the people who actually do the job. Sorry Skippy, but you don’t get the right to judge me from your living room, twenty-four hours after the incident. You want to play Mr. or Mrs. Expert? Then I suggest you put on a uniform and get some skin in the game.

You might find that the BB gun, which looks so obviously fake, under the brilliant light of the TV cameras, looks a helluva lot more realistic at 1 a.m. when it is being pointed at your face.

In law enforcement this is called: damned if you do, dead if you don’t.

To the members of the LGBT community, don’t think for one second that the cops in Orlando did things any differently because it was a gay club. We don’t play games like. You needed help and they came and I can state with almost absolute certainty that in the group of cops who responded that morning a number of them were also members the LGBT community.

We are not the enemy, we are you.

The real enemy is the politicians we have elected. They don’t want to be bothered addressing the real problems and finding actual solutions; that would take honesty and require actual work on their part. They count on our ignorance and drive the wedge of division between us. One day soon we will have to wake up and realize that we are not Republicans or Democrats, but Americans. Only then will we be able to finally fix what is truly broken.

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An Enemy By Any Other Name - Islamic Terrorism

#MuslimsAreNotTerrorist

It’s a catchy Twitter hashtag, isn’t it?

I saw it this morning as I did my daily Twitter session for my books and thought it kind of ironic that it was trending higher than #ParisAttack. In today’s politically correct climate, a certain segment of society goes to great lengths to scold the rest of us that we shouldn’t paint everyone with the same broad brush.

Unfortunately, that only seems to apply to their causes. It is the same group that seems hell bent on trying to use the same broad brush in making the connection between criminals and mentally ill folks, who use guns in mass shootings, and legal gun owners. They also like to try and blame Christians for disgusting groups, like the Westboro Baptist Church.  What they don’t tell you is that the ‘church’ was founded by Fred Phelps, a civil rights activist and member of the Democratic Party. But those are topics for another day.

I checked out the hashtag page and was not surprised to see a large majority of folks, the same type I routinely see on TV at various protests, condemning the association of Muslims with terrorism. To be fair, they are correct, not all Muslims are terrorists, but in the case of this attack, it appears that THESE Muslims were and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out.

I don’t care how you quantify it, clarify, or categorize it, the bottom line is that we are at war with radical Islam. Wring your hands, grit your teeth, but the folks in ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah, Haqqani Network, Palestine Liberation Front, or any of the hundred other groups, currently engaged in terrorist activities around the world, are at war with us.

Here’s a newsflash: They don’t care what you think of them or their religion. They are Muslims and they are proud to wage jihad against non-believers.

If the rest of the Muslim world is offended at being ‘lumped’ together with the radicals, then they need to stand up as one and condemn it. That means working with the rest of the world to root out this evil wherever it exists, like King Abdullah II of Jordan. Unlike Saudi Arabia which continues to be one of the most prolific sponsors of Islamic terrorism.

I'll be the first one to get up on the soapbox and vehemently condemn anyone who attempts to hijack my religion in order to kill non-believers. I think everyone has the right to their religious beliefs, but I also believe that they have a duty to denounce those who use it as justification in the slaughter of innocent men, women and children. If you can't grasp that concept, I can't help you. 

It is time we stop with the silly hashtags. It makes you look like a bunch of petulant little collegiate assholes, stomping your feet when someone bruises your feelings with their hurtful words. Your enemy is at the gate and you are too busy condemning the folks manning it, because they have the audacity to identify them for who they are: radical Islamic terrorists.

I spent over two decades in law enforcement, a majority of that time dealing with the threat of terrorism. This is not a new threat, but one we have been facing for decades.

In the 1970’s I thought we would wake up when we had to deal with the Iranian’s storming our Embassy in Tehran and taking our people hostage.

In the 1980’s I thought we would wake up after the embassy / barracks bombings in Beirut or Pan Am Flight 103.

In the 1990’s I thought it would be the 1^st World Trade Center attack, or the bombing at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia or the embassy bombing in Kenya and Tanzania, Africa.

In the 2000’s I knew the attacks of September 11^th would finally be our wake up call.

But in the 2010’s we had the attack in Benghazi and then the Boston Marathon bombing.

Apparently we do not wake up easily.

Despite what you want to believe, despite what you have been told, we are at war with radical Islam. Whether we are weary doesn’t matter to our enemy, because they are not. It is literally what they live and die for.

If a Christian committed these acts, they would expect to go directly to Hell, but these radical Muslims expect just the opposite; they truly believe they will go directly to Heaven for killing infidels. That is what so many people refuse to acknowledge. We, the entire world collectively, need to shine the light of truth on Islamic terrorism and acknowledged it for what it is. If this offends you, grow the fuck up. Being offended is going to be the least of your problems when you’re standing there with a knife to your throat.

One of the most precious rights we have in this country is the 2^nd Amendment, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It is something that many civilized nations do not have, including France. French gun laws are extremely strict, but once again we must face the truth: Gun laws apply only to those who are so inclined to follow the law. Terrorists apparently do not fall into this group. In fact, it is a theme I have discussed previously in my books. I specifically wrote about the problem France was facing in the city of Marseille in Bishop’s Gate. Tragically, the first officers to arrive at the Charlie Hebdo attack last January were unarmed Paris police officers who had to retreat because they didn’t have the ability to confront their attackers. Three officers were later killed.

As I watched the attacks unfold last evening I couldn’t help but wonder if things might have been different if there was someone carrying a legal weapon? That is not a flippant comment, but an honest question. I know that many of my fellow sheepdogs are thinking the same thing.

Sadly, there is nothing we can do about the attack in Paris. It is done. All we can do is prepare for what is coming, and make no mistake, it is coming.

Last night Isis made the statement: “The American blood is best, and we will taste it soon.” 

If you do not believe them, then you are a fool.

Yesterday, on the very day of the Paris Attack, the first load of Syrian refugees quietly arrived in Louisiana. It is estimated that the United States will take in some 10,000 +  refugees over the next year with the president calling for an even greater number. This is a fairly significant issue, considering that over 70% of the ‘refugees’ are young men. Even more disturbing is the fact that an ISIS operative confirmed that the group had infiltrated the refugees and thousands of them were already in Western Europe. If that doesn’t make you take pause, consider that there are already members of ISIS in the United States; that is undisputed fact. Sadly, they are not the only terror group that is here.

Just like in 1993 and again in 2001 we must realize that the threat is not over there, but here in our own country. We saw that most recently in Texas where two terrorist were killed as they prepared to launch an attack on a 'Draw Muhammad' event. Whether you agree or disagree with the person hosting that event, you must understand that these terrorists were already here.

As the left continues to call for more ‘reasonable gun control measures,’ understand that you are facing a very real threat to your 2^nd Amendment rights. I am often mystified when I hear people talking about how military style weapons are not required for hunting or sport. No, you’re correct, they aren’t. Now show me where in the 2^nd Amendment it says anything about hunting or sport? The protected firearms, spoken about in the 2^nd Amendment, are precisely those used by the military.  The founding fathers were keenly aware of the threat they faced from the King and British military. The 2^nd Amendment addressed that and protected the individual right of Americans to possess the proper weaponry to defend themselves against that threat.

Yesterday I had an occasion to go to a location that proudly displayed a ‘no guns’ sticker on the front door. The paper threat was enforced by an unarmed, and extremely bored looking, security guard. I shook my head. This is the silliness of the left.

When, not if, we are subject to the next attack here, I wonder if the terrorists will be thwarted by the ‘aggressive looking’ no gun decals displayed outside the restaurant or government building? Maybe they will turn away when the unarmed guard sternly points out their flagrant violation of the paper noticed proudly displayed.

I don’t think so. Hopefully he will have a place to retreat to, like the first officers in the Charlie Hebdo attack.

Unfortunately, it has been my experience that you cannot change the mind of someone so inclined to believe in this silliness. The only thing that actually causes someone to re-examine their beliefs is when they become the victims.

For the rest of you, I suggest that you take the threat very seriously.

If you are so inclined to carry a concealed weapon then you had better train with it. Understand the responsibility that comes with it and the fact that you might one day be called upon to act in defensive or yourself or your loved ones. 

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Paris Terror Attacks

My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Paris this evening as they endure the on-going terror attacks that are taking place in the City of Light.

It seems like only yesterday we were following the terror attack at Charlie Hebdo and yet it will pale in comparison to what is now happening.

One of the central themes in my books is that of global terrorism. In fact, I wrote specifically about the threat France is facing in Queen's Gambit. It is something that I have experienced first-hand, as a member of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division, doing dignitary protection and threat assessments, and later as a 9/11 first responder.  While the threat is currently being played out in France, make no mistake that the entire world is a target.

We must begin to take the threat seriously.  This is not the time to be politically correct; worried more about the words we are using to describe the threat facing us, than we are of the actual threat.

I pray for the citizens of France and the thin blue line that is standing in the breach; the last line of defense between the wolves at the door and the sheep they are sworn to protect.

It is a shame that the only time we truly seem to appreciate the men and women of law enforcement is when we run past them, as they are running towards the threat!

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