From: LEROY.PYLE@prn-bbs.org (LEROY PYLE)
Subject: Preview Pratt's Fax
To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com
Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 21:33:59 GMT


                  GUN OWNERS OF AMERICA
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 1021       Springfield, VA 221511
            (703) 321-85851 FAX (703) 321-8408

     From Peace Officer to Law Enforcement Personnel

 by Larry Pratt

     The American system of government is based on the idea that We the
People created the government. We are the creator; it is the creature.
Therefore the government can only do what the creator allows it to do
Power is delegated to the government by the people; it is not inherent
in the government. The only thing that is inherent are rights which
God-- not the government dispenses to the people

     Policing in America originated within this understanding of gov-
ernment. Initially, policing was seen as a delegation of power from the
local community to the peace officer. His powers flowed from the people,
not from the government. The peace officer worked for the people, not
for the government. This was a distinguishing characteristic of the she-
riff America had not even one daytime police force before 1830, and
even most cities did not have them until after the Civil War.

     In the 1830's a French nobleman, Alexis de Toqueville, came to the
U~S to find out how a bunch of frontiersmen were able to operate a
government in such an orderly fashion -- especially in the light of the
terror and violence accompanying the French Revolution that occurred
shortly after the American War for Independence. De Toqueville's book,
Democracy in America contains some penetrating insights on the nature of
American government and how policing functions were carried out. The
following comes from the 1945 Vantage Press edition of his book:


           The duties of private citizens are not supposed to have
     lapsed because the state has come into action, but everyone is
     ready, on the  contrary, to guide and support it. This action of
     individuals, joined to that of the public authorities~ frequently
     accomplishes what the most energetic centralized administration
     would be unable to do....

           In America the means that the authorities have at their
     disposal for the discovery of crimes and the arrest of criminals
     are few~ A state police does not exist, and passports are unknown~
     The criminal police of the United States cannot be compared with
     that of France; the magistrates and public agents are not numerous;
     they do not always initiate the measures for arresting the guilty;
     and the examinations of prisoners are rapid and oral Yet I believe
     that in no country does crime more rarely elude punishment~ The
     reason is that everyone conceives himself to be interested in fur-
     nishing evidence of the crime and in seizing the delinquent. During
     my stay in the United States I witnessed the spontaneous formation
     of committees in a county for a great crime. In Europe a criminal
     is an unhappy man who is struggling for his life against the agents
     of power, while the people are merely a spectator of the conflict;
     in America he is looked upon as an enemy of the human race, and the
     whole of mankind is against him.

     We should at least pause to consider de Toqueville's observations
in light of the "Europeanization" of America's policing function. Could
we give the same report today after the centralization, professional-
ization and the bureaucratization of law enforcement here? Have we
really gained as a result of getting away from our original model?

Changing View of Government, Police
     The idea of government popular with the elite in America now
views government as the ruler of the people, indeed, even the creator
of the people at least regarding our rights. The creator/creature dis-
tinction has just about been reversed. Now we see, without any modifi-
cation of the Constitution, government asserting itself in areas off
limits under our Constitution. In order to enforce this usurpation,
the government has created a class of law enforcement employees to
increasingly supersede the peace officer of the local community.

     Rather than keep the peace by trying to apprehend malefactors
who have allegedly broken the peace, law enforcement personnel come
from the government to tell the people what they must do -- or else.
The use of military force to attack the Weaver family in Idaho and
the religious followers of David Koresh in Waco are violent examples
of the extremes to which government presumes to assert its power.
Worse still, the government is increasingly unconcerned about laws
prohibiting its choice of methods. The federal law prohibiting the
use of military personnel and equipment against Americans was brazenly
disregarded at Waco and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. This law, the Posse Comitatus
Act (meaning frill power of the county), has been on the books for over
100 years to reaffirm the superiority of local police powers over those
of the national government.

HR 666

     We should not be surprised that the federal government will
brazenly break a law when the Constitution itself is held in little or
no repute. The recent debate over H.R. 666 indicates that the problem
is a bipartisan one as well.

     H.R.666 is a move to eliminate the exclusionary rule, This rule
has been in existence most of the twentieth century. It is widely
regarded as the guideline for applying the principle articulated in
the Fourth Amendment. This amendment requires probable cause and a
warrant in order for the government to invade our persons, homes,
possessions and effects. The exclusionary rule says that evidence
obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment cannot be used in trial.

     Opponents of the rule, primarily but not exclusively law and order,
pro~gun Republicans, claim that the exclusionary rule is used to allow
guilty persons to escape conviction by throwing out incriminating
evidence just because it was obtained illegally. In truth, this problem
occurs less than one percent of the time.

     But to hear opponents of the exclusionary rule, one would think
that the rule is the cause of the crime problem plaguing America's
cities. In fact, it is hard not to conclude that these advocates of
law and order view the Bill of Rights as a set of loopholes foisted
upon an unsuspecting Republic by a clique of proto-ACLU conspirators.
In other words, the Bill of Rights, and the Fourth Amendment in par-
ticular, are just a set of loopholes for crooks.

     The founders had another view. Their idea of the Bill of Rights
derived from their search for effective obstacles to government tyranny.
The Second Amendment was intended to insure that the people always have
military firearms so the government would never have a monopoly of force
The Fourth Amendment was intended to protect the general population
against the occasional rogue officer that can plague any police
organization. The Fourth Amendment also protects us from rogue policies
the government might otherwise seek to impose.
__

The Redcoats are still coming

     The colonists' experience with King George III's Red Coats was a
schoolroom full of reasons why government must be strictly controlled.
The king's troops, using the unconstitutional power of Writs of Assist-
ance, thought nothing of violating the English common law tradition of
"a man's home is his castle." Warrantless searches were the order of
the day in the years leading up to the War for American Independence.

     It is no surprise then, that we have a Fourth Amendment. What is
surprising is that President Clinton and conservative, pro-gun Repub-
licans think it is good public policy to have police making random stops
of automobiles and warrantless searches of peoples' homes -- sometimes
for the same reason, to confiscate another item subject to constitutiona
protection, namely firearms. It is worth noting that King George's
troops sparked the War for American Independence by their efforts to
unconstitutionally confiscate the people's militia firearms.

     H.R. 666 is intended to enshrine all this and more into federal law
The law would be unconstitutional, but that would not be the first such
violation. Specifically, H.R. 666 is written to give legislative approva
to the current judicial chipping away of the exclusionary rule. As long
as a police officer thought his warrant was valid even if it was not --
the evidence so obtained could be used in a trial. But what are we to do
under this doctrine if one police officer knowingly gets a warrant on
false grounds? As long as the evidence is gained by other officers un-
aware of this deception (wink, wink) the evidence must be admissible
against an accused.

     H.R. 666 then gets worse. It establishes the "objective" standard
of an officer's good faith in gathering evidence without a warrant as
long as he thought he had probable cause. How is a defendant to ever
prove a state of mind? That is as objective as a dream.

     Among the attacks on our liberties that we could expect from the
passage of H.R. 666 is an expansion of warrantless searches of homes
and random stops of cars looking for guns. Confiscate now, ask questions
later. After all, the government knows that the people are better off
without guns. This attitude is exactly 180" opposite of the role of
government in the Constitution.

War on Drugs

     This cavalier attitude regarding the authority of the federal
government to legislate away constitutionally protected liberties has
surfaced in the war on drugs. The doctrine of forfeiture is simply a
euphemism for confiscation, or government theft. In the flame of
fighting to stamp out drugs (with a singular lack of success in that
regard) the government is winning another battle -- the war against
the Constitution. Over 30,000 confiscations have been occurring an-
nually, but in eighty percent of the cases, no charges are ever filed.

     Forfeiture means that police departments are able to sell the
loot and use the money for whatever pleases them. No charges need be
filed, for after all, that simply costs money to prosecute. We should
not think that this license to steal only gets used against drug king-
pins. It gets used against ordinary Americans who, following an illegal
search, have "too much money" on them. Or guns. Or whatever target is
attractive to a rogue officer or department. The 1994 Crime Bill ex-
tended this concept to include multi-jurisdictional task forces of
local, state and federal police agencies. Moreover, that Crime Bill
also cuts prosecutors into a cut of the loot. This pretty well insures
that there will be hardly anyone in the criminal justice system looking
out for the interests of the citizens and the Constitution. Why should
they lookout for them? They will have all been bought off with fenced
merchandise.

Obituary for Posse Comitatus

     The Posse Comitatus law which was enacted over 100 years ago to
prohibit the use of military personnel and equipment from being used
against Americans has already been whittled down in the name of
fighting the war on drugs. An exception has been made to the Posse
Comitatus prohibition in cases where federal police want to use the
military in a drug bust. Barbara Kennelly (D-CT) has proposed legislatio
that would establish a 2,500 man rapid deployment attack force. Whatever
the name, this is still a military group; But since the rapid deployment
force would not be under the control of the military, the Posse Comitatu
Act does not apply (wink, wink).

     President, along with Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) immediately saw
the hysteria about the horrible crime committed by the Oklahoma City
bombers as a way of demonizing all gun owners and militia members. The
effort is a dream situation for the anti-gunners. Accuse law~abiding gun
owners of being no different than the murderous bombers in Oklahoma. It
is doubtful, though, that the President would welcome a similar comparis
to be made between the Weathermen who bombed a building at the Universit
of Wisconsin and anti-war protesters like then-student Clinton. Lawful,
constitutionally protected action, should not be equated with criminal
activity just because it is unpopular. Otherwise, we would then have no
defense of the Civil Rights movent under Martin Luther King, Jr.
because of the sometimes murderous assaults of the Black Panthers. Or,
no defense of Earth Day marchers because of the environmental extremists
who have put spikes in trees to kill or maim loggers as they cut trees
down.

     The attack on the Bill of Rights flying under the title of Counter-
terrorism would seriously violate the First and Fourth Amendments. The
President would be able on his own, with no appeal permitted, to clas-
sify any organization as a terrorist organization. Then their assets
would be under government control, along with all of their papers.
Their fundraising could be shut down, thus strangling their voice of
communication with the public. And the bill greatly expands the
government's ability to snoop on our telephone conversations.

     Such legislation would have been objected to if directed against
the civil rights or the anti-war movements of the past, or the environ-
mental movements of the present. Surely the right to organize and march
does not end because militants and murders chose to utter some of the
same words used by peaceful groups operating lawfully -- even if they
are gun owners.

     Our view of government determines what kind of; and how much
freedom, we will enjoy. If we understand America to be a land where
the people are largely self-governed, then the civil government will
be small and a servant of the people. If we understand America to be
like the other countries of the world, then an elite will be in charge
of managing the people, and the police will be their enforcers.

===========================================================================
   Bypassing the bias of broadcast media with the "narrowcast" function
              of the telephone line's information SuperHiway!
            The Paul Revere Network with 150+ nodes worldwide!
     PRNet/HQ in Chicago, IL  (312) 482-9940 BBS  (312) 482-9910 voice
===========================================================================