Shell shocked (courtesy Foghorn for The Truth About Guns)

To say that anit-gun paranoia is out of hand in some of our large cities is an understatement. That’s particularly so in Washington, D.C., where one would expect that the local officials would have actually read the Constitution (since it’s showcased right there in the city), the levels to which the police are willing to go to persecute gun owners is simply astounding. Today’s shining example of the idiocy of D.C.’s gun laws and the danger they pose to the American people comes to us via Emily Miller at washingtontimes.com. . .

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.

[…]

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.

[…]

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.”

[…]

The police found no guns in the house, but did write on the warrant that four items were discovered: “One live round of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition,” which was an inoperable shell that misfired during a hunt years earlier. Mr. Witaschek had kept it as a souvenir. “One handgun holster” was found, which is perfectly legal.

What makes this more worrying is that the police had previously sent their “gun recovery” (read: confiscation) team to Witaschek’s house on the suspicion that he owned an illegal firearm, but found nothing. So they decided to conduct a full-on SWAT raid of his home, point loaded firearms at him and his family, then haul him off to jail for possession of a single inoperative shotgun shell and a spent casing from a .270.

This very same police department has no problem handing politicians dangerous “assault rifles” to show off at their dog and pony shows in clear violation of the law. They’re fine with letting liberal journalists flout the law prohibiting “high capacity” magazines, showing them on national television with no legal repercussions. But God forbid a single citizen should have a spent round of ammunition — clearly proximate cause indicating criminal intent.

I sincerely hope that this is the case the NRA and the SAF choose to use to try to overturn D.C.’s convoluted and ludicrous ammunition ban.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

144 COMMENTS

    • Excellent book. Matt Bracken was seeing this stuff happening over 10 years ago. I recommend reading his trilogy to fellow gun enthusiasts, family, friends and others with “open eyes”.

    • Looking for it on amazon and sadly it does not seem to be free. I think I may actually buy it because of how good the reviews are.

    • When do we stop this?? This was 30 BULLIES acting on the orders of their even bigger BULLY, their captain. They sent 30 agents, tramatized the children even draggin one out of the shower and did $10,000 dollars worth of damage. Is this the American we used to live in. Everyone of them should be put in jail but the curent administration does nothing if it is on his side. We have to stop this before we have a terrible problem, but I never hear anything about doing something against this terrible injustice.

  2. I secretly think at times that DC Mayor Gray has secret financial interests in gun manufacturers and is hoping the SAF brings more suits.

      • It is called violence by proxy, this is how many violent women commit violence by sending someone else to do their dirty work, either white knight males or the police. So this is really a case of state sanctioned domestic violence which makes it all the more wrong. It’s just wrong on so many levels it makes me sick.

        • Aw, c’mon. Don’t make me reply with something about battering men. We’ve got trouble enough without you pitting the sexes against each other.

        • It’s not about pitting the sexes against each other but nice try at a strawman argument, it’s more about warped world views of those in charge. Even you are acting like a white knight probably even not knowing you are. Domestic violence is bad no matter the gender of the victim. Violent men tend to be more direct (assaults, shooting, etc) while violent women tend to be more indirect (poisoning, acid throwing, violence by proxy, etc) which is the better and smarter way to go if that makes your inner white knight happy.

          The fact is the ex wife sent state sanctioned thugs to harm her ex, abusing the poorly set up laws and the system. Granted law enforcement may not have known this was the case but they probably don’t care that they were used for a vendetta. This is something everyone should be pissed about, both men and women. Being pro gun you should know how laws are often abused and twisted if not poor to begin with. If a man sent SWAT on his ex wife or ex girlfriend, that would be just as wrong, not more or less due to who is what gender. Sad truth is a man would more likely be ignored than a woman by LEOs.

          Other thing is the guy made a mistake letting the police in without a warrant. Doing so allows the police to fish for something to use against you. In this case they found something to give them more excuse to send in SWAT later on.

  5. So then what the hell was the probably cause that got the warrant issued in the first place? Who was the judge that singed that warrant? There needs to be a shit-storm hit this, and quick. This IS the jack-booted thuggery that we are told we are paranoid to believe in.

  6. Not to worry, folks, move along now. It’s perfectly safe to trust the government – we have total control – oops, I mean your safety – in mind.

  7. This may be the single most repulsive story that I have read on TTAG that did not involve pictures of Feinstein.

    • Feinstein or no Feinstein this is even scarier than that old bag. When the shtf Feinstein will be a distant memory compared to this police state aggression. I cant even wrap my head around this story. This needs to be pushed to the front page top story every day.

    • After reading this story I tried to dig up information, whether it is regular D.C. practice to send 30 cops into S.E. Washington homes (where guns really are a problem) on the weakest of uncorroborated tips. I haven’t found any evidence that it’s a regular occurrence, and I look forward to follow-ups on the warrant in this matter.

      Who is it, exactly, that favors, approves of, this sort of behavior in Washington? Who signed the warrant, and on what information? Is this the standard response to such an affidavit of probable cause?

  9. Maybe this is the case we need to strike down the stupid spent ammunition laws…

    This guy sounds like a financially stable individual that can afford (or organize effective fund-raising in order to afford) a decent lawyer willing to carry this through.

  12. Land of the free and home of the brave. F##king Gestapo. May their guns jam when they need it most.e

  13. Angry. Very angry. Unfortunately, not much I can do about it except make another round of small donations, continue to avoid DC as much as I can, and vote for reasonable people. I have to wonder what this guy did. Perhaps donated money to the GOP? Openly advocated for conservative policies?

  14. I seriously can’t have any respect for members of a police force who would participate in this raid and play along with this freak show of gun laws.

    They are not protecting and serving and they know it. If they don’t, then that might be more frightening.

    • Not to excuse their actions, which were atrocious, but my guess is his ex wife, or other individual with an ax to grind, reported to the police that this individual had “an arsenal” of illegal guns, a “hoard” of illegal ammunition, and was a volatile danger to society. Therefore the average dunce on the police force was expecting Armageddon when they kicked in the front door and treated the family in the home accordingly. I would guess one of the reasons they are prosecuting him so zealously is that unless they convict him his girlfriend and children would have grounds for an expensive lawsuit.
      This is the trouble with allowing/encouraging/relying on anonymous tips without the possibility of repercussions for the accuser should the accusation be false.
      All Americans of all political persuasions should be concerned about examples of police brutality and overreach like this. LEOs are almost never held accountable, and it never works out well for the general population when any members of society are above the law.

    • Amagi – Agreed on the monstrosity of this. I think all of us wonder in the back of our minds where LEOs would stand when SHTF. It is incidents like this, and Katrina, and, and, and, which make me suspect keeping their jobs (and for some, kicking ass and taking names) will be the winner over constitutional protection of citizens.

  15. You guys aren’t posting all the article, it’s misleading as they found more than what you’re mentioning:

    “After about an hour and a half, the police found one box of Winchester .40 caliber ammunition, one gun-cleaning kit (fully legal) and a Civil War-era Colt antique revolver that Mr. Witaschek kept on his office desk. The police seized the Colt even though antique firearms are legal and do not have to be registered.”

    ““One expended round of .270 caliber ammunition,” which was a spent brass casing. The police uncovered “one box of Knight bullets for reloading.” These are actually not for reloading, but are used in antique-replica, single-shot, muzzle-loading rifles.”

    Still stupid, but come on.

      • That was from the first search, not the latter one that ended in his arrest.

        “This was the second police search of his home. Exactly one month earlier, Mr. Witaschek allowed members of the “Gun Recovery Unit” access to search without a warrant because he thought he had nothing to hide.
        After about an hour and a half, the police found one box of Winchester .40 caliber ammunition, one gun-cleaning kit (fully legal) and a Civil War-era Colt antique revolver that Mr. Witaschek kept on his office desk. The police seized the Colt even though antique firearms are legal and do not have to be registered.”

        • No Nate, it proves your point was off the mark.

          I will agree though that the facts in some articles presented are not as complete as they could be, but then, I think that is what the links in the articles are meant to help address.

        • Off the mark only because you assumed I was only talking about the arrest, this article was still leaving out important stuff which was my point, which is correct. I was simply talking about keeping it in perspective, they’re leaving out the important and pertinent info by only including the more recent arrest without including the first search and what it turned up.

          It’s stupid, but the guy KNEW they would be coming for him as they already had, and yet he kept stuff he KNEW they would use against him. He’s not very smart.

          “The police found no guns in the house, but did write on the warrant that four items were discovered: “One live round of 12-gauge shotgun ammunition,” which was an inoperable shell that misfired during a hunt years earlier. Mr. Witaschek had kept it as a souvenir. “One handgun holster” was found, which is perfectly legal.

          “One expended round of .270 caliber ammunition,” which was a spent brass casing. The police uncovered “one box of Knight bullets for reloading.” These are actually not for reloading, but are used in antique-replica, single-shot, muzzle-loading rifles.

          This was the second police search of his home. Exactly one month earlier, Mr. Witaschek allowed members of the “Gun Recovery Unit” access to search without a warrant because he thought he had nothing to hide.

          After about an hour and a half, the police found one box of Winchester .40 caliber ammunition, one gun-cleaning kit (fully legal) and a Civil War-era Colt antique revolver that Mr. Witaschek kept on his office desk. The police seized the Colt even though antique firearms are legal and do not have to be registered.”

          • I’m really not certain what point you’re arguing. You’re going on like Nick was hiding something, but there is no representation that the excerpted portions are the whole article.

            Besides which, the point is that the whole friggin’ law is stupid. The entire house is on fire, and you’re worried about the curtains.

    • In the words of Dan Ackroyd: “Nate, you ignorant slut!” You imply that it’s possible for a hunter’s house to be utterly scoured of all traces of hunting and it’s various and sundry minutiae?? After a lengthy, armed, meticulous search they turned up what amounts to nothing! If you were a chef and fine cooking were illegal, do you think after hours of searching I might dig up an unused recipe card or an empty saffron bottle from amongst your belongings? OF COURSE I WOULD!!! If you can’t see how off base you are on this, you’re truly hopeless. Forest for the trees, as they say.

  16. We should also be doing our part and sending this story to friends and family via email, twitter and FB. The TTAG readership understands the gravity of the situation, but many people are blindly stumbling along with the “our government isn’t that bad” or “we need more gun laws” philosophy. This is a painfully clear example of the enforcement of frivolous laws in a tyranical manner.

    • Agreed. The next huffpo story that I spill my comments on will reference this article. Whenever they say their usual crap “nobody is trying to take your guns,” etc. This will be referenced. A man with a 12 GA “dud”… arrested facing 2 years in prison for “unregistered ammunition??”

  17. Click on the link to Ms. Millers story folks. The background story…
    Vindictive ex.
    Not supporting the anti gunners here, Just that there is a bit of background there.

    • alas. I am afraid Shannon Watts would turn on me in a similar fashion after the passion of our lust wore off . . . . . .

      • You know she would open her mouth and talk during the whole thing. Her words would no doubt conjure up images of DiFi…good luck with that

      • Dirk, she and her Blog Advocates have already made you for an educated version of Mandingo. It can’t possibly end well. Her motivations are all wrong.

    • I still count my lucky stars that my x wife only went after my money, my pride, and my sanity.

      At least she didn’t have her sights set on my freedom.

      I’m serious about this.

  18. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. (snicker) *sarcasm

    What I have in spent casings should get me life without parole. That’s if I lived in DC.

      • When I had my pickup, every time I lowered the tailgate brass rattled out. Every time.

        A bit off topic. I used my tailgate as a bait station when I was fishing. What is it about fish guts and other detritus that attracts bees and yellow jackets? They were around my tailgate like it was paradise.

  19. He needs to be prosecuted so these laws can be found unconstitutional. Until that time these are off the books they will keep getting abused.

  20. Ridiculous. I wonder what would happen if you have a hand grenade paper weight or a .50 cal bottle opener. Living on the other side of the Potomac I get a little nervous every time I drive into DC. I better make sure I got every single last one of those spent .22’s.

    • Funny that article was on here a couple weeks ago about the guy having found the spent casing in his vehicle driving into DC. I thought it was a little overkill. Then this article came out. The other guy is lucky, he could hsve ended up gunned down on Pennsylvania Ave.

  21. I have been in law enforcement for 13 years, as a small town patrolman and as a deputy in a rural county. This is plain silliness that only does and only can happen in places like DC, Chicago, and NYC. I have never seen or heard of anything like what goes on in those cities in my years as a cop. I know I’ll hear all the “all police are all the same a bunch jack-booted ninja wannabe thugs” comments. I hope most of you realize that the stories like these are not the rule but the exception to how the police operate. much like the atni-gunners want you to believe that all gunners are paranoid-itchy trigger finger-redneck-anti everybody types, which we all know is a stereotype and not a true one at that, not even close.
    the great thing About our Government, as screwed up as it is, we can change laws by electing people who think the same as us, recall those who don’t do what the people want, and even make law/recind by getting bills on the ballot for the people to vote on not the elected fools.

    • Maybe the police in every jurisdiction across the country are not like this, but I bet ALL of the police in THESE jurisdictions certainly are.

    • LEOs are just like everyone else, they’re human and share all same imperfections and warts the rest of us do, yet the majority of them are good people. I can’t say the same for the institutions they serve in. Yes, law enforcement is a vital service and one of the few things we should trust the government to provide, but more and more the civilian police are arming up with military arms that private citizens are generally barred from owning to regulate less and less pernicious private behavior. When it takes a SWAT team to bust down a private citizen’s door at 3:00am and shoot his dog just to nail him with that quarter ounce of pot, or catch him with a single spent cartridge it tells me one thing – we have way too many cops in this country.

      You may serve in an area not yet affected by this statist mentality, but I hope that if you are personally asked to participate in such activities it will make you seriously reconsider you career options.

      • “When it takes a SWAT team to bust down a private citizen’s door at 3:00am and shoot his dog just to nail him with that quarter ounce of pot, or catch him with a single spent cartridge it tells me…”

        It tells me that the standards required as “probable cause” for a judge to issue a warrant are laughably lenient. And THAT’S a scary thought.

        • Perhaps the judges and the LEOs could find something more constructive to do with their time, like building kybos or something.

    • like I said vote your (our) people in change the law, vote with your shoe leather move to a more freindly local, and vote with your wallets (don’t buy from or spend money from these places or people)

      • “don’t buy from or spend money from these places or people”
        Um, don’t buy from or patronize the MPD?

    • Until we’re offered REAL choices, instead of cookie-butter BOGUS candidates, your wishes are a pipe dream. Elections, SCHMELECTIONS. We’re currently reduced to choosing between being burned at the stake, or drawn-and-quartered.

      This is not a choice, as Barry Goldwater said – it’s an ECHO.

      • DC elections (and the campaigns leading to them) are and have always been essentially auctions of the elective offices. With the choices being “bad” or “worse.”

        There currently sits on the City Council the convicted felon, former “Mayor for Life.” I give you the incomparable Marion Barry.

        I rest my case.

    • I think you should publicly stand up as an LEO (in full uniform) and denounce the illegal activities of these DC LEOs. Go on the news, Diane Sawyer, etc. Surely your superior wouldn’t say anything right? You and all the other LEO’s in your station should suit up and go arrest these DC LEO’s… I would like to see what would happen.

      • FREE ADAM KOKESH!! The only “valid” charge they’ve levied against him is possession of magic mushrooms! And he’s held in a dungeon in DC somewhere. I wouldn’t wish that shit on you GRANDMOTHER.

  23. There will be no cop bashing on this website!

    The cops are doing a better job of bashing themselves than we ever could.

    And they wonder why we don’t trust them. Cops were doing stuff like this in 1968 and the country cheered them on because it didn’t like they people that they were brutalizing. Now look. Everybody is a target.

    Welcome to Amerika.

    • Ironically in 1968 it was the commies (hippies) they cracked down on with the public’s blessing.

    • As long as the police don’t bother to breathalyze Kennedy clan members or fully charge the arrested kids of Senators (Joe Shotgun) they’ll just keep on rolling. This guy was middle class among financial professionals. That’s bad luck. There are two groups who are determined to disarm the middle class. The first is the financial upper class which wants zero potential threats to its remarkable special deals. The other group consists of politicians representing the urban underclass, who want to eliminate the armed middle class because its existence undercuts the credibility of the only political threat the underclass can exert, the threat of violence if their demands are not met. This is PolySci 301, not an innovative analysis. And of course it is most prevalent in the large coastal cities, for those are exactly the regions with the greatest density of both very rich and very poor, where the air is so thick with class tension you could slice it with a bread knife.

  24. Of course they’re going to prosecute him for any little thing they find, if they don’t find anything then they have to fix all the shit they broke during raid. And, the DA can beef up their “gun crime” prosecution numbers. Our gov’t at its finest.

  25. First search of the house was without a warrant.

    Please people, let your mates, children etc. know they should never open the door for the police under any circumstance unlesss they produce a search warrant.

    Open a window and talk with them, use a different entrance to meet them outside your dwelling/property or if you have no other option walk out the door and close and lock it behind you.

    Know your rights and excercise them.

    As for the vindictive ex, the cops and the prosecutor….you are all douche bags.

    • No. You do not exit your home, open a window, or speak to them. Call your lawyer. If they have cause, they will enter anyway. Never volunteer ANYTHING. Every letter you mutter will be used against you, and can never be used in your defense. If anything said to a LEO is brought up in court, and the defense attempts to corroborate via a LEO on the stand, it is struck down as hearsay.

  27. If the news story is true, then I would submit that this is state sponsored police harassment at best. At worst it is terrorism. In any case this man’s civil liberties have been violated. Where is the ACLU?

    A SWAT team with 30 officers in tactical gear at the family residence of a person with no criminal record? Pointing guns at a girlfriends, cuffing a man and children in his own home? Ramming a door of the bathroom while a young man was in the shower? This all occurred at a residence that voluntarily allowed you in a month before on the basis of a questionable tip where you discovered a single box of ammunition? The police should be ashamed of themselves for being used as a tool of corruption and tyranny.

    The wife, the police and the judge that signed this warrant should be held accountable for this silliness. Does anyone know if this man has a defense fund? I would like to contribute.

    • What about the damage they do? It sounds like they purposely wanted to terrorize them (why??) and wanted to create a great deal of damage (why?) So a county can go down the block destroying people’s houses and we have no law against it? No recourse?

    • This isn’t sillyness. This is the government going against its people and sending them to prison without due process.

  28. This guy needs to be supported, because he’s standing on principle:

    In September 2012, the attorney general offered Mr. Witaschek a deal to plead guilty to one charge of unlawful possession of ammunition with a penalty of a year of probation, a $500 fine and a contribution to a victims’ fund.

    Mr. Witaschek turned down the offer. “It’s the principle,” he told me.

    To increase the pressure a year later, Mr. Nathan tacked on an additional charge in August of illegal ammunition from the first, warrantless search. Mr. Witaschek chose to accept the risk of prison time by going to trial instead of pleading guilty.

    • Admit he is guilty so the police aren’t on the hot seat. I am about as angry as I can be and no one is asking the right questions.

  29. I have no words for how angry this makes me.

    No criminal record… no guns… A DUD, A FEW EMPTIES AND A HUNK OF LEATHER.

    2 Years? Really?

    I hope the Prosecution rots in hell.

    • It’s what they want. They have no conception of what they’ll actually reap. You want a WAR, you effers? You’re gonna get the war you never anticipated you’d get. LET THE HEAVENS FALL, you f*ckers!!!

  32. Ctrl C, Ctrl V in any argument for “common sense” gun laws.

    Just remember folks, a person doesn’t go to jail until the jury says he’s guilt. Hopefully we keep expanding the AI to point were we get to shit can these prosecutions from the jury box and show where the real “common sense” lies.

    • If this man demands a jury in Washington, D.C., there isn’t a chance that it will be a jury of his peers. It was long ago that I sat in the 5th Street courts as a student, but I doubt things have changed.

    • Good point on the juries… I recommend every member of the AI study up on jury nullification in case you ever get a chance to be on such a jury. Might come in handy.

  33. Here is the Resume of Mark Witaschek. https://www.resume.com/markwitaschek Take a look at his work history this guy is a solid citizen.

    But Based on his background I can see why he would be a danger to Society. LOL

    If our country has to go after someone like this for having a shotgun shell we are all screwed….

  34. I recently went to the range, and a couple was shooting a .22 semiauto handgun in a nearby bay. A few days later, I discovered a spent .22 casing stuck in the tread of my shoe. If I lived in D.C., would I have inadvertently committed a crime? If so, that’s beyond absurd.

  35. What am I missing? They actually secured a warrant to search for ammo? Is ammo illegal in DC?

    Is this a warrantless search? If that is the case heads will eventually roll.

    So far, unless I’m horrifically confused about the law in DC I don’t see how anything they found is chargeable. Could someone disabuse me of my illusions?

    • The shotgun shell and spent ammo casing is chargeable. As is the box of ammo from the prior search. Crazy but true. What I just realized is the language of the warrant, at least as described in the article, is incredibly overbroad. Except for the firearms and ammo, nothing they are authorized to search for under the warrant is illegal. I am just a lowly civil litigator who has not touched criminal law in 13 years, but what the heck is that? I know a warrant does not have to be limited to illegal items, but how are the rest of these items, aside from the receipts, even arguably relevant to a possible charge?

      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.”

  36. Yeah I know there’s a law, but how can ammo be (a) illegal or (b) subject to “registration”? Ammo is fungible–what, you “register” fifty rounds and they come and ask you what happened to it after you used it up at the range? Oh gee–the USSCt says you can have a gun in your home–just not a loaded one? Somehow I don’t think that’s what Heller said….I seem to recall it clearly held that you had a constitutional right to keep loaded firearms at your home. The law needs to be overturned, but when a judge denied bail to that DJ who racked a round in his shotty in DC as a “dangerous individual,” plus the reticence of trial courts to rule against the government on constitutional issues, this guy is going to get the hammer.

    One other thing–the hints here suggest the fury of a woman scorned–but if ex-hubby goes to jail, who is going to pay her spousal support? Bet she didn’t think about that at the time.

    • Not quite. You must possess a registered firearm to own ammunition. The ammunition must be of the caliber for the registered weapon(s) in DC. Yes, DC is a $..thole, but remember it is our nation’s $..thole.

  37. “They used a battering ram to bash down the bathroom door and pull him out of the shower, naked,”

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Shower carry, people. Shower carry.

    • I’ll bet that they cuffed him still naked and left him naked the whole time. Sadists. Like they couldn’t knock on the door. Too many cops will make any excuse to initiate violence.

    • Battering ram to take down the door. Why didn’t they just take a screw driver to unlock the door, which is all that is needed for 99.99% of all bathroom doors? I hope that once this winds up going through the courts that this family gets the millions of dollars they deserve from the DC police.

    • Lead by example. Plant your flag and ask for others to join you. You will be an inspiration to true patriots everywhere who would flock to your banner.

  39. I think the way the legal system has been behaving, is bullshit ! You can’t possibly register ammunition and theres an f*****g war going on, and all the rest of the crooked professionals too ! wtf , pull your heads out of your asses !

  40. For the uninitiated: In order for a search warrant to be procured, several steps have to be taken: The requesting officer has to have good probable cause: Information, first hand, that there is a crime. The informant has to be good, reliable, and either previously used or in possession of the info and not standing to gain from providing. After the officer writes his affadavit, giving all the pertinent facts, he forwards it to a supervisor, who either okays it or not. It then goes to a prosecuting attorney, who reviews it, says it is good or not, then to a judge, who reviews it and if it looks good, he signs off. He also has to okay night service(after 10 PM) and a no knock(kick the f’n door down) if there is dangerous circumstances…..What to do with all these bogus acts that are being perpetrated? SUE the F–K out of the officers, supervisors attorneys and judges! They would understand this! There is no implied protections for unlawful and unconstitutional acts by any of them! If they are lying to get their papers, or if they are signing off for stats, they need to be held accountable!

    • That’s what I was taught in grade school, too, but it’s pretty obvious that none of it is operative in DC today. If it were, there would have been no warrant, and no raid. But there was a raid, which means they can do this stuff whenever and for whatever reason they want.

  41. Good article, just wanted to point out that the last part has some grammar errors you might want to fix: “This is very same police department has no problem handing politicians dangerous “assault rifles” to show off at their dog and pony shows in clear violation of the law. ”

    Sucks that this guy is getting ran through the wringer for asinine b.s.

    • Haha, good catch. Nick wrote it, I read it, Dan read it, still missed it. The brain is a funny thing. Text amended.

  42. OK, a couple of little-known “inconvenient truths” to provide some background about DC:

    Recently, there was a move to have a neighboring state absorb DC so that the population could actually BE a state instead of a Territory (like Guam or Puerto Rico). Virginia was asked by the Feds; they refused to take all but Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon (which is why Pen mailing addresses still end in Washington, DC to this day). They asked Maryland, and were told to pound sand – too much crime; we have enough, thank you.

    DC MPD Chief Lanier’s predecessor left the DC Chief job to go to Philadelphia as Police Chief there. This is the same police force that employed the Sergeant who sucker punched the woman on video (somewhere on YouTube) and was acquitted buy Internal Affairs. Also the department that fire-bombed the Black Panthers in the 1970s. The policing culture reflects the Chief. The voters have no say in the hiring.

    • And I forgot to add…

      About a decade ago the MPD was so strapped to gain new recruits that they did away with background checks for applicants to the Police Academy. Guess what we’re seeing the effects of now…

  46. Wonder why they let the gangs run free (dc cops know right where they are ).
    Just like in Chicago there is no $ in outlawing gangs so turn on the population with a paycheck
    Wake up people they will come for you too.

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