There is a disturbing trend in American law enforcement and in our courts: They have been enforcing nonexistent laws, misapplying laws, arresting people who are obviously innocent, and arresting people on suspicion that they might be thinking about doing something illegal. This is similar to the policing philosophy in England, where police often preemptively detain people and seize household goods “for the safety of all concerned”. In my estimation, this is just one notch below arresting folks for “thought crimes” (a la Orwell’s novel 1984) or “pre-crime”, (a la Philip K. Dick’s novella that became the movie Minority Report.)
Here are some recent examples:
- In 2006, Ward Bird of Moultonborough, New Hampshire was legally carrying a firearm on his own property when he warned a mentally disturbed woman trespasser to leave his property. She later filed charges against him and he was convicted of “Criminal Threatening.” (The jury was not allowed to hear about the woman’s mental history nor her long history of filing frivolous lawsuits.) His sentence was later commuted, but he didn’t get the full pardon that he deserved. As a convicted felon he can no longer vote or own a gun for the rest of his life.
- In 2007, good samaritan Erasmo Palacious was falsely arrested for soliciting prostitution by the Chicago police. The facts of this case were so laughable that the charges were soon dropped. But Palacious still had to pay $4,700 in towing and storage fees to retrieve his impounded car, so he sued for damages.
- In March 2007, Thomas McKiernan of Norco, California was arrested and put under 72-hour psychiatric observation because he had a collection of more than 100 guns and had several hundred thousand rounds of ammunition stored in his home. ( You may recall that I commented about that incident in SurvivalBlog, at the time.)
- In May, 2008, “designated driver” Heather Squires of Phoenix, Arizona was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated, even though her blood alcohol content test showed 0.0%. Her crime? She stood up for her rights and refused to perform any field sobriety tests.
- In January 2009, Brian Aitken was arrested for legally possessing three disassembled firearms locked the the trunk of his car, while he was moving to his new home in New Jersey. He got a seven year sentence, but his sentence was commuted in December 2010 by the New Jersey Governor. (But but he didn’t get the full pardon that he deserved.)
- In July, 2009, Cambridge, Massachusetts police arrested Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a respected black college professor at Harvard University after a neighbor made a false report of a “break in”. Even though the professor showed police proof that he owned the home, they arrested him anyway, apparently just for being uppity.
- In September, 2009, grandmother Sally Harpold was arrested in Indiana for buying too much cough medicine. Rather than pleading guilty, her attorney convinced her to enroll in a “drug diversion program” to avoid a felony sentence.
- In March, 2010, David Pyles of Medford Oregon was arrested by a SWAT team for the non-crime of legally buying several guns. The guns were later returned to the innocent man, without apology and with little fanfare.
- In May, 2010, Jose Del Rio’s home in Austin, Texas, was raided, by police, fireman, and building permit inspectors because he had dug an elaborate bunker system beneath his home without permits. Thankfully, no charges were filed, but without due process county officials filled the bunker with pumped-in concrete, at Del Rio’s expense.
- And just last week, Reverend John Henry had his collection of 230 guns seized and he was forced to give up his pulpit for no reason.
The most recent article about Rev. Henry bothers me for several reasons:
1.) From the report, all of the guns seized seem to be perfectly legal, and the largest number of any category seem to be .22 rimfires. (I counted 54 of them listed.) This is hardly some would-be mass murderer’s arsenal.
2.) The report listed all of the guns by serial number. So they obviously ran traces on them. But there was no mention of any of the guns being stolen or in an illegal
| configuration.
3.) Since when is being a clergymen incompatible with being a gun collector? If it were, then they’d have to defrock more than 70% of the ministers who live in the southern and western United States.
4.) Why did the police lay out just the black guns from Henry’s collection for the press photographers? (I guess that the majority of guns with wood stocks looked too mundane and nondescript, hmmm?)
5.) Why would the guns and ammo even be seized at all, without a criminal charge or even reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime had been committed?
6.) Why do the police so consistently store seized guns by tossing them in garbage bins, resulting in lots of dings and scratches? Would they treat someone’s collection of Meerschaum pipes, antique radios, or Hummel figurines the same way?
7.) What exactly constitutes “too many” guns? (Where I live, 230 guns would be considered “a real nice collection”, but in Texas, Rev. Henry would just be considered a novice collector.)
8.) Since statistically cars kill more people than guns each year, then why is a big collection of fast cars cause for admiration, but a large gun collection cause to suspect the worst? (Unless, of course you are an anonymous millionaire.)
Conclusion
I urge SurvivalBlog readers to be vigilant. If you see or hear of incidents of “pre-crime” policing going on in your community, then speak up about it quickly and vociferously. Cell phones equipped with built-in video cameras are now ubiquitous, so film everything if you witness a questionable encounter with law enforcement, or have one of your own. Offer to help with the legal defense of those that are wrongly accused. Write letter to the editor of your local newspaper. If the “pre-crime” policing trend is allowed to continue, we can kiss the Fourth Amendment goodbye. We must be just as steadfast about the Fourth Amendment as we are about the First and Second Amendments!
I also urge law enforcement officers to show restraint when in doubt about the innocence of a suspect. You never know when you are going to push a wronged person the wrong way. You might end facing a Brian Christine, or a Gordon Kahl, or a Joe Stack, or a Carl Drega. Whether they are right or they just feel that they’re right, sometimes people are willing to stand up and fight to the death if they believe they’ve been wronged.