Also OPSEC prevails here. I won't post anyone's name or some of the technical details of the equipment we used.
Your mileage may vary.
I begin.
I left Pittsburgh with a terrible know in my stomach. I felt terrible and in my heart I knew I was headed into a real shit storm. I cringed but there are times a man just has to do what he has to do. I took my dentures out and parked them in the glove box. One strips things like that off when he expects combat because they get lost in the fray.
I have been in a couple of civil disturbances in my day and know that the drill. It doesn't take a lot to turn a gathering into a melee and if this one broke into one it was going to be bloody. Really, really bloody. I knew what it would take to set it off and it wasn't going to be a whole lot.
Still, even though I thought there was going to be a damned good chance of being killed, injured or arrested I went. I had to. Not for me but for future generations. If I didn't I would never be able to face my niece, nephew and Godson again.
The arguments and discussions I have heard and read over the past few days had started me head spinning and I wondered what I was getting into. I had dealings twice over the years with with Virginia policeman and both were negative. One was really rude and stupid on his part.
I had been drinking a bottle of some sort of soda out of a long necked bottle sitting on my tailgate in a parking lot one hot night and a cruiser pulled in and the cop headed into the store. He saw me and as he passed me he looked at me carefully, saw what I was drinking and snapped at me, "If that was Budweiser I'd throw your ass in jail." It was uncalled for and just plain ignorant. I was doing nothing wrong.
That was years ago and that is water under the bridge. That was then, this is now. What was I going into?
A couple of locals had warned me about the way Virginia law works. For example I was advised NOT to pee behind a dumpster because public urination in VA can get a person on the sex crime list. It WILL if they don't like you.
I was also aware that tensions were running high. The VA courts had ruled in favor of the governor and permitted him to change the Lobby Day rules. There was a list of prohibited items that could not be taken onto the capitol grounds. Believe it or not, the list included torches and pitchforks.
The days of yore tools of the gnarled peasant were outlawed! What a joke!
I had a person offer me a couch and a ride into town for the rally and I arrived and got part of the inside scoop. As earlier planned, I was going to help him with reconnaissance. He and I would both carry handheld radios and wander the fringes looking for anatomies and report it up the chain.
We were not to openly carry arms and simply be the quiet, grey man type and be unremarkable looking. I looked at the situation and decided that the thirty year different in our ages I could pass myself off as his Uncle Pic that he was showing the city to of anyone asked.
Before I left home I had decided not to shave as unshaven I look a bit older than my 68 years. It would add to the appearance. I threw an old brown barn coat over myself and an Elmer Fudd hat on my head and a pair of old aviator shades on. I looked unremarkable, a borderline homeless old man. I would also carry a cane to add to the harmless appearance.
Arriving at my host's home I quickly dug in. We had to get downtown to a pre rally meeting and check in and make sure we had the latest dope on what to expect.
Later in the early evening we headed to a place in Richmond and got the inside scoop an a few things regarding the rally. I knew a lot of the people from the internet and it was good to see them in public. I'm sure they were disappointed in what they saw. Whatever.
One of the things that we were told is that if we heard the words "This is an unlawful assembly." that we were to get word up to the top MOST riki tik. It was also explained that if the words were heard that it would be scant seconds before the police released crowd control gas.
A couple of people said that if that happened that we were free to do as our conscience and equipment dictated. In my case I had no equipment for that kind of trouble and realized I wasn't a kid anymore. I would probably simply get in the way and/or become a casualty needing help. I would be a detriment.
I remember Kent State well and although I hadn't signed any long term leases on life lately I am simply too damned old to get in there and brawl.
I knew pretty much what would happen if Red Ralphie ordered us to leave. The gas would fly, a lot of our guys would pull out gas masks and there would be one hell of a melee. If that happened all bets as to the outcome would be off. My guess is that the Capitol would be entered and possibly overrun leaving Red Ralphie screaming "Zips in the wire" or something as he fled through one of the tunnels. It would get real ugly real fast. He would likely be crammed into some sort of armored vehicle, carted off to a waiting airplane and head off to his vacation home in Bermuda. He would likely escape, though.
We left the meeting and reconnoitered the capitol area noticing the fences and my host was trying to give me the lay of the land. It was a waste of time because my city artificial horizon had tumbled. Thank God he had given me a map and I knew where to go if we got separated. I would return to the parking garage and the car. We also had an if all else fails escape route planned and head west. From there we would travel out of the area and call someone for a ride home. My guide was a true professional.
In a way this was a pretty good place for me. I was in a supporting level of some sort and at least I was contributing. I was to find myself monitoring the 2 meter area repeater. This was not one of the organized commo channels but if the SHTF there would likely be a lot of useful dope sent on it because the channels we had would be hopelessly jammed up.
We returned to his house and basically we shared a nightcap with his other house guests and sacked out. We knew we had to get there at Oh dark thirty and meet at a certain staging area.
One of his other house guests was accompanying us and the three of us left early and grabbed a breakfast. I was keyed up to a certain degree. The knot in my stomach was still there and my habit of a big breakfast before a long day didn't mesh. I knew I would toss chow if I ate heavily so I grabbed a small breakfast and a short coffee as I didn't want or need excess liquids. I knew the porta potties would likely be overrun and I had been warned about peeing in a dark corner. I also hit the head and coaxed as much urine out of my system as I could.
It was damned cold outside and on our way back to the car my pard commented that the wind, cold and dry air would dissipate any gas agents that wore likely to be deployed. I was not equipped for any infighting. I did, however, have a spare bottle of water and a cotton scarf along with a pair of goggles and that would likely let me escape fairly unscathed.
As we were driving in I asked my host what the odds were that we were driving into a shit storm of epic proportions. He knew Virginia, the local politics and had the general lay of the land.
"About 70%" was his terse answer. The knot in my stomach tightened a bit more.
We parked and wandered over to a spot on the march route that was to be used by one of the armed groups that was mustering and waited. They arrived and we let them pass. It was pretty much a company sized unit and my trained eye told me a lot.
They were professional, very professional and obviously had been trained. I didn't see one drop of spit nor a dab of polish. The boots and uniforms were well worn and every one of them had added things according to their individual tastes. These guys knew their shit. They were the guys that had fought in Afghanistan. Others were the brawlers of the disagreement of Fallujah and knew city fighting well.
These were the guys that had the 0311, the 11B type MOS behind them. They were infantry, combat engineers, whatever with a smattering of others.
Nobody just falls in and joins the ranks of a group like that. I could tell that practically all of them had paid some pretty hefty dues. I saw a scar here, what looked like a burn on someone's hand. One had a somewhat visible limp. At the least virtually all of them had been taken from home and hearth and been deployed overseas. I saw one of them slip into the 10,000 yard stare for a few seconds and then snap out of it.
This wasn't a parade. Nobody was in step. These men were not marching. They were foot slogging. The 120 pace per minute of the parade ground had slowed to a pace that was simply comfortable.
They were not as hard as they had been a few years ago. There were small paunches here and there and some had the beginnings of grey hair but they were still damned tough. They were also skilled. I also noted that it looked like every one of them had a gas mask discreetly hidden in their pack somewhere.
I knew damned good and well that these guys were not going to start anything, but if anything started they were damned likely to finish it. In the event they didn't make the meal of things they would sure get a big, thick meat sandwich out of the deal and those that had the stupidity to tangle with them would be eating leftovers.
I also looked at the leadership. The NCO level leaders seemed to have an comfortable, easy relationship with their men. There was no pompous Sergeant Major screaming at someone to police his moostach. No boot lieutenant types lowering their voices three octaves to address the men. The leaders were fairly soft spoken men.It was obvious that these guys knew how to lead an armed populace unlike Red Ralphie. There was little humor, though. Things were too serious.
I made a mental check of the list of stuff that had been banned and saw that just about everything on it was present. Rifles, body armor, bayonets and so forth. However there were two absent items from the list I noticed. Nobody had a torch or a pitchfork.
Incidentally this wasn't the only organized group. This was just the one I followed in.
As usual, I could not keep my mouth shut. I made a wry comment about how I heard no complaints from them because complaining soldiers are happy soldiers.
A couple of them chuckled and turned around grinning. "That's because we're not too happy to be here," said one of them. I said that he had a very valid point. Most people were NOT happy to be there. I sure wasn't.
As we neared the capitol area there were a couple of cops handing out leaflets. They contained a map of the area and also a list of what was not permitted in the fenced in capitol area. I read it and quickly threw in in a trash can we passed by. If I were to be arrested carrying this paper it would have been solid evidence I had been warned about whatever.
Another cop in the group told the guy in front of me to remove his magazine and he looked offended. He was not part of the organized outfit, just another guy carrying openly. I quickly and quietly told him he ought to and he removed it with a dubious look. I spoke to him in a voice meant for the cop to hear.
" You can load that rifle fast enough if you have to use it." The cop gave me a real dirty look. We wandered up another fifty feet and I told him to replace his magazine. Later I heard he did that to a lot of people who took it out, wandered along and promptly replaced it.
We slogged into the capitol area and then the three of us peeled off to wander the streets in the area and see what we could see. We were looking for large sized groups of policemen, large vehicles, anything armored and anything that didn't look right. Over the course of the rally we reported in a couple of things but nothing that had us truly worried.
We did notice that the areas where things could be hidden were sealed off. They were not trying to display a show of force. My guess is they realized that a lot of people were loaded for bear.
I think I did at least a little good stumbling around and hobbling along with a cane that I really didn't need even though I am a somewhat overweight old man. I really ought to get into better shape. Still, the cane did some good. It made my partner look like he was giving his ancient uncle a tour.
Our general route was to wander the outlying areas for a while and then return to the crowd. for a bit and we had an if you turn up missing reassembly point. This proved wise as the third guy got lost for a while and we later picked him up at the rally point.
I saw a woman cop with a sour look on her face and said to her, "Marry me and I will take you away from all of this and you'll never have to wrestle with stinking drunk again. We will move into a little house in the suburbs and raise 2.3 children and live in bliss forever."
She is the first woman I have said that to that has not been amused by it. On the other hand I did like on the edge of being a scruffy wino.
I managed to spend some time with the crowd and it looked like the media was pretty disappointed. I saw only one thing even resembling a confederate flag and that was a combination of Old Glory, and the Southern Cross. It was actually a statement that we were one nation. I did see an LGBTQ flag and wandered over for a second. After all, I want to see gay married couples able to defend their marijuana plants with guns. There was a sign there that gun rights were gay rights. That's absolutely true.
As I was wandering back to meet my host I saw a burly big old school looking kind of guy. A few years back he probably would have been aghast to see the Rainbow flag and muttered something nasty about faggots. I turned to him and made the comment about gay married couples being able to defend their pot plants and he snapped back, "Damned tootin'!"
I looked at him and said to him, "I'm a straight white male and if I didn't have other things to do I do believe I would have showed up carrying a Rainbow flag just to watch the media melt down!"
"I'd have joined you," he chuckled and I wandered off.
I heard that ANTIFA Richmond had posted that they, too support the RKBA and would NOT attend although I'd bet several members did on their own.
Wandering the crowd I saw a slice of the entire state. There were everyone from someone's great grandmother to her great grandchildren. Nobody was obnoxious but the mood of the crowd was annoyed.
Some very young woman politely asked me how I was doing. She was obviously polished. A truly classy woman. I answered her, "Not worth a shit! I have a government that isn't listening to us!"
She laughed outright and told me she had the same problem.
By now the knot in my gut had disappeared. Reed Ralphie wasn't going to push the issue and I knew that there wasn't likely to be a riot. I also had not heard a single ND (negligent discharge) I was impressed. What was more important is that the cops were loosening up.
About half of the people were packing long guns overtly and I knew there were a whole slew of those packing concealed. I saw some poor, tired looking guy packing a Barrett. Another guy was probably a kindred spirit. He was packing a bayoneted Garand. I saw a pair of damned expensive 12 gauge trap guns and God only knows what else.
There were also a couple of county sheriffs there. I thanked one of them for showing up.
It was interesting to note that armed, unarmed didn't matter. Everyone was comfortable together and the three of us traveling together decided to listen to a couple of speeches but were too far away. Our efforts to recon had been in vain. I guess Red Ralphie wasn't entirely stupid. It had been a total success and there was a bonus.
As we were leaving someone shouted "Police call! Let's leave this place cleaner than we found it!"
I shouted , "Yeah! Your mother isn't here to pick up after you!"
Some guy answered indignantly, "She sure the hell is! She's over there!" and pointed.
"I'm damned well not going to clean up after you!" she shot back.
On the way out one of the cops was telling people to come back next year.
Did this do any good?
I don't know but it did show Red Ralphie that he was seriously outgunned. If he was even a little bit smart he would back down but he's an idiot. He is probably going to double down.
Someone set up a Guillotine nearby and the police quietly took it down when it was unguarded. It's too bad. They should have left it up and given Ralphie something to contemplate. It's clear now that the people have the strength to cart him off and do as we see fit. The truth is he is where he is now only because of the kindness of the people. We could easily take his head down to the nearest bowling alley and bowl with it.
Incidentally the ballot box has failed. The newly elected candidates have turned on us.
The jury box has proven itself to be useless when it permitted Red Ralphie to over rule the word of law.
The rally was a case of using the soap box and we'll see if that works. The snake has shaken its tail and we'll see if they are paying attention.
If it doesn't we shall see if Virginians are willing to open the cartridge box. If they do that I seriously doubt that the Richmond government will be able to withstand it for very long. I pray that they don't have to but it doesn't look very good.
Then again, there IS an alternative. It's called VEXIT.
West Virginia will probably be willing to take in all the RKBA counties if they so desire. It actually doesn't sound like a bad deal. Taxes are lower in WV.
To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY
