By Gary Hunt ——Bio and Archives--April 6, 2016
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18 U.S.C. § 1361: Government property or contracts Whoever willfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States, or of any department or agency thereof, or any property which has been or is being manufactured or constructed for the United States, or any department or agency thereof, or attempts to commit any of the foregoing offenses, shall be punished as follows: If the damage or attempted damage to such property exceeds the sum of $1,000, by a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both; if the damage or attempted damage to such property does not exceed the sum of $1,000, by a fine under this title or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.and 18 U.S.C. § 1362: Communication lines, stations or systems
Whoever willfully or maliciously injures or destroys any of the works, property, or material of any radio, telegraph, telephone or cable, line, station, or system, or other means of communication, operated or controlled by the United States, or used or intended to be used for military or civil defense functions of the United States, whether constructed or in process of construction, or willfully or maliciously interferes in any way with the working or use of any such line, or system, or willfully or maliciously obstructs, hinders, or delays the transmission of any communication over any such line, or system, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
In the case of any works, property, or material, not operated or controlled by the United States, this section shall not apply to any lawful strike activity, or other lawful concerted activities for the purposes of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection which do not injure or destroy any line or system used or intended to be used for the military or civil defense functions of the United States.Now I think that we must first dispense with §1362, as the statute addresses communications equipment, and the Indictment makes no mention, suggestion, inference or allusion to any communications equipment. It would seem that which the government attorneys are attempting, what I have often referred to as a "legal shotgun", where they throw enough charges at the accused, that the jury will conclude that if the government has this many charges, then they must be guilty of something. So, let's look at §1361. First, the use of the word "property", in context with the statute, "Whoever willfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States, or of any department or agency thereof, or any property which has been or is being manufactured or constructed for the United States". So, what is meant by property? Can you manufacture what is properly referred to as "real property" (land)? If they had intended to include land, would they not have made clear that "land" (real property) was included? And, if they did, perhaps they would have to provide some indication of just what kind of damage would be included in that which could be considered to be what was intended. Perhaps we can use the subsequent wording in the stature to garner an idea of what might be included in any interpretation of "damage". It states, "If the damage or attempted damage to such property exceeds the sum of $1,000", which gives us an idea that the damage is calculable, in terms of dollars.
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Gary Hunt was a Professional Land Surveyor. Having been the County Surveyor for Orange County, Florida from 1974 to 1978, he began private practice in 1978 and continued as such until 1993, when events in Waco, Texas caused him to leave his business in pursuit of restoring the Constitution.
In 1989, he began researching, investigating and studying history, law and events where the government was “pointing its guns in the wrong direction”. He began publishing a patriot newspaper, “Outpost of Freedom”, in February 1993.
Since that time, he has investigated numerous occurrences, including, Waco, the Murder of Michael Hill, Ohio Militia Chaplain, Oklahoma City Bombing, and other events. He has attended the sites to investigate the events, and has reported on his investigations.
He has continued to report on his findings on the Internet, as well as write articles about other current events; about the history of the Revolutionary era; and the founding documents.
His Internet home page is outpost-of-freedom.com