Coverups Are Ugly: From The D.C. Police To Fast And Furious
BY Herschel Smith12 years, 3 months ago
We have previously discussed the illegal bullying tactics used by the D.C. police to go after second amendment rights. Now from the most recent reporting by Emily Miller, there is a coverup underway over this incident.
Army 1st Sgt. Matthew Corrigan learned the hard way that the District of Columbia doesn’t believe it has to abide by the Constitution like the 50 states do. For nearly 40 years, the nation’s capital completely ignored the Second Amendment.
(This is the final part of a four-part series. Click here to read part one.)
On Feb. 3, 2010, the Metropolitan Police Department also didn’t give much thought to the Fourth Amendment right of Americans to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures. The department’s SWAT team blew through due process and into the home of Sgt. Corrigan without a warrant because the reservist was suspected of having an unregistered personal gun in his home.
When the incident was taken to court, the city realized its prosecution was jeopardized by the lack of a warrant. Officers came up with various cover stories of “exigent circumstances,” but the scheme unraveled before going to trial. Though all charges were dropped last month, the veteran who volunteered to serve a year in Iraq has suffered immensely. He is suing the city for a minimum of $500,000 in damages. The story of how the city’s case against Sgt. Corrigan fell apart says a lot about the contempt in which the District holds gun owners.
On the night of his arrest, SWAT team members woke Sgt. Corrigan at 4 a.m. and ordered him out of his home. They demanded the keys to his English basement apartment. When the soldier refused, the officers broke down his front door, ransacked his apartment, threw his dog Matrix in the pound, and seized his three personal guns and seven types of ammunition.
The cops zip-tied the first sergeant’s hands and put him into an armored command truck, where he was questioned before any guns were found. They didn’t check with a judge. “When I was secured, a warrant could have been obtained,” Sgt. Corrigan said. “When I offered not to give my consent to enter my place, a warrant could have been obtained. When the first weapon in plain view was allegedly seen, a warrant could have been obtained. … During each of these incidents what was the exigency that prevented a warrant from being obtained?”
Sgt. Corrigan’s attorney, Richard E. Gardiner, filed a motion to suppress the evidence in August 2010, saying the police violated his client’s rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. City officials claimed they had to act because Sgt. Corrigan was an expert in planting explosives and there was a smell of gas in the building. According to a November 2010 filing, police “gained intelligence about the defendant, including information that the defendant was an Iraqi war veteran with specialized training (believed to be training in connection with deploying ‘booby traps’).” These factors supposedly created an emergency situation requiring entry without a warrant.
Both exigent circumstances – the smell of natural gas and experience with booby traps – were fabricated.
Well there you have it. Material false information presented as the truth. I didn’t say anything in the last post because I wanted to see how all of this shook out, but I knew at that time that the D.C. police were either liars or pathetic idiots. The smell of gas, as any half-educated person knows, means that one immediately calls the gas company who has people on call 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, for just such emergencies. Bringing weapons – that were potentially to be discharged – into such an environment, could have been deadly, and at the very best was simply juvenile and stupid. SWAT raids take a back seat to public health and safety in the case of gas leaks.
Perhaps by assuming that the D.C. police weren’t idiots I assumed too much. Perhaps they need training in basic health and safety decision-making such as this. But since they were apparently lying, it was all fabricated. Being a liar is worse than being stupid.
Eric Holder is at the very minimum a liar, and was stupid to think that tactics such as Fast and Furious wouldn’t be found out. Now that Mr. Obama has invoked executive privilege over the documents Congressman Issa has requested, his hands are all over this. Perhaps his hands were all over this well before now.
Either way, for the U.S. Congress to back down now would be a travesty, and cowardly in the superlative. Eric Holder is apparently a criminal and should spend time in prison. Hopefully the light will shine into Mr. Obama’s main camp before this is all over. We will find out if he is merely stupid or a liar and criminal like Mr. Holder.
Regarding truth-telling, it isn’t just what the American people expect. It’s what God demands.
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment