December 8, 2010
Firearms Department
25% of Windypundit Blog Team Now In Jail
As I write this, 25% of the Windypundit blogging team is in jail.
When I brought Joel Rosenberg in to Windypundit as a co-blogger, I wanted him to cover firearms issues, especially the right to keep and bear arms. And he did, rather rabidly, with some of the longest posts on the blog. Even though his last post was over a year ago, he's still on the masthead, so as far as I'm concerned, he's still on the team.
And now he's also in jail. The Minneapolis police arrested him for...go ahead see if you can guess...yeah, illegal possession of a gun. In a courthouse. Which is a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. (They also got him for contempt of court, but that's just a misdemeanor.)
It all stems from an incident a month ago in which Joel dropped by police headquarters to pick up some papers. As is his way, he was wearing his gun, for which he has a carry permit. One of the cops, Sergeant William Palmer, told him he wasn't allowed to have it in the building (apparently because it was also a courthouse) and took it away from him.
Joel filed a complaint against Palmer and then, being Joel, proceeded to post videos taunting the cops. Needless to say, when I got the news of his arrest, it wasn't a total surprise.
One of the more curious aspects of this whole mess is that, at the time of the alleged incident, the police didn't bother to arrest him, even though, if you believe the arrest warrant, they had just witnessed the commission of a felony. There could be an innocent explanation for that, but given that they only arrested him after he filed a complaint, and after he spoke to the press, it sounds a bit like retaliation.
Currently, Joel is being held on $100,000 bond, with arraignment scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
11 Comments
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What bullshit.
Keep us posted. Does he have a legal defense fund?
Perhaps Hennepin County doesn't allow guns in the Courthouse complex (where they MPD has its headquarters) because they had a MURDER in the Courthouse. A permit holder was not responsible but still it makes non-gun people nervous.
Oh and by the way the officer involved is an ardent gun rights supporter, and an NRA member/contributor. But peace officers still have to enforce the law and orders of the Court whatever their personal views.
As a permit holder, I am furious Rosenberg sees fit to exhibit behavior that is erratic, if not pathological. His childish videos and false-martyr open letters do not speak well for his mental state. I guarantee he will be held up as the permit-carrying poster child by the nanny-state liberals.
If he has a problem with the law, there long list of ways to challenge it. The method he chose is not helpful and an embarrassment.
sclemens, this is the Minneapolis City Hall. The main Hennepin County courthouse complex is at 300 South Sixth Street.
This is a courthouse only to the extent that Hennepin County holds Conciliation Court (a high-falutin' term for small claims court) on another floor entirely. In any event, Rosenberg contends he notified the Sheriff of his intent, and obtained permission to visit City Hall beforehand. If that's true, his action was entirely legal. The Fourth District Judicial Conference is without authority to overrule this statute.
You don't support prosecuting citizens for following the law, do you?
Hell. Keep us updated on this travesty.
And so he had no expectation of trouble - he just happened to set his video camera down and it started to record on it's own.
I am sorry, but to me this whole episode is contrived, his subsequent actions are best described as creepy and if he becomes the poster-boy for concealed carry, the anti-gunners will have a field day.
If you believe his actions are the example of a level-headed, responsible and nonthreatening permit holder - there is nothing I can say. I would encourage you to get the opinion of the 80+% of non-permit holders in this state and you may begin to see why I consider this to be extremely damaging to our cause.
You believe that recording the police on camera is threatening sclemens?
What a useful tool you are. You're either one of Rosenberg's competitors, or you're a cop.
Where do you read that in my post? His whole point was to provoke an incident to gain his 15 minutes of fame. He comes across as a fool and an unstable one at that. This fuels the anti-gunners position.
For the record, I am not a cop and I have nothing to do with the concealed carry licensing education process. I received my first permit as soon as the law allowed. I am one who owns Rosenberg's book but now finds him to be an embarrassment who has done harm to the credibility of "Permit to carry" holders.
So, Patrick, do you want Joel's letters and videos circulated widely by the anti-gun main stream media as examples of what the Minnesota public can expect from Permit to Carry holders?
sclemens, I'm inclined to agree with you that Joel is not the most...politically smooth...spokesperson for the right to keep and bear arms. But does that mean that you think he deserves to be in jail for what he did? Do you think Joel is wrong on the merits and that the cop is right? Do you find it as suspicious as the rest of us that the police waited over a month to arrest him? That is, given that you think Joel is wrong on style, do you think he's also wrong on the substance? Or do you still want him to go free when all this is over?
Also, you express a lot of concern about how anti-gun people will react. While I agree that it's unhelpful to the cause to alarm them unnecessarily, isn't there a point where worrying about what they think gives them too much power?
His whole point was to provoke an incident to gain his 15 minutes of fame.
If you can provoke an incident by
1: telling the sheriff you are bringing a gun
2: getting that permission
3: bringing the gun
Then more power to you and anyone you embarrass.
So, sclemens [what a rotten choice of a nick for one who reveals himself to be so little like Twain], your position is that it's okay for the police to make up the law as they go?
Therefore the can punish people for obeying the law just because they [the police] are being shown up?
Why don't you move to someplace more congenial to your beliefs, like Zimbabwe or Cuba or North Korea?
"sclemens", Rosenberg was going to pick up the documentation released under a FOIA request regarding the improper arrest of his wife. Documenting the events of that meeting is a perfectly reasonable act.