In early 2009, shortly after President Obama was elected the first time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned citizens of the United States against homegrown terrorists, namely right wing “extremists,” which included veterans, fundamental Christians, conservatives in general, and anyone who prepares for an economic collapse.

My wife and I recognized at the time that this was a de facto declaration of war by the federal government on conservative values. Crestfallen, we discussed the implications of this declaration between ourselves and came to the sobering conclusion that the federal government, the government that we both served as U.S.A.F. veterans, targeted us as enemies of the state.

With the Patriot Act providing the legislative support for federal agencies to violate the constitutional rights of Americans, the DHS began to roll out what would turn out to be a reign of tyranny directed by the White House.

In 2011, after hearing numerous reports on alternative news websites about trolls commissioned by the administration to launch tirades in blogs in response to conservative articles, my wife and I decided to engage the trolls in discourse. Typically, once we challenged the trolls based on concrete evidence, they always resorted to name-calling; this, we understood, was an admission of failure on their part.

We continued to engage these trolls on conservative and alternative news websites for an entire year; but one day in 2012, I noticed that our computer was running really hard while it was in sleep mode. As a former intelligence analyst, I immediately became aware of what this sign meant: someone had accessed our system from the outside.

Because of our activities in discussion forums and my awareness of the Patriot Act provisions, I concluded that the DHS or NSA were snooping on us and that it was only a matter of time before the DHS raided our house. My wife and I discussed the ramifications of this realization, especially how it might affect our kids. Despite our misgivings, we decided to continue to resist the mindless trolls who continually harassed commenters in the conservative blogs.

In the spring of 2014, I had a very spirited debate with a troll regarding Obama’s failed policies. He began to resort to name-calling and insults, at which time I simply asked him, “What’s wrong? No stomach for reasoned debate?” Then he meekly signed off and left the site, which is an example of what my wife and I were trying to accomplish.

This interchange probably led to the DHS raid in the summer with claims of internet file sharing of child pornography. The agents did not find anything anywhere in our house, but they threw all of our personal belongings around and held our teen daughters against their will and interrogated them about homeschool, our church activities, gun ownership, and several other issues unrelated to the allegations for over 3 hours while they waited for us to return. I believe that they were watching our house (waiting for all the adults to leave) because they zoomed in just a couple minutes after my wife and son left for work.

I returned from work to find my wife distraught and my two teenaged daughters traumatized. A friend of mine showed up shortly afterwards, as well, and was confronted in my driveway to show his identification. He was eventually cleared and came into the house with me. During the search and seizure, any time I or my friend (who witnessed the last 30 minutes of the DHS antics) tried to challenge the search warrant, another DHS agent would stride into the room and cause a diversion away from the warrant. They did this about 3 or 4 times. We really had to remain focused and not allow them to divert attention from the constitutional issues.

At several points, my friend and I told the lead DHS agent that we were private citizens due civilian process. At first, he just laughed it off as a “conspiracy theory.” While we continued to assert our private status, he charged towards us in what appeared to be a steroid rage (he appeared to be “inflated”) and threatened to strike us while we sat on the couch. As he got very close, I told him that “it looks like that struck a nerve.” He then stopped and returned to his place on a loveseat off to my left. He claimed that “we’re just doing our jobs,” to which my friend retorted, “That’s what the Nazi officers said during the Nuremberg trials.” Eventually, the DHS agents and sheriff’s deputies left with my work laptop, preventing me from performing my job.

For several weeks, our friends and relatives steered clear of our house; they were afraid to be associated with us even though they did not believe the allegations. We all felt isolated and betrayed by our government, a government that we used to think of as our protector. Obama’s DHS thugs from the Chicago office had apparently been tasked to use Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals’ “‘RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.’ Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”

Despite this effective technique, we decided to further investigate the search warrant, which appeared to be fraudulent. A month later, I went down to the county courthouse to request to review the sworn affidavit connected to the search warrant, but the clerk of courts waved it under my nose and said that it was sealed and that I could not look at it.

Then she said I could request for the judge to unseal the record, so I wrote a note to him and left for a few hours. When I returned, another clerk said that the judge came and went so I missed him, but I could request a formal proceeding to unseal the record (which would have led me into the statutory law setting of a martial court, which I did not want). Therefore, I told her to just write me a note saying the Clerk of Court refused to let me see the affidavit. After arguing about how it should be worded, I finally got a deputy clerk to sign the note, and then I left with it.

In light of these events and a few other unjustified DHS raids in my area, it is clear that these lawless agents are commissioned to terrorize and silence dissenters of the Obama administration’s agenda. All of us must resist this tyranny, though, or the tyranny will continue to expand and become more brutal.

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