Montana Attorney General has let pass my deadline of Noon today (it’s now after 2PM) to at least acknowledge my request that he look into the details of the recent federal raid on the Bozeman brass recycling business. Pasted next below, for your information, is the strongly-worded followup message I sent to Fox on Tuesday, becoming more insistent that he conduct some sort of inquiry into the federal raid in Bozeman, and giving him until Noon today to respond. Of course, he doesn’t like being told what to do (as he may see this), even though he’s a public servant. Apparently, he thinks it’s just not important to stick up for Montana people.
Now, I need your help to change his mind about that. I ask you to do several things:
1) Email Fox and demand that he conduct an inquiry into the Bozeman raid, as requested. Feel free to use strong language, if you like, but don’t be rude, don’t call him names, and don’t use profanity. Send your emails to all of these email addresses: ofoxc@aol.com, timfox@mt.gov, tfox@mt.gov contactdoj@mt.gov, JonBennion@mt.gov, coswanson@mt.gov Heck, email every day until this logjam breaks.
2) Call for Fox at the Montana Department of Justice at 406-444-2026 – same message; same rules as above.
3) Redistribute this email to any and all interested Montanans.
4) Send this email to your local legislators and insist that they contact Fox with a demand for performance.
5) Write letters to the editor of local daily and weekly papers calling for Fox to investigate as requested.
6) Call in to radio talk shows with the same.
7) Engage in any other First Amendment activism you can think of to cause Fox to feel the heat and see the light.
Attorney General Fox is in a position to require federal enforcers to mind their manners in Montana. The questions are, does he care, and will he?
Thanks loads for your help.
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.MTPublish.com
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April 15, 2014
Tim Fox
Attorney General of Montana
Montana Department of Justice
Helena, Montana
Dear Attorney General Fox,
I have received no response from you to my request (pasted below, for your reference) that you investigate an armed federal raid on a Bozeman business a couple of weeks ago. You have not even acknowledged receipt of my request.
Your earned reputation is that you avoid controversy. I imagine you don’t like the idea of disapproval by federal officials for investigating their actions. You may think that, if you just wait a while, interest in this will die down and the whole business will blow over, leaving you in a comfort zone of doing nothing.
If you think that, you are mistaken.
If you don’t show any sign of action in this matter, possibly because you prefer to avoid controversy, you will leave me no alternative but to make it extremely controversial that you seem quite willing to sit on the sidelines and abandon Montanans, requiring them to fend for themselves in the face of armed federal aggression.
Did the federal enforcers break any laws while conducting their Bozeman raid? We won’t know until you look into it. We already know that the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office and the Bozeman Police Department were actively involved in the raid, so we could hardly expect either of those entities to do any sort of honest investigation. They’d more likely make excuses or actively cover up any wrongdoing than conduct any sort of honest investigation, especially since the known facts point to their complicity in the operation. The U.S. Attorney for Montana has no interest. As with the GCSO and BPD, he has more motive to whitewash or actively cover up any wrongdoing than to conduct an honest investigation. So, that leaves you.
In case you have been off on vacation somewhere and away from the news, let me inform you that lots of people are seething with resentment at the high-handed and aggressive tactics of federal employees, witness what has been happening recently in Nevada. In that situation, federal authorities sent scores of federal employees armed with machine guns and sniper rifles, and possibly some military personnel, to take a rancher’s cattle. They threatened to kill people who protested. They attempted to confine protesters to a small “free speech zone” miles from their operation. We simply will not tolerate similar treatment of people in Montana. We elected you to stick up for us.
So, you can either cowboy up and do your job by looking out for the people of Montana, or force me to make your lack of action more distressful for you than any discomfort associated with a quick, assertive and honest review of the Bozeman raid.
I now specifically suggest that you appoint an ad hoc commission of at least two elected legislators and one experienced investigator, and others if you like, and give them ten (10) calendar days to give you a report that addresses the issues raised in my request to you, and any other issues that you may think of or that may arise in the course of the investigation. In case you are short on ideas about suitable legislators, I offer in suggestion Senator Terry Murphy, Senator Art Wittich, Rep. Krayton Kerns, and Rep. Austin Knudsen. If it is possible for you to give this group subpoena powers or other empowering support, I suggest you do so.
You may think the tone of this message intemperate. I guarantee you it is much more restrained than my first draft. You may operate in such genteel and protected circles that you simply don’t understand that people are at the end of their rope with armed federal aggression. Public tension is real and visceral. People are locked and loaded, if you know what that means. The subject of armed federal aggression is no longer a law school or editorial debate. Your ongoing and energetic defense of Montana people, beginning with decisive action about the Bozeman raid, might just avoid real bloodshed over the next such incident in Montana. I believe bloodshed is very much worth avoiding, worth much more than the price of your disinterest or any discomfort you might experience from seeking answers to questions about federal and local officials’ conduct.
I expect you to acknowledge receipt of my request for your involvement, I expect you to say for certain if you will or won’t act, I expect you to offer at least some general explanation of your intended involvement if you will pursue this, and I expect that response electronically by no later than Noon on this Thursday, April 17th.
“The test for whether one is living in a police state is that those who are charged with enforcing the law are allowed to break the laws with impunity.” — Jon Rolan
Very sincerely yours,
Gary Marbut, President
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
Author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.MTPublish.com
