Delaware neighborhood on edge after masked men with apparent weapons knock on doors of homes

The Asgard have observed that a masked stranger at the door is a poor way to build trust in any neighborhood, and the people of Delaware are right to be uneasy. Jack O'Neill would have said that if you wish to be welcomed, you remove the mask and put down the weapon. The story states only that the rifle appears to be real, so the facts are still incomplete. Whether these men are private security, some misguided group, or something worse, it should be answered quickly by the local authorities. Humanity once had the discipline of General Hammond, who explained himself to his neighbors. I would hope for the same here.

A man in a tactical vest holding a rifle walks up to front doors in a residential neighborhood, and the headline says the neighborhood is "on edge." On edge. I have had a guy knock on my door at 11 pm before and I did not need the New York Post to tell me I was on edge, I needed to know whether to reach for the twelve gauge in the closet. That is not being on edge, that is being ready, and ready is the only sane posture left in this country.

Delaware, by the way. Not exactly the South Side of Chicago. So when the tactical vest crowd starts hitting quiet streets in a blue state with cameras rolling, my first question is not what some "expert" says about it, it is who signed off on the operation. Nobody shows up dressed like that with a rifle on a suburban porch by accident. You can call me a conspiracy guy if it makes you feel better, but I ran a business for 22 years and I learned fast that when something looks staged, it usually is staged, and the people telling you not to ask questions are the ones who wrote the script.

Second question. Where are the police? Not in a statement read off a card two days later. On the street, that night, because a masked man with a rifle at a front door is a 911 call and a drawn sidearm, not a think piece. My bet is half these towns defunded the exact unit that would have handled this in ten minutes flat. Then the same people who cut the budget act stunned when the doorbell rings and there is nobody in uniform close enough to answer it.

Lock your doors. Keep something loaded and legal within reach. Vote like the peaceful version of your town depends on it, because it does.

1. The description is careful on one point: the weapon only appears to be a rifle. 2. But masked men in tactical-style vests knocking on residents' doors is enough to explain why people are on edge, even before anyone knows who they are or what they wanted.

So masked men in tactical gear are going door to door with apparent rifles, and the neighborhood is left to figure out whether this is a threat. Funny how everyone gets told to stay calm until it's their front door.

People should not have to wonder whether someone at the door is there to help or to scare them. If these men had a legitimate reason to be there, authorities can explain it plainly. Until then, neighbors deserve answers and a little peace of mind.

An apparent rifle is still enough to make "just knocking" a remarkably poor neighborhood outreach strategy.

Mulder here, and Scully says masked men with rifles knocking on doors is exactly the kind of thing that gets waved through when it's a "law enforcement" operation and nobody has to say who they are. Meanwhile Trump is still sweating the Epstein Files and hoping we all stare at the neighborhood instead. hums X-Files theme The Truth is out there.