By Gary Hunt ——Bio and Archives--March 22, 2015
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Texas Penal Code Section 46.02 Unlawfully Carrying Weapons (a) A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries on or about his person a handgun, illegal knife, or club if the person is not: (1) On the person's own premises or premises under the person's control Texas Penal Code Section 46.04 Unlawful Possession of Firearm (a) A person who has been convicted of a felony commits an offense if he possess a firearm: (1) After conviction and before the fifth anniversary of the persons release from confinement following conviction of the felony or the person's release from supervision under community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision, whichever date is later; or (2) After the period described by Subdivision (1), at any location other than the premises at which the person lives.The justification is based upon the fact that a Cameron County Sheriff's Deputy was on the scene shortly after the shooting incident, however, the Sheriff didn't charge Massey with a violation of Texas law, so that whole subject is moot. The shooting incident warrants our attention. The only shooting done that day was by BPS officer Gonzales who shot at John Foerster. From theResponse, "Senior Border Patrol agent [sic] Danny Cantu was nearby, heard the shots, and secured the scene for investigation"... "Cantu told Massey all members of his group must remain until shooting is investigated" (page 2). So, if you have an armed officer telling you that you "must remain", the question arises, were you detained? Or, were you free to go? I asked Massey whether he was free to go and he explained that within the first few minutes of the "investigation", he asked, since he and the third member of the party, could leave, they were told "no". He explained that he asked, a number of times, that he asked in one form or another whether they could leave, and were consistently told that they could not leave. At page 3 of the Response, "It was reasonable for BPA Cantu to disarm Massey and tell him he could not leave the area where the shooting occurred." Well, this might be "reasonable" if Massey were a witness to the shooting, however, he did nothing more than hear the shots fired. So, he couldn't be "detained" as a witness, as he witnessed nothing. The only two people that witnessed anything were Foerster and Gonzales. If you heard shots from a bank robbery, two blocks away, would they; could they detain you as a witness or participant? On page 4 of the Response, "Police are allowed to stop and briefly detain persons for investigative purposes if the police have a reasonable suspicion supported by articulable facts that criminal activity may be afoot" (pages 3-4). Where does the reasonable suspicion come in when Foerster never fired a shot and Massey and the third party did nothing more than hear the gunshots? What "criminal activity [might] be afoot"? Perhaps the BPS officer, Gonzales, fired his gun outside of the BPS policy for use of firearms, but is there any other possible "crime afoot" that would justify such action? So, it would appear that their argument would only apply to Gonzales, not anyone else -- Sort of government doublethink or some other screwy effort at justification of something that is unjustifiable. Also on page 4, we find, "If an officer develops-----and is able to articulate-----reasonable grounds to believe that a suspect is armed and presently dangerous to the officer, third parties, or himself, the officer may take swift measures to discover the true facts and neutralize the threat of harm if it materialized." So, did Gonzales or Cantu have any reason to make any person other than Gonzales a "suspect"? Was there anything in the cooperation of the three that lead them to believe that any of the three were "presently dangerous to the officer, third parties, or himself"? And, if those conditions were met, to "take swift measures to discover the true facts and neutralize the threat of harm if it materialized", would be what was required. However, by the times provided, and the absence of any apparent threat, we find that they were detained from 3:45 to 7:00. However, that final item not being, in the least, justified, how can anyone perceive 3 hours and 15 minutes in which you are not allowed to leave, anything other than being detained, without Miranda warning? We cannot stop here, however. The guns were taken from the Massey side, I suppose as "evidence" of some sort, however, the pistol that did the shooting was not taken, as evidence, nor even inventoried or audited. It seems that five shots were heard but that only four shell casing were found. Hence, the Response, as previous documents provide, the uncertain "four or five shots". What kind of incompetence on the part of government is this? They don't know how many bullets were loaded in the pistol, or they never did any investigation of the shooting weapon. However, they saw fit to seize weapons that were not involved in the incident. From page 3 of the Response, we find some very cheap rationalization with, "Massy [sic] was not provided Miranda warnings during the investigation", and "Massey was never handcuffed..." Golly, gee, he was detained, but since he wasn't handcuffed, he doesn't qualify for a Miranda warning, only they use what he said, and what he may have possessed, against him. This, because he "cooperated in surrendering his weapons and providing statements." Darn, isn't that the whole idea behind the Miranda warning? They didn't Mariandize him, they didn't let him leave, they were armed, and they asked him questions and then took the firearms. Actually, the government said, "surrendered". Surrendering is capitulating -- giving into force or threat of force. However, the government argues that the "evidence" that lead to a subsequent Indictment was obtained, was given freely -- perhaps Massey wanted to be charged with a crime. We will just discount the facts and draw some conclusions about around that "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree". Has the federal government run amuck? Do they lie to rationalize achieving their objective -- by whatever means necessary? Is their sole objective to prove that the government can do no wrong? I leave the conclusion to the reader.
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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