Thoughts Aloud

Archive for May 6th, 2009

There is little doubt that at least one domestic terrorist has been active in Oxford, NC this year:

Sixteen-year-old Ashton Lundeby’s bedroom in his mother’s Granville County home is nothing, if not patriotic. Images of American flags are everywhere – on the bed, on the floor, on the wall.

But according to the United States government, the tenth-grade home-schooler is being held on a criminal complaint that he made a bomb threat from his home on the night of Feb. 15.The family was at a church function that night, his mother, Annette Lundeby, said.

“Undoubtedly, they were given false information, or they would not have had 12 agents in my house with a widow and two children and three cats,” Lundeby said.

Around 10 p.m. on March 5, Lundeby said, armed FBI agents along with three local law enforcement officers stormed her home looking for her son. They handcuffed him and presented her with a search warrant.

“I was terrified,” Lundeby’s mother said. “There were guns, and I don’t allow guns around my children. I don’t believe in guns.”

…

Ashton now sits in a juvenile facility in South Bend, Ind. His mother has had little access to him since his arrest. She has gone to her state representatives as well as attorneys, seeking assistance, but, she said, there is nothing she can do.

Lundeby said the USA Patriot Act stripped her son of his due process rights.

“We have no rights under the Patriot Act to even defend them, because the Patriot Act basically supersedes the Constitution,” she said. “It wasn’t intended to drag your barely 16-year-old, 120-pound son out in the middle of the night on a charge that we can’t even defend.”

…

Critics of the statute say it threatens the most basic of liberties.

“There’s nothing a matter of public record,” Boyce said “All those normal rights are just suspended in the air.”

…

Because a federal judge issued a gag order in the case, the U.S. attorney in Indiana cannot comment on the case, nor can the FBI. The North Carolina Highway Patrol did confirm that officers assisted with the FBI operation at the Lundeby home on March 5.

“Never in my worst nightmare did I ever think that it would be my own government that I would have to protect my children from,” Lundeby said. “This is the United States, and I feel like I live in a third world country now.”

It is getting that way mam. The question is, was there a single domestic terrorist on Feb. 15th, who is now confined as an enemy combatant; or were there a dozen of them on Mar. 5th in jackboots? Since the kid has been locked up for two months reportedly without access to legal council, I’d like to believe that he is guilty of something – even if just a foolish prank – for my own sanity. Yet, I just cannot comprehend how they can get away without explaining themselves to her elected Representatives, at the very least.

In any case, what has happened to our criminal justice system? I would bet good money that a single detective could have just knocked on this mom’s door in broad daylight, and explained the complaint. Undoubtedly, she would have called her son out to explain himself and made him tell the officer the truth. Failing that, they could have served the search warrant; but if it had already been three weeks since the alleged offense, there was absolutely no excuse for the late night raid, no matter what.

Conservatives who tended to defend the Patriot Act, because they defended Bush, need to rethink their knee-jerk position. Perhaps the line about it only giving law enforcement tools they already had for drug cases, wasn’t so persuasive after all, folks. Think! ◄Dave►

Edit: John below provides the link pointing out:

Turns out this kid is most likely just a snot nosed punk.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519570,00.html

Oh well, when the facts change, I change my opinion. He’s not being held under the Patriot Act. His mom lied to the news who ran with the story.