image credit: sheridan.va.gov |
Brian D. Hill, Contributor
Activist Post
A normal 63-year-old Vietnam veteran, who could never have expected a confrontation with the VA police, was allegedly threatened to lose his VA benefits and would have been possibly charged with a felony. His only crime was giving out political documentary DVDs and biblical literature. This all happened at the Sheridan VA Medical Center.
Richard Thorne, a Wyoming veteran that runs his own YouTube channel with 340 subscribers and 227,958 video views, gave out Alex Jones’s Infowars business cards, along with DVDs of Police State 3, to other veterans at his visit to the VA, as well as bible tracts. He was subsequently treated as a possible enemy combatant and was threatened by police that he would lose his benefits without ever breaking any law.
First of all this veteran would have been protected under the first Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. He is even protected under the Wyoming State Constitution as well under Article 1, Section 20 which protects freedom of speech.
I will go through the entire situation of what happened as Richard Thorne explained to me in an email for this article.
He passed out several pieces of bible literature with DVDs to other veterans at the VA, he also left some literature in a few waiting areas as well. After he had four teeth pulled he passed out some more literature and then waited for his travel money. He does receive VA benefits. A few minutes later two VA cops dressed in their black uniforms demanded he come with them. Of course he stepped outside of the VA where there were likely no witnesses, so that camera phones don’t catch the attitude of the police there, the two cops started asking him if he had been passing out bible and anti-government literature … yes, you heard that right, they said anti-government literature.
Of course this isn’t all of the nightmarish things the VA cops did to the guy. One of the cops confiscated the remaining literature and DVDs he had.
Also, before he left, the police took all of the DVDs that were already given to veterans as if the veterans themselves were committing a crime just for accepting a free political documentary DVD from someone that just wanted to educate people and offer their own opinion, which is their right under the Constitution.
Of course there is no crime for having your own opinion.
So, yes, every veteran that received a copy had their free copies taken away even though they didn’t complain. Of course they threatened him with a Homeland Security visit and that they would take him away. Under the NDAA that is now Public Law, they can snatch and grab anyone who is simply accused of being a terrorist without charge or trial and can be indefinitely detained, so this was a very real and legitimate threat to make.
They said to him, and I quote: “You don’t want Homeland Security to pull up in front of your apartment do you?” according to his interview on The Alex Jones Show. He was literally crying on air. You can also view another video where he calls in to explain his nightmarish situation hoping to bring light to what has happened.
The hell didn’t just stop with Homeland Security threats. He was told that he could be charged with a felony for distributing anti-government material on federal land. There is no evidence that Police State 3 is anti-government, but under current legislation the police and Homeland Security can simply claim it is anti-government and send people to prison even though they are supposed to be protected under the First Amendment.
Of course this isn’t the America we had once been familiar with! Ever since 9/11 and the Twin Towers fell, common sense fell along with it!
We have sent some questions to the VA and will write a followup article if needed and will also ask for comments from the other side as to their justification for why they did what they did to a 63-year-old veteran with a cane.
This article was first posted at WeAreChange with additional photos.
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