By Cindy Walsh,
Director, Citizens' Oversight Maryland---Maryland Progressives
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Often first on scene, MacArthur has a long legacy of
breaking stories before mainstream mass media.
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That is after all the mission of FREE PRESS.
What we do not hear in this case is that the police came to this man's door with no warrant or intent. They knocked on the door and James chose not to answer because.....and this is my assumption....he feared for his life. Remember, we have had in Baltimore 17 people killed by police that were later found to have no weapon or no criminal act.
Inventing Probable Cause
"...the police came without a warrant and used circumstances to create a reason to come back with a warrant."So, the story here is that a journalist fighting police brutality, was so fearful for his life, thinking if he opened the door, he might have been met with a barrage of bullets. Ergo his TWEETS. His tweets do indicate his intent to meet any police aggression with a counter offense. He was fearful and he did not necessarily know police were following these tweets. So one can see that all of what was sensationalized, was in fact simply a brief window of one person responding to fear.
James has standing in the community and is not violent. He is college-educated and works as a journalist. One does not assume the worst.
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For James MacArthur, fighting for
freedom is a lifelong
commitment.
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THE INTENT OF THE POLICE AS IT WAS THOSE TWEETS THAT ALLOWED THE POLICE TO GO BACK FOR THE WARRANT THAT LED TO THE HOUSE SEARCH.
We are hearing all the time of police finding reasons to invade homes. They hear something inside....they don't hear something. They smell something. It is ridiculous misuse of individual citizen's rights and they know it violates Constitutional rights.
If this case had gone to trial, it most likely would have been dismissed for this reason. So, it appears to me that the police came without a warrant and used circumstances to create a reason to come back with a warrant.
If they came to the door with a warrant from an old gun charge, why did they then go for a warrant AFTER the tweeting event? It is the second approach to the house that brought James out of his house and the [illegal] search to begin. James would have used this in court to void the charge, and his lawyer knew that would likely have been the case.
The second issue was the holding of James without bail for several months before his first opportunity to fight the charge. Everyone involved in the legal community said that this was unprecedented, especially given James standing and history. DUE PROCESS From Wikipedia....."'Due process' is the legal requirement that the state must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due-process violation, which offends against the rule of law.
Due process has also been frequently interpreted as limiting laws and legal proceedings (see substantive due process), so that judges - instead of legislators - may define and guarantee fundamental fairness, justice, and liberty.
This interpretation has proven controversial, and is analogous to the concepts of natural justice, and procedural justice used in various other jurisdictions. This interpretation of due process is sometimes expressed as a command that the government must not be unfair to the people or abuse them physically"
It is obvious to all that James was deliberately placed in a place where he was coerced into pleading guilty and denied his chance to speak in open court.
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| Still standing despite attacks. |
This is the story regarding this case; police abuse and use of courts to punish and deny equal protection. People, including me, know it was all done in response to his journalism. IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME IN BALTIMORE!
So, rather than going to court and most likely having these charges dropped and walking away having shared his side of the story in court with no criminal record, as would have happened in a Rule of Law state. He walks away having lost several months of his life, possibly his home, one thinks his radio and technical equipment may have been vandalized in the 'search' so his career is sidetracked.
One more issue in this saga needs to be pointed to. The judge made him repeat over and over that he was not coerced....that he would not seek [legal] retribution. They made him agree to seek psychiatric evaluation. Remember, the new gun laws in Maryland are driving this police behavior. It was unofficially used to criminalize before the law and now you see the machinations of how it will criminalize in the future.
Mental illness is to be used to keep people from owning guns, and that psychiatric evaluation after a criminal charge may be all that's needed to keep James from ever being able to legally own a gun again.
THIS IS NOT DEMOCRATIC.....IT IS NOT RULE OF LAW.....IT IS NOT CONSTITUTIONAL.....IT IS REGRESSIVE AND AUTOCRATIC. The people will not tolerate this behavior. WE WILL RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE NEXT ELECTIONS!
Originally published in comments, from an 8 May 2013 in The Baltimore Sun, by Ian Duncan. Edited for clarity and readability.
OTHER COMMENTS
From Baltimore Sun
- Stan Modjesky · Follow · Top Commenter · Lead Trumpet/Section Leader at The Maryland Defense Force Band
"Nobody" is ever coerced into making a plea bargain (sarcasm). I wouldn't be surprised if MacArthur chuckled nervously at the irony of that question. Especially if he has been incarcerated in that same jail we've been reading about recently.
Michael Gaigler · Works at Retired
to bad those cops who came to his house didn't get a bullet to the head I would have laugh my head off if that happened.
Baltimore Spectator founder and editor; researcher, independent investigative journalist, and entrepreneur, A.F. James MacArthur has been a member of the underground news network for over 20 years.----------------------------------------------------------------
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