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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: Magna Carta

Trial By Jury, The Yellow Ribbon Myth and the Decline of an Ancient Institution

29 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

alternative, America, Amerika, ancient, Arizona, Boston, case, Cicero, Courts, crime, English, freedom, greece, guilt, jury, justice, law, Magna Carta, men, Milke, Ninth Circuit, order, peers, people, rights, Rome, terror, trial, Tsarnev, U.S.

The ancient Greeks and Romans had the crazy idea that a man accused of a crime should have the benefit of a public trial.  During this ordeal the accusing party (the State) would have the burden of presenting facts, which might establish a crime.  The Sword of God crowd would hold these base allegations sufficient to show the underlying criminal act.  Our ancient ansestores had other ideas.  To them the issue was important enough to warrant consideration by an assembly of impartial justices – a jury.

Of old the jury consisted of various members of the accused’s peers.  These were his friends whom knew him well.  Why were such pre-disposed men considered impartial, as they were friends of the accused?  The idea was that, being men of honor, they would hear the evidence and weigh it in their minds fairly regardless of their relation to the suspect.  The fact that they were friends of the accused served as a check against an illicit prosecution.

If “X” was charged with a baseless crime, the jury might collectively judge that, “yes, X is given to bouts of indiscretion, but he would never do something like this.  Or, they might find that X, while am affable fellow, might be the sort who would commit such an act as alleged.

The system, while not perfect, worked well.  In Rome, such trials were reserved for the upper classes – for men of privilege.  Commoners were generally tried by magistrates in shorter, more informal settings.  These lessor citizens, being of lessor importance, faced lower burdens of proof and lower levels of punishment.  Fair if not.  Members of the elite classes, given to higher responsibilities, were treated to high levels of justice.  See the defense of Milo (a murder suspect), presented by one Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of the greatest lawyers of antiquity.

This theoretical approach to justice lived on after the 5th Century, being embodied in the Magna Carta, a core right of Englishmen.  Thus, the right to a jury came to America.

Today this right is practically non-existent.  In modern Amerika a jury trial, while nominally “of one’s peers” is one assured not by your peers.  The fact is that very few criminal prosecutions end with a trial.  Most of those end with a conviction (the vast majority).  This is due to the overwhelming influence of the State and the extremely limited powers of the accused to resist such influence.  Every effort is made to ensure that the jury does not, in nay way, know of the accused on a personal level.  Further, only those enslaved to the power and suggestion of the accusing State are favored or empaneled.  The system has been turned on its head.

Lately, several high-profile trials have made the news; these illustrate my point that there is no right to a fair trial in Amerika.

In 1989 Debra Milke was tried for the murder of her four-year-old son, Christopher.  A jury (not of her peers) found her guilty – based solely on the unsupported testimony of a rogue police detective.  Despite all indications of innocence the State’s chosen jury found Milke guilty.  Thus, for several decades Milke lived in the daily terror of Arizona’s death row – dimmed to die for a crime she did not commit.  The guilty parties averred she had nothing to do with the crime.  This did not matter to the State until the matter was finally (thankfully) reviewed by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Arizona Supreme Court.  See also: Arizona Supreme Court Won’t Allow Retrial of Debra Milke. The prosecutor is, naturally, frustrated by this untimely carriage of justice.

Milke was blessed by higher intervention.  Too often the innocent in Amerika are executed for crimes they did not commit.  A recent admission shows that the FBI and its crime lab have doomed at least a dozen innocents to death.  You have probably never heard of these cases of injustice.  So it goes.

Thus do the innocent, robbed of true justice, resort to filing pleadings in courts entitled, “F*ck this Court.”  This one warrants reading and consideration.

Debra Milke faced execution because a heartless police officer lied under oath.  The officer has since “taken the fifth” so as to avoid prosecution himself for his lies.  The citizens of Arizona will pay millions of dollars to right this injustice.

A thousand miles away, in Boston, Dzhokhar Tsarnev has been found guilty of the Boston Marathon Bombings.   His was one of the most bizarre trials I have ever heard of. See: Boston Marathon bombing trial: 18 jurors at a glance.  The jury was selected based on their indifference toward the accused and their alliance with the state.  Tsarnev was not allowed a defense.  Rather, he, by way of his “counsel,” admitted guilt but relied on specious allegations of the undue influence of his older brother.  His brother and other key witnesses were, conveniently, dead.

The case was tried backwards.  The prosecutor first present victims of the bombing and their woeful statements – this usually comes after guilt has been established, during the penalty phase of the trial.  Tsarnev’s counsel never even questioned these witnesses.  The government then presented an unopposed fable of how Tsarnev constructed and utilized homemade bombs.  Again, no challenge came from the “defense.”  The lack of direct evidence was deafening.

Having admitted guilt and completely failing to challenge the government’s base allegations it was a given fact Tsarnev would be found guilty.  They strategy (if any) of his counsel was that he would attempt to evade the death penalty by way of the supposed undue influence of his dead brother.  Charming.  Pathetic.

It is entirely likely that this young man played a part in the bombings.  Thus, he deserves execution for his crimes.  However, I have long suspected he was only a pawn in a false-flag operation designed to test America’s willingness to endure a police state (shelter in place, and all that).   We will never know the truth here.

As a former criminal defense attorney I am well aware of the failings of the modern, American jury system of “justice.”  Here follows the entire account of one of my trials in federal court, before a jury and bereft of justice.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent, the guilty, and me.  This story was originally designed for publication (never achieved) in a major news journal:

The Yellow Ribbon Myth: Amerikans Do Not Support The Troops, Nor Justice.

Do you “support the troops?” One sees countless bumper stickers proclaiming such support. I no longer believe the propaganda. When someone says, “I support the troops,” I hear, “I support the government.” This concept was made painfully obvious to me during a criminal trial last fall.

My client, “Donny’s” case, in a U.S. District Court, 2012:

I’m am calling my client “Donny” as I have not yet sought his permission to use his name; I also may be restrained from using certain facts due to Orders of Sealing/Impoundment.

Donny enlisted in the U.S. Army while in high school and completed basic training the summer before his senior year. Donny received an appointment to West Point though, after one year, he stopped his education and entered the Army as an enlisted man. He served with the 375th Ranger company in Afghanistan where he was forced to kill men, women, and children. The experience haunts him daily.

While in the field and during additional training he sustained major injuries, which necessitated his retirement on disability: I think his physical was 50%; his mental injuries (PTSD, psychosis, etc.) were 100%. During his tenure he rose to the rank of Sargent and was awarded so many medals and commendations that multiple forms DD-214 were necessary to list them all.

He received continuing physical and psychiatric treatment at the Augusta, GA VA hospital; they placed he on enough narcotics and psycho-tropic drugs to turn anyone into a zombie. His mental condition was initially rated as temporary. Throughout 2011 he pursued the status of “permanent and unemployable.” During this time he suffered marital and mental health-related troubles daily. Towards the end of his bureaucratic ordeal he made a phone call to the VA national “service” center.

During the (recorded) call he made statements which the VA took as terroristic threats – they alleged he said he was going to the regional VA office in Atlanta to kill the first 3,000 people he encountered using unspecified weaponry. My review of the call lead me to believe he was not sane during the call, that the government’s allegations were a wild, composite stretch of the words used, and that VA’s service isn’t. He was originally arrested on State charges. He was legally carrying a pistol at the time though the arrest was without incident. Damningly, his permanent status was approved the next day. He was released on bail only to be rearrested by the feds, charged with violating 18 USC 875, interstate terror threats (a 5-year maximum felony). Had he specified a “weapon of mass destruction” he would have faced 40 years in prison.

I was appointed as defense counsel and immediately moved for a psychiatric evaluation, thinking this would easily end the case. After several months I received a lengthy report from the MCC New York which exhaustively listed Donny’s chronic mental problems and concluded he was permanently psychotic. However, the good (government) doctor also stated he was obviously sane at the time of the call and competent to stand trial.

We elected to present the matter to a jury, figuring no twelve people could possibly convict a sick man for seeking help from the only source available. We were wrong. The government’s doctor explained the extent of Donny’s condition. The VA representative from the call stated she was not threatened by Donny’s language. The VA stated they did not take any defensive measures when faced with this 9/11 magnitude threat from a man they had trained to expertly kill other human beings. The VA storm-trooper in charge testified he lied under oath to the Grand Jury to obtain the indictment and that he, for no reason, held Donny’s elderly, disabled father at gunpoint AFTER the arrest. Despite all this the twelve morons returned a guilty verdict in less than half an hour. As an aside, at trial the government sandbagged me with thousands of pages of previously withheld discovery and they handed me the afore-referenced pistol LOADED in open court (I cleared it in disbelief).

Donny was sentenced to time served with the probationary condition that he continue his torture at the VA. When I walked into the hearing I was greeted by the AUSA and the VA goon who both suddenly agreed Donny was out of his mind during his “crime.” Donny accepted his sentence and declined both an appeal and a request for a Presidential pardon. I fear his condition will worsen, perhaps with morbid consequences. He is a delightful but pitiful and broken man. I was saddened and broken by this affair.

In modern Amerika Grand Juries, while supposedly independent in their deliberations, are little more than tools of State prosecutors.  The defense is usually excluded entirely. The State has the free reign to present any “evidence” no matter how contrived.

The trial that follows (if any) is a showing of prosecutorial imagination and juridical ignorance.  Less that 3% of defendants are acquitted under this system.  The innocent are convicted and often executed.  The lucky escape after years of torment.  Life goes on and things are not likely to change any time soon.

I will, shortly, present an alternative, if primitive, alternative to this mad, fixed system of “justice.”  Until then, be forewarned and prepared.

The Second Amendment: English Common Law Pre-History

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

America, American Revolution, arms, Assize of Arms, colonies, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Declaration of Independence, Empire, England, English, English Bill of Rights, English Civil War, Glorious Revolution, gun control, Jamestown, King, King James II, Liberty, Magna Carta, Mayflower, militia, Myles Standish, Natural Law, oppression, Parliament, peace, Pilgrims, Plymouth, police, regulars, rights, Rome, Second Amendment, Sir. William Blackstone, standing army, Statute of Einchester, The People, tyranny, War, weapons

In my last column in this series I ended by reviewing some of the ancient British customs regarding arms and defense.  This article concerns those more readily available but still usually uncited English legal traditions dating to several hundred years before the American Revolution.  Again, as with purely ancient intellectuals, those who preserved and lived this period of history regarded the rights of defense, self-preservation, and, necessarily, arms to be the stuff of natural law.  They regarded these rights as to defense from criminals, defense against foreign threats, and, particularly, as to thwarting domestic tyranny.

This common law tradition was already set in writing in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with the Assize of Arms (1181) and the Magna Carta (Great Charter, 1215).  In 1285 the Statute of Winchester mandates that all citizens provide arms, according to their respective abilities, for militia usage.  Through this period and until the seventeenth century, England had little in the way of a professional military or police force.  Citizens were expected to do their part in order to fulfill both roles.  This meant that the people were expected (required even) to keep and, at times, bears their own arms. 

Two calamitous events during the seventeenth century dramatically effected the legal tradition: the Civil War of 1642 and the Glorious Revolution in 1688.  While the former is often painted as a power struggle and the latter a religious conflict, both were concerned foremost with who would control the power of the Crown.  In 1689, these and other events, lead to the English Bill of Rights.  The Bill was fully known as “An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown;” in light of the recent religious (power) struggles it was riddled with references to Protestants and Catholics, which I will disregard here as unnecessary.

Very similar in nature to the American Declaration of Independence, the Bill lists a litany of charges against the late King James, II.  Among these were the following: “[R]aising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law;” and “[C]ausing several good subjects … to be disarmed … contrary to law.”

Accordingly, the Lords assembled at Westminster declared certain rights and liberties as inviolable.  Two of these addressed the above problems: “That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law;” and “That the subjects … may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law.” 

English_Bill_of_Rights_of_1689_(middle)

(English Bill of Rights.  Google.)

The Reader will recall that standing armies were a feared tool of tyranny during and after the American Revolution and also as far back as the days of the Roman Republic.  The presumed method for national defense (against all agents of evil) was a heavily armed citizenry which could assemble as needed in the form of a militia.  The seventeenth century also saw increased professionalism and modernization within the English militia.  This, in turn, partly gave way to the ensuing establishment of a permanent “Redcoat” army as the Kingdom gradually assumed the role of a major world Empire.

As we well know, part of that Empire was based here, in North America, in the territory which eventually became the United States.  Those earliest parts (colonies) were first established at Jamestown in 1607 and at Plymouth in 1620.  These had been preceded by the lost/abandoned colonies of Popham (Maine) in 1607 and Roanoke in 1585. 

Jamestown was the site of numerous battles and all out wars fought between the English and the native indians (Chesapeake).  It was the birthplace of the modern state of Virginia.  In 1691 Plymouth Colony merged with The Massachusetts Bay Colony in what is now modern Massachusetts, all being part of the greater Dominion of New England. 

Plymouth, from the very start was a model citizen militia society.  While a few students today are still aware of the Pilgrims and their Atlantic crossing aboard the Mayflower, fewer still are knowledgable as to the martial force necessary to carve out the new world.  The Mayflower’s first stop was at Provincetown Harbor in November of 1620.  Desiring a better location, and to take advantage of the hospitable New England winter, they later removed to Plymouth at the end of December.  Most remained aboard ship while a team of men worked during the day to raise a village from the ground.  Twenty armed men were left ashore every night to prevent marauding.  These men were average citizens who provided their own weapons; 911 was not an available option.

Early relations with the local indians were mixed at best.  As more and more colonists arrived the indians perceived the impending loss of their lands and many became hostile.  Myles Standish was a trained military officer and was placed in charge of security in the new colony.  Many view him as somewhat of a hot head.  At any rate he was forced to organize militias from among Englishmen in order to repel attacks by natives.  “Major” wars erupted in 1637 and 1675.  Each time the militia was sent forth to battle, not any group of regular troops.  It was by the force of common people bearing arms that America was crafted from the central-eastern part of the continent. 

militia

(Early Militia.  Google.)

Regular military units were called in during the next century first to assist and bolster the militias against common enemies (the French) and, later, to do battle with the militia.  This latter action contributed greatly to the Founders’ desire for a continued militia force instead of a full-time army in young America.  The early Americans were also governed in their views by the pre-existing English law and several legal commentators.

Perhaps the greatest commentator of his time regarding natural defense, along with natural law and the civil laws of England in general was Sir. William Blackstone (1723 -1780).  Blackstone was an attorney and politician who published from 1765 – 1769 the Commentaries on the Laws of England, a classic still refered to and cited by the law. 

Blackstone’s commentary on defense and other matters, generally, has resonance even today.  He famously wrote: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.”  In modern, fading America, the forces of anti-self-defense gun control stupidly prefer to disarm any and all persons, leaving them to suffer whatever fate criminals have in store for them, than to see a tiny minority of deranged persons have the possibility of committing crimes.  All the more stupid is the abundant evidence that such an approach leads only to suffering innocents concurrent with rampant criminal behavior.  Defiance of natural law is as successful as defiance of gravity or physics.

Chapter One, Book One of Blackstone’s treatise is entitled: On the ABSOLUTE Rights of Individuals (emphasis added).  The final absolute right of individuals set forth therein is “that of having arms for their defense.”  Blackstone called this right “a public allowance, under due restrictions, of the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, when the sanctions of society and laws are found insufficient to restrain the violence of oppression.”

Blackstone went into further detail, describing the various remedies available to the people in cases of tyranny: first, use of the courts; second, petitions to the King and to Parliament; and finally, when all else fails, having and using their arms to repel tyranny.

At last we draw near to that time when the American colonists repelled the tyranny of the mother country.  In my next segment I will discuss the traditions regarding defense and arms in America before the introduction of the Second Amendment.  As with their ancient predecessors, these traditions echoe still in our modern world.

More Ancient Legal Doctrines of Self-Defense/Preservation

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 4 Comments

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10 Commandments, America, Angles, arms, Assize of Arms, Britain, Catechism, Catholic Church, Cicero, Codex Justianius, Deuteronomy, Digesta, England, Exodus, God, Israel, Jesus Christ, John, King Arthur, King David, King Henry II, King John, kings, law, Leviticus, Lex Talionis, Magna Carta, militia, Natural Law, Normans, Numbers, people, Pilate, Psalms, Romans, Saxons, Second Amendment, self-defense, Smauel, truth, tyranny

This is the second installment in my new series about the Second Amendment, militias, government, and the natural right of self/defense.  After a few more segments I’ll get to the American experience.  This column is concerned with more ancient sources. Read on.

My last segment concerned the Natural Law and the provisions therein allowing for armed resistance of force and tyranny.  For those not acquainted with Natural Law (American attorneys, etc.), it is the universal law instituted by God for the management of human societies.  God’s first draft was extraordinarily simple, as He supposed that people would be capable of easily governing themselves in paradise.  The law was codified as: “Don’t eat that fruit.”  Unfortunately, the first humans were as dense as their descendants today.  They ate the fruit and thus complicated our lives forever. 

God later attempted to set out ten simple laws He expected us to obey.  True to our fallen, fallible, self-determining ways, we messed those up too.  After constantly displaying an inability to adhere to the simple, the ancient Hebrews began to demand of God a “modern” system of government for themselves.  They seemed jealous of surrounding Peoples who had, among other things, kings.  God, in His omnipotence, offered that they Hebrews didn’t really need or want a king.  They begged to differ, instituted a king, and began to suffer immediately.

After the failure of the kings, and the subjugation of the people by more powerful earthly empires, God sent His Son in yet another attempt to clarify His law.  Jesus, simultaneously ratifying the existing law and providing an alternative route to salvation, issued another simple commandment.  We have not been too quick to pick on that one either.  Thus, it appears that people are stuck with their worldly trappings and their constant inability to deal honestly ad logically therewith until the Second Coming.  Thus, in our present state, and if we are even capable, we must attempt to relate our world to the eternal principles of the Lord.  That is Natural Law.  Having ignored and broken the concrete mandates given us, we are left to guess at how such Law applies to our civilizations.  Unlike the laws of science, math, and physics, which are difficult but possible to extrapolate and apply, the Laws of society are much less definable.  This grasping process has been the work of scholars and theologians for millennia. 

The Law as applied to self-preservation has been called the first law of nature.  This makes sense as, without resorting to keeping ourselves from harm, most of the other “laws” we can divine seem to matter little. 

Previously, I examined several Bible verses which supported the right of self-defense and preservation.  I also cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the duty (not only the right) to defend oneself and those in one’s charge.  This doctrine has existed for thousands of years.  We are commanded: “Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”  Psalm 82:4. 

King David, definitely not a pacifist, praised God, saying, “Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.”  Psalms 144:1.  First Samuel 25:13 described an Israelite muster: “And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword.  And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword.”  The Israelites were a militia, not a standing army, note that David and every man was equipped with his sword, not a government issue model.  Men were expected to report for duty already armed with their own weapons.  That means they had to keep and bear those weapons in order to fulfill their duties to their society.  This was also the early American situation, as it should be today.

These weapons were and are necessary to preserve freedom in society.  Any sane man will pray that he never need use any measure of force in defense however, he should be ready to do so if necessary.  The fifth or sixth Commandment (depending on how counted) clearly sets forth God’s intention to preserve life:  “Thous shalt not kill.”  It is also translated, “Thou shalt not murder.”  Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17. 

The second translation is a prohibition on illicit killing, the first is a total ban.  In a perfect world it would be natural to follow a total ban on killing others made in God’s image.  However, as noted above, we have removed ourselves from perfection, be it temporarily.  Thus, given where we are, while we should strive for perfection, we may be limited to keeping from unlawful killings. 

In Leviticus, it appears that everything carries the death penalty.  Many of these provisions have actually been codified into civil law over the ages.  I’m not sure if anyone was ever executed for eating a shrimp.  However, Leviticus gave us the basis for many capital crimes still such today.  Accordingly, killers (murderers) may be executed in contravention of the Lord’s prohibition on killing.  Leviticus 24:16-17.  Numbers and Deuteronomy give further qualification as to which killings are crimes versus accidents. 

Coupled with those passages I cited last time, these dictates seem to logically indicate that force, including lethal force, may be used to repel unjust criminal activities.  The attendant duty upon us is to use the least force necessary to accomplish our defense.

Jesus exercised the ultimate restraint, in this regard, while enduring His treatment at the hands of His native detractors and Pilate.  Jesus made clear His purpose: “I came into the world…to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.”  John 18:38.  Demonstrating an eternal human misunderstanding, Pilate replied “What is truth?”  His purpose was not to overthrow earthly tyranny, but to provide an eternal alternative.  Rather than being an act of non-self-defense, Christ’s actions were the ultimate act of defense of others.  This truth may have been lost on one Roman, it was not on all Romans.

American law has been greatly influenced by our colonial past and our origins under the English Constitutional and common law.  In turn, English law was dependant on ancient Rome for many of its sources.  It must be remembered that the Kingdom of Britain once co-existed with the Eastern Roman Empire.  Thus, the legal traditions passed to the Isle of Britannia were those of earlier Roman glory – from the Republic and the earlier Western Empire.  From the founding of Rome until the time of Cicero, Roman laws were largely unwritten, even the Constitution.  Codification cam much later, under Justinian.  The Codex Justianius was issued in 529 A.D., five decades after the fall of the West.  The Digesta of ancient law was written soon thereafter.  Thus, began our tradition of dual sources of law – statutes and case-law. 

justinian_venice_rgzm

(Justinian.  Google.)

I previously cited to the Codex for its express allowance of the use of armed force to deter attack, by private parties and government agents.  This dual provision is tremendous as it presupposed that no-one is above the law and that even government force may be repelled when illegitimate.  Increasingly in America, the government takes the opposite position – that it is infallible and may not be resisted, even when tyrannical.  This is nonsense and may be disregarded as such.

In the next installment I will delve into the English tradition regarding arms and defense.  This tradition slowly coalesced into the modern theory of the militia being comprised of armed individual men.  Here, I will briefly note some of the long-standing traditions concerning arms in the British Isles before the rise of the common law and the Magna Carta.

“England” has been populated by various peoples probably for about 10,000 years.  The earliest peoples there were organized along the lines of families and tribes, each with its own society and rules.  It is obvious that most of these people were armed as they were constantly at war with one another and with the occasional outsider.  It is clear as mud as to what extent they retained formal doctrines regarding rights, arms, militia duties, etc.  “Self” defense often involved the entire tribe and was given to degenerating into all out war.  We could assign the Lex Talionis “the law of revenge” or the “law of the jungle” as the chief governing principle of these early Britons. 

As the centuries B.C. counted down, civilization and order began to grow in the Isles.  Legend has it that King Arthur was able to unite most of the peoples of lower England under his banner.  Whether he pulled a sword out of a stone is another matter but it seems that by his time (7th Century B.C.) swords were common among the people, both for use defensively and for militia service. 

Thus, when the Romans arrived in 43 B.C., they found a fierce and well armed people, not at all amenable to taming.  Four centuries of Roman occupation saw many changes in English life, including the ordering of the militias more along the lines of precise Legionary lines.  This, civil and engineering upgrades, and Christianity generally served to the benefit of the people, then and following the Roman’s departure.

Following the Romans, came the Angles, the Saxons, and eventually the Normans, each of whom introduced new character to England.  By at least the Twelfth Century England had evolved into a nation-state, not entire undistinguishable from its present form.  Then, standing armies were rare and the kings relied upon their subjects to form militias during times of needs.  Accordingly, free-men were expected, even ordered to keep arms for their and the common defense.  Assize of Arms, Henry II (1181).

King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215 which, in Section 61, provided for armed rebellion of sorts (lead by the nobility) in the event the Crown became tyrannical.  This process, of course, necessitated the continued institution of armed citizens.

magna carta

(Magna Carta Memorial, Runnymede, England.  Google.)

Next time, I will move forward in history and begin covering more modern English sources concerning the people, their rights, especially concerning arms and defense.  This will serve as a prelude to the customs of those English persons who colonized America, carrying the ancient traditions with them.

Don’t Drone Me, Bro!

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by perrinlovett in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

14th Amendment, 9/11/2001. 12/7/1941, Americans, army, Austin Rhodes, banksters, Big Club, capitalism, children, Clay Whittle, Constitution, Cornfield County, corporatism, Daivd Koresh, drones, due process, Eric Holder, feds, Fifth Amendment, filibuster, GA, government, guilt, idiots, innocence, JAG, Jesus Christ, King John, law, law enforcement, lies, Magna Carta, murder, Natural Law, poor bird, Posse Comitatus Act, Rand Paul, Ron Paul, Scott Dean, Senate, sheriff, tanks, taxes, Texas, the Devil, The Empire, Thomas More, Waco massacre

This post rambles from subject to subject.  Be forewarned.

Drones…

Just last night I thrilled you, my dear readers, with a few news stories concerning the law.  While Attorney General Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder refuses to prosecute super-rich banksters for criminal wrong-doing, he has no problem using drones to murder “ordinary” Americans for any reason or no reason.  Well, in his defense, He said the drones would only be used to thwart catastrophic events like the 9/11/2001 or Pearl Harbor attacks.  I don’t believe him.  It doesn’t matter since he’s not in charge of when the triggers are squeezed. 

This morning I was listening to the radio and had the privilege of hearing my friend Austin Rhodes (WGAC, 580 AM, Augusta) give his morning commentary.  He initially praised Senator Rand Paul (Ron’s son) for his filibuster yesterday which targeted the administration’s dystopian law enforcement policies.  Then he surprised me.  He, playing devil’s advocate, asked if a drone strike on David Koresh (remember him?) in 1993 would have prevented the later bloodshed at Koresh’s Seventh Day Adventist Church in Waco, Texas.  At first I was indignant but then I realized the value of his question.  The ultimate answer is “who knows?”  No-one does for certain.

It is my opinion that the government was out to get Koresh and his senior worshippers and would have slaughtered them all anyway.  Austin and I disagree on the nature of the events that unfolded in Waco twenty years ago.  That’s the beauty of America, we can agree to disagree.

There was much disagreement in early 1993, regarding the pre-assualt on the church.  For instance, the warrant obtained by the Imperial stormtroopers was defective.  Perhaps they could not decide on what, if anything, was wrong with Koresh and Co.  That might explain the defects in the law sited to obtain the warrant.  The local Sheriff and the State of Texas disagreed with the feds that crimes were being committed in the church.  A JAG officer (military attorney), when asked about the legality of deploying military assets for this domestic law enforcement “operation,” disagreed with his inquirers.  He reported the scheme was illegal, a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, etc.  The first Stormtroopers on the scene must have disagreed about the wisdom of carrying communication devices in case something went wrong, whether to open fire immediately upon exiting their horse trailer (official police version), and whether the church members would return fire.

In the end, the dissenters were silenced.  The rest is history.  As I recall the Empire had several grounds for the War in Waco: 1) income tax evasion; 2) illegal drugs; 3) illegal firearms; and 4) the abuse of children.  I think they eventually proved the tax count as they can prove that against almost anyone due to the psychotic nature of our tax laws and regulations.  I think there was no evidence of the guns or drugs – any existing specimens would have been destroyed in the government’s fire.  As for the children, while I recall some survivors insisted there had been some sort of impropriety, most (all?) of the children were killed in the fire or crushed to death beneath the Army’s 70-ton tank.  Some may have been shot by snipers.  Anyway, there wasn’t a lot of evidence after the fact.

Still, none of this answers Austin’s question.  I’ll pose a question which is easy to answer definitively: Would a drone strike on Rev. Koresh been legal?  Two questions, really – Would the drone strike have been ethical?  The answer to both questions is a certain “NO!” 

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is clear – “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…”  (Emphasis added).  The Fourteenth Amendment backs up the Fifth’s Due Process provision.  These concepts date back the Magna Carta in 1215.  The truth is eternal, it remains the same in 1215, 1791, 1993, or 2013.  The theory is that if the government wants to kill someone, they must adhere to a certain process.  We generally refer to the key part of the process as a trial (Jury, evidence, and stuff).  The theory jives with what that crazy carpenter, Jesus Christ, talked about twelve centuries before King John admitted his authority was not arbitrary.

For those of you who might have heard Austin and taken his question as a simple endorsement by mistake, how about this: Would Sheriff Whittle’s use of a drone against Scott Dean saved us the trouble and expense of a trial?  He was convicted, after all, by twelve wise citizens.  The fact of his innocence and his accuser’s later recantation are irrelevant for this discussion.  For those of you fortunate enough not to live in Cornfield County, Scott Dean was a County Commissioner.  He adopted some girls.  One of the girls, a teenager with a history of lying in court, accused him of a heinous crime.  He denied any guilt but was convicted none the less.  He went to prison.  Then, his lying adopted daughter, safely out of the country, admitted she made the story up and Dean was in fact innocent.

Since the recent revelation of Dean’s innocence I’m sure the twelve men and women who sent him to prison have the utmost difficulty sleeping at night.  Can you imagine the Sheriff’s guilt and shame had he used a drone instead of the law?  Natural Law and its proper extensions in the corporeal world are important.  “I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”  Saint Thomas More, A Man For All Seasons, 1966.

Due Process of law is a Natural Right to which every person is entitled when human laws exist.  This was obvious to earlier generations of Americans.

Too Big…

In my recent second installment of Slavery In America, https://perrinlovett.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/slavery-in-america-part-ii-of-iii/, I mentioned the Big Club members who are invested in our modern plantation.  The giant banks are charter members of the club.  I mentioned their immunity from criminal prosecution last night.  It seems they are too big to fail, too big to jail, and they are rapidly sucking up all the wealth in this country.  See this story: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/corporatism-a-system-of-control-designed-by-the-monopoly-men-of-the-global-elite.  It’s about “corporatism,” the fascists’ bastardization of capitalism.  It’s an excellent article from an eye-opening site.

It Could Be Worse…

We could all be stuck in a cage and abandoned at the car wash…

0307131156a

(This poor guy was!  He was happily adopted though!)

Yeah, ramblin more than normal… 🙂

Perrin Lovett

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