Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 15, 2012

Christopher Randle and a female friend were in a parked car with the engine running when a police officer tapped on the driver?s side window. When Randle opened the door, the officer spied two open beer cans between the passenger and driver?s seats. Randle was arrested for felony DUI.

Randle appealed, correctly observing that the officer had no probable cause to search the vehicle. The trial court ruled that the search was consensual, and thus not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. That ruling was upheld on February 6 by the Idaho Court of Appeals.

"By approaching Randle's vehicle in the parking lot and tapping on the window, the officer did not restrict Randle's liberty to ignore the officer's presence and go about his business," wrote Judge John Melanson.

Randle?s counsel pointed out that this ?could have provoked the officer to take aggressive actions,? thereby forcing Randle ?to engage in some form of combat with the officer to protect his privacy interests.? This would have meant, at best, additional criminal charges ? or, at worst, being killed. The Court of Appeals simply ignored those concerns, just as it assumes that police are free to ignore constitutional limits.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 14 2012

When a large contingent of heavily armed riot police arrived at the small home near Hai Phong Vietnam on January 5, they expected little resistance. Their orders were to evict the family of 49-year-old Peter Doan Van Vuon and seize the property.

Vuon wasn?t home, and his wife Ngyuen had just returned from dropping off the kids at school, when the assault began.  Rather than submitting meekly to the invaders, the family fought back, using improvised pellet guns and land mines. Nobody was killed or seriously injured, but the officers were forced to retreat.

Vuon purchased the small plot of swampland in 1993, and invested his life savings into reclaiming it and building a fish farm. His business had just started to show a profit in 2009 when the regional government announced its intention to confiscate it. After Vuon and a neighbor filed a lawsuit against the seizure, the court ? as a ruse ? promised to let them keep the land if they withdrew their suit. The confiscation proceedings continued, leading to the January 5 firefight and Vuon?s arrest.

Although charged with serious crimes, Peter Vuon has become a folk hero in Vietnam ? as he should be to everyone who understands and cherishes property rights.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 13, 2012

Austin, Texas resident Scott Henson, a legal affairs writer, was walking home from the roller rink with his 5-year-old granddaughter on February 10 when they were approached by a deputy constable. The officer addressed Henson as if he were a criminal suspect. She began to interrogate the child, who calmly acknowledged that Henson is her grandfather.

Henson and the girl were allowed to depart, but just two blocks from their house they were surrounded by nearly a dozen police cars.  Henson was handcuffed and detained for nearly a half-hour while the girl was questioned again.

Henson point s out that he is white and his granddaughter is black, which could appear uncommon but is hardly unheard of. Furthermore, his identity and that of his granddaughter had been established in the first encounter ? but this didn?t stop the police from terrorizing them.

Things could have turned out much worse. During the same week, Manuel Loggins, Jr., a Marine Sergeant at Camp Pendleton, was gunned down by police in front of his terrified daughters for reasons nobody can explain.

Henson notes that while his family lives in a bad neighborhood, ?the only people [we have] to fear are in uniform.? That?s pretty much the case everywhere.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 10, 2012

Texas criminal statutes define the crime of ?assault? as the act of intentionally threatening another person with imminent bodily injury. Aggravated assault occurs when the offender ?uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the commission of the assault.? This is a first degree felony when committed ?by a public servant acting under color of the servant?s office or employment.?

Conviction of first degree aggravated assault can result in a term of life imprisonment.

That crime was committed the evening of January 27 near a Houston nightclub called the Compound, which was hosting a party organized by the Houston Free Thinkers. Summoned by a noise complaint, several police officers arrived and demanded that the party be shut down.

When police started searching the property, the event organizer asked to see a warrant. Without justification a cop seized the young man and attempted to drag him off. Not surprisingly, this drew loud protests from assembled spectators.

Frustrated by his inability to intimidate the rambunctious but peaceful crowd, the officer grabbed a shotgun and jacked a shell into the chamber.

All of this was captured on video. The police have the evidence, and they know the identity of the felon and his accomplices ? but it?s doubtful an arrest will occur.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 9, 2012

Washington, D.C. resident Matthew Corrigan, an Army Reservist, was depressed and having difficulty sleeping. He called a number the thought was the Military Emotional Support Hotline. While speaking with a counselor, Corrigan mentioned that he was a veteran, and answered ?yes? when asked if he owned a firearm.

A few hours later, Corrigan was startled awake by the sound of his name being called through a police bullhorn. Ordered to come out of the house, Corrigan did so, locking the door behind him. He was surrounded by a SWAT team, handcuffed, and put in the back of a van. When the SWAT commander demanded access to his home, Corrigan replied: ?There is no way I am giving you consent to enter my place.?

To which the SWAT commander angrily replied: ?I don?t have time to play this constitutional bullshit!? and ordered the team to invade the property. Corrigan was taken to a VA hospital, where he was found not to be a suicide risk. He was taken to jail for three days. His dog was seized, and his house was sacked.

Corrigan was never charged with a crime. The SWAT team had no search warrant. Such details don?t matter in post-Constitutional Amerika.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 8, 2012

Last October 29, Henderson, Nevada resident Adam Greene was driving to work at about 4:30 a.m. when his blood sugar plummeted and he went into insulin shock. After he stopped at an intersection, a police officer with a drawn gun approached the car and kicked the driver?s side window.

Another dragged Adam violently from the car and threw him face-down to the pavement. Within seconds, Adam was surrounded by a half-dozen officers. Five of them restrained him while one kicked him repeatedly in the face and head, shouting ?Stop resisting, motherf***er!? Two others struck him repeatedly in the side and midsection.

The officers quickly became aware that they were dealing with a sick diabetic, rather than a drunken driver.

A dashcam video of the incident caught one officer expressing concern over the fact that the incident had been recorded.

?It?s on camera,? the officer said.

?They don?t know you,? another replied. ?I wouldn?t worry about it.?

Not surprisingly Adam continues to feel extreme worry and apprehension over the incident, and feels extreme anxiety in the presence of police officers.

Given the impunity that characterizes contemporary law enforcement, what honest citizen wouldn?t feel anxiety in their unwanted company?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 7, 2012

Mark and Amy Denicore of Waterford, Virginia face a March 14 criminal trial because their three schoolchildren have accumulated roughly thirty tardy slips. The couple was arraigned on February 6 before Judge Pamela L. Brooks of the Loudon County juvenile and domestic relations court. Each of them has been charged with three misdemeanors, each of which carries a maximum fine of $500, according to the Washington Post.

Neither of the applicable statutes specifically addresses tardiness as a basis for prosecution, which means that Loudoun County has no legal authority to convict the Denicores of an offense.

Largely in response to pressures put on them through the federal No Child Left Behind measure, school districts nation-wide are hauling parents into court to face criminal sanctions for chronically tardy or absent children.

Last June, for example, the Long Beach Police Department arrested the mother of a middle school student on charges that she had failed ?to ensure her son?s regular attendance in school, in violation of a new truancy law that provides for criminal prosecution? in such cases.

From the perspective of those who run the government school system, children belong to the State ? and are only incidentally the responsibility of the parents to whom God gave them.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 6, 2012

Diane Avera, a grandmother from Mississippi, faces a year in prison in Alabama for the supposed crime of buying a box of Sudafed. She was arrested in Demopolis, Alabama after a clerk at the local CVS pharmacy tipped off the police about her son?s purchase of Sudafed D.

Avera?s scuba instructor advised her to buy Sudafed to help with an ear condition. A pharmacy clerk suggested that Avera go across the state line to Alabama, where the medicine can be purchased over the counter.

Avera and two grandchildren went to the Demopolis CVS, where her son and his girlfriend each bought a box of Sudafed. They then went to Walmart, where Avera purchased another. As she pulled out of the parking lot, a police officer quickly intercepted her ? then used the crying children as hostages, threatening to call the Alabama State Department of Human Resources ?to pick up these kids.?

In order for the children to be released, Avera ?had to confess all the Sudafed was hers, thereby putting her over the legal limit in Alabama,? reported the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger.

After being arrested and left shackled to a metal chair for 17 hours, Avera signed a confession.

Once again: In what sense can this honestly be described as a free country?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 3, 2012

Shannon Jones, a former judge in Tennessee?s Crockett County who pleaded guilty last fall to federal drug charges, was given the most lenient sentence imaginable ? six months in prison, three years of supervised release, a $100 assessment fee, and $3,300 in restitution to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Jones was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine. Had he been an ordinary citizen as opposed to a member of the local elite, the 41-year-old attorney would most likely spend the rest of his life in a cage.

In Tennessee, possession of more than half a gram of methamphetamine is a Class B felony that can result in a prison term of up to 30 years.

During his January 26 sentencing hearing, Jones described himself as a victim of his addiction who considered it a ?relief? when his activities were discovered.

Of course, if Shannon Jones had been a truck driver, a fry cook, a farmer, or someone not wired in to the political class, he would be treated as a criminal menace to society, rather than someone with an addiction that should be dealt with chiefly through medical intervention.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 2, 2012

Taking the collectivist logic of prohibition and food regulation to its logical conclusion, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims that adult stem cells are federally regulated drugs. In principle, this means that an individual?s body, for regulatory purposes, should be considered federal property.

Last August, the FDA filed a motion for summary judgment in a federal court battle with a Colorado health clinic offering a non-surgical treatment for people suffering from joint pain. The procedure uses samples of bone marrow or synovial fluid extracted from the client, from which adult stem cells are cultured. Unlike embryonic stem cell harvesting, this process does not involve injury of any kind to another human being.

As the Alliance for Natural Health points out, the FDA?s central claim in the motion for summary judgment is that an individual?s stem cells ?are drugs and therefore fall within their jurisdiction.?

?The implication of the FDA?s interpretation of the law, if upheld by the court, would mean that all food, drugs, devices, and biologic or cosmetic products would be subject to FDA jurisdiction,? the group concludes.

If government has the authority to regulate what individuals choose to consume, each individual?s body is in some sense State property ? right down to our stem cells.

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