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Freedom Action of the Week
Email List Archive
Free-Market.Net's F r e e d o m A c t i o n o f t h e W e e k
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Edited by Thomas L. Knapp. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this and
other lists, click to: http://www.free-market.net/features/lists/
----- Featured Action of the Week -----
Fourth Week of June, 2001:
Stop Lon Horiuchi -- before he kills again
In any sane society, Lon Horiuchi's wardrobe would consist of orange
coveralls and his days would be spent behind bars awaiting trial for
murder. Yet, nearly a decade after he put his eye to the scope of his
sniper rifle and shot an unarmed woman to death, he walks free.
This week's action may seem a bit strange. Usually, I ask you to help me
pressure government to turn someone loose, or to cease and desist from some
awful activity that violates the Constitution, common sense, and the rights
of the innocent. It's a little different this time. Today, let's try to get
government to do its job -- the only legitimate job any government can
claim, the defense of the innocent from criminal aggression.
You probably remember Horiuchi from the Ruby Ridge incident. In 1992, as a
member of the FBI's "Hostage Rescue Team," he participated in the siege of
the Weaver family's rural Idaho cabin (where it was never alleged that any
"hostages" were being held). The siege became "necessary" after U.S.
Marshals trespassed on the property and shot a teenager in the back, losing
one of their own in the process.
It's a pretty tawdry tale of government thuggery, and one with which you
are probably familiar. Even more familiar is the next part.
At some point, Horiuchi, scanning the cabin area for threats to his armed
terrorist contingent's safety, spied Vicki Weaver through one of the cabin
windows, holding her infant child in her arms. And then he blew her head off.
During the time since, the battle has raged in various courts over whether
Horiuchi can be charged with involuntary manslaughter. Last week, the case
was finally resolved -- and then quickly thrown back into doubt. A federal
court ruled that Horiuchi's badge did not exempt him from the laws of the
United States or the state of Idaho and that the Boundary County prosecutor
was free to proceed with the case. This announcement was quickly followed
by a statement from the prosecutor in question, Brett Benson: Horiuchi will
not be prosecuted, because the case would be "difficult to prove."
It's difficult to convey the magnitude of this statement. A person whose
job revolves around jailing criminals has at his disposal the statements of
the alleged perpetrator himself, not to mention those of eyewitnesses. He
has a corpse. There is no question whatsoever that Horiuchi shot Weaver. He
admits it. The only question is whether that shooting constituted a crime
... and if our laws are so uninterpretable as to call into question whether
pre-meditatedly shooting an unarmed woman is a crime, then we've got a
problem.
We have other problems, too. The function of the criminal justice system is
to protect us from people like Horiuchi. Yet, more than a year after the
Weaver killings, he was at large, participating in the massacre of more
than 80 men, women and children several states away in Waco, Texas.
Horiuchi is an admitted killer who glories in his deeds. The evidence that
he has killed is indisputable, and his only defense against the charges is
the one that caused a lot of Nazis to end up with stretched necks half a
century ago: "I was only following orders."
Given Horiuchi's known predilection for killing the innocent, and his known
tendency to wander the country doing so, Benson's statement is not only
reprehensible, but incomprehensible. Horiuchi should be behind bars,
without bond, as a potential flight risk and probable repeat offender,
until he can be tried, convicted and isolated from the public he threatens
for a long, long time.
What's at work here, of course, is the "old boy" network: the subtle and
not-so-subtle jostling, posturing, mutual backscratching and threatening of
government agencies and the people who run them. Evil, you see, takes care
of its own.
Which leaves us the job of bringing pressure on Benson and his office to do
the right thing and prosecute Horiuchi to the hilt. Today or Monday, get on
the horn and make some noise.
The phone numbers for the Boundary County District Attorney's office,
County Commission and Chamber of Commerce, as well as for Benson himself,
are available in the text of an alert from Free-Market.Net's newest partner
organization, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
We won't be the only ones calling, but let's be the most rational and
persuasive. Let's let Benson know that his county is ground zero -- that if
the killing of Vicki Weaver had taken place in the places where _we_ live,
we'd want to protect the residents of _his_ county by prosecuting Horiuchi
and getting him out of circulation, and that we expect him to do the same
for our homes and families.
Help stop Horiuchi before he kills again.
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership:
http://www.jpfo.org/
JPFO's Alert on Horiuchi:
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20010615.htm
Previous Action of the Week columns:
http://www.free-market.net/features/list-archives/activism/maillist.html
----- Alternate Actions -----
The Freedom Action of the Week Club: Commit yourself to doing one
action per week. If the action above doesn't appeal to you, consider
one of the alternate actions at:
http://www.free-market.net/features/action/
If you know about another action or organize one of your own, e-mail
Tom at tlknapp@free-market.net so we can tell the rest of the group
next week.
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