St. Louis News Blog

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Libertarians are still rankled about a memo uncovered last week in which Gov. Jay Nixon and other state officials classify followers of Ron Paul and third-party candidates as possible militia members.

Yesterday, the Missouri Libertarian Party issued a statement saying that the memo in question (circulated by the Missouri Information Analysis Center, or MIAC) failed to follow U.S. Department of Homeland Security policies that prohibit political profiling and other civil rights violations.

"Training law enforcement officers to watch for political speech like signs and bumper stickers when trying to determine if someone is part of a violent hate group will, obviously, 'chill open discourse' and people's willingness to express their beliefs," said Libertarian spokesman Mike Ferguson in the statement.

Ferguson says his group now wants to know whether MIAC followed the Homeland Security policies when drafting the controversial memo. The Libertarian spokesman also states that he and others hope to meet with Gov. Nixon to discuss the issue.

"Unfortunately, our repeated requests to have that discussion and reach a solution have been rejected so far," said Ferguson.