[http://iowastatedaily.com/opinion/article_b17335c8-014f-11e0-ae5b-001cc4c03286.html]
What would you think if you found out a good man was being persecuted for speaking out against the federal government? If it was in your power, would you help him?
This very thing is happening to Charles Dyer.
I was afforded the opportunity and privilege to speak with him recently. I asked him to tell his story in his own words.
"My story is too long to tell, to be honest. Too much, man," Charles began. "It all started, I guess, after I made my first videos. I hadn't had any problems at all until after that."
Charles Dyer is widely known as the July4Patriot, who published videos on YouTube wearing a skeleton mask that obscured half his face. In his videos he speaks out about his fears that the federal government is growing too strong, and that if people don't wake up and start taking responsibility for the government they put in power, then soon it will be too late.
How Charles ended up in his current predicament is a story that is long, but pay attention. This is important.
"Found out in 2009, while I was in the Marine Corps, that my wife was doing group sex and drugs and all kinds of craziness, so we split up," Charles told me. "Whenever I threatened to take my daughter, she called the Marine Corps and told them I was making videos to take over the government and all kinds of crap, that I threatened to kill her and kill my daughter, and they arrested me. Then they found out it was all BS and they let me go. I got out of the Marine Corps."
Allegations from his wife weren't done negatively impacting his life — not by a long shot.
"I came back to Oklahoma in December of '09, and I told her boyfriend all the stuff she had done, and I guess she had lied to him about that stuff and he left her. The day I gave my daughter back to her for her visitation at Christmas she went and started saying I raped my daughter. That's what started all this mess." Charles went on. "After that, the unprofessional, the lack of even giving a shit what the real true story is. The unprofessional [actions] of the law enforcement, FBI, sheriff's department, police department. They hear the word militia and it's over, your life's over."
His last statement, about the mention of "militia" being a game-ender, is something I find disturbing, since the Second Amendment specifically addresses this issue. I asked Charles about ARM, the American Resistance Movement, which is pro-Constitution and endorses the freedom of the individual militantly.
"It's not actually a militia, it's just a movement." Charles said. "It's not a group of guys that sit around a table and call themselves the American Resistance Movement, it's just an idea. I've never been a part of a militia. I've never been a part of any actual group. I travel around and train militias, citizen militias, train groups. I don't have one — I would, but there is nobody around here."
After he was arrested, LEOs obtained a DNA warrant and entered his home. They didn't find any DNA from his daughter anywhere, according to Charles, but they did find a 40 mm grenade launcher that he had purchased under the false pretense of it being a legal 38 mm flare gun. The charge of failing to register a destructive device was added.
Charles went on to win the court case regarding whether or not he bought a 40 mm grenade launcher. A jury of his peers decided he had been deceived by the person who had sold him the piece of equipment.
Charles was pulled out of his cell and interrogated about the 40 mm grenade launcher. At the end of the interrogation, Charles said, some very telling comments were made to him by an FBI agent.
"'I guess July 4th Patriot won't be making any videos any time soon,' and he laughed at me," Charles said. "Later I found out that they confiscated my mask and they had confiscated a speech I was working on. Now what the hell does my mask and speech I was working on have anything to do with incest or having a grenade launcher in my home? They made it very clear to me why they were there."
I find it hard to to disagree with Charles' thought process regarding the motivation behind his arrest.
Charles' complaints about law enforcement don't end there.
"They violated my rights by coming into my home without a warrant several times. One of them while I was there and I told them they weren't allowed to come in and the deputy forced the way inside, forced [Department of Homeland Security] to let them come inside."
He continued, "They've given me excessive bail. When I was at the federal courthouse, they denied my bail. Denied me bail at all. Made me sit there for 90 days and rot because I was a threat to society and a flight risk.
"Well, for one, I've never missed a court date in my life because I've never been in trouble — not even a speeding ticket in my life except once, when I was 16 or 18, I got a speeding ticket. I've served my country for eight years, got dual honorable discharges, never so much as a negative counseling, had a secret security clearance, served in Iraq, served in a sheriff's department for a year here. Never did anything in my life to warrant this, and they have just crapped on me because somebody said the word 'militia.'"
"I've not even been asked my side of the story, I've not been questioned once on this rape allegation case. My family has been threatened by the FBI. The FBI told my mother straight to her face that if she didn't cooperate with them, that they were going to make enough charges to put me away for 40 years. The police department here has dumped trash in my yard."
I asked Charles about people's response to his videos, whether or not his militant nature put people off.
"I would say 99 percent positive. I don't get too many negative reactions from them," Charles said. "When I do get negative reactions, the comments or mail or whatever that I get from people is just steeped in ignorance, completely steeped in ignorance. People that don't know what the Founding Fathers' intentions were, haven't read their Constitution, they have no idea that we are even a republic; they think that we are a democracy. The people that are informed are 100 percent supportive. Although a lot of people don't like the fact that I wore masks for awhile, but once they found out that I was active duty in the Marine Corps, they were supportive."
Charles said the reason he started making the videos is that one day he realized that while he had sworn several oaths to protect the Constitution, he had never read it. After reading the Constitution, he was moved to speak out against the federal government.
"I'm pretty much a traitor if I sit back and I don't do something to try to wake people up," Charles said. "If I just sit here and watch 'American Idol' and pretend that nothing's happening, I'm doing a disservice to my countrymen and, hell, there's no reason I should even be a Marine. That's when I started."
Charles wouldn't go back and change it, though. He wouldn't change a single thing he did.
"If I could go back and change it, I wouldn't. I don't regret anything that I've done, and if I could go back, I wouldn't change it. I will be quitting this fight when they kill me — when they imprison me, or they kill me."
Charles' words directly to you, the reader, are as follows:
"Wake the hell up to what's going on around you, because very soon there's a great possibility that your children and grandchildren are going to be enslaved by shackles that the government that you put in place is going to put on them."
Charles Dyer is going to trial in January for the charges leveled against him concerning his daughter. If he loses the court battle, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Where are my opinions in all of this? My opinions are in my actions. A few days ago I donated to the Charles Dyer defense fund. If you want to do the same, visit freejuly4patriot.chipin.com, where you also can see his videos and other information.
I'm not going to urge you to donate — I'll let your convictions guide you in that decision. Instead, I'm urging you to learn more about Charles Dyer's story. I urge you to watch his videos and look further into the circumstances surrounding his wife's allegations. Then weigh in your mind carefully what is happening.
Charles Dyer, American Resistance Movement
Political Prisoner
Political Prisoner
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