The Waco and Ruby Ridge Incident

[rasterbee]

I'm not convinced that the unfortunate part was the solid equipment and power of the police.

Well, yeah. Everything about both situations is unfortunate. I should have chosen my words a little more carefully, I was just trying to imply, like....

If Randy and Koresh had platoons of trained mercenaries on their side, maybe the gov't forces wouldn't have been such big bullies or even had a message sent back to them through the death of a bunch of ATF guys and cops.


@Rodri I was going to mention it in my earlier post, but had to run. I have had the pleasure once of just destroying a police officer's credibility while under oath. ~2 years ago I was charged with a crime as a result of my vehicle being searched while the engine was not running and I was 50+ feet away. The officer wrote in his report, and later testified in court, that I had handed him my wallet. He claimed that while he was taking out my driver's license he found a "half-rolled marijuana cigarette," which he used as reasonable cause to search my car. Inside the trunk, he found more of the substance and charged with me 3 misdemeanors: possession, possession of paraphernalia, and driving under the influence.

I hired an attorney, who proved to be utterly useless. His suggestion was that I should agree to a plea with the prosecuting attorney which would reduce all three charges to citation for possession, lowering my fines from $2-3k to $250 and no risk of jail time. I had continually asked to view the video tape of the incident, and 4 times was sent blank CDs by the police department that they claimed had the video on it. On the day of my final court appearance, the prosecuting attorney personally walked over to offer me the plea before our case was heard before the judge. I say, "No. What the officer is saying is not true. When he asked for my ID I told him it was in the dashboard of my car, he opened my car door and took out the wallet without my permission."

My case was heard, I pleaded not guilty to the judge. The officer testified. I cited the recent Supreme Court case, Arizona v. Gant, and demanded that the video tape be shown in court. (My attorney, having done essentially nothing to help my case, had forced me to do my own research on search and seizure. Arizona v. Gant is a great read, Gant might be a scumbag but I highly recommend taking a look at it if you enjoy tales of the police overreacting and the common man fighting back and winning.) The prosecutor approached the bench, whispered to the judge, who said there would be a 5 minute break while he watched the video with the two attorneys in his chambers. 5 minutes later they returned, I was found not guilty and walked out of the courtroom with my head held high.

Illegally seized evidence can be returned, and I debated filing the paperwork to have mine given back to me. But since the evidence in this case is illegal in my state, I decided to not follow through since the police probably would have handed it back and then instantly arrested me.