Do you have any what what's on you? No. No. Nope. Okay. Nope. I understand I'm supposed to be completely and totally defenseless while I'm in this building. It's okay. Like a like a school in Uvalde, right? Just all right. So, what do you have So, City Treasurer, City Manager. City Manager or Treasurer, right? Yeah. You good? Come on in. We got questions about taxes, basically. So, that's who we were told to come talk to. We're doing an investi documentary about organized crime. Sure. Um all right, once this is all done Okay. I'll escort you personally over to Okay. I'll show you over to Okay. Just go around. Go go with this thing. Okay. You see I'm just going to take the waist for a minute. Okay. You can go around. You don't have to. You don't have to. She's deaf mute. She doesn't have anything on her, just camera. City Manager's doesn't have their words. They don't have anybody available. I will give you a number if you ever want to make a contact with them. I'll give you their number. Okay. I'll give you that at the end of your thing. Okay. Give you all that info. I wasn't sure who to talk to. These are just the recommended departments they sent me to from across the street. You have to show all your business licenses and everything. Kind of a documentary just trying to uh See how the city functions? Right. Right. Where the money comes from. Oh, yeah. How it's generated. How the revenue's generated. Right. Now, like across the street where you were at City Hall, I take it. Yeah. Okay, yeah. That's like the governing body. The selection of all officers of the mayor and all those council members. Okay. This is like the functioning arm of the city. That's Everything you see here, all your um like engineering, your planning, licenses, tax. Oh, yeah. People get like vendor's licenses and stuff. Um passports. Are you waiting for Um Yeah, okay. Uh well, that's There's the of Revenue. Does tax. Oh, is that in here? Nope. Oh, okay. We're just doing a documentary. Trying to teach people about how uh things are operated here. I was told that um that this place is completely run off of um money taken through threats, force, and coercion. That's not true, is it? Um I So, you're here asking me questions about something that I have no knowledge of. So, Okay. um What's your position here, Sarah? I'm the tax and licensing manager. Tax and licensing manager. Right. Okay, you collect taxes, though? Nope, we do not collect taxes. That's the Arizona Department of Revenue. She says tax and licensing manager. That's what you do? Right. So, we do licensing here in the office. Okay, what types of things do you license? Businesses, and then we do regulatory licenses. What's a regulatory license? A license that requires that required so that you can do your type of business. And business would be like I produce facility would be an example of a regulatory license. Governments claim that regulatory fees and licenses are meant to protect consumers from under-qualified workers and businesses. Since the 1950s, the number of occupations that require licenses have risen from 5% to about 25%. But over the last decade, at least a half dozen studies, including those from the Institute for Justice, have shown that occupational licenses have done little to nothing to protect consumer health and safety. But they have barred otherwise qualified individuals from being able to compete in the market, putting up fences protecting already existing large corporations from having to compete with the little guy who may otherwise actually be able to provide better quality services and products at a better price. If you want to provide goods and or services to people who want to buy goods and or services, you must first ask the government for permission and then pay them. But what if both the buyers and the sellers decided that they wanted to freely exchange with one another and that they did not want to involve the middleman that's claiming to provide protection for both of them? So would somebody be able to open a massage business and have people voluntarily come in and use their goods and services without permission from this organization? You mean the got from the city? Yeah. what you mean? Yeah. Correct. They would not They would need that license to do a massage. Okay. To have a massage facility. What if they wanted to open a massage facility and customers wanted to come and pay them for massages, but customers and the business didn't want to involve the city. What would happen then? Um well, that would be a good question for police to ask. Police. Mhm. Cuz we don't I don't enforce that. The police department enforces that license. Okay. And you're not sure how they would enforce it. They have their OWN PROCEDURES. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PROCEDURES. I'M sure they do visits and things like that. So at that point, if people chose to just freely trade goods with each other without the permission of these people, then the police would come in? What do you mean by these people? Uh the You call it the city, right? Yes, it is. The city. Okay. So yes, if you have any questions about enforcement, that would be with the city police department. Most people want some kind of peace of mind that the person they're hiring is in some way qualified to provide the services promised. And if you only want to get a massage from someone who has paid for this woman's stamp of approval, there's nothing wrong with that. But what if a hundred people or even a thousand people decided that they wanted to pay this man for a massage instead? And he has not paid for her stamp of approval. Then the police will come? Wow. Extortion is defined as demanding money or property through threats or intimidation. Racketeering refers to a pattern of illegal activities typically involving extortion or other criminal acts carried out to generate profit or gain an advantage often by organized crime groups. The difference between a robbery or a theft and racketeering is that racketeering involves a planned and ongoing scheme, not just an isolated criminal act. So, who would call the enforcement then and ask for them to go and force the uh and and tell the force the business to come and pay you guys. Uh I don't know. Maybe the whoever complains about it. Okay. Would you You guys wouldn't So, would they call you and say, "Hey, we have a massage parlor and people are freely trading with one another." I've not ever had that happen before, so I would not be able to Okay. I guess somebody could call me and say that, but we've never had that happen. I imagine most people just get the license. I would assume so. Okay. Okay. We're just trying to figure out what would happen if someone didn't and if they just chose to freely exchange with their neighbors. explained that. Right. We don't do the enforcement here. They That would be something that the police would follow up on. So, if they didn't though, then the police then it's all on the police's hands. So, I need to go ask them then. Yeah, then you can You're more than welcome to. Okay. And is that the way put in a public records request with all the things that you're wanting. Got you. And then we can The city would be happy to answer those questions for you. A public records request for what would happen if someone didn't get a license? Well, anything. Any Any questions that you have for the city, so you put in a public records request and then the city will respond to you. We also have easy where you can ask questions or things that you need to know or whatever and the city will respond to that. Okay. So there's lots of ways for the city to provide information. All right. Do you Do you not like people coming in to ask in person? that you're coming in to ask. You're actually in the I'm I have a meeting in a little bit, but I have like about another 5 minutes that I'm happy to give to you. Okay. All right. Well, I think I got the answer I need. If If people were to try to freely trade with their neighbors, the police would come. Is that right? I did not say that. I don't know why the police would come if people were trying to freely I didn't say that. So Okay. You're more than welcome to ask your question again, but that's not what I said. Notice as this dialogue continues that the armed security guard changes his posture. He then moves around behind my camera person standing uncomfortably close in her personal space in what appears to be an attempt to intimidate her causing her to move and resituate. But in order to freely trade with neighbors, that people have to have business license or regulatory licenses? No, it has to be within the ordinance. So no, you're talking about You just said freely trade with your neighbors. Like I want to I'm not going to go if I go to my next door neighbor and knock on the door and say, "Hey, I want to sell you some eggs or I want to borrow some eggs or I want to trade you some eggs for some sugar or something like that." The city has nothing to do with that. Okay. I got it on this one. Okay. Um so there's only certain trade that the city regulates and some trade that they don't. It'd be per statute or ordinances. Okay. Those are our rules and regulations. Okay. So like our lemonade, can kids have lemonade stands without a permit? Mhm. Okay. So, there are certain things that are regulated and not. Where do I find the information about what is or isn't regulated as far as free trade? It would be ordinances. So, you can go to az.gov and review ordinances. Okay. And that will tell me what type of free trade is free and what type of trade is regulated. What type of trade isn't regulated? Cuz some things may be regulated, but not necessarily not free, if you know what I mean. So, your definition of free and my definition of free seems a little different here. So, Okay. if you want to explain what your definition of free is. Um Free is to me that it doesn't cost me anything. There's lots of things that you can do that don't cost anything. Okay. I go to a chiropractor here, actually, and he told me that uh he has to have a license to operate. Mhm. And I told him and I told him I would still come to you and pay you for your services even if you didn't have a license. But, we would probably both get in trouble for that. Is that right? Mhm. I don't know how you you would get in trouble. I mean, the business needs to be licensed. So, Permission. able to get But, the clients necessarily wouldn't There's no Nothing wrong with the client. Okay, so it would be the business that would be punished. for that. Okay. All right. Codes and ordinances will tell us what trade is free and what trade is regulated, right? It will tell you what the laws and ordinances are in the city. So, I wouldn't search free and regulated, cuz that's probably not going to help you. Okay. All the words that you're using have not come out of my mouth. So, you're more than welcome to look up ordinances to find out what is regulated or what must needs to be done in the city, but I'm not sure that violence would be appropriate word or free things like that. I mean, you're just I don't I don't know how to answer your questions. I'm telling you what the rules and regulations are. Sure. It's 1:00 and I have a meeting. You have a nice day. All right, thanks, Sarah. The Institute for Justice has found that this legalized racket costs the Arizona economy about $2.83 billion per year and leads to 29,000 fewer jobs. Frédéric Bastiat said, "When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Is there a reason you started taking an offensive posture at a certain point there? all. Started trying to take our six and Uh, just Moving along. Look like you were taking kind of an offensive posture there. Not shaking your head at us and at me. Oh. It's okay, man. You're the only one with a gun in here. We're just here to talk. We're not the guys with the guns who force our will upon other people, right? Right. We were disarmed at the door. For your safety, probably, right? Cuz if people realize what you guys actually are and what you actually do, it's probably why you uh put this thing up, right? Am I right? Well, that'd be the elected and appointed officials that did that. Sure. Yeah. And and you're just uh just work the enforcement arm of it, right? I just work here. Yeah. I mean, I do appreciate you taking me back there, but as you can see, people get really defensive when we start talking about these types of things. That's you know, we don't mean to to get people all upset and offended, but That's okay. when we start really talking about things the way they are I know you want to but this is a camera so you have to keep it How many cameras? How many cameras are in the building? I have no idea to be honest with you. But if you please just move from the desk, this is for employees. Security? I know she don't hear but can you please tell her to move from the desk? Oh, I think she's fine. She's just recording me. Okay. So this Excuse me, sir. Yeah, sure. She just need to move from the camera. Excuse me. I apologize but we have to. That's for the security only.