{"id":165783,"date":"2016-07-05T19:46:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T01:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=165783"},"modified":"2016-07-05T19:46:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T01:46:31","slug":"that-time-your-neighbors-hoax-put-you-on-a-watch-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/07\/that-time-your-neighbors-hoax-put-you-on-a-watch-list\/","title":{"rendered":"That time your neighbor’s hoax put you on a watch list"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>So, you’re in a nasty little dispute with your neighbor about a wall. He wants to raise it; you prefer unobstructed views of the mountains. Years in court, he keeps losing.<\/p>\n

One night, drunk and frustrated, he calls 911 and says that you want to assassinate Ronald Crump, a dude running for president.<\/p>\n

\"Jeff

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Jeff Lahann<\/p><\/div>\n

Next day, FBI arrives at your door and questions you.<\/p>\n

You pull out all the court documents about your crazy neighbor, you show them your “Make America Grapes” hat; they smile and nod, and you are all glad about clearing up this “misunderstanding.”<\/p>\n

A few years later, you save up enough to buy that mountain cabin just a couple of hours up the road.<\/p>\n

You decide you want to buy the wife a little pistol because she’s going to be up there alone on occasions while you wind down your practice and continue working. You know, varmints and vagabonds, and all.<\/p>\n

Dude at the shop runs you, frowns, then tells you he can’t sell you that little .357.<\/p>\n

Why not?<\/p>\n

It says here you are on watch list.<\/p>\n

WTF?<\/p>\n

Calls, emails, and bureaucracy blah, blah, blah, you find out the FBI put you on a watch list because of your crazy neighbor and his Ronald Crump hoax.<\/p>\n

One of your Constitutional rights has forever been wiped away. You can’t appeal, you can’t sue, you can’t fight. It’s just gone, in the vapor.<\/p>\n

Due Process! you cry out.<\/p>\n

The Government snickers and laughs.<\/p>\n

No judge, no jury has found you guilty of a crime.<\/p>\n

Yet, you lost a right, just like that.<\/p>\n

Is this a fable? Ask any criminal defense attorney whether the government has gone that far, ever. Their accounts will be even more shocking than this simple little hypothetical.<\/p>\n

Jeff Lahann is a criminal defense and civil rights attorney in Las Cruces. He once won an LP record in a radio contest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One night, drunk and frustrated, he calls 911 and says that you want to assassinate Ronald Crump, a dude running for president. Click on the headline to follow this hypothetical to its conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[289,142,2109,2261,116],"class_list":["post-165783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2nd-amendment","tag-crime","tag-guns","tag-u-s-constitution","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}