Posted on 08/11/2007 10:17:12 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
TWIN FALLS - Nothing much happened and the complaints came too late.
That's how a Boise attorney responded to a federal agency's claim that his client, the manager of a local gun store, harassed and intimidated agents until they left the store.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exaggerated its July 17 claim that Red's Trading Post Manager Ryan Horsley intimidated its agents, wrote Horsley's attorney, Mark S. Geston, in a response filed Aug. 6 in federal court.
While ATF is yanking Red's license, citing numerous violations, a federal judge has allowed the store to continue operating until the judge decides if there is sufficient grounds to reverse the ruling.
On July 17, photos snapped. Video cameras rolled.
An ostensible death threat appeared on Horsely's Web blog, according to court documents. He posted information about who the agents were, what car they drove and where they were staying. And he allowed a local media into the store.
But on Aug. 6, Geston said the inspectors do not have a legal right to operate "under a cloak of secrecy." He said some of the alleged acts of intimidation came only after inspectors abandoned the store and could not have been what prompted them to leave.
These acts, however, spook-ed an ATF area supervisor and two agents to halt what they were doing midway through a July 17 inspection at Red's, Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Ferguson wrote in a status report filed three days later in federal court.
Attorney Mark Geston sees things differently:
A public audit
Geston said in his response that no statute, regulation or any order of federal court prohibits the public to document the audit as it takes place.
"It should not be objectionable if (Horsley) tells (his) fellow citizens that a public agency is pursuing its public duties in a public place," Geston wrote.
Feeling threatened
At no point did the agents request that Horsley allow them to conduct their audit in a private room. Never did they feel prompted to call the local police. It was also the second time the news team approached the agents. A prior appearance by the press on June 18 did not seem to have spooked the agents.
An individual who snapped photographs, identified as Al Russo, was not nearly as ominous as described by the ATF, wrote Geston.
"Mr. Russo is about 70 years old," Geston wrote. "…He had on a Hawaiian shirt and a digital camera. This did not seem menacing …"
Blog came after audit
A blog comment on Horsley's Web site that appeared July 17 seemed to advocate killing ATF employees by hanging them from a tree. That "magnified" the agents' concern for their safety, the ATF wrote.
"But that only appeared after the inspectors left," wrote Geston. And Horsley removed it immediately, he added.
Geston went on to claim that Horsley's blog identified who the agents were and where they were staying only after the agents left his store. It "could not have contributed to any immediate concern," he wrote.
The agents must have read “Unintended Consequences.”
Authority in the hands of morons is a dangerous thing as the case in point indicates.
Intimidation and harrassment are only okay if the ATF is doing it.
So it's easier to find some white Christian women, old men, kids and law abiding citizens to hassle instead....
don't forget the balaclavas and dynamic entries...that way you can pretend to be special operators... maybe a tank should have been brought up and parked in front of this guys store.
meanwhile the gangs rule parts of American cities, while the BATF hassles old farts with legal gun stores. ....beautiful....the mental picture of tits on a bull come to mind.
Now don’t fret Lil’ campers, the day is still young and there’s plenty of unarmed Mothers holding babies you can shoot in the head or say! How about that “White Christian Compound” down the street? Got tanks?
Things are a little different when you can no longer hide what you’re doing.......kinda like cock roaches when ya’ turn on a light.Especially when the witness don’t die.
“meanwhile the gangs rule parts of American cities, while the BATF hassles old farts with legal gun stores. ....beautiful”
Yeah .............
“And he allowed a local media into the store”
If ATF agents were operating and performing their duties honestly and legally, why would having the media monitor them, as the public employees all law enforcement personnel are, be “intimidating?”
If those agents actually were intimidated, what is it they were trying to hide, that having it made public would so terrify them that they stopped performing their duties? Our tax dollars pay them to do their jobs... why didn’t they? Are ATF agents REALLY so scared of public monitoring of their activities that they are unable to earn their pay when subjected to it? The store owner was not so terrified by being subjected to the ATF’s scrutiny that he shut down operations and ran away, rather he opened his doors to the glare of the media spotlight. Shouldn’t ATF agents have been similarly willing to do their job under scrutiny?
One would hope.
Maybe Horsley, manager of Red's, had a copy behind the counter, or among the "gun stuff" magazines that some shops have for sale?
Of course that could get them shot too. Crotched old man, is quite likely to just not give a d@&* about long term consequences. But BATFE are equal opportunity harrassers. They don't care if a citizen is black, brown, white, or yellow, BATFE will violate their second amendment rights. Especially if they are otherwise law abiding.
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