
This is but a small part to a manual I'm currently writing, a pictoral primer on lone defensive tactics concepts. Keep in mind it's better not to be alone.
Nobody else is going to save you but yourself-but how? Read on. I hold no copyright to any articles, save that: 1)You reproduce in entirety 2)Link to freedomguide.blogspot.com 3)Accredit authorship to J. Croft
MESSAGE TO THE POLICE OFFICER
J. Croft
http://freedomguide.blogspot.com
http://freedomguide.wordpress.com
Officers, Troopers, Agents; it is time to start considering whether the orders you’re given are worth following. Whether the laws you are tasked to enforce are just, whether the methods you’re trained to use just wind up victimizing people. Actually, it’s past time. Way past.
Four years ago I wrote an essay with the same title, where I asked if you felt like an ass enforcing laws made by lawyers, administered by lawyers, presided over in court by the same pack of lawyers-who have a legal monopoly on the ‘practice’ of law. In many jurisdictions it is illegal to hold public office without a law degree. Yet when this nation was founded the vast majority of Americans practiced law. Lawyers were very few and far between, and it was a literate, thinking, self-sufficient American People that ruled themselves… except in the offices where it counted.
…Ever wonder why law isn’t taught in grade school-wouldn’t it be common sense to instruct the youth on the law, since everyone is supposed to obey the law? I mean, if ignorance is no excuse then it would be in the state’s interest to instruct everyone on the law so that the minimum of laws are broken, the minimum offenders sent through the legal system… except there’s too much money to be made by imprisoning and fining Americans. The system you serve is criminally imprisoning Americans-YOU yourself have stolen your fellow countrymen’s time, and certainly money, for the most inane excuses lawyers and bureaucrats can come up with!
And there’s too much law to possibly obey! That’s done on purpose; America has the largest body of law on the planet. There’s so much law, whole wings of libraries are stuffed with local, state, federal code. Again I ask the rhetorical why this is done? Because your employers want people to break the law. They want who you call your brother officers to be armed robbers for the state-issuing tickets to people for over for going a few miles over an arbitrary speed limit, grass a quarter inch over some limit, drinking beer on their front porch, growing a garden without a permit.
You know you don’t work for The People you work for lawyers, who work for the richest. These same lawyers who’ve made government their private racket have turned the Land of the Free into a slave permit society. Driving a car, bearing arms, planting crops, fishing, adding onto your home-if someone who’s otherwise peaceable and upstanding does these things without government permit you go in and wreck their lives. ‘Protect and Serve’ means protect and serve the lawyers.
Are you smirking, laughing at this? It’s no laughing matter to the Americans trying to go about their lives, trying to survive in a collapsing economy, a society at war with them. Most Americans have a thin margin of survival and when you feel like slapping them with a ticket, or smacking them with your baton and throwing them in jail because they’re asserting their Right to be left alone by the state you make more Americans your sworn enemy. How many millions of Americans are already mauled by the legal system you feed for the pettiest of reasons? How many millions more will you and your thin blue line of robbers, thugs and serial killers will you feed?
Do you see why what you do matters?
BECAUSE THESE OFFICERS DIED FOR THIS FRAUDULANT SYSTEM!!!
Oakland massacre…
Lovelle Mixon, a unemployed ex-felon is pulled over for some traffic infraction and opens fire on the officers-killing Mark Dunakan, Erv Romans, Dan Sakai, and John Hege.
Who to blame? The shooter? Yes, because he pulled the trigger, and I’m glad I don’t personally know him-probably steal from me or something. With four dead Oakland cops however we have to ask what motivated him? What set him off?
Probation officer games-putting off meets, costing him valuable time until Mixon, frustrated, skipped a scheduled meeting, conditioned by that probation officer he’d get stood up again. Which was used by the same probation officer to issue a warrant for his arrest. It was only a matter of time and circumstance until Mixon was confronted by your brother cops for something-a traffic stop. Not wanting to go back to the hell of prison because his probation officer played games to get another body back in the system, he fought back and fought hard. He fought well too, braining the two cops who pulled him over with a pistol, in a combat situation-and that’s no small feat!
Mixon then hid at his sister’s apartment-tactically stupid by the way-and awaited the response; a SWAT team entered and as they approached the closet Mixon was at he unleashed an AK-47, killing two more officers before falling himself. Be thankful Mixon didn’t think to use the sights on that AK-47, and await that SWAT team across the street, picking them off on semi-auto.
Were those deaths worth serving the lawyers who never stop stealing from us all?
Stanton Heights massacre…
Paul Sciullo III, Stephen Mayhle answered a domestic dispute call-Richard “Pop” Poplawski and his mother were arguing over the dog peeing on the rug. When you’re called out on a domestic dispute call someone’s going to get arrested-got to make answering in family fights profitable for the state y’know. “Pop” knew that under illegal federal gun control laws domestic dispute arrests meant he’d lose his firearms. Apparently backed into a corner, reading constantly about federal gun grabbers and the unconstitutional laws they operate under, Poplawski decided to make a last stand and opened fire. Eric Kelly, going to work, decided to back up Sciullo and Mayhle-and paid with his life along with his fellow officers.
Pop? Man was a flake, a failure, a wannabe racist-who I despise-but like millions of Americans he did not want his guns taken over some technicality. So when his mother called the cops on him he fought. Having body armor, and an AK-47, again, he shot five officers-three dying-and held the rest off for hours, in spite of being wounded. That took heart you have to admit, even if the brains were clearly lacking. Be glad most citizens don’t have the training to hit and run and not make these suicidal last stands you’re superbly trained and equipped to win.
…Yet how many more Americans are going to kill your brother officers to keep their Rights? How many more officers will lay down their lives for an utterly corrupt, evil government at war with the American People? How many more cops will have to risk their lives for laws evil lawyers write, administer, rules written by rat bastard bureaucrats? When will enough be enough for you?
…When you back up a CPS goon squad and the parents open fire, protecting their kid because some bureaucrat saw an opportunity to use the law to steal them?
…When you pull over a truck with a rusty back gate and the man whose had people like you hound him, steal from him, hold him back and trip him up his entire life decides enough-and opens fire on you?
…When you’re face to face with a D-9 Bulldozer that’s been heavily armored by the man the local power structure goes out of their way to screw over, because their business buds wanted to legally run all over him?
…When you roust some person sleeping on a steam grate or under a bridge because… whatever the reason he was once a productive citizen and he’s now done for, and he’s definitely done with you harassing him denying him even some sleep and he’s got a knife for you?
…When you pull someone going home from a bar you’ve been stalking certain you can bag another DUI even though they weren’t driving dangerously, even though you’d escort them home if they were a ‘brother officer’-and the man decides he isn’t going to get hosed?
…When you and another narcotics cop sell each other crack in some bar so you can use asset forfeiture laws to take it over, but the business owner decides he won’t go out without one last fight?
…When after some disaster you go door to door under your chief’s orders and try to seize guns from Americans by force, and you come across a home owned by a ex-Navy SEAL who’s even more covetous of Freedom than this writer?
…When you operate a checkpoint for seatbelts, or DUI, or drugs, safety inspection or whatever lame excuse your superiors come up with, and the next car that pulls up is driven by someone who just got hosed before by the local criminals in pinstripe suits and judge’s robes and isn’t having this?
…When you go back up a foreclosure and the family that has nowhere to go except the tent cities and your constant harassment for being homeless decides to repudiate their debts and resist what they’ve worked their entire lives for stolen-because the bank wouldn’t renegotiate?
…When you go arrest someone for defending themselves from street criminals, because it’s illegally against the law to exercise one’s Second Amendment, and that person decides they’re not going to share a cell with the friends of the people she had to shoot to save her life-or her kids?
I’m going to get into a history lesson. You need to read this because you cannot solve the problem of your fellow officers being ambushed and shot until you understand the root cause of the problem and fix it.
You ready to find a solution, before some American’s bullet finds you? Read on..
THE RISE OF THE LAWYERS, THE FALL OF A NATION
See, the reason this nation has fallen from the lofty heights of Freedom and prosperity that took Man hundreds of generations of struggle against tyrants and their legions of lackey and thugs to overcome in a new land is the lawyers. The lawyers as a class were in the service of the financiers of that era. Those way too rich men wanted discreet yet effective control over the new government of America-except that the Articles of Confederation were drafted to prevent a government strong enough, centralized enough, for the covert agents-the lawyers-of the financiers to control.
The financiers and their lawyer lackeys had a huge problem; the hundreds of thousands of armed, proficient Americans, many of whom spent several years taking on the greatest armed forces on Earth, the British Empire. More than a few of whom could take a muzzleloading long rifle and plant a .45 caliber ball in their heads from 300 yards out, or sneak into their mansions and slit their throats while they slept, or steal cannon and simply blast their estates to rubble. No, they weren’t going to face down people who stood toe to toe with the British Army lightly. They had to be clever. They had to create a crisis
Being financiers, they had the money to play with the markets of that era, and seeing how the United States of America was 13 sovereign nations in confederation they staged all kinds of economic havoc between them. Tariffs, hyperinflation, defaults, stock market manipulations, draconian foreclosure practices on American farmers and merchants-all designed to create a crisis the Article of Confederation government couldn’t handle. Wasn’t equipped to handle.
Rebellion seethed among the “lower classes”; foreclosures in Massachusetts prompted Shay’s Rebellion, where Revolutionary War veterans waged war against constables-police of that era-creditors and judges for taking farmers crops and land. Not realizing the bankers, the financiers economically generated the catastrophe. Not realizing the bankers were playing chess and not telling them the rules. Armed rebellion threatened another revolution-one that threatened to dethrone the ‘elite’ the lawyers, big merchants and plantation slave owners trying to establish control over this new nation.
Congress called for a meeting, a Constitutional Convention in 1787 to fix the Articles of Confederation to fix the problems. This was the opportunity the bankers and lawyers were waiting for! Create a problem, build a crisis, put enough pressure for enough people to change the rules. Now it was time for the banker’s solution-one primarily drafted by their primary agent, Alexander Hamilton, Esquire. Hamilton was George Washington’s Aide de’ Camp during the American Revolution. He was ambitions, ruthless, highly intelligent, an anglophile(why was he fighting for the Colonies then?!). He was also, unfortunately for history, as big an elitist as the bankers.
Hamilton wanted a strong central government, one that gave the illusion of being of, by, and for the People yet quietly and firmly controlling them, increasingly expanding its power and scope as it kept the American People lulled in that illusion-too busy settling a continent to see the greatest threat was the very government he designed. Alexander Hamilton got what he wanted-oh he and his fellow Federalists had to compromise and accept a Bill of Rights but the design of the new federal government had in it’s inherent design the capacity to eventually overcome those restrictions on power. Funny thing about the lawyers who drafted that constitution, almost none of them fought in the American Revolution. They did however, made themselves available to steal that revolution. The Constitution was drafted, and it took three years of overcoming fierce political resistance to get it ratified by the 13 states… Rhode Island rejected the Constitution and it took the threat of embargo and isolation to break them.
Once ratified the 1787 Constitution took effect and as America expanded, the US government expanded as well. The bankers had their lawyers gradually expand the power and scope of the government, using whatever problems or crisis real or rigged. The lawyers grew the body of law until its size necessitated in the minds of Americans unaware of the closet war being waged against them by those same lawyers that only they should interpret and administer their laws. The bankers starting in the mid 19th century promoted the Prussian military model of public education, molding young minds into obedient workers and soldiers; the days of independent minded Americans were forgotten. Corporations, controlled by the lawyers and bankers became privileged in the eyes of their laws-being legal fictions given power to control.
As government power expanded, the need for enforcers of the lawyers laws prompted the founding of the first police departments. Gun control laws were introduced in the South to keep Blacks disarmed, then expanded to only allow people ‘permitted’ by the state to carry or even own. Public education was standardized, then dumbed down and bastardized. The culture was centralized by the corporations through radio, motion pictures, music, television, newspapers and books-the corporations becoming the gatekeepers by which what was presented to the increasingly dumbed down masses. A once Free People, self sufficient and armed have been reduced to the masses of hapless sheep dependent on corporations for their wage slave jobs, their poisoned and processed foods, the petty entertainments to salve the pain and forget they’re slaves. Many reduced far further as they and their children were lured to the cities with factory work-when those factories were shipped overseas by the corporations, they became trapped in what became the ghettos. Poverty breeds broken homes, desperation, and drugs were “somehow” pumped in to breed a criminal class to make the sheep scared, driving them further into the arms of the ones who engineered the drug war, the ghettos. Ask Terry Reed, Catherine Austin Fitts and Michael Levine how much the US government’s into this.
Now, most Americans are the stupid, irresponsible sheep you despise. You, the remnant of those Americans who could take care of themselves, or some of the remnant as I see it, are manipulated by your sense of civic responsibility to serving what can only be called the beast. The beast… the US government and the major corporations that have strangled America.
For two centuries this land has been locked in a ongoing struggle between the American People and the government born through economic manipulation, staged chaos and conspiracy at the highest levels. Two Americas: one Free, the other the multifaceted slavery given the false image of Liberty preparing it’s death blow against us all. So, what to do, what with the US government so huge, out of control and seeking to finish off what’s left of Our America?
Actually there’s a lot, but first you must get ready:
1.)Learn the truth about the way things are. You cannot solve the problems until you know the root causes of those problems, or even that there are problems in the first place. Time to hit those alternative news sources on the Internet, while we still have Free Speech. Do try to use discernment… cross compare what people say, and no you probably won’t get to the truth but you can reason on your own. Use that God-given brain of yours. Perhaps you’ll come to some of the same conclusions I have.
2.)Start thinking about the Why. Why are you ordered to do this or that. Who benefits. Who gets the money. Perhaps that order to up your traffic ticket quota, that arrest quota isn’t best served on that working mom.
3.)Find God. Not join a religion or church, but God. Find a quiet place and still your mind, and ask for God. If you don’t have a spiritual center, a foundation, everything built atop will collapse. With God you can stand against anything. Without, you can’t stand when things get tough, and if you have a conscience and not given over to criminality, evil, like many of your ‘brother officers’ you know what I’m talking about.
4.)Join Oath Keepers; Patriot military and police seeking to defy the beast. Their ten part Oath:
1. We will NOT obey orders to disarm the American people.
2. We will NOT obey orders to conduct warrantless searches of the American people
3. We will NOT obey orders to detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants” or to subject them to military tribunal.
4. We will NOT obey orders to impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.
5. We will NOT obey orders to invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.
6. We will NOT obey any order to blockade American cities, thus turning them into giant concentration camps.
7. We will NOT obey any order to force American citizens into any form of detention camps under any pretext.
8. We will NOT obey orders to assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil against the American people to “keep the peace” or to “maintain control.”
9. We will NOT obey any orders to confiscate the property of the American people, including food and other essential supplies.
10.We will NOT obey any orders which infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
Their website: http://oath-keepers.blogspot.com/
5.)Prepare for Martial Law. Get a network for survival, both in your town and a place in the country. Make a decision now how far you’re willing to go to resist. Go here: http://freedomguide.blogspot.com/2005/10/martial-law-survival-guide.html
6.)Join the Appleseed movement and learn how to hit with a rifle out to at least 500 yards. Riflemen were the backbone of the American Revolution, they will be the military backbone of the, yes, Second American Revolution. Go here: www.rwva.org
More suggestions, from my original Message to the Police Officer:
How you can resist
Get to know your non-cop friends again, and your neighbors. You probably let those relationships go bye-bye when you bought into the crap that cops are "a breed apart". The people you joined the force to 'serve and protect'; and you view them as scum?
Your mindset will be the first obstacle to overcome, but since you're reading this you're hopefully already on that road. The 'cop culture' like most aspects of American culture is managed by it's own 'gatekeepers' who serve an Agenda-to fill your discipline and duty oriented mind with all sorts of psychological cues that herd you into being a insufferable elitist.
Yeah, that's what that 'they' want-there's always a 'they' around to ruin it for everyone. You blindly enforcing laws which oppress everyone. 'They' fill you with pride in your profession, give you a cool looking uniform, all sorts of means to carry out your job-and you get guns! All of which are but bait-egotistical masturbation.
Assaulting this egotistical masturbation is your first duty, assaulting your 'brother officers' programming as you can is your second duty. There is a line, and it's different with each individual, but it basically is their patience at listening to you challenge what they've been programmed with. Don't count on getting them to see the light quick, as you know the programming's thorough and very deep. Don't push too much, and use examples you come across. This is a war-not a battle.
Your third duty: shielding the People as best you can from the ravages of the laws lawyers pass. Look into your heart-if you are with God, you will know which laws are sensible(stopping murder, rape, robbery, reckless drivers, crack dealers selling to grade school kids). The rest(niggling regulations, laws that rob people of their rights) must not be enforced. They must be IGNORED.
Ignoring as best you can, because your supervisors watch you to make certain you do your job as proscribed by them. You're in a bad spot, and sometimes you will be forced to pick your battles. Sometimes you won't be able to directly help someone about to get steamrolled by the state. You'll have to surreptitiously get evidence of their innocence and get it to a attorney willing to fight for their freedom. Sometimes you'll encounter a scumbag son of a bitch-who's shielded by the local powers-that-be. That person might even wear the same badge and uniform as you. Here is where you shall have a real gut check: what if there isn't a way to stop this bastard legally? What if this state sanctioned criminal plants dope to cause a raid and asset forfeiture seizure? What if this human sized cockroach is going to whack a 'troublemaker'; someone working for Freedom just like you?
How far will you go to do something about it? And can you do it smarter-as in being able to get away with it? There are people who know of these things, and one or two even wrote books on the subject if you can't get a hold of that someone. Beyond that I dare not say what you should do, except that it needs doing, and nobody's doing it at all.
There's more you can do; a lot more. You can do this under a alias or not, but it's my wish you cops would start showing the People on a individual and community level how they can defend themselves from the bureaucratic predators. How to get around the bureaucrats, and who among them are still patriots. There are bad and good in every walk of life, and if bureaucrats can see that they too can join in renewing freedom, this struggle shall end in victory that much faster! Motivating them as officers to actually stand up and as a group demand that laws start getting scrapped. Tell them that they wouldn't have so many cops and bureaucrats in their lives if there weren't so many laws for them to enforce. Make it plain that their lives will NEVER get better if they let themselves keep being hypnotized by that electronic narcotic called the TV.
Teach the People how to physically defend themselves and their communities. Yes, if you love freedom this would include the safe and effective use of firearms and when to do it. Your police and military training makes you a natural choice to teach the People. Yes, this incurs the risk of being labeled a 'militia', but for hundreds of years the gathering of all able bodied adults in case of a collective danger was a key part of American civilization. They organized and drilled and shot their rifles in public square it was that enshrined. It was when a permanent, standing US Army and a permanent standing professional police force that the Citizen's Militia quietly faded away from American public life.
GETTING FURTHER IN THE FIGHT AND REPLACE YOUR BOSSES WITH REAL AMERICANS
Get politically active. Know the truth; the federal and state offices are pretty much sewn up by our enemies. However, most government tyranny is still administered at the local level, and local politicians are the most vulnerable.
America has millions of local governments-somewhere are communities ripe for change, within the capacity of the few Patriots on the ground to get together and change. Using the Recall Petition, get signatures to force a RECALL ELECTION. Your job will be to get evidence of petition and vote fraud and tampering and if necessary to step in and arrest those attempting to steal the election.
Until a election campaign can be mounted in your jurisdiction it is up to you to defend the American People from the beast government that seeks to crush and destroy them. Seeing how most people are kept in a fog of make believe it is up to you to shake them back to reality next time you spot them breaking the law. Remind them that the reason there are so many laws is because lawyers run the country-because they won’t take responsibility and dictate to who are supposed to be “public servants” how to run their jobs.
Here are some more guides on doing this:
IT’S TIME
http://freedomguide.blogspot.com/2009/02/its-time.html
RECALL ELECTION: OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME
http://freedomguide.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/recall-election-obstacles-to-overcome/
The future is up to you.
J. Croft
IT’S TIME.
Time to begin the Second American Revolution. Time to take that first step-and take back a town!
J. Croft
http://freedomguide.blogspot.com
http://freedomguide.wordpress.com
Everyone,
Before I proceed I’d like to thank each and every one of you for your support for my essays these past four years. Your encouragement means more than I can express. It’s a good thing when you come up with thoughts, ideals, put them to words and people out there understand what you’re saying. So I hope you’ll agree that taking action and getting results are more critical than ever. Because I’m going to ask you do something; get together with others as sick of just protesting, talking yourselves blue about change and burning precious hours in endless circular arguments on the net. Because I am, too.
Time to put the ideals I’ve given you into real life results. We’re going to take over a town, kick off the Second American Revolution with a Recall Election.
We’re going to come up with a list of candidate towns; these will be based on the following criteria:
*Good geographic distance from major urban areas. Keep the mindless urban hordes at bay, reduce political influence of urban and state governments.
*Mix of local industry, resources, agriculture, potential for independent power generation. If a collapse goes forward, the more the candidate town can be self-sufficient, the better.
*Potential defensibility. Expecting trouble is prudent. Terrain can work with us like, say, in Appalachia, out West, the Ozarks. Towns in the Great Plains are like France in 1940; a flat expanse asking for assault. Plus local populations in mountain communities stand a chance of not being completely gelded.
*A review of that town’s Consolidated Annual Financial Report; a lot of what we’re going to do rests on just how much that town has bilked Americans for their taxes just to invest it. Given the current economic climate, yes there may not be much left-or there may be enough land, buildings, assets, cashable investments, etc. to give that town a economic rebirth.
*Political vulnerability of existing local government. This is the most important criteria. So important that I personally would be willing to compromise on other criteria if we can find a corrupt little shitburg whose people are ready for change-that we will give them!
We’re not going to get our Second American Revolution at the national level-we tried that, we don’t have the numbers, media penetration, or political strength. We have to build that strength one state at a time. Which means we have to build up our strength to take over that state one county at a time. Which means we have to build up our strength to take over that county one town at a time-and we as a movement have to take that first step, because with our numbers and relative strength concentrating, taking over a town and using it as a real world showcase for our ideals and showing Americans what Freedom really is is the only way we can penetrate the enemy’s cultural and media grip on them.
So which town will that be?
Help choose that town. Use your God given intelligence, mull the criteria and give us some candidate towns that need our attention first. Go to this message board:
www.voy.com/207159/
We’ll post candidate towns, gather intel, have lots of arguments about where to concentrate our efforts. It’ll be worth even the effort, but victory and emulation as our Revolution spreads like Ebola across America… can you picture it? Yet we can’t take that journey until we take that first step-that first step beyond mere internet theorizing and flaming each other because we’re all understandably frustrated we can’t get our message out. A Second American Revolution in a corrupt shitburg and transforming it into a model community of Free Humanity, and publicizing the results in a never ending stream of news reports will get the message out.
So if you’re into actually doing something about the way things are going spread this message to the four winds! We’ll go from there, narrow our choices to a few towns or even one town. Then, establishing legal residencies-a mail drop in a house will do-we’ll begin with that town and states applicable emergency recall petition rules. We’ll select our candidates and begin our campaign as I’ve outlined in my articles.
It’s time. Let’s do it already!
J. Croft
http://freedomguide.blogspot.com
http://freedomguide.wordpress.com
There is no need for Patriots to wait for a full election cycle to replace corrupt public officials and take back YOUR government! Use the power of a Recall Petition.
It worked in 2003 in California to replace Grey Davis… except that it was a op to get Arnold Schwarzenegger in who otherwise couldn’t have gotten elected.
We can use this! Gather all the Patriots in your state, pick a town that’s corrupt. File legal residency, and start a recall petition. Usually, you have 90 days to get all the names.
Then stage your election. Take precautions to have duplicate offices, have squeaky clean candidates who won’t sell out.
When you get in… you’ll know what to do.
REGULATIONS OF RECALL PETITIONS:
Recall of State Officials
March 21, 2006
Overview
Recall is a procedure that allows citizens to remove and replace a public official before the end of a term of office. Historically, recall has been used most frequently at the local level. By some estimates, three-fourths of recall elections are at the city council or school board level. This brief, however, focuses only on the recall as it applies to state officials.
Recall differs from another method for removing officials from office - impeachment - in that it is a political device while impeachment is a legal process. Impeachment requires the House to bring specific charges and the Senate to act as a jury. In most of the eighteen recall states, specific grounds are not required, and the recall of a state official is by an election.
Eighteen states permit the recall of state officials:
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Kansas
Louisiana
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
Nevada
New Jersey
North Dakota
Oregon
Rhode Island
Washington
Wisconsin
The District of Columbia also provides for recalls. Virginia is not listed as a recall state because its process, while requiring citizen petitions, allows a recall trial rather than an election. In at least 29 states (some sources place this number at 36), recall elections may be held in local jurisdictions.
LOCAL OFFICES, PER STATE:
Alabama
Ala. Code §11-44-130 - 11-44-134
Municipal commissioners and mayors
No restrictions on when a recall petition may be commenced
No specific grounds are required
No time limit for gathering signatures
Signature requirement is number equal to 3% of the inhabitants of the municipality according to the last federal census who are qualified to vote for a successor (§11-44-130). Signature requirement is number equal to 30% of those who voted in the last election (§11-44E-16
Alaska*
Const. Art. 11, §8
AS§29.26-240 et seq.
All elected public officials in the state, except judicial officers
Recall may commence after first 120 days in office.
Grounds for recall are misconduct in office, incompetence, or failure to perform prescribed duties.
Time for gathering signatures is 60 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the votes cast for that office in the last regular election.
Arizona*
Const. Art. 8
Every public officer in the state holding elective office, either by election or appointment
Recall may commence after 6 months in office.
No specific grounds are required.
Time for gathering signatures is 120 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the votes cast for that office in the last regular election.
Arkansas
Ark. Code §14-47-112, 14-48-114, 14-61-119, 14-92-209
Mayor, member of board of directors, commissioners of suburban improvement districts (for the latter, a petition triggers a recall hearing, rather than an election)
Recall may commence after 6 months in office
No specific grounds are required
No time limit for gathering signatures
Signature requirement for mayors and directors is number equal to 35% of ballots cast for all candidates for the office at the preceding primary at which the officials were nominated or elected; for commissioners of suburban improvement districts requirement is number equal to 25% of the owners of realty within the district
California*
Const. Art. 2, §19
Election Code §11000 et seq.
Elective officer of a city, county, school district, community college district, or special district, or a judge of a trial court
County and city charter provisions providing for recall are not affected by state provisions.
Recall may commence after 90 days in office. Recall may not commence if officer has 6 months or less left in term.
No specific grounds are required.
Time for gathering signatures is 40 - 160 days (depending upon the size of the jurisdiction).
Signature requirement varies according to the number of registered voters in the jurisdiction: 30% if registration is less than 1,000; 25% if registration is between 1,000 and 9,999; 20% if registration is between 10,000 and 49,999; 15% if registration is between 50,000 and 99,999; 10% if registration is 100,000 and above.
Colorado*
Const. Art. 21, §4
CRS §31-4-501 et seq.
Elective officers of any county, city and county, city and town
Cities, counties and towns may provide for the manner of exercising the recall, but cannot require a petition be signed by more than 25% of the entire vote cast in the last election for the office subject to recall.
Florida
Fla. Stat. Ann §100.361
Any member of the governing body of a municipality or charter county
No recall may commence until official has served at least one-fourth of his term
Grounds for recall are malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, and conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude
Time for gathering signatures is 30 days
Signature requirement varies according to the number of registered voters in the jurisdiction: 50 electors or 10% of the total electors, whichever is greater, in a district of fewer than 500 electors; 100 electors or 10% of the total electors, whichever is greater, in a district of 500-1,999 electors; 250 electors or 10% of the total electors, whichever is greater, in a district of 2,000-4,999 electors; 500 electors or 10% of the total electors, whichever is greater, in a district of 5,000-9,999 electors; 1,000 electors or 10% of total electors, whichever is greater, in a district of 10,000-24,999 electors; 1,000 electors or 5% of the total electors, whichever is greater, in a district of 25,000 or more electors
Georgia*
Const. Art. 2, §2.4
Ga. Code §21-4-1 et seq.
All state and local officials who hold elective office
No recall may commence during the first or last 180 days in office.
Grounds for recall are conduct which relates to and adversely affects the administration of his or her office and adversely affects the rights and interests of the public; and act(s) of malfeasance, violation of oath of office, failure to perform duties prescribed by law willful misuse, conversion or misappropriation of public property or funds.
Time for gathering signatures is 45 days for a petition requiring 5,000 signatures or more; 30 days for a petition requiring fewer than 5,000 signatures.
Signature requirement is number equal to 30% of the electors registered and qualified to vote at the last regular election.
Idaho*
Const. Art. 6, §6
Idaho Code §34-1701 et seq.
Every public officer in the state of Idaho, excepting the judicial officers. Specifically includes: County officers–members of the board of county commissioners, sheriff, treasurer, assessor, prosecuting attorney, clerk of the district court, and coroner. City officers-mayor, members of the city council. Special district elected officers for whom recall procedure is not otherwise provided by law.
Recall may commence after 90 days in office.
No specific grounds are required.
Time for gathering signatures is 60 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 20% of the number of electors registered to vote at the last regular election at which the officer was elected. For special district elected officers, requirement is 50% instead of 20%.
Kansas*
Const. Art. 4, §3
KSA §25-4301 et seq.
All elected public officials in the state, except judicial officers
Recall may not commence during first 120 or last 200 days in office.
Grounds for recall are conviction of a felony, misconduct in office or failure to perform duties prescribed by law.
Time for gathering signatures is 90 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 40% of the votes cast for the office in the last election.
Louisiana*
Const. Art. 10, §26
La.R.S. §18:1300 et seq.
Any state, district, parochial, ward, or municipal official except judges of the courts of record
Recall may not commence during last 6 months in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 90 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 33 1/3% of the electors of the voting area, unless fewer than 1,000 electors reside within the voting area, in which case the petition must be signed by at least 40% of those electors.
Michigan*
Const. Art. 2, §8
MCL §168.951 - 168.975
All elective officers except judges of courts of record
Recall may not commence during last 6 months in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 90 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the persons voting in the electoral district at the time of the last election for governor
Minnesota*
Minn. Stat. Ann. §351.14 - 351.23
Any public official who is elected to countywide office or appointed to an elective countywide office, including county attorney, county sheriff, county auditor, county recorder, county treasurer, soil and water conservation supervisor, county commissioner elected or appointed from a commissioner district or a soil and water conservation district supervisor elected or appointed from a supervisor district
Recall may not be commenced in the 180 days immediately preceding a general election for the office which is held by the officer subject to the recall.
Grounds for recall are malfeasance or nonfeasance in the performance of official duties during the current or any previous term. Prior to circulating a petition, there must be a court hearing to determine if there is probably cause for the grounds for recall.
No time limit for gathering signatures.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the persons who voted in the last election for the office which is held by the official named in the petition
Missouri
MRS §77.650, 78.260
any elective office in a third class city
Recall may not commence during first 6 months in office
Grounds for recall are misconduct in office, incompetence, and failure to perform duties prescribed by law.
Time for gathering signatures is 60 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the total registered voters in the city
Montana*
MCA §2-16-601 et seq.
Every person holding a public office of the state or any of its political subdivisions, either by election or appointment
Recall may not commence during first 2 months in office.
Grounds for recall are physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of a felony offense
Time for gathering signatures is 3 months.
Signature requirement for county officials is 15% of the persons registered to vote at the last county general election; for municipal or school district officials requirement is 20% of the persons registered to vote at the last election
Nebraska
NRS §31-786 - 31-973 and 32-1301 - 32-1309
Any elected official of a political subdivision and any elected member of the governing bodies of cities, villages, counties, irrigation districts, natural resources districts, public power districts, school districts, community college areas, educational service units, hospital districts, metropolitan utilities districts, and sanitary and improvement districts.
The recall procedure and special election provisions apply to the mayor and members of the city council of municipalities with a home rule charter notwithstanding any contrary provisions of the home rule charter.
Recall may not commence during first 6 months in office or within 6 months prior to the incumbent filing deadline for the office
No specific grounds are required.
Time for gathering signatures is 30 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 35% of the total vote cast for that office in the last election except that a) for an office for which more than one candidate is chosen, requirement is 35% of number of votes cast for the person receiving the highest number of votes for that office in the last election; b) for a member of a board of a Class I school district, requirement is number equal to 25% of total number of registered voters residing in the district; c) for a village officer, requirement is 45% of the total votes cast for the person receiving the most votes for that office in the last election
Nevada*
Const. Art. 2, §9
Every public officer in the State of Nevada is subject to recall from office by the registered voters of the state, or of the county, district, or municipality which he represents.
Recall may not commence during first 6 months in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 60 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the persons voting in the last election
New Hampshire
RSA 49D:3(e)
Charters adopted by towns, cities, village districts and unincorporated places may provide for recall.
Provisions vary by jurisdiction’s individual charter.
New Jersey*
Const. Art. 1, §2(b)
Any elected official in the state or representing the state in the United States Congress. Includes local officials.
Recall may not commence during first year in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 160 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the registered voters of the district
New Mexico
Const. Art. 10, §9
Elected official of a county
A recall election cannot be conducted after May 1 in a calendar year in which an election is to be held for the office subject to the proposed recall.
Grounds for recall are malfeasance or misfeasance in office or violation of the oath of office during the official’s current term. Prior to circulating a petition, there must be a court hearing to determine if there is probably cause for the grounds for recall.
No time limit for gathering signatures.
Signature requirement is number equal to 33 1/3% of persons who voted in the last election for the office
North Dakota*
Const. Art. 3, §10
Any elected official of the state, of any county or of any legislative or county commissioner district
Recall may be commenced at any time.
No specific grounds are required.
No time limit on gathering signatures.
Signature requirement is number equal to 25% of the those who voted in the last election
Ohio
ORC §705.92
Any elective officer of a municipal corporation
Recall may not commence during last 190 days in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 90 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 15% of the total votes cast in the last regular municipal election
Oregon*
Const. Art. 2, §18
ORS §249.865 - 249.880
Every public officer in Oregon
Recall may not commence during first 6 months in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 90 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 15% of all votes cast in the electoral district for governor at the last election
South Dakota
SDCL §9-13-29 - 9-13-35
The mayor, or any commissioner or any alderman in municipalities of the first and second classes with or without a city manager
Recall may commence at any time.
Grounds for recall are misconduct, malfeasance, nonfeasance, crimes in office, drunkenness, gross incompetency, corruption, theft, oppression, or gross partiality
Time for gathering signatures is 60 days.
Signature requirement is number equal to 15% of registered voters in the municipality, based on the total number of registered voters at the time of the last general election
Tennessee
Tenn. Code Ann. §6-31-301
Members of boards of education, city council members
No recall election may be held during the 90 days before or the 90 days after a municipal election
No specific grounds are required.
No time limit for gathering signatures.
Signature requirement is number equaling 66% of the total vote cast for the candidate receiving the highest number of votes at the last election
Washington*
Const. Art. 1, §33-34
RCW §29.82.010 et seq.
Every elective public officer of the state of Washington expect judges of courts of record
Recall may not commence during last 6 months in office. [effective until July 1, 2004]
Grounds for recall are acts of malfeasance or misfeasance while in office or violation of oath of office
Time for gathering signatures is 180 days. [effective until July 1, 2004]
Signature requirement for city officers of cities of the first class and county officers of counties of the first, second and third classes is 25% of total votes cast for the office at the last election; for all other political subdivisions, requirement is 35% of total votes cast for the office at the last election
West Virginia
WV Code §8-12-4(3)
Any city may be charter provision provide for the recall of an elected officer.
Recall may commence at any time.
No specific grounds are required.
No restriction on time for gathering signatures.
Signature requirement is number equaling 20% of the qualified voters of the city.
Wisconsin*
Const. Art. 13, §12
WSA §9.10
The qualified electors of the state, of any county, city, village, town, of any congressional, legislative, judicial or school district, or of any prosecutorial unit may petition for the recall of any incumbent elective official
Recall may not commence during first year in office.
No specific grounds are required
Time for gathering signatures is 60 days.
Signature requirement for county officials is number equal to 25% of the votes cast for governor in the county the county the officer represents; for a city, town, village or school district officer, requirement is 25% of the votes cast for president in the district the officeholder represents
Wyoming
Wyo. Stat. §15-4-110
Any elected officer of a city or town operating under the commission form of government.
Recall may commence at any time.
No specific grounds are required.
No restriction on time for gathering signatures.
Signature requirement is number equaling 25% of all registered electors in the city or town.