Mundane Lives Don't Matter, So Don't Try to Exercise Your Rights (UPDATED October 4)

See update below.
 
In every encounter between a police officer and a citizen, only one life matters to the former – and it isn’t the latter. 

“Follow the commands of a police officer or risk dying,” snarled Major Travis Yates of the Tulsa Police Department in a recent essay for Law Officer. Requiring police officers to respect the rights of the citizens they detain, or to practice de-escalation when citizens assert their rights, would be tantamount to asking that “police stop being police” – that is, commissioned ministers of violence acting on behalf of the divine State.

Whenever a police officer inflicts himself on a citizen, every consideration is made for officer safety, despite the fact that the citizen is the one facing an immediate, known risk of lethal violence. A Mundane who acts upon specific police instruction to take minimal precautions for his own safety runs the additional risk of a ruinous and unjustified arrest – or a life-threatening assault by one of his privileged overseers in a state-issued costume. 

Claire and Daniel McIsaac (l. to r.)

Idaho Falls resident Daniel McIsaac was stopped for speeding shortly after midnight on April 16 on an isolated stretch of Highway 26, near milepost 177 and Marley Road. This is a section of south-central Idaho where several recent confrontations have occurred between motorists and police impersonators. 

Unfortunately for McIsaac and his wife Claire, the armed stranger who detained them was Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Denning. A police impersonator is immeasurably less dangerous than someone claiming to be invested with the mystical property called “authority” that supposedly allows him to use aggressive violence against someone who doesn’t submit to him. 

The encounter began badly, with Denning flinging four commands into McIssac’s face before identifying himself as an officer, or showing any credentials. No, a uniform and chintzy piece of costume jewelry didn’t qualify, and neither did the running lights on Denning’s vehicle. “Authentic” insignia don’t legitimately confer special rights or privileges on those who carry them, of course. However, it is useful for the victim of a roadside detention to know if the person who has stopped him can summon others in the event the victim decides to end the encounter on his own terms. 

Denning demanded that McIsaac extinguish his cigarette, and they briefly argued as to whether the deputy’s “authority” extends to that detail. If the deputy were actually a servant, rather than someone claiming to exercise proprietary control over a citizen, he wouldn’t enjoy the privilege of telling the citizen to extinguish a cigarette while sitting in his own vehicle. Patrol officers are taught to pretend that they smell marijuana or alcohol during a traffic stop, and the demand that a driver snuff his cigarette is often a prelude to reciting that pretext for a vehicle search. (As the late Sandra Bland learned, that demand can also be an overture to an unlawful arrest that can have fatal consequences.)

Doing as he was told: Daniel calls 911.

After Denning demanded that McIsaac exit the vehicle with his papers at the ready, the driver quite sensibly asked the deputy to provide him with his precinct number.

“For what?” Denning impatiently snapped. 

“I’m going to call them report this,” McIsaac explained

“You go right ahead,” the deputy dismissively replied.

At this point in the conversation, Deputy Denning explicitly instructed McIsaac to confirm that he was dealing with a law enforcement officer, rather than an impersonator. From that point forward, McIsaac was complying with an officer’s instructions, and doing so with commendable composure in the face of Denning’s entirely needless escalation.

As McIsaac attempted to call the LCSO, Denning called for backup, and then growled: “Sir, comply with what I’m telling you or I’m going to arrest you.” 

“There’s nobody else on the road – this is dangerous!” McIsaac correctly observed.

“No, it’s not,” Denning replied – meaning, of course, it wasn’t dangerous to the only person who mattered to him in the encounter. 

“There’s nobody else on the road,” the driver pointed out. “How do I know you’re a cop? Show me your identification.”

“I don’t have to show you my identification,” Denning lied. “You can see I’m in full uniform and a marked unit” – a claim that has been made, within recent months, by police impersonators in that same section of Idaho. 

“I’m calling 911 right now,” McIssac informed Denning. 

“OK,” the deputy responded – for the second time explicitly authorizing McIsaac to take minimal precautions for his own safety. 

McIsaac dialed 911 and requested another unit “because, you know, it can be very dangerous, with people impersonating cops, and stuff,” he told the operator. “He’s getting very, very aggressive…. I want to wait for another officer, because I am very uncomfortable.”

“Dispatch – have ‘em step it up,” Denning grunted into his lapel radio, which as it happens was the same course of action McIsaac was pursuing. 

After finishing his 911 call, McIsaac emerged from the vehicle, and was arrested for “obstructing and delaying an officer.” The entire encounter had lasted five minutes and thirty-three seconds. 

“Just so you know,” McIssac said after being cuffed and stuffed, “I wasn’t really trying to be rude. I hear lots of stories of people getting pulled over – you’ve probably heard those, too – I was told to call and make sure it’ safe….”

“You’re obstructing my duties,” his kidnapper insisted.

Actually, McIsaac was seeking to assure his own safety, and that of his wife, which he has every right to do. Exercising that right, however, is an act falling within the ever-expanding definition of the un-legislated, but sternly punished, offense called “contempt of cop.”

“I’ve been told in the past that if you’re pulled over on a deserted highway, to double-check,” McIsaac patiently elaborated.

“So – do you know many people who are out running around in full uniform in fully-marked patrol units that are impersonating police officers?” Denning sneer-gloated. 

The answer to that question, the deputy most likely knew, was “yes.”
 

Verify, then comply: ISP Lt. Weadick.

Within very recent memory, there have been at least three incidents in which drivers in south-central Idaho have been stopped and harassed by an armed police impersonator (a fact that has been pointed out by Meridian police accountability activist Matthew Townsend.) Those incidents all took place within easy driving distance of the dark, isolated stretch of Highway 26 where McIsaac was waylaid by a state-licensed highway predator. One of the incidents involved  a physical assault by the impersonator, who may not have had government-issued credentials but certainly behaved as if he were an authentic cop. There have been similar incidents elsewhere in the state. 

Police agencies across the country have consistently told the public that if there is any doubt as to the identity of the person conducting a traffic stop, drivers should proceed to a populated, well-lit stretch of road, or at least call 911 to verify that the highwayman has been given an official license to harass his betters.

If the driver is concerned about the identity of the armed stranger, especially if “the person won’t identify themselves [sic] … call 911,” Idaho State Police Lt. Chris Weadick told television viewers in Idaho Falls on January 16, 2015. “Talk to a dispatcher and try to get to the bottom of who’s out there talking to you.”

Precisely the same advice was given by the Idaho Falls Police Department, with specific reference to police impersonator incidents in the very section of south-central Idaho where McIsaac had his infuriating encounter with the officious Deputy Denning.

In the event a driver is unsure about the identity of the person who has stopped him, “roll up your window, lock your door and call 911 and verify the person is a police officer,” counseled the IFPD. “If you feel your life is in danger, drive away – still maintain the speed limit and obey the rules of the road – to a well-lit, public area and call 911.”

Both the ISP and IFPD clearly encouraged drivers in McIsaac’s position not to comply until they were satisfied that it was safe to do so. Denning himself twice instructed McIsaac to act on that advice—and then arrested him for doing what he had been repeatedly been told, by police, was the appropriate thing. 

McIsaac, who, once again resides in Idaho Falls, has a Master’s Degree and is employed as a counselor at a local rehabilitation facility. He was polite in the exercise of his rights as they had been explained to him by three entities or individuals speaking on behalf of the government. His arrest was thus an act of entrapment by estoppel – a due process violation that occurs when a citizen is charged with a crime for conduct that he had been assured was legal and proper.

Denning on the range.

By arresting McIsaac for exercising his rights, Denning – who is under investigation by the Idaho POST Council for unspecified charges – committed what the Idaho State Code (18-703) defines as an “illegal arrest or seizure.” He conveyed him to the Lincoln County Jail in nearby Shoshone, which was already full, and then to the Jerome County lockup.

Because he had no legal right to incarcerate McIsaac for any length of time, Denning compounded the false arrest with the offense of false imprisonment – defined by the state code (18-2901) as “the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another.” If he weren’t protected by qualified immunity, Denning would be liable to a one-year prison term and a $5,000 fine.

Although McIsaac has been found guilty of nothing, he and his family have already been punished because he behaved precisely as the police had instructed him. If he is convicted of the "crime" of following well-established citizen safety protocols, McIsaac could be sent to jail for a year.

“I was able, by some miracle, to get $610 from an ATM at 3:30 in the morning to pay Dan’s bail,” his wife Claire told Pro Libertate. The couple has made four 300-mile round trips from Idaho Falls to Shoshone to attend three pre-trial hearings and an abortive trial on July 25.

The trial was postponed during voir dire when it became clear that few, if any, of the potential jurors understood the concept of presumption of innocence. Owing to the stupid intransigence of the prosecutor’s office in pursuing a manifestly invalid criminal case, the McIsaacs will be compelled to make at least one more round-trip: Their trial was originally rescheduled for August 15, and then capriciously pushed back again to October 4.

Claire estimates that the family has already been forced to sink more than a thousand dollars into this legal struggle, which – although she was far too polite to say as much – was inflicted on them because a pathologically self-preoccupied deputy took offense that a Mundane tried to act in the interests of his safety, and that of his wife. After all, in such encounters, only “Blue Lives” really matter. 

                                                    UPDATE, October 4:

A Lincoln County jury acquitted Daniel McIssac after very brief deliberation. Deputy Denning's gratuitous effort to punish a Mundane for the exercise of his rights ended without a fine, additional jail time, or probation -- but it did cost an innocent family more than a thousand dollars and several days that could have been devoted to more productive pursuits.

After getting his tax-fattened ass handed to him in court, the butt-hurt costumed bully tried to salve his ego by inflicting one last increment of misery on his betters.

"We just left the courthouse, and [Denning] followed us," Claire informed me shortly after the trial concluded. "He followed us down the road. He appeared out of nowhere and followed us."

Scotty, if you read this -- and I know you will -- get over it. Man up and deal with the fact that you had every conceivable advantage and got your arrogant, privileged ass kicked. Fairly soon, I suspect, POST will revoke your privileges and compel you either to find honest work -- which would be a novelty in your case -- or take the Gypsy Cop ratline to another jurisdiction. In either case, just choke down your bitter defeat and go the hell away.

Beware, Adams County; a privileged "sociopath" is about to return to patrol duty -- this week's Freedom Zealot Podcast:

Dum spiro, pugno!

Beware, Adams County: A "Sociopath" Will Soon Return to Duty

“I’m a man of faith, and I believe nothing happens without a reason,” insisted Adams County Sheriff Ryan Zollman after Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden placed the state’s imprimatur on the murder of Council rancher Jack Yantis. To the family and friends of the man who had been gunned down without cause by two of his deputies, Zollman recommended that they accept this betrayal with pious stoicism: “Leave this to a higher power watching over us.”

Adams County residents in the habit of praying would be well-advised to petition Providence for protection, and unbelievers who reside there would be wise to take up that habit. Sheriff Zollman is about to unleash a bloody-handed sociopath on the public. 

Lt. Phillips

“He’s startin’ to fit the pattern of a sociopath,” McCall Police Officer Josh Johnson told Lt. Steven Phillips of the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, according to a lengthy – and heavily redacted – interview Phillips gave to two Idaho State Police investigators following the November 1^st shooting.  (That interview begins at page 802 of the 928-page compilation of reports and interviews released by the Idaho AG’s office.) 

The subject of that interview was Adams County Deputy Brian Wood, who along with Deputy Cody Roland unloaded twelve rounds into Yantis on the night of November 1^st after the rancher had been summoned by the sheriff’s office to kill a bull that had been struck by a car on Highway 95. Roland and Wood insist that they acted in self-defense after Yantis supposedly pointed his bolt-action rifle at them. Eyewitnesses, including Yantis’s wife Donna and family friend Rowdy Paradis, report that one of the deputies grabbed the rancher from behind, causing him to stumble, and then the officers shot him in a sudden fit of unaccountable panic.

As Mundanes, Donna Yantis and Mr. Paradis are considered unqualified to testify regarding the exercise of lethal force by two of the state’s consecrated purveyors of sanctified violence. The propriety of an act of state-sanctioned killing is assessed on the basis of the inescapably self-serving “reasonable officer” standard, which is inscrutable to lesser breeds without the badge. 

Deputies Roland and Wood were never in serious jeopardy of criminal prosecution. As is the case in every fatal police shooting, the killers were designated the “victims,” and the man they killed was identified as the “suspect.” Attorney General Wasden’s official letter announcing that no charges would be filed against the killers carefully insinuates that Yantis was an “angry” and drunken man who precipitated his own violent death, and was largely to blame
for it. 

The man they murdered: Yantis with grandchild.

Yantis’s killers have not missed a paycheck since they gunned down the man they had called to help them perform a mildly dangerous task that exceeded their competence.   Sheriff Zollman informed the Idaho Statesman that since Wasden has certified that “the officers did their job and weren’t excessive in doing so,” the killers would soon be returning to duty. 

This means that Brian Wood, who became the subject of an “officer safety alert” following a domestic dispute with his wife last December, will once again be vested with the supposed authority to detain citizens and use lethal force if they refuse to submit. 

“If cops are involved, shots will be fired,” Wood reportedly told William “Chip” Gallagher, his father-in-law. Wood was described as “a highly trained sniper” believed to have “demolition capabilities and access to explosives. 

“I don’t know how much you guys know into [Wood’s] background, but he – he is an advanced, skilled sniper,” Lt. Phillips told ISP investigators. “I mean, I sent him to the FBI academy … their advance sniper school and he came out on top.”

Phillips had made Wood a firearms instructor for the ADSO, and his wife had become close friends with Wood’s now-estranged spouse. Following the shooting, Wood had become separated from his wife, and appeared to descend into something resembling a psychosis. 

On several occasions, Phillips told the ISP, Wood suggested “he was gonna hurt himself … he goes back and forth on either goin’ to another country or killin’ himself.” In at least one of those instances, Phillips recounted, he indicated that he was no longer interested in fleeing to Latin America, but was “talkin’ about blowin’ himself up.”

This December 29^th conversation took place in Phillips’ pickup truck. Worried that Wood was an incipient murder-suicide, Phillips told him that “I’m gonna handle this the law enforcement way…. [W]e’re gonna go ahead and get an endangerment hold on ya.”

At this point, Wood “literally turned in his seat and squared off with me and stuck his hand down by his gun. He says, `There will be gunfire if … we go this route.’” 

That was not the last time Wood threatened to murder fellow law enforcement officers. He also reportedly threatened to kill the family’s dogs. Yet Phillips and other officers allowed him free rein -- which left Phillips’ wife horrified that the preservation of Wood’s Blue Privilege could have lethal consequences for his wife – who was also her close friend. 

“You need to stop lookin’ at this as a … friend helpin’ a friend, and start lookin’ at this as a cop,” his wife chastised him, according to Phillips’ account.  Of course, the problem was precisely that Phillips was acting like a cop – someone loyal to the Blue Tribe – rather than a peace officer acting to protect the public. This might explain why his wife revised her admonition: “Stop lookin’ at this as … a buddy helpin’ a buddy or a fellow cop helpin’ a fellow cop.’”

As Phillips discussed the matter with McCall Police Officer Josh Johnson and McCall Police Chief Justin Williams, both agreed that Wood was displaying sociopathic tendencies. Contingency plans were made to carry out a major operation involving several agencies – the ADSO, the Valley County Sheriff’s Office, the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, the McCall Police Department – in the event that Wood “loses his job or loses his guns.” 

Deputy Wood – who claims that he was trained by the Navy SEALs -- had pointedly mentioned to Phillips that his home was situated atop a hill with a commanding view of every possible approach. He also possessed “some exceptional – probably the best on the market sniper equipment…. Down to a $9,000 night vision scope.”

All of this was known to the ISP, the FBI, and the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. This is why an officer safety bulletin was quietly issued on January 22^nd – but the public was not made aware that a heavily armed, taxpayer-subsidized sociopath was on the loose.

Wood, who had killed one senior citizen, severely beaten another, and had explicitly threatened to kill police officers, was never taken into custody. That type of treatment is reserved for annoying Mundanes like Meridian resident Matthew Townsend, who was charged with “witness intimidation” for a Facebook post criticizing Meridian Police Officer Richard Brockbank, an officious costumed coward who arrested Townsend without cause or justification. 

 

"No f****n' clue": Zollman.

Phillips, to his credit, defied Sheriff Zollman’s demand that he redact his report regarding Wood’s threat to his family and fellow officers. 

“I said, `I’m not redactin’ sh*t,’” Phillips recalled to the ISP. He grudgingly told the investigators that “my Sheriff and Undersheriff [are] good guys, but don’t have a f***in’ clue how to do their job. They’re in way over their head and with this they have no clue what to do.”

That much is screamingly obvious to any sentient observer. 

Bearing in mind Deputy Phillips’ concern that Wood might go on a killing spree if he lost his job, one must ask: Did that possibility color the Attorney General’s conclusions? Did the sacred responsibility to protect the lives of police officers who might be killed in a confrontation with Wood play a role in the decision to clear him, thereby allowing him to resume his career as a state-licensed menace to the hapless residents of Adams County?

This week's Freedom Zealot Podcast likewise deals with the murder of Jack Yantis and the insuperable Blue Privilege that protects his killers:

Dum spiro, pugno!