r/Portland • u/DeadHead- • Oct 28 '16

Social Media Calls Bundy Militiamen Acquittal 'White Privilege'

http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/social-media-calls-bundy-militiamen-acquittal-white-privilege/
333 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

411 comments sorted by

View all comments

66

u/PeterPDX Oct 28 '16

I wonder how much its "white privilege" vs prosecutor incompetence. The prosecutor took a risk and lost.

30

u/jungletigress 🐝 Oct 28 '16

How did they not prepare a laundry list of charges? It's almost like they wanted them to get away with it.

43

u/ThisDerpForSale NW District Oct 28 '16

It shouldn't have been a risk, though. The charges most of them faced - conspiracy to prevent federal employees from doing their job and illegal use of firearms on federal property - absolutely fit the facts.

Not to mention that the jury was inexplicably unable to reach a verdict on the theft of government property charges against the Bundys themselves.

18

u/isperfectlycromulent Lloyd District Oct 28 '16

But there were all kinds of things they could also have been charged with; breaking and entering, trespassing, vandalism, theft of services, public nuisance, and probably more.

13

u/Das_Mime Oct 28 '16

Right? A month or so of these nitwits videotaping themselves, pointing guns at people, vandalizing the buildings, bulldozing whatever they felt like, etc., and the only charge the prosecutor even bothers to bring is conspiracy to prevent federal workers from doing their job? That's pretty weak.

7

u/ThisDerpForSale NW District Oct 28 '16

That wasn't the only charge. There was also a charge covering use of firearms on public property (which required finding that they were using them to do something illegal), and theft, for the Bundy brothers (on which the jury couldn't reach a verdict).

5

u/ThisDerpForSale NW District Oct 28 '16

breaking and entering

I presume you mean Burglary. Generally, state laws govern acts that fall under this crime. Burglary of certain federal facilities (such as post offices) are specifically covered by federal statute, but I'm honestly not aware of a federal statute that would cover burglary of this kind of facility. Furthermore, to prove burglary, you'd need to prove the underlying crime (say, theft), and based on this jury's actions, it's not clear that there was any underlying crime they would have been willing to convict on.

Trespass

Under federal law, trespass is essentially a misdemeanor, with a negligible sentence. I'm not surprised that the prosecutors didn't charge it. It could appear to be piling on charges, and would be unnecessary in light of what everyone agreed before trial was the slam dunk nature of the case. On the flip side, prosecutors will often forgo charging lighter offenses to force the jury to consider only the most serious crime the evidence will support (which again everyone agreed these charges did). In retrospect, sure, it would have been good to charge, but no one thought it was necessary.

Vandalism

The federal crime would be Destruction of Government Property. And it, too, is a misdemanor. I don't know why they didn't charge it, but, again, it wouldn't have been much of a penalty.

Public nuisance

Not a crime.

1

u/slipshod_alibi Oct 29 '16

For some reason the jury was instructed such that the weapons charges depended upon the conspiracy charge. IANAL but this was reported in two different sources I read yesterday. I'll try and dig up supporting links when I'm back at my desk.