Fantasy author Joel Rosenberg reports he will stand trial August 8 on charges related to his bringing a loaded gun into Minneapolis City Hall last November. The trial date was set during his latest hearing on May 2.
Rosenberg is accused of possessing a dangerous weapon in a courthouse, a felony, and contempt of court, a misdemeanor. This happened when Rosenberg and his wife went for an appointment with the Minneapolis Police Department’s Public Information Officer. Rosenberg has a permit to carry his weapon, however, he is said to have violated a court order that prohibits bringing weapons into City Hall, which houses courtrooms and associated function rooms.
At Rosenberg’s prior hearing, March 18, the court requested briefs on the issue. The gist of the County’s argument [PDF file]is:
The Minneapolis City Hall sits comfortably within the reasonable definition of a courthouse complex (a building in which established courts are held…)
The Chief Judge of the Fourth Judicial District has authority to promulgate a rule or order prohibiting the possession of dangerous weapons within a court facility, such as the Minneapolis City Hall.
Rosenberg’s attorney, David Gross, in his brief [Docs.Google.com document] disputed that City Hall is legally a courthouse, partly by contrasting how the court’s order is posted in City Hall and in Hennepin County’s main court facility:
What is noticeably lacking on or in the Minneapolis City Hall is just such signage. Hennepin County knows exactly what it claims to be a “courthouse” (as that language is used in the sign) or what is a courthouse complex, because it has gone to the trouble of notifying citizens of its claimed applicability of the law to those buildings, perhaps even out of respect for the citizens’ rights under the MCPPA and the requirement of knowledge on the part of the citizen who wishes to conform his or her conduct to the law, as discussed, above. Until it charged Joel Rosenberg, it didn’t even make such a claim concerning the Minneapolis City all, first floor, or otherwise. Surely to make such a claim, now, without notice, after the fact, is to mislead the citizen, to attempt to ensnare him with something about which he had no knowledge.
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Mr. Rosenberg Tickled the Dragon’s Tail once too often, and now it’s biting back. He was a danger to nobody and was obeying the law as he saw it. I see this increasing in the news from governments all over the world. Gadflies are being hit with criminal charges far beyond anything they actually did, or even if they did nothing illegal at all but pissed off someone in the government, out of revenge for making those same look bad, and to discourage other gadflies. It’s happening all over the U. S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and spreading to other European countries as well.
Our governments, municipal, county, state, and federal, are full of people these days who hate the Bill of Rights, and have no consciences prohibiting them from violating those Rights. They routinely violate their oaths of office to preserve and defend the Constitution without a shred of regret and if they decide they’re going after somebody, they just do it, laws be damned.