Libertarian Raided
Rick Stanley, former Libertarian candidate for Colorado Senate (aka, just some guy), had the pleasure of having his business raided and property seized:
Federal agents raided the Denver home and business of income tax opponent and gun rights advocate Rick Stanley on Wednesday, seizing materials said to be related to taxes and possible anti-government activity.
No federal charges have been filed against Stanley, and court documents relating to the raid remained sealed Wednesday. He did not return a telephone message left at his business, Stanley Fastener & Shop Supply on East 39th Avenue, where he also lives.
Federal officials were tight-lipped about the raid.
“A court-ordered search warrant was executed as part of a criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI and the IRS and other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the Colorado U.S. attorney’s office.
What exactly is anti-government activity? I mean, I have this here blog where I ramble on the many ways that our government sucks. Am I engaging in anti-government activity that would warrant raiding my home?
No charges filed and the agents aren’t talking. If they’re going to raid people’s houses, then I think the information about why ought to be made public. Stanley has been known to carry guns openly in defiance of the law and I’m pretty sure he advocated not paying income taxes.
And is tax evasion terrorism? Why is the Joint Terrorism Task Force involved if (as I’m lead to believe) it’s a tax issue?
Don’t get me wrong, Stanley is kind of a moonbat Libertarian. However, the sketchy details about this are troubling.
June 11th, 2004 at 1:09 pm
My big question is why they aren’t announcing the reasons. Believe it or not, it could be for Stanley’s protection.
Once you say something like (pulling this out of my butt) “we’re raiding his house because we suspect him of planning a bombing,” you can’t stuff that genie back in the bottle, and his reputation is already irreparably damaged.
Of course, they could (and probably do) have any number of less noble reasons for keeping mum. Still, they did at least get a warrant, so they were at minimum able to convince a judge that they had probably cause — for something.
June 11th, 2004 at 1:27 pm
No.
June 11th, 2004 at 1:30 pm
Then what is anti-government activity exactly, oh lawyer-type-person?
Just curious, not being smarmy (yet!).
June 11th, 2004 at 5:55 pm
& people wonder why I blog under a psuedonym. lol
Anti government activity is a very flexible term & can be used by different people for different things. Activlely planning to blow up an IRSS building is an anti government activity. So is opining on the necessity of reducing the size of government.
Legally the former is propably closer to the common usage than the latter, but given the right circumstances most bets are off.
But don’t worry: if they start going after anti-government bloggers I’ll be one of the first canaries to drop. If I don’t post for a couple of weeks then you should probably start making nice wit the government. lol
The reason they used so many federal agencies is Stanley has done a little to piss everyone off: He objects to gun laws & government sanctioned theft (i.e. taxes). He’s trying to organize an armed march to D.C. to protest gun control (armed bu peaceful if you can dig it) & has or has attempted to organize a membership of people who will show up at any Waco or Ruby Ridge style shindig & try to protect the people targeted by the feds. He’s said that certain politicians should be tried for treason & then hanged (if found guilty) & he’s got a trial coming up where a judge claims he threatened him because he told the judge that his support of gun control constitututed perjury 9that whole violating an oath of office thing) & should be arrested & tried for it by the people.
That’s why so many feds want a piece of him.
Some of what he says strikes me as over the top, & other things he says seem plain wrong. But on most of what I just highlighted I agree with him in principle: the judges he allegedly threatened did violate their oaths & should be removed form the bench. There’s only a small handful of congresscritters I can think of that didn’t advocate in one form or another an ucoonstitutional law & should be held accountable for that. & gun laws & income taxes shuld be repealed.
The stuff he’s been known to say (particulalrly some of the more popular conspiracy like theories used to explain the violations on the constitution) is at best questionable & most of the times inaccurate, but the heart of Stanley is that he’s tired of government interfering with his Rights. He’s making a lot of noise about it (whether it’s correct or not) & the feds in particular don’t wwant him stirring up any more people than he has.
Oh, the computers & records…Odds are the IRSS has a passing interest in those, but I’d wager the real purpose is to get hold of any lists he has of like minded people, particularly the names of those who joined his Mutual Citizens Defense group (or whatever it was called) & those who signed up for his armed march on D.C.
June 11th, 2004 at 6:37 pm
Publicola, it’s the Mutual Defense Pact Militia. Try googling that phrase.
Trying to think like an IRS agent, if I were going to serve a warrant on Stanley, I’d want some backup. But you’d think just Treasury agents would do it.
The inclusion of the Terrorism task force agents is a little ominous.
June 14th, 2004 at 12:14 am
Tough to say, given the sketchy reporting here. However, it is pretty safe to say that some kind of illegal activity is involved, or at least suspected. If not, heads will roll, and I’m not talking about Stanley’s.
June 14th, 2004 at 11:41 pm
I think not returning a library book on time is definitely anti-government activity. You might want to stay away from libraries.
June 14th, 2004 at 11:43 pm
P.S. “Librarian” and “Libertarian” are terms easily confused – the plot thickens.
June 14th, 2004 at 3:18 am
Weekly Check On The Bias…
Well, it’s that time of the week or so, time to examine how the media treats us gun-nuts. Yahoo has been rather quiet. They do slack off during the Summer months and granted, there has also been a lot happening…