Abuse of Power

In the predawn hours of Friday, 26 January 2019, the FBI raided the home of Roger Stone in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  A large group of armed agents in helmets, body armor, and wearing combat fatigues arrested Mr. Stone for a grand jury indictment resulting from the investigation being conducted by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller.  The agents also searched Mr. Stone’s home.

Roger Stone is described as a “political insider.”  He has been an “adviser” to President Donald Trump, and he is reported to be friends with the president.

Alan Dershowitz is a law professor emeritus at Harvard.  He is a political liberal.  He occasionally takes issue, however, with the political left on issues like human rights, Israel, and the law.  On 26 January 2019, Mr. Dershowitz is reported to have objected to the manner of Roger Stone’s arrest on “Fox and Friends” (a news and commentary television show). Professor Dershowitz is reported to have said, "They should have simply sent his lawyer a notice saying please show up in the federal court … It was just a show. ... They're interested in getting information from him about the real target, and that's Donald Trump."

In an article on the Fox News web site dated 27 January 2019, Greg Re quotes Roger Stone as follows:

"I had no firearm in the house. I don’t have a permit for a firearm. I don’t own a firearm. Only my wife, my two dogs, my three cats were at home," he said.

"I’m not a flight risk, in fact, I think my passport has expired or it will expire in a few days. I have no record of a criminal past. And frankly, they just could have contacted my attorney and I would have voluntarily turned myself in," Stone said.

"The proof of this is that only hours later, the judge granted me a $250,000 surety bond, meaning on my signature with no funds put forward because I’m not a flight risk," he continued.

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/roger-stone-appears-to-open-door-to-cooperating-with-mueller-after-dramatic-predawn-arrest

Author Jerome Corsi has reported to Fox News interviewers that he was grilled for hours by the FBI in order to coerce him to make false statements that could be used in the prosecution of Roger Stone.  He has said that he was threatened with prosecution and prison if he didn’t cooperate.

Although I have never done police work in which I have personally arrested someone, I have investigated child abuse cases that have resulted in arrests, and I have prepared reports for the court of the results of my investigations.  I have managed the prosecution of Dependency and Neglect cases in civil court, and I have directed a child support enforcement program.  I have managed two community corrections programs, and I worked for a state prison system for 20 years.  I have some idea, therefore, of how arrests are made, and the level of police power that is normally used for various kinds of arrests.

Arrests like that of Roger Stone do not require the use of a large number of special agents at 5:00 AM.  Arrests like this can be made by a few agents to prevent escape and destruction of evidence while contact is being made, make the arrest, and execute the search warrant.  The FBI agents would normally be expected to be in civilian clothes and to have a side arm.

Mr. Stone was not known to be a gang member, drug lord, mafia kingpin, fugitive from justice, or a terrorist.  The FBI had no reasonable cause to believe that he would resist arrest.

It appears to me, on the face of it, that this was a misuse of police power for political purposes.  It looks like an attempt to intimidate, to target people close to the president, to isolate the president, and to coerce people to provide evidence against the president.

I am not passing judgement on the guilt or innocence of Roger Stone.  That is for the courts to decide.  I am not saying that he should not have been arrested.  Law enforcement was acting upon a grand jury indictment.  All I am saying is that the level of police power used to arrest Mr. Stone was grossly excessive.

This is the United States of America.  We are not Cuba or Venezuela.  We are not (yet) a police state.  Abuses of power are what you get with big government.  Officials think that they are answerable to political powers and not to the people.  Politicians think it is permissible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, “for the greater good.”  People want the government to take care of everything  That way they won’t have to worry about it … so they can watch TV, play video games, and get stoned, and live on government handouts.

Watch out America.  This is how totalitarianism starts.