Legal Insurrection, with the help of Judicial Watch, still is fighting the FOIA litigation to get a full document production from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Office of Attorney General Irvin Nathan as to the investigation and non-prosecution of David Gregory and others at NBC News for the clear on-camera violation of the D.C. gun laws.
NBC procured, and Gregory flaunted, an illegal 30-round ammunition magazine even though NBC was explicitly warned by the MPD not to do so:
Gregory got special treatment.
Not so many other more ordinary citizens.
The latest outrageous case of D.C. overreach and bullying of citizens who are not David Gregory is documented by Emily Miller at The Washington Times (via The Patriot Perspective), D.C. businessman faces two years in jail for unregistered ammunition, brass casing:
Mark Witaschek, a successful financial adviser with no criminal record, is facing two years in prison for possession of unregistered ammunition after D.C. police raided his house looking for guns. Mr. Witaschek has never had a firearm in the city, but he is being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The trial starts on Nov. 4.
The police banged on the front door of Mr. Witaschek’s Georgetown home at 8:20 p.m. on July 7, 2012, to execute a search warrant for “firearms and ammunition … gun cleaning equipment, holsters, bullet holders and ammunition receipts.”
Mr. Witaschek’s 14-year-old daughter let inside some 30 armed officers in full tactical gear.
D.C. law requires residents to register every firearm with the police, and only registered gun owners can possess ammunition, which includes spent shells and casings. The maximum penalty for violating these laws is a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
Police based their search on a charge made by Mr. Witaschek’s estranged wife, who had earlier convinced a court clerk to issue a temporary restraining order against her husband for threatening her with a gun, although a judge later found the charge to be without merit.
After entering the house, the police immediately went upstairs, pointed guns at the heads of Mr. Witaschek and his girlfriend, Bonnie Harris, and demanded they surrender, facedown and be handcuffed.
In recalling what followed, Mr. Witaschek became visibly emotional in describing how the police treated him, Ms. Harris and the four children in the house.
His 16-year-old son was in the shower when the police arrived. “They used a battering ram to bash down the bathroom door and pull him out of the shower, naked,” said his father. “The police put all the children together in a room, while we were handcuffed upstairs. I could hear them crying, not knowing what was happening.”
Read the rest of Emily’s article for further details as to the overreach in investigating this case, including doing $10,000 of damage ripping the house apart, and the aggressive prosecution.
This is why we are fighting for a full document production. We want to get to the bottom of why David Gregory was given a get out of jail card by the D.C. OAG even though the MPD delivered a Warrant and supporting Affidavit to the OAG. That Warrant and Affidavit are among the documents MPD and OAG refuse to give us.
There are two sets of justice under the D.C. gun laws, one for ordinary citizens, and one for the David Gregorys of the world:
(Wife of David Gregory with D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan at charity event)
The Patriot Perspective notes:
Looks like that’s pretty conclusive evidence that if they know you have guns, they’ll go after you. What triggered all this? A false statement by an ex-wife that was found “without merit” by a judge. Commenting on the tyranny of family law and how it’s horribly biased is a whole other can of worms, though.
In the meantime, it’s important to realize that this man’s children were dragged naked and handcuffed into a room while his house was ransacked and the entire block was shut off so a dud shotshell and a brass case could be found. I’m sure that’s what the Founders meant by “shall not be infringed”, and non-sarcastically, this is what the left means by “reasonable gun control”.
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Comments
Easy: the Constitution’s ‘Connected People Clause’ protects Gregory.
Don’t you people realize how many decent American lives were endangered by that shell casing? People don’t kill people, shell casings kill people.
Methinks the people of D.C. need a thorough intra-cranial douche to help them remove the overabundance of stoopid thoughts.
[…] Update: Legal Insurrection has more about the disparity between this tyrannically aggressive enforcement and…. […]
Police state. It’s no longer a boogeyman.
We need to bring in Benjamin Crump.
This is your goobermint stuck on stupid!
Hey! There’s an idea.
Can Legal Insurrection market “Goober Mints?”
Just kidding professor – but not much!
David Gregory needs to be awarded a big pack of Legal Insurrection’s “Goober Mints!”
LOL!!!1! 🙂 🙂 🙂
You know, that’s not a bad idea.
What kind of scrutiny will it take to find the shell-casing prohibition to be unconstitutional? I think it fails any test including “irrational and/or schizophrenic basis.”
In the real world, it fails the little known “half-assed, mostly drunk or high, barely awake” scrutiny test.
Was the ex-wife cited for her false report? If I were the husband I’d sue her for everything she had, including her alimony. Child support should be easy — she should never be alone with them.
This is tyranny – was it necessary to break down a bathroom door with a battering ram when the occupant is showering? And 30 armed officers? Why not 100? Maybe it’s time to get back at the cops ….
Not enough room in the clown car.
I am not at all surprised that the District government would support such tyrannical action, but it is deeply worrisome that rank & file police officers could do this without any apparent complaint or reservation. It is no longer hyperbolic to draw comparisons to 1930s Nazi Germany as that regime began tightening the clamps on a formerly free society.
Waiting for a Republican to step up and condemn this and ask why government authoritarianism has risen so disturbingly under Obama.
Waiting.
I suspect most of them wouldn’t have a problem with this level of control… if a fellow establishment republican were in the white house.
They don’t seem to, anyway.
Absolutely correct. We have seen the constant deputization and militarization of America in recent recent years. Mobs of people, each given a uniform, a badge, and a sidearm; convinced of the higher calling of their little chore; sworn to protect us all, each from their very own, assigned particular evil. The EPA, TSA, most recently the National Park Service. One day someone will decide that they should all be combined into a single Domestic Tranquility Service to enhance efficiency and leverage systems, or some such justification. It is getting serious.
The preceding to have been a reply to Henry Hawkins.
There is an arms race going on in this country, and this is a big reason why. Government is arming itself to be able to enforce its will over the people, and many of them are buying guns and ammo as fast as they can. I know people who have buried thousands of rounds of ammunition each, along with the corresponding firearms – esp .223, .308, .30-06, etc. Also handgun ammo and guns too – but this is the country, and semiautomatic rifles, such as AR-15s, M4s, etc are thought most critical.
Friend of mine in C. Spgs was upset when his state senator was recalled for merely passing some minor gun control laws. But they aren’t minor, and they bear no relation to reality. I need to find some low capacity magazines for my .40 caliber handgun before I move back there, and they are hard to find, because 10 rounds fit nicely single stacked in the grip. We aren’t talking double stacked, nor magazines that extend out below. That is why 10 is std for .40 (and 9 mm?), 8 for .45, and more for smaller calibers. Where did they get 7? Out of thin air, maybe knowing that you can’t find them that small. It is just one fewer than std magazine size for the 1911 .45 ACP – just small enough to render practically all std sized magazines illegal. Kinda like closing the last FFL in DC (preventing DC residents from legally buying firearms) or shooting ranges in Chicago (preventing many residents from getting CCL permits)
Why the militarization of the police. Partly it is shock and awe. Partly it is just more fun than regular police work. And maybe partially from a realization that the American populace continues to arm itself, partially against potential criminals (and in my case, wildlife, notably bear, but also potentially mountain lions and wolves – which tend to run here in large enough packs that 7 rounds might be inadequate), but also from an overreaching government that is arming just as quickly, but with military grade weapons. This country was founded by armed revolution, and the Declaration of Independence justifies such, should it become necessary. Much of what esp our federal govt is doing these days is intensely unpopular with much of America, and many of those pushing such know it. Which is probably why they try to implement gun control legislation every time they have even a small chance at success. It isn’t to disarm the criminals – most of their guns and gun use is already illegal under federal law (Treyvon Martin was probably committing a felony when he was showing off that gun). Rather, it is the gun owning middle class and more rural America, that opposes them politically, that are the prime targets.
No Second Amendment in DC? .no surprises. Very few there have heard of or read the US Constitution.
Or, for that matter, the Heller decision, which was strict 2nd Amdt, since the incorporation by the 14th was not required to make it applicable to DC.
I’m willing to bet this family does not have a dog…or the police would have shot it. A dozen times. And then added the spent shell casings to the two empties they’re planning on prosecuting the guy for.
The DC prosecutors and police are performing a useful public service – by demonstrating what life is like for citizens without connections in a one-party Democratic state.
I fear that at some point people are really going to have enough, and someone is going to get hurt, badly, when the police use excessive force to crack down on illegal shotgun and brass casings.
This police state crap goes on, because we’re too afraid to stand up to it. I say enough is enough.
One thing the police should keep in mind: they are outnumbered and surrounded.
I’m becoming increasingly concerned about the way that law enforcement treats people. A battering ram to get to a kid in the shower? Really? Thirty (plus?) officers to search for “contraband” bullets in an upstanding citizen’s home? I’m sorry, but this is way over the top and should not be tolerated. A simple knock on the door, by one uni (and his or her partner) would suffice; these aren’t Mexican cartels, for goodness’ sake, and it seems cops can no longer tell the difference. This is very worrying.
Are we there yet?
“[John] Locke declared that under natural law, all people have the right to life, liberty, and estate; under the social contract, the people could instigate a revolution against the government when it acted against the interests of citizens, to replace the government with one that served the interests of citizens. In some cases, Locke deemed revolution an obligation. The right of revolution thus essentially acted as a safeguard against tyranny.”
—Wikipedia
“And on your right, the state of Nature. Watch out folks, you never know what to expect. Keep your hands in the tram and don’t make any provocative movements.”