Re: Meanwhile Rome burns...

So the illegal search and seizure concept never came up?  

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Mike Findlay
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 8:10 AM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: [DADL-OT] Meanwhile Rome burns...

 

Thankfully, Christie commuted his sentence but he should have been pardoned,
never mind never arrested/convicted.  The fact that this guy spent as much
time in custody as he did is disgusting and scary.  

 

http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/23/man-freed-by-gov-chris-christie-speaks-out
-about-prison-life-becoming-a-libertarian-activist/

 

 <http://dailycaller.com/> The Daily Caller

 


Man freed by Gov. Chris Christie speaks out about prison life, becoming a
libertarian activist


By  <http://dailycaller.com/author/cmoody/> Chris Moody - The Daily Caller
3:21 AM 02/23/2011 

 

Some men find religion in prison. Brian Aitken found liberty.

Convicted last year in New Jersey of illegally transporting firearms, Aitken
spent four months in state prisons before Republican Gov. Chris Christie
commuted his seven-year sentence to "time served" and let him go free. Now
that he's out, Aitken, once an aspiring entrepreneur, is a professional
libertarian activist.

In January 2009, the 25-year-old found himself in handcuffs when Burlington
County police discovered three unloaded handguns safely locked in a secure
case in the trunk of his Honda Civic while he was moving his belongings to a
new apartment in Hoboken. Aitken, who had no criminal background, purchased
the guns from a licensed dealer in Colorado where he had lived for the past
few years. Aitken was moving back to New Jersey to be closer to his parents
and his son, who lived with his ex-wife. He spent months in 2008
transporting his belongings from Colorado to his parents' house in
Burlington County while he looked for a new job and a place to live.

During the moving process, the pressure got the best of him after months of
arguing with his ex-wife over their child. His mother, a social worker named
Sue Aitken, found him so upset one day that she phoned the police to protect
him from himself. Before the dispatcher answered the line, however, she
changed her mind and hung up. The local police traced the call and drove to
the Aitkens' home to check up. Brian had already left to drop off his things
(which included the three guns), but they called him and told him to come
back home to talk.

He turned his car around and pulled up to his parents' house. The police
questioned him and without receiving consent, searched his car, where they
found the guns. Police arrested Aitken for illegal possession because he did
not yet have a permit in New Jersey, a state with some of the strictest gun
laws in the country.

James Morley, the county judge who heard the case, refused to consider
Aitken's argument that he was transporting the guns to his new residence,
which would have been enough to find him innocent. After a jury convicted
him, Judge Morely sentenced him to seven years on August 27, 2010.

A convicted felon, he spent two weeks in the county jail, another week in
the state's Central Reception and Assignment Facility (CRAF), and then was
finally transferred to a prison built especially for sex offenders where he
spent another three months.

It was CRAF though, that Aitken says was the worst. The place is more than
one hundred years old, smells horrible, and is home to some of the toughest
criminals in the state.

"When you think Shawshank, you think this place," Aitken recalls. "I was
threatened and pushed around and people would steal the very little amount
of belongings that I had. Gangs want to make it known who's in charge and
who the bosses are, and when you get something that means they get something
too."

The jail is notoriously full of gangs, mostly "Bloods and some Crips,"
Aitken says. Anyone who wants into the gang had to prove himself. It was
there that the young, aspiring businessman underwent a slew of constant
threats from inmates and had to fight to keep his belongings.

Aitken remained a solitary figure in jail, and was warned to remain quiet
about his background and family. He heard stories of inmates who talk about
their well-to-do families and before long a gang boss extorts them for money
or threatens to have someone on the outside go after their family.

"I just stayed to myself for the most part. Any altercation that would have
happened, I just tried to diffuse by just playing it off, but sometimes it
just upset people even more," he says. "A lot of these guys don't have a
sense of humor, especially ones who were being initiated into gangs while
they were incarcerated so they would have to do something."

Aitken wised up quick, and the daily fights around him became just another
regular thing - a part of daily life.

"You develop a new normal," he says. "Things that typically would freak me
out didn't because that was just part of everyday life all of the sudden.
People getting jumped, people trying to extort things from you, whether it's
food or books or whatever it is you might have."

Aitken didn't sleep much, either. Lights were constantly on, day and night.

"There's never complete darkness," he says. The sounds of men screaming kept
him awake most nights.

While in prison, Aitken's story of injustice spread across the Internet,
aided by friends, social media sites, and reports from New Jersey newspapers
and blogs. His girlfriend launched a "
<http://www.facebook.com/FreeBrianAitken> Free Brian Aitken" Facebook page
that reached more than 15,000 supporters and received millions of hits. A
link on the page directed supporters to his address in prison, and they sent
him hundreds of letters and scores of books.

Brian read voraciously, and finished more than 30 books in jail. It was
there that he read Ron Paul's "The Revolution: A Manifesto," "The Law" by
French classical liberal Frederic Bastiat and Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and
Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72."

With the public behind him, Aitken's attorneys petitioned the governor to
overrule the judge's decision.

After nearly four months behind bars, Christie commuted his sentence to
"time served" on Dec. 20th, 2010, and Aitken was finally released.

In the two years he spent battling the state of New Jersey, Aitken got to
know a group of libertarians who provided some intellectual heft behind his
defense. During his plight, pro-free market organizations like Reason
Magazine, The Cato Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
helped get his message out.

Aitken never thought of himself as a libertarian, but two years in the
clutches of the state system has changed him completely. Before the arrest,
the young, apolitical entrepreneur was on his way to a successful career in
digital marketing.

"I never considered myself a person who is really interested in politics,"
Aitken says. "But after all this happened I am definitely a hardcore
libertarian now."

Just weeks after his release, Aitken accepted a job directing online
outreach efforts for FEE, one of the groups that supported him during his
fight with the state.

A free man, Aitken travels on FEE's behalf speaking to student groups about
his story and preaching libertarianism. He was in Washington, D.C. last week
at the International Students for Liberty Conference, and has speaking
engagements lined up around the country - even one in New Jersey, which he
says he was "reluctant" to accept, considering his treatment in the state.

Although he's technically free, the legal battles are far from over. Since
Christie did not grant a full pardon, Aitken is still legally considered an
ex-con, and he plans to appeal his case to the Supreme Court if need be.

As for grudges against his accusers and the judge that sentenced him, Aitken
has plenty.

"The words 'pathetic excuse for a man' come to mind," Aitken says of the
judge who would have let him rot away his prime years in prison. "How can
you have any backbone whatsoever when you just pander to whatever your
political leanings are?"

But that doesn't give him back his lost time.

"It was such a waste," Aitken says of the agonizing months he spent fighting
the court system, pleading his innocence and sitting behind bars. "I don't
know how I get the two years back. All the money, all the time that's been
spent. I lost custody of my son over this. How does he ever get his father
back? He doesn't. You don't get any of these things back."

Now that Aitken is plugged into a crowd of libertarian activists, he's
working to not only appeal his own case, but help an effort to get the
Supreme Court to change New Jersey's gun laws. From his new home base in
Atlanta, Aitken is using the tools developed in the private sector to get
FEE's message out, connecting them with online communities, bloggers and
other activists.

On his own time, Aitken says he's aiming for a landmark Supreme Court gun
case for his native state within the next decade.

"We're trying to change things," he says.

As for the judge that sentenced Aitken, he's no longer on the bench. Gov.
Christie declined to renew his appointment.

 <mailto:[email protected]> Email Chris Moody and
<http://twitter.com/Chris_Moody> follow him on Twitter 


Read more:
<http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/23/man-freed-by-gov-chris-christie-speaks-ou
t-about-prison-life-becoming-a-libertarian-activist/#ixzz1EnaCcsZH>
http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/23/man-freed-by-gov-chris-christie-speaks-out
-about-prison-life-becoming-a-libertarian-activist/#ixzz1EnaCcsZH

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