Zero Warrants Served
by
Matt Giwer (c) 1994 <1/24>

      On January 10th the Branch Davidians survivors of the Waco holocaust are scheduled to go on trial in San Antonio, Texas. It appears they are going on trial solely because someone must go on trial and the Justice Department will not indict the BATF or the FBI. Thus the only fodder to offer to the media are the Davidians, those who were attacked. The government was the mugger so we must prosecute the victim.
      The BATF told us they practiced at Fort Hood to first secure the compound and then serve the search warrant -- a search warrant being all they had. On the 28th of February 100 screaming, armed BATF agents emerged from some horse trailers and began throwing grenades for the entertainment of the press entourage they had brought along. They failed to secure the compound and as such they never served their search warrant.
      Was resistance justified? We have one story that a member of the invited media asked a mail man, who happened to be a Branch Davidian, for directions to the compound and told him something was going to happen. The mail man then went back home and told David Koresh something was going to happen. A lot hinges upon what was said was going to happen.
      Notice we have the kindergarten game here, a message going round robin and so everyone can laugh at how the sentence changed after going full circle. We notice the BATF gave some sort of briefing to the press which this person may or may not have heard directly. In the course of asking direction the news man tells something to the mail man. The mail man then tells something to David Koresh. Do you think it is likely the nicety of their having a search warrant was conveyed at all stages?
      Does it matter the government had a warrant in this case? Let me point out the government has no right to search any place in circumstances like this without a warrant. There is no requirement for anyone to presume the government always has a warrant as there are numerous examples of their not having a warrant and thus acting illegally and violating our Constitutionally protected rights.
      Now we have the government with a warrant and the Branch Davidians only knowing the government was coming to do something at their home. What preparations they made will have to await court testimony. What is clear is the government did not announce their possession of a warrant. As announcement is the same as service, again the warrant was not served.
      At the time of the attack only the BATF knew they had a search warrant. As the Branch Davidians did not know it they were not required to submit. Had the government the absolute right to attack people there would be no need for the warrant process. As the Branch Davidians were not informed of the possession of a warrant they had an absolute right as a free people to defend their home from that attack.
      If we do not grant they had that right then each and every one of us acknowledges the government has a right to break into our homes and throw grenades at us to search for guns. It might make good live drama on some TV shows but it is tyranny at its worst. It is not something we can tolerate in a free society.
      And the Branch Davidians did exercise their God given right to self defense in face of what to the best of their knowledge was a warrantless attack. And their greatest evil was exercising that right successfully. As our government will not prosecute the grenade throwers it is determined to prosecute the victims.
      This is a specific prosecution of the right to self defense against the government under any circumstance. This prosecution has as its basis the presumption the government can get a sealed warrant and then do whatever it pleases without the victim having any recourse. This court case is to justify the government having the power to fulfill the strict letter of the law, not reveal its compliance with the law, and then act in total disregard of every other law.
      This is a serious matter. People are dead as a direct result of this government behavior. We are not discussing the academics of a traffic stop search. We are talking 96 people who died in a variety of unpleasant ways all because the government did not follow procedures developed over centuries.
      These are our fellow Americans who died because they were not given the protections we expect for ourselves. We must ask, would we have done to them what our government did? But we did do it to them, we are our government. We caused 96 deaths.