Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
People lie. It’s not a cynical thing to say, it’s an established fact. Most people tell lies at some point in their life. Many do it for a number of benign reasons, such as trying to make a point, trying to make a joke, or trying to spare someone’s feelings. Others do it for less savory reasons, such as trying to cover their butt.
Most folks, however, don’t lie maliciously. They don’t lie to hurt other people.
That’s not true of everyone, however. Some people are so vile that they’ll lie maliciously.
A Rockdale woman’s 911 call about a murderous, abusive, drugged up, gun-toting husband turned out to be nothing but a pack of lies, police said.
The woman, 22-year-old Jia Asante, called 911 shortly before 8 p.m. Monday and claimed her husband was beating her, was high on either crack or heroin, possessed guns and had murdered someone at some point in the past, said Rockdale Police Chief Robert Dykstra.
The caller ended and officers headed to Asante’s apartment, Dykstra said, but no one answered the door.
Police found Asante and her husband parked outside of a business and went to talk to him. He admitted they argued, but denied physically attacking her. Asante agreed there had been no such attack.
So, what did the police do?
Asante was taken into custody, Dykstra said, and while she was being processed at the police station, she kept coughing in the officer’s direction, claiming she had the coronavirus and telling them she hoped they caught it.
Asante lied in an effort to punish her husband. Meanwhile, many of those lies were more than enough to have someone stripped of their Second Amendment rights with a red flag order.
Red flag orders don’t really require evidence. They just require someone saying another person is a threat to a judge, then WHAM! Someone finds their right to keep and bear arms being violated.
Sure, they’ll eventually get their day in court, but many times the law requires them to prove they’re not a threat. The burden of proof is on them, the accused, which isn’t how our legal system is supposed to work. Asante’s lies, had they been used in a different context, could have infringed up her husband’s civil liberties with no more proof than she provided police.
To make matters worse, many red flag laws lack any kind of teeth to deter false reporting. People can make these accusations if they wish, thus burdening law-abiding citizens with trying to prove they aren’t a risk to the public. No one should be forced to prove anything in a court except for those making the accusations.
Someone lying about red flag laws isn’t unheard of, either. In that case, a Colorado woman trying to get a red flag order against the cop who shot her son after he charged officers with a knife was found out, and not only was the order not granted, she was arrested. However, how many other cases happened that we haven’t learned about? How many attempts at this sort of thing were actually successful?
That’s one of the big problems with red flag laws. A lie like Asante’s could have long-lasting ramifications for someone who did nothing wrong. That should never be the case.
https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2020/05/13/lies-damn-lies-and-red-flag-laws/