[Vision2020] Head's Up: Sheriff's Office
Sunil Ramalingam
sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
Thu Oct 28 20:15:58 PDT 2010
Here's the Readers' Digest version:
-Don't let them in your house
-Don't answer any questions
Saundra, you didn't have to answer any questions. Your husband could have simply said that he wasn't going to wake you up, and you weren't going to talk to the detective then. If he wanted to talk to you, he could come back later. Or you could simply have told him yourself you weren't going to talk to him. If he showed up at your door unannounced and uninvited, he was treating you as a suspect. Just because your position is that you're innocent doesn't mean that he was going to leave agreeing with you. If he thinks you're a suspect, every inference will be drawn against you in his report. That's why you don't say anything.
Interesting that speaking your mind and signing your name to your opinion made you a suspect. Boy, no chilling effect on political speech there!
Sunil
From: deco at moscow.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:59:10 -0700
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Head's Up: Sheriff's Office
As part of their job investigators need to follow
leads and ask questions within reason.
I long ago learned from a legal counsel (who, during the time
I knew him, never lost a jury trial -- in part because of his detailed, expert
knowledge of law and case law) some simple rules to follow/conditions to be
observed when interdicted by law enforcement. Here are some of
them.
If you receive a visit from a law enforcement officer which
you did not initiate:
Do not let them in your home or any outbuilding unless they
have a search warrant.
Ask the officers for their identification and
ask for a business card. Failure to produce both should lead you to
terminate the interview and to ask them to leave your property/premises
immediately.
Ask if the interview is being recorded. Judge the
truthfulness of the reply. If you suspect untruthfulness or evasion, then
terminate the interview and to ask them to leave your property/premises
immediately. If you have a recorder, excuse yourself, get the recorder,
and record the interview.
Ask them to explain the exact purpose of their visit and why
you are the subject of the interview. If you suspect untruthfulness or a
purposely incomplete explanation, then terminate the interview and to ask them
to leave your property/premises immediately.
Talk to them outside until you are absolutely sure of the
purpose of their visit and that you are sure you are not the subject of an
investigation in any way. Beware of off-subject questions. If
questions occur during the course of the interview which lead you to believe
that their original explanation of their visit was not accurate or complete,
then terminate the interview and to ask them to leave your property/premises
immediately.
Do not lie to law enforcement officers.
That is a crime.
If it appears that you might possibly be being interrogated
because your are a possible suspect or person of interest, then refuse to answer
any questions, and ask the officers to leave your property
immediately. Add also that should you receive a properly executed and
served subpoena, you will appear in court in answer to such and act in
accordance with the law -- that would make arresting you as a material
witness a very risky business.
My property is posted to keep out hunters, crackpots,
etc. Such posting applies also to any police agency unless they have legal
process, have been called by the ourselves, made an appointment, or there is a
genuine emergency which needs access to my property or ourselves in order
to respond quickly and correctly.
Having a lawful society is very important and unless there is
a possibility of harm to oneself, one should generally be glad to assist law
enforcement. Most of the time their actions are legal, and are motivated
by reasonable, objective, professional concerns. But not always, as some of us have found out from our own and other's
experience.
There are some troubling aspects of the visit to Saundra by
the LCSO.
An appointment should have been made. Someone may not be
available (like out of town), they may be sick, engaged in activities which they
do not wish to interrupt, or, like Saundra, asleep. Hence, it is not only
just courtesy at issue, but the possibility of wasting time and taxpayer
money.
It is not professional for an officer not to have a business
card, especially someone who alleges they are a detective. You need to
know and to keep a material record of whom you are dealing
with.
Was Anderson truthful in saying that his call was motivated by
Saundra's postings on V 2020?
If so that would be really scary. Not only would that be
a violation of Saundra civil rights, but would send an intimidating message
that one should not criticize a political figure with views similar to another
religious crackpot to whom Sheriff Rausch in the past has shown great
favoritism -- a religious crackpot who has endorsed Bouma on his
blog. If Saundra was targeted solely because of her public political
views, then the ugly scepter of voter intimidation by law enforcement is alive
in Latah County. Not a pretty sight and one we should all be alarmed
at.
As Saundra points out, the postcard is an invitation to attend
Freeze Church -- it says that it is not enough to vote for Bouma and McGraw;
hence it already assumes the recipient will do so; hence the exhortations are
for additional religious, not political activity -- a point of law that any
defense counsel will probably argue should anyone be charged with a crime
alleging that laws regarding political material have been broken.
I would have no problem sending out a mass mailing showing
Bouma's views. But I would sign my name just as I do with all the public
written criticism I have made of Bouma. But to emphasize Saundra's most
telling point: If I wished to do so, I would send out the postcards so
that they would arrive on the Friday, Saturday, or Monday before the
election.
If, on the other hand I were Bouma and wanted
to make my embarrassing, if not crackpot religious and political views
off-limits for the rest of the campaign, raise money on the "poor, poor,
unjustly attacked me" gambit, and also give an excuse for not
answering any impromptu questions, then I would make the timing of
Postcardgate as it happened -- perfect.
In the case of Postcardgate, the LCSO is in possession of some
of the actual documents. It is amazing what a well-qualified documents
expert can infer from a document and the language on it. It would seem to
me that if it hasn't already happened, one should be called in
ASAP.
Like Saundra, I'd like to see the culprit(s) caught and
exposed before election day.
Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID
83843
waf at moscow.com
208
882-7975
----- Original Message -----
From:
Saundra
Lund
To: 'Vision 2020'
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2010 12:03
PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Head's Up:
Sheriff's Office
I just wanted to give a head's up to those here & elsewhere
who have
publicly questioned Gresham Bouma's -- and presumably Ike Young's
-- fitness
for the offices for which they're running: expect a visit
from Detective
Anderson of the Latah County Sheriff's Office.
I
apparently came to his attention because he's read my V2020 posts,
so
others with the guts to speak unfavorably about Bouma's religious
extremism
shouldn't be surprised if you, too, get a visit.
Apparently, free
expression in Latah County earns the interest of the LCSO
when one's focus
is a religious bigot running for office. Your tax
dollars hard at work!
Be aware that LCSO detectives apparently don't
wear uniforms with badges or
carry business cards, so perhaps ask for
identification to verify that the
person is who he claims to be, which is
something I didn't think to do. My
dh told me afterwards that he
actually saw the patrol car, so I guess I was
really talking to a
detective.
Also be aware that law-abiding tax-paying citizens who have
done nothing
wrong other than publicly present & comment on the
religious extremism of
political candidates can be rousted out of
bed. Yes, that's what happened
to me: I was still in bed deeply
asleep when I got my visit. My dh
informed the detective I was
asleep, but that wasn't good enough, if you can
believe that. I can
understand dragging people out of bed to arrest them,
of course, but to
just ask questions?!?! Tip to the LCSO: getting people
out of
bed because you're curious about what they might know isn't a way to
make
friends and influence people. You obviously know who I am since
you
showed up at my door, so you've got my phone number, too. Not
calling first
is just plain rude and not a particularly effective way to
inspire
cooperation. With a little advance notice, I might have had
some coffee &
cake to offer you :-)
To me, there seems to
be some real desperation associated with the
investigation: the crime
Det. Anderson mentioned to me was that the
postcard is being viewed as
campaign material sent without financial
disclosure. Now, since I was
rousted out of bed without a chance to even
brush my teeth, I didn't laugh
out loud, but please!!! No intelligent
person would view that piece
of work as campaign material; if anything, it
was a church invitation
designed to appeal to haters. Perhaps we should all
be reassured that
there's so little real crime in Latah County law
enforcement is looking for
things to make into crimes to keep them busy.
Unfortunately, I doubt that's
the case, so I suppose the child molesters and
meth makers and other real
criminals are probably glad LCSO is being kept
otherwise
occupied.
Det. Anderson asked where I got the info I've posted, and I
told him: right
from Bouma's church's Web site &
newspapers. Sheesh -- it's right there for
God & everyone to see
for themselves! It's quite disturbing to me that my
attempts to be an
educated voter & share what I've learned & what I think
has
apparently made me a suspect or a person of interest or whatever.
I
also pointed out that had the postcard been a genuine attempt to
torpedo
Bouma's campaign, it would have been sent much closer to the
election rather
than weeks in advance giving Bouma plenty of time for spin
-- there's no
such thing as bad publicity. The timing of PostcardGate
is extremely
curious & suspicious to me.
I said I found it very
interesting that even with a substantial reward
offered, no one has come
forward with information. I'm of the belief that
*if* the postcard
was a genuine despicable hoax unknown to Bouma's campaign,
someone would
have come forward because most people have big mouths,
especially when
money is involved.
I also find in interesting that both Bouma &
Young are now using the mailers
as excuses to hide from
we-the-people. Which, needless to say, is yet more
black marks
against their fitness to hold elected offices, IMHO.
I told Det.
Anderson I hope they aren't neglecting to investigate
***all***
sides.
I wished Det. Anderson good luck :-)
Other than his rudeness dragging me
out of bed, he seems a pleasant enough
fellow, and I hope he cracks The of
Crime of the Decade -- shoot, maybe
even of the century -- right here in
Latah County, and I hope he's
successful quickly! Along with everyone else,
I'm extremely curious
about who is behind PostcardGate, and I hope the
culprit/culprits are
identified ***before*** the election.
FYI,
Saundra
Lund
Moscow, ID
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is
for good people to do
nothing.
~ Edmund Burke
***** Original
material contained herein is Copyright 2010 through life plus
70 years,
Saundra Lund. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside
the
Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of
the
author.*****
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