The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: sledgemeister on August 23, 2012, 03:38:33 AM
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http://www.abajournal.com/mobile/article/states_attorney_in_illinois_wont_prosecute_people_who_carry_weapons_with_no/
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
State’s Attorney in Illinois Won’t Prosecute People Who Carry Weapons with ‘No Evil Intent’
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Aug 22, 2012, 07:20 am CDT
Corrected: A state’s attorney in central Illinois has issued a press release criticizing the state’s gun laws and declaring he won’t prosecute people for some violations when they have “no evil intent.”
The decision by McLean County State’s Attorney Ronald Dozier appears to mean he won’t prosecute people for carrying a firearm, despite an Illinois law banning concealed weapons, the Bloomington Pantagraph reports. Dozier also said he won’t enforce unconstitutional parts of the state’s Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, which requires a background check before residents can obtain a card permitting gun ownership.
“The result of most gun control laws is that law-abiding citizens go defenseless while criminal thugs are armed,” Dozier said in the press release. “Our message is this: we will no longer use the power and authority of our office to criminalize and punish decent, otherwise law-abiding citizens who choose to exercise the rights granted to them by the Second Amendment of the United States’ Constitution to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and their families.”
Dozier disagrees with state court decisions holding that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions protect only the right to own guns at home. “As the State’s Attorney, I have to make a choice. Do I continue to enforce laws that I believe to be unconstitutional, a belief that is supported by decisions of the highest court in the land, or do I continue to prosecute citizens who run afoul of state gun laws but have no evil intent or purpose in mind? Certainly the more cautious approach to such controversial issues is to keep enforcing the law, whenever possible in the least harmful way, until enough higher court cases are resolved against them that the anti-Second Amendment folks are forced to change. I’m not willing to do that anymore—too many good people will be harmed.”
McLean County Sheriff Mike Emery told the Pantagraph he agrees with Dozier's views but "we shall continue to enforce the laws of the state of Illinois as they currently exist." Dozier was appointed as interim state's attorney in December. The man who is running unopposed for the position this November, Jason Chambers, criticized Dozier's decision as "reckless," the Bloomington Pantagraph reports in a separate story.
Updated at 4:07 p.m. to correct a reference to McLean County
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Jeez, I hate to say it, but he can't do that.
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Jeez, I hate to say it, but he can't do that.
Jay, yer forgetting this is where Odamna comes from. Politicians there can do anything they want as long as money changes hands.
(I just haven't figured whose palm is being greased here.)
Sheesh....
Crusade
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If the DOJ doesn't have to prosecute NBPP for voter intimidation, if the Feds don't have to enforce immigration law, then the precedent is set for this guy to refuse to enforce unconstitutional gun laws.
Good for him !
I wonder if he's been comparing notes with that Judge in Texas ? ;D
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Dozier was appointed as interim state's attorney in December. The man who is running unopposed for the position this November, Jason Chambers, criticized Dozier's decision as "reckless," the Bloomington Pantagraph reports in a separate story.
Any bets on this guy Dozier being a write-in canidate?...and winning
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Any bets on this guy Dozier being a write-in canidate?...and winning
If we had an honest unbiased media I wouldn't touch that bet.
With the communist propagandists we do have though...
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What he has stated is, plain and simple, the spirit of 2nd Amendment.
The Right of any Honest Citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
A citizen with "No Evil Intent" is the definition of Honest.
Now the job is to come up with a sustainable and universal definition of "No Evil Intent" and holding politicians and law makers of all levels to it.
As we have seen, many would classify self defense as an "Evil Intent"
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This is interesting!
If he just ignores it is wrong. However, if he continues to voice his opinion on a case by case basis as to the Constitutional infringements it is the different branches of government working the way the Founding Fathers intended.
We need elected and appointed officials that are willing to act in the way they are charged to. As long as he bases his actions on the Constitution and expresses it in that way the system is working.
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Every law should face "Constitutional Muster" before it is made into Law and, for sure, before it is enforced.
Too bad the "system" is set up so that the Constitutional challenge most often comes AFTER someone is being prosecuted under that law.