Feds raid Texas political meeting; fingerprint and photograph all attendees, seize phones

devil21 · Feb 24, 2015

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-t...ecessionist-meeting-6096637.php#photo-4833856

It seemed like a typical congressional meeting for the Republic of Texas. Senators and the president gathered in the center of a Bryan, Texas, meeting hall, surrounded by public onlookers, to debate issues of the national currency, develop international relations and celebrate the birthday of one of their oldest members.

But this wasn't 1836, and this would be no ordinary legislative conference. Minutes into the meeting a man among the onlookers stood and moved to open the hall door, letting in an armed and armored force of the Bryan Police Department, the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, the Kerr County Sheriff's Office, Agents of the Texas District Attorney, the Texas Rangers and the FBI.

In the end, at least 20 officers corralled, searched and fingerprinted all 60 meeting attendees, before seizing all cellphones and recording equipment in a Valentine's Day 2015 raid on the Texas separatist group.

The raid was a response to legal summons sent by Republic of Texas members to a Kerr County judge and bank employee, demanding they appear in the Republic's court at the Veterans and Foreign Wars building in Bryan the day the officers stormed in. Jarnecke's group, the subject of a half-hour YouTube documentary, maintains a small working government, including official currency, congress and courts.

"You can't just let people go around filing false documents to judges trying to make them appear in front of courts that aren't even real courts," said Kerr County sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who led the operation.

He acknowledged he used a "show of force," grouping officers from city, county state and federal law enforcement to serve a search warrant for suspicions of a misdemeanor crime. He said he had worries that some extremists in the group could become violent, citing a 1997 incident when 300 state troopers surrounded an armed Republic leader for a weeklong standoff.

much more at link

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2nd article:
http://www.policestateusa.com/2015/republic-of-texas-raid/

ThePaleoLibertarian · Feb 25, 2015

Some positions are just too dangerous, and people need to be arrested just for holding them and being in the same room with others who agree. The idea that people should secede peacefully and govern themselves as they see fit is an evil, racist, patriarchal, imperialist concept enforced by heteronormative cisgendered white males; the most eeeevvvyuulll group there is./

fr33 · Feb 25, 2015

r/Texas could really use some helpful comments... http://www.reddit.com/r/texas/comments/2wyixc/feds_raid_texas_secessionist_meeting_houston/

CPUd · Feb 25, 2015

I'm not sure what they were expecting to happen by filing their fake summons to a real judge to come down to their fake court at the VFW.

TheTexan · Feb 25, 2015

TEXAS

fr33 · Feb 25, 2015

CPUd said:
I'm not sure what they were expecting to happen by filing their fake summons to a real judge to come down to their fake court at the VFW.

You use the word "fake". But there are real consequences involved in the raid. If it's fake then they should have ignored it. Instead the govt officials chose to point real guns at people.

TheTexan · Feb 25, 2015

Answer me this, how many other states get their secession meetings raided?

#TexasIsWinning

TheTexan · Feb 25, 2015

The raid was a response to legal summons sent by Republic of Texas members to a Kerr County judge and bank employee, demanding they appear in the Republic's court at the Veterans and Foreign Wars building

I take it the judge didnt appear, because he deems their government to be illegitimate, and then sent armed men on a mission to deny their government's claim on him.

Seems like a perfectly rational, reasonable thing to do.

CPUd · Feb 25, 2015

fr33 said:
You use the word "fake". But there are real consequences involved in the raid. If it's fake then they should have ignored it. Instead the govt officials chose to point real guns at people.

It is illegal in TX to simulate a legal process. The raid was an execution of a search warrant, but the reason all those LE agencies were involved is because of the previous group under the same name who were considered to be violent.

UWDude · Feb 25, 2015

Everybody in the United States has the right to call a constitutional convention, and those calls must be counted. They should have started the constitutional convention process. Form there, they may be able to make an amendment to the new constitution that states have a right to secede.

fr33 · Feb 25, 2015

CPUd said:
It is illegal in TX to simulate a legal process. The raid was an execution of a search warrant, but the reason all those LE agencies were involved is because of the previous group under the same name who were considered to be violent.

Raid every FFA meeting and civics class then. They simulate the legal process too.

CPUd · Feb 25, 2015

fr33 said:
Raid every FFA meeting and civics class then. They simulate the legal process too.

They don't have a problem with stuff like that. The line is crossed when a paper is served that has certain wording or formatting on it making it look like it is from a court. I'm asking around to find the actual document, but we may not see it unless someone gets charged and it becomes public record. That's why they were grabbing laptops and phones, to try and find out who created it.

pcosmar · Feb 25, 2015

They failed to remove the occupying army before attempting to hold court.

This is a mistake others can learn from.

mrsat_98 · Feb 25, 2015

pcosmar said:
They failed to remove the occupying army before attempting to hold court.

This is a mistake others can learn from.

Very Observant, grasshopper.

jmdrake · Feb 25, 2015

CPUd said:
I'm not sure what they were expecting to happen by filing their fake summons to a real judge to come down to their fake court at the VFW.

What law were they breaking by doing that? It doesn't sound like they were breaking any law at all.

tod evans · Feb 25, 2015

"You can't just let people go around filing false documents to judges trying to make them appear in front of courts that aren't even real courts," said Kerr County sheriff Rusty Hierholzer, who led the operation.

He acknowledged he used a "show of force," grouping officers from city, county state and federal law enforcement to serve a search warrant

Here's Mr. Show of force;

samforpaul · Feb 25, 2015

Could the raiding officers now be mobilized to serve at the TX - Mex border?

Matt Collins · Feb 25, 2015

Both the LEOs and the secessionists were acting ridiculous in this situation.

Lucille · Feb 25, 2015

But most of their complaints have to do with the behavior of the American legislature and executive. Robert Wilson, a senator in the Republic, equated politicians in Washington D.C. to the "kings and emperors" of the past, and sees Texas independence as part of a worldwide movement for local control.

"This is the century for colonialist ambitions to be reversed," the 78-year-old pastor said. "I've watched a lot of things happen, and the people of the world are fed up. The spirit of the world right now is: make things smaller, move governments closer to home, take back self-rule."

Jarnecke said he was being taxed by a foreign government that he feels doesn't represent him, and protested having to fund bank bailouts and foreign wars.

"According to the U.S. Constitution, the only place any army should be is guarding our own borders, not invading and trying to impose their will on every other country of the world," Jarnecke said.

Still, he and Wilson said their group would not resort to violence, but is working through world courts to get international recognition of an independent Texas. They said their methods are legal, but Sheriff Hierholzer contests that.

"We've had a lot of dealings with Republic of Texas members in the past here, too, flooding the court with simulated documents," he said. "I don't have any problem with them going back to the Republic of Texas but they need to do it through the proper legal channels."

IOW, work within the hopelessly corrupt system to stop the egregious violations of the Constitution by the corrupt system.

CPUd · Feb 25, 2015

jmdrake said:
What law were they breaking by doing that? It doesn't sound like they were breaking any law at all.

We will have to wait and see if anyone gets charged, but something to the effect of this:

Code:

§ 32.48. SIMULATING LEGAL PROCESS.  (a) A person commits 
an offense if the person recklessly causes to be delivered to 
another any document that simulates a summons, complaint, judgment, 
or other court process with the intent to:
		(1)  induce payment of a claim from another person;  or                       
		(2)  cause another to:                                                        
			(A)  submit to the putative authority of the document;  or                 
			(B)  take any action or refrain from taking any action in response to the document, in compliance with the document, or on the basis of the document.
	(b)  Proof that the document was mailed to any person with the intent that it be forwarded to the intended recipient is a sufficient showing that the document was delivered.
	(c)  It is not a defense to prosecution under this section that the simulating document:
		(1)  states that it is not legal process;  or                                 
		(2)  purports to have been issued or authorized by a person or entity who did not have lawful authority to issue or authorize the document.
	(d)  If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this section that the simulating document was filed with, presented to, or delivered to a clerk of a court or an employee of a clerk of a court created or established under the constitution or laws of this state, there is a rebuttable presumption that the document was delivered with the intent described by Subsection (a).
	(e)  Except as provided by Subsection (f), an offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
	(f)  If it is shown on the trial of an offense under this section that the defendant has previously been convicted of a violation of this section, the offense is a state jail felony.

Added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 189, § 3, eff. May 21, 1997.

http://law.onecle.com/texas/penal/32.48.00.html

Usually there are accompanying charges having to do with threatening or impersonating a public official.

If they were in Florida, these would be felony charges.

Feds raid Texas political meeting; fingerprint and photograph all attendees, seize phones

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