It’s rare to receive a 911 call from the Secret Service, but that’s exactly what happened in January 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a new letter to the House Oversight Committee.
The Secret Service agents had gone to a Nashville resident’s home to investigate Facebook comments the Tennessean had made against the President.
Unsurprisingly, the Obama critic — who hadn’t violated any laws — wasn’t willing to come out of his home and be investigated by the federal government.
“He shoved the door in our face and went around the corner,” the Secret Service agent told the 911 operator. “Possibly, he had a gun in his hands.”
Of course, slamming a door in someone’s face isn’t against the law, and neither is having a weapon. The man, who’s a law-abiding gun owner, made no threats. He only demanded to see their warrant.
They didn’t bother to get one, but that inconvenient fact didn’t stop them. One of the agents asked the Nashville police sergeant to “wave a piece of paper” in order to fool the resident into believing they actually had obtained a warrant.
So, let’s recount this, shall we?
The Tennessean criticized the President in a non-threatening way… as is his First Amendment Constitutional right. The Tennessean had a gun to defend his home… as is his Second Amendment Constitutional right. The Tennessean asked to see a warrant… as is his Fourth Amendment Constitutional right.
None of these rights were respected by the Secret Service agents.
But you gotta love the Nashville Police.
Chief Steve Anderson wrote a letter to the former Nashville Secret Service Director Julia Pierson and Assistant Director A.T. Smith detailing these abuses. “I think you can see that had the MNPD officers complied with the directive from the Secret Service agents,” he wrote, “ There was likelihood for this event to have escalated into a serious and/or embarrassing situation for both of our agencies.”
He never heard back from Pierson, but Smith responded with a “condescending and dismissive” tone. When Anderson went to their office to discuss whether they thought it was right to wave around a piece of paper to pretend they had a warrant, the Secret Service agent allegedly answered, “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer.”
It’s good to see local authorities standing up to a corrupt, bloated federal government hell-bent on taking away our individual rights. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tennessee, one of the committee members who received the letter, thinks this is an outrage.
“There’s already a lot of fodder to attack the Secret Service with, and this will be more,” he said, before saying that the Secret Service’s tactics were grievous Constitutional violations.
Here’s the best part of the story. The Chief Anderson says that his officers are no longer allowed to work with the Secret Service unless they get a directive from the top.
Why? He wants to make sure his officers aren’t asked to engage in questionable and possibly unconstitutional activities.
Kudos to the Nashville police for standing up to a bloated, corrupt federal government and saying, simply, “no more.”
