Posted on 04/01/2015 11:39:58 AM PDT by Whenifhow
A disabled U.S. Navy veteran in Glendale, Arizona, is “devastated” after he says police confiscated 28 of his guns, valued at over $25,000, after a neighbor made “false” allegations that he threatened him.
Rick Bailey, a 56-year-old retired software systems engineer, told TheBlaze on Tuesday that he and his neighbor were engaged in a months-long dispute over his landscaping company. He said his neighbor would park two large, smelly “dump trucks” used for his business and other vehicles in the small cul-de-sac where they live.
Bailey said he eventually filed a complaint with the city and the neighbor was ordered to remove all dump trucks and other work-related equipment from the private residence. Though he initially complied with the city’s order, the veteran said his neighbor would sometimes bring the trucks back on some weekends, when the city was closed, “just to irritate us.”
After over two months of calm in January and February, the situation climaxed on March 16 after Bailey called police because he smelled what he thought were “toxic chemicals” coming from the neighbor’s property.
“I spend my days sitting out on my patio relaxing,” he told TheBlaze, explaining that he is severely disabled. “The smell got so bad, I had to come back to my patio and use my inhaler — so I called the police to see if anything could be done.”
When the police arrived, Bailey said he was told by police officers that the neighbor alleged he had threatened to “shoot” him, a claim he said was “bulls**t.” The very next day, March 17, the neighbor told authorities that Bailey had threatened him and filed for an “injunction against harassment.”
Bailey said he’s been trained on firearms since he was a kid and fully understands the implications of threatening to “shoot” someone, even as a joke.
But the protective order doesn’t even appear to mention Bailey making any gun-related threats. The neighbor alleged that Bailey threatened to “stuff me in my dump truck,” demanded that he move his trucks, and told him to move his boat to the other side of his property, according to a copy of the neighbor’s injection petition.
Read all of the complains the neighbor listed as reasons why he needed a protective order here:
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Bailey denies threatening his neighbor. He also said he is physically incapable of harming the man due to his disability. Bailey said he was medically discharged from the Navy after four years of service due to a serious back injury. His condition eventually forced to retire from his job as well.
Still, a judge apparently found the neighbor’s allegations sufficient enough to not only issue the protective order, but to also order the confiscation of his 28 firearms. The judge attached a separate order directing officers to take Bailey’s guns and revoking his right to purchase firearms, according to documents obtained by TheBlaze.
Under “other orders,” the judge wrote: “Def shall not have/buy firearms, surrender any to Glendale PD.”
Bailey told TheBlaze the Glendale Police Department wasted no time, arriving at his house to confiscate his guns the same day the judge signed the order.
Glendale Police Department spokesman Sgt. David Vidaure confirmed to TheBlaze that police received the court order and acted on it by confiscating Bailey’s firearms. He said the police department did not play a role in the decision.
“I was totally devastated,” Bailey told TheBlaze. “I couldn’t believe something like this could happen. I had a 3-hour anxiety-slash-panic attack while officers were there and after they left. They wanted to call an ambulance.”
The Navy veteran intends to appeal the judge’s court orders and attempt to reclaim the confiscated firearm stash that took him over a decade to collect. A GoFundMe page has since been started to raise money for legal fees in the case.
Vidaure said the protective order is valid for one year, and — in theory — Bailey should get his guns back when it expires.
Bailey said he hopes his case can serve as a precedent to prevent other gun owners from having their weapons confiscated over wrongful allegations.
“I want people to be able to look it up and say, ‘This is so unjust, it should not be done, period.’ And anybody who makes false claims like this, once it’s proven, should face a federal punishment. They should be put in jail.”
Calls made to the Glendale City Court were not immediately returned.
Good question. There are, of course, two sides to this story and the other side is often just as dirty. But, for the moment, let's go with the disabled vet.
He may have missed a great opportunity after the city ordered the "stinky" neighbor to remove work-related vehicles. Several time-stamped photos showing the parked vehicles together with the front page of the day's newspaper emailed to the mayor and others might have resolved the matter.
This sounds all too much like a bad neighbor we had that loved to have loud pool parties. We lodged repeated complaints to the HOA about it and I sometimes chose to spray for bugs when they got out of hand. They eventually got a TRO claiming harassment.
Yup, wanted me to surrender guns. Told them there were non in my house (true, though I did not say where they were) and we decided to take the opportunity to sell at the top of the market.
Poor people that bought from us lasted less than two years and sold the house for over $250k less than they bought it for.
Veteran ping.
Because he is a disabled U.S. Navy veteran, who BTW are all being discriminated against.
If the guns were in a trust, the judge better have named the trust by name and contents. If defendant was named, temporarily he is a prohibited person and co-tees are now transferrees and legal possessor under GCA.
The vet should claim that the landscaper threatened to cut his hair with a weed whacker, cut him to pieces with a chain saw, run him through a wood chipper, and run his remains through a spreader as fertilized. Let the judge order the police to take all the landscapers equipment.
If you’re having a panic attack so severe that the cops want to call an ambulance, perhaps you shouldn’t have guns.
So who gets to determine that?
He was not a neighbor. He was someone who lived close to him. There is a difference. I have had neighbors and I have had people I lived close to.
Is it OK to have a machete? A crossbow? A stick? A pot of hot water? A rock? A fist? Who’s to say? Tyranny creeps around all the time, I guess.
Didn’t matter if the neighbor knew he had guns or how many he had. The judges order was sufficient in and of itself:
“Under ‘other orders,’ the judge wrote: ‘Def shall not have/buy firearms, surrender any to Glendale PD.’”
It is probably standard language in these threat protective orders that is probably added without much forethought.
However, it was enough authority for Glendale PD to come and take any they found (as in “all”).
Remember, the police do not work for you. They work for the government that hired them to enforce its laws, regulations, etc. All you do is pay the taxes that funds this apparatus.
Actually, a possible counter-move by Mr. Bailey might be to make a similar physical threat accusation against his neighbor, true or not. Seems like it doesn’t take too much “evidence” to get the order. Then the Glendale PD can come visit that man’s home too.
The article is bull. According to the obfuscating language in the piece, Bailey has a restraining order against him.
If that’s the case, under the Violence Against Women Act, he could be in a federal prison for five years if caught with any firearms or ammo.
All who’ve supported feminism deserve whatever they get. The Republicans in Congress voted to pass the VAWA right along with Democrats.
The propaganda is getting old, and constituents are getting more stupid.
Bailey shouldn’t talk about having panic attacks. People will think he’s a long term dope smoker.
Oh...and don’t be a NIMBY.
Because difficulty breathing makes a person so dangerous! /s
It’s coming. And they’ll run out of cops pretty quick.
This isn’t rocket science.
Conservatives need to get off their fat asses and elect a pro-2nd amendment, Constitutional sheriff in their counties. That way, when leftist politicians send out mercenary-traitor cops to seize guns from patriots, they’re met by armed sheriff SWAT teams.
BATFE Secret ‘Air Force’ Grounded Again
Posted on April 1, 2015
Fairfax, VA —(Ammoland.com)- Everyone likes the song that begins “Off we go, into the wild blue yonder.” Maybe the BATFE likes it a little too much.
Days after the BATFE had its ears trimmed by Congress after trying to ban M855 ammunition, a D.O.J. Inspector General audit has revealed that over the last few years, the agency spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars trying to achieve one of its long held ambitions, a private air force, of sorts.
Long held, indeed. In 1995, a mere two years after the then-BATF’s deadly debacle in Waco, Texas, the agency acquired 22 OV-10 “Bronco” warplanes from the military. Though designed to carry machine guns, missiles, rockets, and bombs, nine of the planes in the BATF’s squadron were “being used for surveillance and photography,” while the rest were for spare parts, the agency said.
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