Posted on 11/14/2020 6:28:54 PM PST by nickcarraway
Two days before President Donald Trump held his campaign rally in Tulsa, federal agents came to Derek Lamont Alexander Jr.'s home and seized his guns.
Now the U.S. government is seeking court permission to keep them.
"It's completely not fair," Alexander, 29, said.
"They violated my rights. ... I shouldn't have even opened the door since they didn't have a warrant."
Alexander "had come to the FBI's attention during a protest," a federal agent told a judge.
"Alexander was seen with a group of people walking down Peoria Ave in Tulsa, Oklahoma carrying firearms," the special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives wrote in a court affidavit.
Members of the Secret Service advance team for the president went to his apartment June 18 to question him. They were accompanied by ATF agents and a Tulsa police officer.
The ATF agents seized two pistols, three firearm magazines and 57 rounds of ammunition on the grounds he had outstanding arrest warrants in Texas and marijuana in the apartment, according to the affidavit. He admitted he did not have a state marijuana card.
Alexander was told "that he needed to get his warrants taken care of ... and that under federal law marijuana is still a prohibited substance," according to the affidavit.
Alexander believes the agents came to his home because he had posted a cartoon image of Trump in a casket on his Facebook page on June 15.
"That's what they told me. That's exactly what they told me," he said Thursday. "They were like, 'Well, you could see how we could perceive it as a threat.' I'm like, 'It's a cartoon that I didn't draw.'"
Alexander, who is Black, made a number of posts on his now deactivated Facebook page critical of Trump, racism, police brutality and pedophiles.
The image of Trump in a casket has popped up for years on social media and looks like it came from an episode of "The Simpsons." Media fact-checkers have concluded that it is not from the long-running animated TV series.
When Alexander posted the image, he wrote, "One million tickets sold and the Simpson's have never been wrong."
He said he posted the image "just to make fun of everything."
"I like to troll people on the internet," he said. "I don't have nothing against the guy personally."
At the time, the Trump campaign claimed more than 1 million people had sought tickets to the event and health officials were warning it could lead to a spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths.
The federal government filed the forfeiture action Nov. 5 by mistake in Oklahoma City federal court. On Friday, an assistant U.S. attorney asked that the case be moved to Tulsa.
Alexander has active warrants in Bell County, Texas, on misdemeanor charges from 2012 of tampering with a government record, giving false ID information and resisting arrest
He said he was charged because he had scribbled on his ID card when he was 20 to make it look like he was 21. "All it was was because I wanted alcohol. That was it. I'm not a bad person," he said.
The ATF agent reported Alexander was carrying a pistol in a June 3 protest. Alexander said it was May 30.
He livestreamed his participation in the May 30 protest and can be seen in the video carrying a pistol alongside other armed participants. He wrote they were protecting protesters with Black Lives Matter.
"I'm doing it right now because it's my right," he said on the Facebook video. "It's a people thing. We're Americans. We're not Black. We're not white. We're Americans.
"Stop seeing each other for color and see each other for actually what we are — people. That's my thoughts on this."
Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.
I don’t think it’s right to permanently keep the weapons, though.
Two, he's a piece of sh*t. Flush him.
Three, I thought domestic terrorism was once a capital crime. When did that change? Domestic terrorists have no rights as far as I'm concerned.
Yup take away the losers guns, i own plenty of guns but i dont have warrant for my arrest and a bunch of pot laying around. They ask you those questions when you buy a gun.
He gets no sympathy from me.
Explain how he is a domestic terrorist. Posting unflattering cartoons of the President and being a gun owner does not count.
Maybe not a DT, but unlawful pissession of arms and a user/possessor of a sched1 controlled substance. Regardless if he had a pot card from his state too, fed law trumps pot laws in the states.
My comment may have been a little strong. When I saw that cartoon, it reminded me very strongly of Kathy Griffin’s “decapitated Trump” stunt.
Well, you did ask ...
Think he’d get a sympathy piece from the media if he were White and posting a cartoon pic of Zero in a casket ?
Looks like he posted an image from “The Simpson’s”. Will the cartoonist, writers, producers and network executives that produced and approved that episode of the show be getting a visit from federal agents as well, or just the guy who reposted the image?
Really, what he did was by definition free speech. He didn’t say anything like “This should happen”, he just copied and pasted something he found vaguely amusing.
Mighty fine line to be drawing. Saying “they didn’t have a warrant” but he has a warrant. Not your brightest crook.
Lets see if I understand this correctly...
Black gun owner is evil because he posted a cartoon of Trump in a coffin...
White lady becomes a nationally-acclaimed hero for posting a picture of her holding Trump’s severed head...
A public flogging would be appropriate. No need to over-react!
;’}
“White lady becomes a nationally-acclaimed hero for posting a picture of her holding Trump’s severed head...”
Actually, she lost her career.
.
Actually, she lost her career.
Yeah, but not much of one.
I am a little more of a purist on 2nd amendment. I fell that unless a person is actually in jail they should be entitled to all the Bill of Rights. Do you lose any other right given to us by the Bill of Rights on someones say so? No. We lose some privileges for various infractions but never Constitutional Rights.
I also believe if there is such a thing as hate speech crimes then burning an American flag is hate speech. Scalia was dead wrong on this and he was wrong about 2nd amendment being subject to reasonable restrictions. The idea that shouting fire in a crowded theater should be restricted is the same nonsense that justifies gun regulating laws. A person still has the means to shout fire in this case but there will be consequences just like there are consequences for using a gun in the commission of a crime.
John Ashcroft fought this battle and lost the only way any one will be prosecuted for that is purely selective prosecution which is against the law.
I am not a pot promoting libertarian because I have been opposed to all mind altering drugs all my life. The Feds have for whatever reason chose to ignore states in rebellion for some time but the fact remains, they have and that includes Sessions and Barr. We have let the illegal decrees by governors arrange the biggest political fraud in this Republics history and we do nothing just like we always do.
That's a question on the 4473.
You will be denied.
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