Unfortunatly, I grew up in the Peoples Republic of Illinois. After serving in
the Military, I didn't return there for just this reason!!!!!!!!!
> 'Let us speak courteously, deal fairly, and keep ourselves armed and ready.'
> - Teddy Roosevelt, 1903
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> There is 1 message in this issue.
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> Topics in this digest:
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> 1. Chicago police and the city's anti-gun agenda...
> From: "Rick A. Shay" <rick.a.shay@...>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 22:48:12 -0700
> From: "Rick A. Shay" <rick.a.shay@...>
> Subject: Chicago police and the city's anti-gun agenda...
>
> Here's a story, disgusting if true, about the Chicago police, a legal gun
> owner, and the city's anti-gun agenda.
>
> Rick
> Colorado
> =========
>

> =============================================================
> http://www.illinoisleader.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=4541
>
> GUEST OPINION: Legal Shootout Brewing in Chicago's 'Gun Free' Zone
>
> Tuesday, March 04, 2003 by Joseph Pickett
>
> OPINION -- The evening of Roderick Pritchett's descent into hell in Cook
> County, Illinois started with an ordinary shopping trip to Safeway for his
> mom last November 21st. The 25 year-old African/Jamaican-American frequently
> ran errands for her; he was the sole car owner in his family.
>
> On the way out of his south side Chicago apartment, he went back inside and
> grabbed his Taurus 9 mm pistol, unloaded and in its case as Chicago law
> requires, and tossed it in the passenger seat. Roderick liked to stop by the
> shooting range to practice his marksmanship once a week to stay sharp and
> keep his groupings tight.
>
> In his wallet behind his driver's license was his FOID (Firearms Owner
> Identification Card) which he obtained before purchasing the gun in 2000. In

> accordance with the strict gun control laws enacted by Mayor Daley and the
> city legislature, Roderick kept the gun in his apartment and never carried
> it on his person. This seemed strange to him; the law essentially said that
> defending his property was more important than defending his life from the
> numerous predatory south side hoods. Pritchett however always followed the
> law, even the ones that defy common sense.
>
> As he drove down South Ada St. toward the range, he noticed a police car
> tailing him. It was early evening and Roderick was a young black man with
> dreadlocks driving alone. In Chicago, that's lights-and-siren time. Sure
> enough, Police Officer Edward Kos and Officer Rodolfo Camarillo pulled him
> over at 87th and Ada for a burned out taillight.
>
> The officers approached and asked if he would mind if they searched his car.
> Pritchett didn't object. He knew beyond a doubt that his 9 mm was 100
> percent legal. He even had a copy of the Illinois gun laws in his case. When

> he handed over his driver's license, he also gave them his FOID and
> volunteered that he had a legal firearm in the vehicle. He knew he had
> nothing to fear.
>
> Unfortunately, his confidence was short-lived. The police ordered him to
> take a seat in the back of their black-and-white. "The officers began
> questioning me from the front seat of their squad car before they even let
> me know I was under arrest," says Pritchett. "They giggled a couple of times
> before sarcastically asking me why I didn't run. I was shocked speechless at
> their rude treatment of me."
>
> Pritchett couldn't understand why they were holding him. With all the crime
> in the city, why should they bother someone with a legal gun? He pleaded
> that he was only going to the range and that his gun was legal, but to no
> avail. Pritchett was arrested for violating 720 ILCS 5/24-1.6 Aggravated
> Unlawful Use of Weapons.
>
> One of the officers left the squad car and got behind the wheel of

> Pritchett's station wagon to drive it to the station. Apparently, Officers
> Kos and Camarillo were either ignorant of the laws regarding the legal
> transportation of firearms, or chose to ignore them. In any case, Roderick
> Pritchett was on his way to 72 hours of misery that he would never forget.
>
> Pritchett had his legal gun confiscated and was transported to the Cook
> County lockup and charged with a Class 4 Felony. Next, he endured the
> standard treatment of any run-of-the-mill accused felon within Chicago city
> limits - a quite thorough strip search that left no body orifice sacred,
> incarceration, long days and sleepless nights in a cramped, urine-stinking
> cell chockablock with accused rapists and thieves, and meals of stale bread
> and cold soup in the company of accused child molesters and slightly more
> palatable muggers.
>
> When his mother finally scraped together the $500 bond to secure his release
> three days later, Pritchett had one more treat awaiting him, courtesy of the

> Chicago PD - a $700 fee to spring his station wagon from the impound lot. He
> begged the police before they impounded his car to let his girlfriend pick
> it up. The cops refused.
>
> In the eyes of the police and those who make our laws, Pritchett deserved
> every minute of the humiliating ordeal he endured over the three miserable
> days of his imprisonment. He was a most grievous sinner and lawbreaker in
> their minds. He was a gun owner.
>
> Mayor Daley, Cook County State Attorney Dick Devine, and other prominent
> city politicians have had it in for legal gun owners for years. Daley has
> stated on the record that if it were up to him, no one would have a gun.
> Both have been ardent backers of limiting gun purchases to one per month and
> closing the non-existent 'gun show loophole.'
>
> In a 1997 news conference at Chicago Police Headquarters, Daley, Devine and
> other gun control bureaucrats bragged of defeating proposed legislation that
> would have allowed the law-abiding to carry concealed firearms to protect

> themselves from criminals.
>
> The police department follows their lead and makes the hassling of good sons
> like Pritchett a priority. Meanwhile, for all the beauty of our downtown's
> incredible architecture, the breathtaking museums, the thriving nightlife,
> and the rich history of our city, Chicago continues to be overrun by violent
> crime and guns. Despite some of the tightest gun control laws in the
> country, murders are a twice-daily occurrence in Chicago, on average.
>
> Other jurisdictions around the nation in the last decade have come to
> realize the fallacy of gun control. Thirty-two states now issue
> concealed-carry gun permits and on average violent crime has dropped 24
> percent in those states, but Chicago, following the dubious example of
> Washington, D.C., continues with the old tried-and-failed method of
> legislating criminal behavior out of existence by restricting access to
> firearms. Even open-carry of a gun is banned here.
>

> Our booming population of murderous thugs love the 'gun-free' atmosphere
> that such policies create. It leaves them with all the guns, and they use
> them. In 2001, their exhaustive, murderous efforts put 665 bodies on slabs
> in the morgue, which made Chicago the murder capital of the nation yet
> again. Moral cretins like these pay scant attention to the laws that
> prohibit blowing holes in other people, so naturally gun control laws are of
> no consequence to them whatsoever.
>
> To the thugs, Chicago is a new Wild West, where bullets can and do fly
> anyplace, anytime. Even better for the hoods, the law-abiding guy on the
> other side of the corral has no way to defend himself from hails of illicit
> gunfire. With only the lawbreakers armed and the law-abiding obeying gun
> laws, the piles of cold bodies stack up like bloody cordwood year after grim
> year. The more 'sensible gun laws' Mayor Daley and company pass, the larger
> the body counts.
>

> Pritchett's case, however, was not the typical, daily west side murder our
> good mayor is trying to prevent, and Pritchett was not the everyday violent
> thug. This was a straight arrow with a 100 percent legal gun obeying the
> law. Nonetheless, after having his rights violated, losing three days of
> work, and going $1,200 in the hole, his nightmare still wasn't over.
>
> Soon after posting bond, Pritchett was arraigned on Nov. 27 at the Cook
> County Criminal Court. Cook County State Attorney Devine offered him a
> conditional discharge, if he would plead no contest and surrender his gun.
> Pritchett refused and pled not guilty. He wants his gun back and he wants
> justice. Now with a lawyer to represent him, Pritchett is ready to go the
> distance for what is right.
>
> Says Pritchett, "I take this matter very personally and will not rest until
> this case is concluded in my favor. No matter how much I tried to kill the
> police with kindness and with the respect my mother instilled in me, they

> still managed to show no compassion at all for a law-abiding American. Now
> they have teed me off and I'm ready to fight this to the end."
>
> The fight is approaching its climax. Interestingly, the city has not charged
> Roderick with violating Chicago's hand gun registration ordinance. They are
> going for the felony conviction in a trial set for March 20. Chicago is well
> on its way to topping the 600+ murder mark for the 36th consecutive year in
> 2003 *2, but Devine believes that spending the city's time and taxpayer
> dollars proving that a law-abiding citizen does not have the right to own a
> gun is worth the fight.
>
> For gun-grabbing pols, the Pritchett case presents a prime opportunity. If
> Devine can convict Roderick Pritchett for legally transporting a cased and
> unloaded firearm, that renders the laws to purchase and own firearms in
> Chicago essentially meaningless. If they can do that, Mayor Daley and State
> Attorney Devine can demonstrate once and for all that The Bill of Rights

> does not apply to the good law-abiding citizens of Chicago.
>
> To some that may seem an outrageous violation of Chicagoans' God-given
> rights, but to others, making an example of Roderick Pritchett would be a
> fine way to top off their long, distinguished, and lucrative
> anti-gun/pro-criminal careers in city governance.
>
>
>
>
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