Another case of cops raiding military personnels home and taking guns.

[SilentStalker]

Check it out. You guys already know about he last thread we had on this. Well, here is another case of this happening in which case many constitutional rights were broken. Where does it end? I think this is only the beginning.

http://m.washingtontimes.com/blog/g...-swat-rampage-destroys-iraq-vets-home-over-g/

 

[TurtlePhish]

...holy crap. That's ridiculous. I can't believe police would do something like that.

 

[SilentStalker]

^^^hahaha. I cannot tell if you are being serious or sarcastic lmao. I mean he was sort of breaking the law but at the same time I think this was a little extreme and obviously the police technically broke the law as well unless they called in a warrant among other things. Either way it seems blown way out of proprtion to me!

 

[JohnBT]

This is old news from early 2010. This could be the case that caused the House of Rep. to pass a non-binding resolution with regards to military personnel stationed in D.C. But that's beside the point in 2010.

He was in D.C., right? He was breaking the law, but the system and the cops blew it out of proportion.

The real culprit appears to be the operator.

"Without his permission, the operator, Beth, called 911 and reported Sgt. Corrigan “has a gun and wants to kill himself.” "

 

[Destructo6]

Suicidal person with a gun?

Permission from the suicidal person to call 911? What? Why would you need permission from the actor?

Q: How many times has suicidal turned in to suidical/homocidal?
A: Far too often to count.

I'm really failing to see the problem here.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

statist

 

[creitzel]

Suicidal person with a gun?

Permission from the suicidal person to call 911? What? Why would you need permission from the actor?

Q: How many times has suicidal turned in to suidical/homocidal?
A: Far too often to count.

I'm really failing to see the problem here.

According to the articles I read, he wasn't suicidal. He was having trouble sleeping at night, due to dreams/nightmares he was having from serving over in Afghanistan. Someone had given him a VA help line number, and he decided to call it and see if they had someone who could help him with his dreams. He didn't know it, but the number was really a suicide prevention help line, and the operator Beth, assumed he was suicidal. She then proceeded to ask him if he had any guns in the home, and he answered honestly, stating yes. His guns were stored in his closet, and he didn't have them out at the time, but Beth assumed that he did have them out, and would not listen to him, when he tried to tell her that the guns were stored. Beth then escalated this to the police as a suicidal man with a gun incident.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

its all beths fault!


but it wasn't beth who tried an end around on dc gun laws. that the sgt admits he knew about


failure in the decision making process

 

[Newb223]

Suicidal person with a gun?

Permission from the suicidal person to call 911? What? Why would you need permission from the actor?

Q: How many times has suicidal turned in to suidical/homocidal?
A: Far too often to count.

I'm really failing to see the problem here.

Never said he was suicidal, just having nightmares

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

folks calling a help line for vets in the middle of the nite? believe it or not some of them aren't completely candid about wanting to off themselves. it would be interesting to hear how the sgt sounded

 

[dusty14u]

DC seems to be slowly changing their laws and views on gun ownership. Emily Miller has been very instrumental in doing this and I applaud her. She has raised the 2nd Amendment awareness in DC to the pojnt that changes are finally starting to occur. It looks like she waited to publish this story until after the verdict in this case. With the civil right violations the vet should be be able to recoup some of his losses.

Hopefully there will be a push by law abiding citizens in DC to elect and demand 2nd Amendment rights that the majority of the country enjoys and start taking back control of the District from career social engineers that have been in charge of DC politics. Their policies have not worked and it is time to join the rest of the nation.

Although the police were responding to an erroneous report they made the situation much worse and left themselves wide open to civil rights violations. Citizens should demand and expect better from those sworn to serve and protect.

 

[Destructo6]

Never said he was suicidal, just having nightmares

He called a VA crisis hotline: 1-800-273-TALK

He hadn't slept in 4 nights.

I don't think it is unreasonable for the VA counselor to conclude that this guy was a suicide risk and to call the local police for a health and safety check, giving them all of the pertinent information.

Now stage 2, the police are called to do a health and safety check in a person with suicidal ideations, possibly armed. If you were the reponding police, would you roll up solo and ask, "Yo bro, gonna kill yourself?" or would you take some reasonable precautions?

Now the police get there, determine what is really going on and in the course of doing so run across some illegal weapons. They can't just turn a blind eye to that and walk away.

 

[PBR Streetgang]

Most Military members and LEO's that have been in a critical incident IE: killing someone will have nightmares about the incident. As soon as they mention this to people who have never gone through a situation like this or have no intimate knowledge of these incidents...'
these uneducated people jump to conclusions that military or LEO people are a danger to themselves or others.NOT true! They want to label these people unstable and strip them of their rights.

Unfortunately these people just need to talk to others that have gone through the same situation to realize these feelings are normal.

Fortunately there are private groups that they can talk this out with ,understand there is nothing wrong with them and not be labeled with a negative stigma.

 

[ec4321]

but it wasn't beth who tried an end around on dc gun laws. that the sgt admits he knew about

failure in the decision making process

True. However, the LEO's search seems very questionable to me. Not sure where probable cause for the search is. And even if they had it, with the only actor secured and carted off, exigent circumstances certainly didn't exist. They should have gotten a warrant.

 

[Alaska444]

Wow, no one is upset about an entry without a warrant? Wow!!

I hope that the court threw out the illegal seizure of evidence. The 4th amendment was written for these sort of situations. He may have had "illegal" weapons, but the gov't in my opinion made the greater crime by their actions. If anyone has follow up stories on this case, it would be appreciated.

 

[Destructo6]

You know, I can't find a single article about this incident that isn't identical to the blog.

One-sided stories are silly to dissect or debate.

Have fun.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

it seems he called a suicide hot line


it appears he was a might confused

 

[wojownik]

FWIW, Corrigan has a suit pending against DC govt and the unnamed officers involved. Looks like the suit was filed in early 2012. http://www.scribd.com/doc/80941044/Matthew-Corrigan-v-District-of-Columbia

 

[Salmoneye]

Wow, no one is upset about an entry without a warrant? Wow!!

I certainly am...

As I understand it, the man was acquitted of all charges...

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

he has an excellent lawyer that will help

i suspect best he can get is a settlement and i'm curious if gardiner is taking this on contingency

 

[BSA1]

Matthew Corrigan has a history of poor decision making;

1. He deliberatly broke the law in D.C. by bringing firearms and refusing to register them. Thus they were ILLEGAL.

2. He called a Suicide Hot Line "by mistake". I don't know how you not know who you are taking too. I would expect they would identify themselves when they answered the phone.

3. He called the Hotline not the other way around, had a conversation and then hung up.

4. He suffers from depression which is not a crime but is a big factor in suicides.

5. He shut his phone off which means any call-back attempts were impossible.

6. He told the counselor he had guns in a community where gun ownership is tighty regulated.

7. The sleeping pills must have been really strong especially if he mixed them with alcohol.

The police responded to a potentialy dangerous situation. If they had not and Corrigan had started popping off rounds how do you think the media and public would react? As someone that has worked with suicidal people we are trained to ask certain questions and listen for certain words.

I too question why the police did not get a search warrant. That said I don't know how you can expect to win a lawsuit over the seizure of illegal property. This is no different that trying to get your drugs back after a raid.

I don't consider this to be a good 2A case.

 

[ec4321]

I don't cosider this to be a good 2A case.

It's not a good 2A case.

It does sound like an awesome 4A case though, based on the linked article.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

and there is a difference between acquittal and charges being dropped. most notably the ability to bring the charges again

 

[dusty14u]

Doubtful they would want to prosecute in the future because none of the firearms would be admissible as evidence with the illegal search and seizure. He did receive the firearms back and it looks like he has very capable representation.

 

[Alaska444]

Today, 03:33 PM #21
BSA1
Member


Join Date: April 20, 2011
Posts: 301
Matthew Corrigan has a history of poor decision making;

1. He deliberatly broke the law in D.C. by bringing firearms and refusing to register them. Thus they were ILLEGAL.

2. He called a Suicide Hot Line "by mistake". I don't know how you not know who you are taking too. I would expect they would identify themselves when they answered the phone.

3. He called the Hotline not the other way around, had a conversation and then hung up.

4. He suffers from depression which is not a crime but is a big factor in suicides.

5. He shut his phone off which means any call-back attempts were impossible.

6. He told the counselor he had guns in a community where gun ownership is tighty regulated.

7. The sleeping pills must have been really strong especially if he mixed them with alcohol.

The police responded to a potentialy dangerous situation. If they had not and Corrigan had started popping off rounds how do you think the media and public would react? As someone that has worked with suicidal people we are trained to ask certain questions and listen for certain words.

I too question why the police did not get a search warrant. That said I don't know how you can expect to win a lawsuit over the seizure of illegal property. This is no different that trying to get your drugs back after a raid.

I don't consider this to be a good 2A case.
Last edited by BSA1; Today at 04:00 PM.

I would state categorically that our govn't has a much worse history of poor choices. Give the guy a break, the govn't abused this man during a time of war and now they violated his constitutional rights. His only poor choice in many ways was to call the wrong person for help.