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

John Lucas posted this on Facebook.  Thought it worthy of note and  
discussion.  Living in Texas, I have a hard time imagining anyone  
could find what he did to be a crime.  The police and judges are out  
of control.

regards,
-Lance

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

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

By Chris Moody - The Daily Caller | Published: 3:21 AM 02/23/2011	 |  
Updated: 12:14 PM 02/23/2011

By Chris Moody - The Daily Caller

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/23/man-freed-by-gov-chris-christie-speaks-out-about-prison-life-becoming-a-libertarian-activist/#ixzz1Eq8tqQbw

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 “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.

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