Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

October 4, 2007

Entering a courthouse in Manhattan last August, Dr. Nick Turse was startled when a security guard told him: ?You could be shot for carrying that in here. You could be shot.?

The ominous item was a digital audio recorder retrieved from Turse's backpack. As the guard observed: ?Some people here don't want to be recorded.?

Turse was arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention for conducting a silent, peaceful anti-war protest. He sued the City for false arrest, and was visiting the courthouse to discuss a settlement offer.

Insisting on treating him like a criminal, prosecutors produced a thick file of Turse's writings. They assailed him with ?vague threats to tie me down with depositions, tax me with fees, and maybe, somehow, send me to jail...?

Holding his ground in the face of such threats, the activist got the prosecutor to relent. Turse even manged to extract an apology ? although he wasn't able to record it, because his recorder had been confiscated.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.