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Illegal Immigration Counter Protesters Detained
OrbusMax ^ | 5/4/06 | SteveB

Posted on 05/04/2006 8:53:59 AM PDT by StevenB

Illegal Immigration Counter Protesters Detained

The topic of discussion on the Bryan Suits radio show on 570 KVI earlier this evening was a call by a Seattle area citizen, Eric, who called to say that while thousands of illegal immigrants marched a couple of feet away, 5 United States citizens, he being one of the 5, who should be covered by all of the constitutional amendments, including the 1st and 2nd, were detained by the Seattle Police Department for over 2 hours because... well hard to say really. The reason for Caller Eric's call into the show was, surprise, surprise, the medias total lack of coverage of what should be a fairly big story. U.S. Citizens constitutional rights infringed in order to protect illegal aliens non existent right to hold a protest march.

Now I am a regular listener of the Bryan Suits show, as you should be, especially if you, like me, are in the male 35-64 year old demographic, and as Bryan can testify, I am also a regular emailer, but did not catch every single minute of the show since the 5pm to 8pm time slot is right in that end of the work day - drive home - eat dinner time window so I may have missed out on some of the conversation but here is a recap as best as I can recall. Full disclosure on my part requires that I state my Father is a 25 year retired Seattle Police Officer and I may or may not own a gun, try breaking into my house and you may or may not get an answer right then and there.

It all started with a 911 call from someone the police say was not part of the march claiming that there was a group of people with signs opposed to the marchers who were armed. The caller said he saw a gun holster sticking out from a partly open jacket. The police responded to the call and found the counter protesters and asked if any of them had weapons and sure enough, 3 of the 5 had guns and one had a switchblade or some sort of knife. Caller Eric said he was the one counter protester that did not have a weapon. At that point they were cuffed and taken to the West precinct where they spent the next 2 plus hours being detained until the march was over. The problem is they had not violated the law as the 3 with guns had valid concealed carry permits and as best as I can tell while switchblades appear to be illegal, there was no mention of the person carrying the knife being arrested or charged with a crime.

A Seattle Police officer, who called himself Steve, called into the show to give his version of the events. While for the most part, the stories matched, Office Steve's main point was they felt they were doing the appropriate thing in order to potentially avoid a violent situation and needed to take the people to the station in order to do a proper investigation. As Bryan Suits said, it was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for the police but he, along with myself, kept asking under what authority were these people detained and why did it take over 2 hours to finish the investigation and let them leave? Bryan's conclusion, as was mine was it seems fairly obvious that the message from the police hierarchy was to hold these people until the march was over. One thing that bothered me about the conversation with Officer Steve was how Suits had to explain to him it is legal to openly carry a firearm. In the State of Washington you must have a concealed carry permit to have a concealed weapon but not to openly carry. Officer Steve made a comment that implied he thought since the holster was partly visible, that was in some way a violation of the law since the weapon was no longer concealed, which is not the case.

Later a female caller gave Bryan a ring and said she was one of the counter protesters who was packing heat. The first question from Bryan was in effect, what were you thinking bringing a gun into a situation like that even though you are totally within your rights to do so? Her response was she always has her gun with her, expect in bars and other "gun free zones" or as I like to call them, "potential sitting duck shooting galleries". She mentioned that the gun was in her purse and they told the officers when they first asked about the weapons that they had valid permits for them. She said once at the station they were told they would be released once the march was over which contradicted what Office Steve said about it just taking that long to finish the investigation and there was no intent to simply hold them until the march was over.

Now last I checked, United States Citizens have a 1st amendment right to free speech and even in Seattle we have a 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms and it sure seems to me like those and potentially others were violated. I do know one thing, if I were one of the Seattle 5, I would "lawyer up" and have filed a lawsuit against the City yesterday, because as I emailed Bryan, until the city gets hit with a lawsuit and pays a big judgment, expect this kind of thing to keep on happening. My one question of any city official is when did POTENTIALLY preventing a violent situation supersede our constitutional rights?

Thursday on the Bryan Suits show, where you can listen to live over the internet by going here, the hope is someone from the City will be on to discuss this topic in further detail. Also, its Led Zeppelin Thursday, so get your request in early.

If anyone has any additional information, clarification or corrections, please post them in the comments and I will update accordingly.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Politics/Elections; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: aliens; atf; bang; banglist; batf; batfe; bradywatch; ccw; donutwatch; federalgovernment; feds; govwatch; guncontrol; immigrantlist; immigration; jackbootedthugs; janetreno; libertarians; libs; pc; politicalcorrectness; protests; racism; rkba; seattle
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To: StevenB

Which would you rather push around, five or five thousand??


121 posted on 05/04/2006 12:52:31 PM PDT by Old Professer (The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig

That's how I read it too.


122 posted on 05/04/2006 12:56:24 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: Stashiu
"I will always exercise my God-given and Constitutionally protected right to self defense. Better to be arrested than declared dead on the scene."

"I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6."

123 posted on 05/04/2006 1:03:33 PM PDT by SW6906 (5 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, guns and ammunition.)
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To: untrained skeptic

Please see my post 120. It is neither expressly legal, nor illegal, to open carry in this state.


124 posted on 05/04/2006 1:04:52 PM PDT by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (I invented "patty on patty technology.")
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To: clawrence3

>Actually, BOTH citizens and illegal aliens have the exact >same Constitutional right to free speech and to peaceably >assemble. I see what you mean though about those who >wrote the Bill of Rights denied those to slaves, for >instance.

Yeah, maybe the also have rights to VOTE?


125 posted on 05/04/2006 1:10:03 PM PDT by b2stealth
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To: TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig
Thanks Ern. Like I said above:"You have the right to open carry without a permit, but in cases like this, they could arrest you or ask you to leave the area for "menacing" or some such thing as it could be seen as initmidation. I think that is what you're getting at."

My understanding is that the guy wasn't open carrying or menacing, someone just noticed something like the bottom of the holster peeking out from under his jacket and reported it. I can sympathize with the position this puts the police in, but I tend to be pretty militant in my belief in the 2nd. I believe the officers should have assessed that these people were not a threat and let them remain if they were not. Maybe they got beligerant when confronted. Maybe they didn't cooperate when asked for their CCWs. We don't know yet. We have one side of the story and barely that. If they did, then I agree with what the officer(s) did. If Seattle Police policy under Nickels and Girlekowsky is to detain and intimidate all CCW permit carriers, then they need to be slapped hard on this one.

126 posted on 05/04/2006 1:10:44 PM PDT by SW6906 (5 things you can't have too much of: sex, money, firewood, guns and ammunition.)
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To: b2stealth

Illegal aliens do NOT have the right to vote (yet ; )


127 posted on 05/04/2006 1:11:52 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: mlc9852

Sooo . . . to you, does that mean that any, say, illiterate, tubercular, destitute Russian who can scam his way onto a plane ought to be allowed to walk off at JFK airport without so much as a second glance from us? So he can find a better life over here?

And some Egyptian moslem with a PhD in languages coming to work for the DoD translating documents from Arabic to English ought to be denied a visa?

C'mon, guy, turn on the thought processes. You've established a false dichotomy, that all immigrants are good unless they are moslems, in which case they are bad. I'm no fan of Islam, but I'm not willing to make that kind of false choice.

APilgrim


128 posted on 05/04/2006 1:12:58 PM PDT by APilgrim (How'd we grow up to be this way?)
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To: clawrence3
"Illegal aliens do NOT have the right to vote (yet ; )"

With the lack of will or resources to enforce current immigration laws; what's going to stop illegal aliens from voting? Because it's a felony?
129 posted on 05/04/2006 1:15:41 PM PDT by Rick Deckard
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To: clawrence3
Anyone inciting a riot, regardless of immigration status, should be arrested.

so you are saying that these guys that are law abiding citizens are immigrants. And what in that article said that they were inciting a riot?

130 posted on 05/04/2006 1:17:37 PM PDT by ziggy_dlo ("Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" JFK)
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To: Rick Deckard

I'd rather spend $2 billion on voting fraud than a wall along the entire border.


131 posted on 05/04/2006 1:18:51 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: ziggy_dlo

I am not saying they are immigrants or inciting a riot.


132 posted on 05/04/2006 1:20:26 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: clawrence3

Point out to me where it says in our Constitution that someone who is a Law Breaking Illegal Alien enjoys the same Constitutional Rights that a Citizen of these United States do.

If you are not a Citizen you do not enjoy the same Rights a Citizen does.

Never Have

Never will

oh and yes you're right. Slaves were not citizens, they were property and thus did not enjoy constitutional protections until they were freed.


133 posted on 05/04/2006 1:21:14 PM PDT by Leatherneck_MT (An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.)
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To: APilgrim

Good luck with some here who are clearly irrational.


134 posted on 05/04/2006 1:21:29 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: clawrence3

>Illegal aliens do NOT have the right to vote (yet ; )

So if they have the _same_rights_ under constitution.. why they can't vote?


135 posted on 05/04/2006 1:21:59 PM PDT by b2stealth
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To: clawrence3
Not all Muslims are terrorists, you realize that, right?

Sure, some of them are not old enough to put on a bomb vest, and some of them just don't have the guts.

Islam is evil if it is practiced "by the book"

136 posted on 05/04/2006 1:22:59 PM PDT by Centurion2000 (Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement. - Reagan)
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To: Leatherneck_MT

I never said that Law Breaking Illegal Aliens enjoy all of the same Constitutional Rights that Citizens of these United States do - voting, for instance - that being said, Law Breaking Illegal Aliens enjoy the same Constitutional Right to PEACEABLY ASSEMBLE that Citizens do. Get it?


137 posted on 05/04/2006 1:23:28 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: b2stealth

See my post # 137.


138 posted on 05/04/2006 1:24:18 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: Centurion2000

Good - we are at least making some progress ; )


139 posted on 05/04/2006 1:24:43 PM PDT by clawrence3
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To: clawrence3

So the right to PEACABLY ASSEMBLE trumps the Right of a CITIZEN to Keep and Bear arms?

That's what I was getting at.

Get it?


140 posted on 05/04/2006 1:24:57 PM PDT by Leatherneck_MT (An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.)
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