To recap: Part 1 pointed to the two constitutional ways for Congress — but never the president — to call up the militia. Part 2, on Instincts, showed that it’s easy, like Aleister Crowley said, to “go evil.” (You just imbue your dastardly deeds with moral justification!).
Part 3 quoted Edwin Vieira, who argues tightly that when the parchment says “militia,” it means state militias composed of all able-bodied adults — à la Lexington Minutemen. Thus, when we sense that a “king” is wrecking society, the militia guys and gals should polish up their muskets and defend society. (Shades of NH state constitution Article 10: “Nonresistance to oppression is absurd” type thing.)
We want to thank Mary Maxwell for this Op-Ed. Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Granted, it’s hard to fight authority. When an enemy comes at you with bayonets, you can respond without hesitation, as morality is completely on your side. But if the king is coming at you with bayonets, perfectly illegally, it’s hard to separate his two roles — the properly authoritative one and the … um… criminal one.
So the task here for Part 4 of Mary’s Moral Militia is to come up with some Workarounds. I will list mechanisms that have been placed into black-letter law by our forebears. These give us ways to turn the tables and become the authorities ourselves (as we ultimately are) to punish lawbreakers who are very powerful. Think of Martin Luther in 1517 posting his 95 theses about the wrongness of papal corruption — on the front door of the cathedral, mind you.
Seven Fun Workarounds
I discuss ten workarounds in my 2022 book Keep the Republic. By “workaround,” I mean a way to avoid out-and-out violent clash or revolution. Just use existing law, but apply it as though oblivious to the intimidating fact that your quarry has tons more weapons than you do. Yeah, I know, it’s a bad match — “they” control the flow of information, too. But we’ve got the law.
*1. Use citizens’ arrest. It is legal in every state. How do I know? because the FBI has to use it. They do not have any legal authority to make arrests, but they are citizens and can make citizens’ arrests, and they do! (Or, they ask local police to deputize them. Come to think of it, you, too, can ask local police to deputize you, and you can ask a sheriff to posse-ize you.)
The rules for making a citizen’s arrest are: A. that you know that the person has just committed a felony or is about to commit one, and the police won’t help — for example, they are miles away.
B. You must tell the person that you are a citizen-arresting him and why. [Example: “Merrick Garland, I am citizens’-arresting you for obstruction of justice. You do not have to say anything but whatever you say may be used in court against you.”]
C. Once you have the person under control, you must phone the police and offer to hand the prisoner over to their custody.
D. If that is not possible, you should keep the prisoner under good conditions.
E. If the prisoner harms you bodily, you have a case against him. If you harm him bodily, he’ll only have a case against you if you’ve neglected the aforementioned procedures. I suggest you rehearse citizens’ arrest on your Mom, having first given her the full lowdown.
*2. Under the Material Witness Act, it is possible to arrest someone (I’m not talking about citizens’ arrest here) who is holding the information that we need and won’t release it. There not be any criminal charge against that person. [Example: “Anthony Fauci, you must report to your local police station immediately, where you will be asked to hand over the information we need about gain-of-function. If you fail to comply, you will be taken into custody so that the information will be guarded.”] After 9-11, Muslims were imprisoned left and right, just by the Material Witness Act. Quel disgrace.
*3. Disobey illegal orders. As I said above, you will be in a dilemma if the proper authority is acting unlawfully. It seems to me that every president who went to war without Congressional say-so since 1952 acted illegally. By the way, so did the 535 congresspersons who let it happen. Oh, by the way, of course, I blame SCOTUS for letting Capt Nathan Smith’s plea fade into mootness.
Fact is: the duty of a soldier to disobey illegal orders is well established, but once he is in “the theatre of war,” he will be court-martialed for insubordination. Or will just be ignored. Or will be sent on a hazardous mission, if you know what I mean. If he asks the chaplain for guidance, he will be told to say his prayers.
That said, the reality of bad war-making by bad authorities requires acts of conscience. It’s a workaround. Hey, you could citizens’-arrest a soldier who did the wrong thing. What do you bet he/she would be grateful in order to make a point?
*4. Nullification. Ever read the VA and KY resolutions telling the US where to stick the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts? Would that some states did that in 2002 re; the Homeland Security Act. I say any Act passed by Congress that is not in line with the parchment needs to be repealed, even at this late date. A related matter is jury nullification. NH is ahead of other states on this.
*5. The ordinary law of self-defense. If someone is about to kill you or seriously injure you or a person close to you may use force, including lethal force, against them. Granted, you will be arrested, but you will have the proper comeback as a defense. If you hear teeth chattering in upper circles about this well-established law, you’ll know I’m right.
*6. The law of outlawry. This be outstanding teeth-chatter material. The law of outlawry came to us on the Mayflower with the rest of common law. Goes like this: some people break the law, but for one reason or another, it’s impossible to get ahold of them. Could be that they are masters of disguise. Could be simply that it’s the Wild West, and there are no police. Or it could be, and often is, a matter of the DoJ forgiving or hushing up the sins of the Biggies.
They are thus outlaws. They are beyond the reach of the law, see? It is legal (until the law of outlawry gets repealed) to deal with these bastards as though they are no longer protected by due process. You can kill them. (I’d first give them a chance to repent.) If, instead, you bring them food parcels or hide them in your attic, you have thereby committed a crime. I did not make this up.
*7. A citizen-led grand jury. Nowadays, district attorneys or attorneys-general usurp the role of citizens. It is a proper job for society to bring a person to the notice of the foreman of the already-empaneled grand jury. After all, does not Amendment 5 say, “No person shall be held to answer for …blah blah blah … unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury”? Bill Windsor did a wonderful series of videos called Lawless America, where he showed cases that you could deal with in your citizen-led grand jury. (Windsor has been MIA for a long time.)
The job for you, when called up for grand-juror duty, is not to let the government person run the show. Intervene. Say “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost…” For want of each grand juror doing her job, the nation will be lost.
By the way, and for the record, I sent an informative statement to the Foreman of the Grand Jury of Fulton County, Georgia, to counteract one of the accusations against Trump (re the 2020 election). I sent it Return-receipt-requested. Do you think I got the little green card back? Do you think the AG shared it with the foreman?
There are more workarounds. I’ll quit for now, as I am on the hustings. These last 48 hours before voting day are a killer. If you are on the seacoast, please visit me on Sunday evening “9-11” at Motel 6 Portsmouth (it’s at 3 Gosling Rd.). We can write up Part 5 by committee! If you are inland, please tick the Maxwell box on your ballot. It’s a matter of Do we hang separately, or together?
I am grateful to Granite Grok for giving me a forum.