"....guys, here's the deal: I've been the subject of at least two sting
attempts. Once at a gun show, a fellow comes up to me and asks if I want to
buy a de-milled .50 Cal Browning." "...And when the feds knock down your
door, shoot them in the face, the cowards all wear bullet proof vests. Take
a few of the bastards with you." John
John, while there is no evidence to say you were not about to be setup, there
is no evidence to say you were either.
No offense John, but I been down this road before with folks who know for
fact those feds were "about" to do this or that, when the "fact" was never
established.
But, let's go with it for a moment and see what you have.
Professionally speaking (over 25 years of criminal law, law enforcement and
courtroom experience), I would say when it comes to a sting operation most of
the time it goes down like this:
Somebody tries to get you to sell them something, not them sell you
something. However, the latter does happen, but on rare occasion. The reason
the latter doesn't happen too much is the problem of entrapment. Thats a big
problem too!
In the situation you have described the entrapment is quite clear (also quite
illegal, if that is what they were up too). Let's say you buy an active .50
cal. MG on the good faith that it is in fact a demil job as represented by
the seller and then they bust you. Now they got the problem, because they
entrapped you and they can't do that and still get a conviction, least not
legally and by any court I know. Conviction is the key word here. You can
bust anybody, convicting them is another story.
In our court and under this circumstance, the burden of proof falls on the
cops and they must prove beyond a shadow of a doubt and to a moral certainty
that you absolutely knew in your mind at the very moment of the sale that it
was an illegal weapon and you bought it anyway.
That ain't easy to prove my friend.
Now unless all those agents that were involved in this bogus sting, including
their immediate supervisor, the federal prosecutor all want to waste their
time and be humiliated in front of a federal judge, the jury, a courtroom
full of witnesses and the news media, there is no way in God's green earth
they are going to take a case like that into court and there is no way any
professional agent would set a sting up like that. I can see how some
backwater sheriff's deputy who lacks sufficient legal training might, but
even that is a stretch. If they did, you can sue the socks off them for
stupid move like that and there is plenty of lawyers chomping at the bit to
sue the deep pockets of any government agency, believe it!
Kinda makes me think that whatever was going on, it was likely NOT a federal
sting.
Now as to shooting the fed bastards in the face if they break into your
house. A citizen is only allowed to use such force as may be prudent to save
him/her from death or serious bodily injury. The burden of proof falls on
you to show such a situation existed and that you didn't know it was federal
officers trying to serve a search or arrest warrant when they came through
the door.
All warrants require knock and notice, unless specially approved by a judge
to serve it without knock and notice. In that case some very serious
conditions that must be met. Those kind of warrants almost never get
approved because they require such a high burden of proof to show the need.
The judge knows the risks if he gives them this special warrant. A lot of
times it should have been a no knock warrant, but the judge wouldn't stick
his neck out and instead put the officers at greater risk with a knock type
warrant. So the police get to say after pounding the door of the armed and
dangerous suspect's place, "This is the police, we have a warrant for your
arrest, unlock the door now or we're coming in!" Gee, wouldn't you like to
be the first guy thru that door now?
You won't find a lot of sympathetic juries out here if you shoot a cop after
a knock and notice warrant, especially when he/she is in full uniform.
I know you are angry and frustrated, a lot of nice people get that way over
stupidity in government and law enforcement, but don't ever let your anger
overrun your IQ. Better to step back, calm down and then act in a legal way
to resolve it.
And lastly about those "bastards"... again I know it was said in anger, but
now I got get up on my soap box and shout this out loud and clear. This is
for everybody who has ever hated cops or agents as a group:
Those people just didn't come from outer space! They were all once kids,
raised in our own neighborhoods, they went to our schools, our churches and
some are our own sons and daughters.
Most folks could not begin to appreciate what those "kids" went through to
become officers and federal agents. Psychological testing, physical testing,
IQ tests, background checks and in the end I bet darn few of us could have
made the grade, but they did because they are the best of who we are. Sworn
and entrusted with a solemn and sacred duty to protect and defend... us!
Often this is done at the cost of their own lives.
Speaking of that cost, on my right side I'm looking at a "Memoriam" in a cop
magazine. There are 32 state, local and federal officers listed there, men
and women all killed in the line of duty. Ever heard of Cpl. Larry Mitchell,
age 23? He was shot while responding to disturbance call. He left behind a
wife and little son. Or how about Sgt. Wilber Berry, aged 53. You know he
was almost to retirement, when he was cut down by gunfire as he approached a
stolen vehicle parked in the suspect's front yard. Wilber left behind a
wife, two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren who will dearly miss
grandpa.
There are a lot of names you never heard of here because it's not news worthy.
But, you will read over and over about Ruby Ridge. (Funny, not one of these
survivors ever got 10 million dollars for a wrongful death suit either. )
The bottom line here is, despite all their good training and good intentions
cops are still human. Mistakes happen, warrants do get served on the wrong
house, stings do go wrong, bad arrests are made and yes, some bad cops do
dishonor their profession. It happens and that is something we do read about
and the anger towards builds.
Well, enough, I just hope I gave you all something to think about next you
feel like taking matters a step beyond legal or accusing cops of something
they might not have done.. ( like that never happens! lol ).
Hey.. you be careful out there!
Jack Lee
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 09:34:14 PDT