A Kansas Court docket of Appeals is being requested to reverse a felony conviction ensuing from a imprecise statute, addressing interference with public enterprise, that’s getting used to violate First and Second Modification rights.
The story begins with Earl Ray Harris (78), who, in March of 2019, individually protested in opposition to public workers who had breached his property and had been digging a ditch with out his permission. Harris lodged the preliminary grievance with a metropolis council member, then adopted up by strolling out to the positioning of the incursion, the place he sat on a stool holding an unloaded shotgun with out making threats or pointing the firearm.
Like many overly entitled authorities workers, conscious that they’ll disrespect the general public, deal with us like now we have no rights or humanity, and nonetheless maintain on to their jobs till retirement, a pair of public works workers responded by taking cowl behind automobiles and calling authorities. Whereas it appears these public works workers have by no means heard of the Second Modification, calling the police isn’t practically as unhealthy as what occurred subsequent.
“There’s nothing unsuitable with calling the police for this kind of factor… The error got here after they arrested him for doing nothing extra, actually, than strolling on his property along with his personal gun and turning his again, in a totally nonthreatening method, on these workers,” mentioned Reid Nelson, a state appellate defender representing Harris.
When the Girard Police Division arrived on the scene, officers arrested Harris, who was brazenly carrying on his personal property with out making any threatening gestures or bodily doing something to intervene. I contacted the Division to inquire about protocol for arresting a person who brazenly carries on his personal property with out making any threatening gestures, on condition that Kansas is a Constitutional Carry state. Sadly, and embarrassingly, the query went unanswered.
In fact it did. They will’t say it isn’t protocol, as a result of my subsequent query could be, “Then why did you do it, and what has occurred to the officers accountable?” Likewise, they couldn’t inform me it’s coverage, as that will not solely be diametrically against the Second Modification, however it will even be incongruent with Kansas state legislation, which supersedes native restrictions, barring counties and cities from creating their very own legal guidelines to control the open or hid carry of firearms.
Harris was finally acquitted of aggravated assault, and it’s shameful that he was ever charged, because the legislation requires proof of an precise risk of bodily hurt, none of which exists. However when the federal government needs you, they’ll lie, cheat, and promote their souls down the river to get you. That is how they had been in a position to get a jury to convict Harris on a cost of “aggravated interference with the conduct of public enterprise in a public constructing.”
A public constructing?
Nelson reminded the three-judge panel that his Crawford County shopper was on his personal property, and never in a public constructing, arguing that the conviction must be overturned as a result of the legislation implicitly states that the interference should happen in a public constructing. Sadly, purpose and logic are usually not contagious, and Decide Amy Fellows Cline responded with what would have grow to be my silly comment of the week, till I learn the prosecution’s arguments.
“This present day, whenever you invoke a weapon, doesn’t that change the character of the message?” mentioned the “choose.”
To begin with, utilizing the phrase “invoke” instead of carry, or train the fitting to bear arms, doesn’t change the truth that Harris wasn’t breaking the legislation. Additional, info and legal guidelines don’t care about your emotions. What number of instances has an individual been arrested regardless of being unaware they had been breaking the legislation on the time, or feeling as if their actions had been benign and precipitated no hurt to anybody? Do you suppose their emotions on the matter prevented conviction? Apparently, that solely works in a single route.
“The First Modification proper to freedom of speech and expression and the Second Modification proper to bear arms are each rights that may make individuals uncomfortable… The US Supreme Court docket says clearly that earlier than the train of those vital rights may be criminalized, the jury should decide that the motion includes a real risk of violence,” Nelson argued.
Andy Lohmann, a Kansas assistant solicitor basic, implored the panel to reject Harris’s enchantment, claiming the legislation is completely clear in its safety of presidency employees exterior the partitions of a authorities constructing; nevertheless, Okay.S.A. 21-5922 says no such factor, and refers repeatedly to violations of the statute occurring in public buildings and chambers.
“In the end, you may commit the crime of ‘interfering with the conduct of public enterprise in a public constructing’ — not in a public constructing,” mentioned Lohmann, who must be disbarred instantly for his illiteracy, abject stupidity, and the harm one might inflict upon residents given his place and lack of intelligence or integrity.
Appeals Court docket Decide Sarah Warner took difficulty with the concept the statute was clear.
“It’s sort of an odd statute… Everyone seems to be prepared to argue that this can be a clear statute, however I’m undecided that I’m amongst your quantity,” Warner mentioned.
The panel, unable to consider that this waste of a legislation diploma mentioned what he mentioned, requested him to verify that he didn’t discover any distinction between Harris protesting in a public constructing or in his personal pasture, however whenever you’ve already dedicated to a idiot’s argument and are a disappointment to the justice system, the American individuals, your personal household, and even your mother and father, you would possibly as nicely double down.
“That’s right… He knew he was going to impede public officers by intimidating them with the weapon,” Lohmann mentioned, avoiding the crux of the query.
However why cease there? Why not display your full contempt for the Structure? He did, telling the panel that Constitutional points weren’t related to the enchantment. Hear, comrade, that is America, and the Structure is the bedrock of our justice system; due to this fact, it’s all the time related. By the best way, which doc was it you swore your oath to? Yeah…
“The best to bear arms just isn’t the fitting to hold a weapon for no matter objective… The state has the power to be sure that somebody just isn’t carrying the weapon with a purpose to intimidate a metropolis employee in order that they cease working,” Lohmann continued to embarrass himself.
Truly, the fitting to bear arms shall not be infringed. I learn that someplace as soon as. Didn’t you get the memo? And who’re you to find out intent? A risk was made or it wasn’t. A gun was pointed or it wasn’t. Plain and easy. The Second Modification is common to People. It isn’t a states’ rights difficulty; nevertheless, criminals are likely to do what they need, particularly as soon as they get their .gov e-mail deal with. The left hates any freedom of speech and expression that doesn’t agree with them, and the one factor they hate extra is the fitting to bear arms.
