The Real Laws in the US, 2
by
Matt Giwer (c) 1995 <7/3>

      About a month ago I wrote an article on the real laws in America given that everything that happened at Waco was legal and the legality evidenced by the lack of either criminal or administrative sanctions. The few disagreements I received proposed that was in the past and was a one time aberration. Then comes an incident in a suburb of Cleveland just last month.
      I have an internet report from a person in Cleveland and an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This incident involves our favorite jack-booted thugs, the BATF. There are several points to the story, some amusing such as the man apparently walked out the back door while the BATF put the house under siege all night. The crucial item is that the BATF knocked on the door and requested to search the house for illegal weapons. One way or another the person refused. Both version of the story agree the agents who knocked did not have a warrant, the difference being "with them" or "obtained after the refusal."
      Both versions agree that as a result of the refusal to permit a warrantless search, the BATF called in a SWAT team and put the house under siege, shut off power to entire neighborhood and prohibited press coverage of the event. Lets try this again, refuse a warrantless search and you will be surrounded by a SWAT team. I hope I am not typing to fast for anyone.
      This is clear from both accounts. The refusal to permit a warrantless search is now a cause for the Federal Government to order in a SWAT team and lay siege to your home. That is the law.
      That is what I said was the law as a result of Waco but there was always the chance that was a one time happening. Now we have exactly that same federal law showing up again in Cleveland more than two years after Waco.
      Let me be the first to agree they did not start blasting away immediately as in Waco. As the BATF spokesman is reported to have said

Its kind of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Berarducci said. If you kick in the door at night and have to shoot someone, then where are you at?

      So for the "crime" of not permitting a warrantless search, then, when they finally do get a warrant and AFTER they have a SWAT team in place and after the neighborhood is evacuated then they contemplate kicking in the door because the person will not respond to bullhorns and a phone line where he can only talk to them, his own phone to call for help having been cut off.
      This is our BATF in action. But the good news is the man had simply walked out the back door. They had no arrest warrant so he is not wanted. The story they planted that he was holding his parents hostage was quietly forgotten when they returned home and gave the BATF the keys to the house.
      And in the morning they did walk up to the door, use the key and find the place empty. Perhaps they have learned a touch of civility. The fact remains that under some provision of federal law, the failure to permit a warrantless search is punishable.
      SWAT teams are not called in to negotiate. They are called in when the person is considered dangerous. They are there to kill. So keep in mind, refuse a warrantless search by the BATF and you will be considered armed and dangerous and an immediate threat to the lives of others, even your own parents.
      That is what happens when you refuse a warrantless search by the United States Government. I have no idea what law permits this. I would like to find out so I can work to have it repealed. This is not my America but it will be again.