There is a  new policeman in towns across America!  It is called Operation Choke Point!  It is dubbed by the Department of Justice officials as a part of their operations to weed out businesses that the White House considers objectionable.  Hmm – sounds a little carnivorous.  Aren’t they going “out-of-bounds” for their job descriptions?  The public has had enough of this administration and what they like and don’t like!  

The Justice Department contends the goal of the program is to combat unlawful mass-market consumer fraud (under whose definition), although recent evidence suggests otherwise.  The way it works is if you are a small business and deal in vintage coins and sell firearms; therefore, you are labeled “high risk” by federal bureaucrats as part of a Obama administration initiative called Operation Choke Point.  

Banks are then pressured, through the implied threat of government investigations, to sever ties with customers engaged in those enterprises. This puts business owners in jeopardy of losing their livelihoods without every being prosecuted for doing anything illegal.  (It seems now after pressure from Congress, the agency wrote a letter on July 28 that it has recognized “the error of its way”  and is withdrawing “that ill-advised guidance to the banks.”  A government which is committed to the rule of law must treat all lawful businesses equally and sadly “Choke Point” sadly ignored that until they were brought to task by the citizens.) 

Government officials have no authority to deny lawful industries access to credit merely because the government dislikes their line of business.  That runs counter to the rule of law.  Only unlawful activity merits sanction.  So far the people caught up with losing their bank accounts – one is a cancer survivor, one used to run a manufacturing company, and one is an Air Force veteran who moved back to  his hometown to open a store.

They contacted the banks and the banks confirmed that they had sent letters to hundreds of companies in similar industries in obedience to directions from several federal agencies, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency of the Department of Treasury.  The banker stated that if his branch did not “mitigate that risk” all of its accounts could be audited.  Some of the small businesses did find another bank but their feelings are, “if there has been something that we were doing wrong, we would certainly like to know what this is –  so we could rectify that.

The moral to the whole story is as we were told when trying to buy ammunition for our ranch in trying to reduce the population of the wild pigs that are running rampant on our ranch – you are limited to the purchase  of only one box of ammunition per purchase.  What is the government afraid of?

kommonsentsjane