We recently discussed the “Joker” case in Chicago where Timothy O’Donnell was arrested for arson after his tattoos were identified by police after he burned a police vehicle. Now, a Tacoma woman, Margaret Aislinn Channon, 25, has been arrested for burning five vehicles in part due to her equally recognizable ink. There is one other similarity. They are both not only charged with arson, but charged in federal court. I continue to be uneasy over the broad federal jurisdictional claims underlying charges that traditionally are matters for state and local prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran announced that Channon was caught on multiple cameras May 30 using an accelerant lit like a blowtorch to burn five police vehicles. Here are two of those pictures:
However, it was her tattoos that sealed the identification. It turns out that she was a missing person in Texas in 2019 and her tattoos were described in detail.
Police took that flyer and matched it with this picture from the protests:
It is another example of the perils of ink for anarchists and antifascists.
Channon now faces up to 10 years and that is only counting the arson charge. There is still the possibility that the Administration will try to convert some of these cases to domestic terrorism cases.
Here is my problem. As I mentioned in the Joker case, the federal government is making a jurisdictional claim that would effectively negate federalism principles in criminal law. In Chicago, the federal prosecutors appear to be arguing that the police car belongs to the city government, which buys vehicles in interstate commerce. That is a pretty breathtaking construction that makes the ruling in Wickard v. Filburn (1942) looks modest in comparison. In that case, Roscoe Filburn was growing wheat to feed his chickens, but the Supreme Court still defined the activity as interstate commerce because his crops reduced the amount of wheat on the open (and national) market.
Defendants like Channon face the likelihood of longer sentencing in the federal than the state government, though torching five police cares will get you a hefty sentence in either system.
The concern from a civil liberties standpoint is that the federal government could circumvent state and local laws and mete out its own punishment for intrastate crimes. Thus, if a state did not support a president’s harsh view of a given activity, federal prosecutors would effectively federalize the crime. The dual jurisdictional problem has been raised repeatedly by defense lawyers, particularly in civil rights prosecutions are that virtually identical to state charges. The double jeopardy claims raised in such challenges have generally failed. This however is a straight up federalization of an arson crime that occurred within a state and only damaged state property. That would seem a viable issue to be raised by Channon and other like her who are charged in federal court.
Reads like a bake sale and Tupperware party
https://mynorthwest.com/1937349/opinion-debunking-myths-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone/
Opinion: Debunking myths of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
By Nick Bowman
June 12, 2020 at 11:52 am
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. (Nick Bowman, MyNorthwest)
Seattle’s protests against police brutality have evolved in recent days. Whereas before they were defined by a series of clashes between police and protesters near the city’s East Precinct, the movement has now taken root in the form of what’s now become known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ.
And while the messaging of the CHAZ has at times been imperfect, it’s also the start of something truly powerful.
Scores of people are camped out in the six-block area of Capitol Hill, after police made the decision to clear out of the East Precinct. The movement’s philosophy has largely centered around remaking Seattle’s police department, in the face of a widespread campaign of disinformation designed to obscure that message.
A look inside Seattle’s newly-formed ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’
That all being so, it’s important to clarify what the CHAZ is and is not.
Rumors circulated around social media have made some pretty wild, largely unfounded claims, some painting a picture of a post-apocalyptic, anarchist nightmare-scape. One outlet went so far as to label it “‘Mad Max’ movie mayhem come alive.” Another particularly outlandish claim posited that Seattle-based rapper Raz Simone had positioned himself as a “warlord” in charge of the area.
Meanwhile, police said Wednesday in a brief seven-minute press conference that the department had heard reports of armed protesters checking IDs and extorting local businesses.
Chief Best repeated the latter claim Thursday, before walking it back entirely later on in the day, admitting that the department actually didn’t have “any formal reports of this occurring.” Businesses contacted in the area have also roundly denied it, with one saying that “for the police chief to engage in this fear mongering is bad for our city.”
“We hadn’t felt safe to reopen UNTIL the police stood down,” Optimism Brewing, situated blocks away from the CHAZ, said Thursday.
After spending time in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone Thursday, the scene was less “‘Mad Max’ mayhem” and more “peaceful and cooperative.” No one checked my ID, there were no burnt-out husks of buildings, and the mood from many was a mix of solemn and hopeful.
Food and first aid tents are scattered throughout the six-block radius. Kids drew in chalk on the pavement. A hot dog vendor was selling food at the corner of 11th and Pine. Memorials to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sat in front of graffiti art adorning surrounding buildings. Spirited discussions and debates took place in public forums in front of the now-empty East Precinct.
Spent some time down at the #CHAZ today. Contrary to many reports, there were no armed guards checking IDs, things were extremely quiet and peaceful, and the people were both passionate and polite. pic.twitter.com/4UldiusDUq
— Nick Bowman (@NickNorthwest) June 11, 2020
There have been plenty of other reports of businesses happily cooperating to pitch in with snacks, supplies, and bathrooms. CHAZ residents even convened Wednesday and Thursday to go over everything from garbage collection to what the political messaging should be in the days ahead.
It’s in that messaging where things are still a work in progress. Daily discussions among protesters, while productive, haven’t always had everyone seeing eye to eye. That being so, it’ll be important in the days ahead for the group to keep its original intent in the forefront of discussions: massive, systemic reshaping of the policing system.
That’s a tall enough order on its own, but when you start mixing in a wide swathe of other progressive causes, it’s easy for others to muddy the waters and dismiss the larger movement as a bunch of people co-opting a cause to live out their anarchist fantasies (which it decidedly is not).
When protests moved inside City Hall on Tuesday, we heard one speaker implore Councilmember Kshama Sawant and others to “please stop taking advantage of us.” That came after Sawant spent a good chunk of her speech using the protest as a springboard for her “Tax Amazon” campaign.
One of the first speakers here tells CM Sawant not to co-opt Black Lives Matter as a vehicle for her political ambition and agenda. #seattleprotest pic.twitter.com/Xprx2A6vVH
— Jake Goldstein-Street (@GoldsteinStreet) June 10, 2020
Sawant later clarified that she believes her big business tax directly addresses the issues of racial inequality (which in some ways it certainly does). Even so, the larger demands from many protesters remain centered around remaking the city’s policing.
A list of of 30 demands from the group published online also covers a lot of ground. Much of it is rooted in reforming and remaking the justice system, and will likely be an important part of any future discussion on where to redirect excess police funding. But as a collective work, in many ways it attempts to swallow the elephant whole, so to speak.
Demands posted on flyers inside the CHAZ put forth a much simpler, three-point list, representing the core of the movement’s goals: Defund the police department, fund community-based health and safety, and drop all charges against protesters.
Opinion: No more reform — it’s time to rebuild Seattle policing
With national outlets (and President Trump) turning their focus to the CHAZ, Seattle’s movement is now under a microscope. When the rest of the country peers into that microscope, the CHAZ will have to ensure that what people see is a strong, united, and focused message.
More than that, there’s a vested interest from opponents to make it look dangerous, disorganized, and violent. We’ve seen that in the many seeds of disinformation sown in recent days.
On the other side of the barricades, protesters want to prove not only that they can function safely, but thrive without the police. If that experiment proves successful, it poses a very real, existential challenge to policing as we know it, proving that maybe, just maybe, there truly is a better way.
Whether that way exists within the confines of that six-block span of Capitol Hill remains to be seen, but things are certainly off to a good start.
Excuse me, please. I need to go make some more popcorn…
Some people call it “graffiti art adorning surrounding buildings”; I would call it vandalism. Maybe I’m old fashioned in that way. In fact, I am so old fashioned that I think state, county and city government leaders should not hand over to rioters government buildings and other people’s property and then leave with their tails between their legs. But the good people of Seattle seem to be just fine with it. It seems there is a fine line between being woke and being a joke.
Honest–I would like to add something to that but I can’t. I agree with all you said.
What’s with the closed, barricaded, heavily armed men at the borders of CHAZ, checking IDs? When did the left start promoting border police? If it’s so safe and peaceful why does not the Mayor and Governor walk through without heavily armed body guards?
U.S. Constitution
______________
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
________
Article 4, Section 4
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature can-not be convened) against domestic Violence.
If only the state and local jurisdictions were exercising same…
Local officials are facilitating the chaos.
Remember in Portland that Antifa attacked federal agents while Portland police stood by holding their d**ks doing nothing.
That for sure involved federal crimes but nothing came of it. What the hell?
There’s a larger issue here. This woman disappeared at Big Bend National Park, one of the most remote areas in the entire country with the lowest rate of visitation. How did she end up in the Seattle area? There’s something fishy here that goes far beyond “Federalism.”
Mayor Bill De Blasio’s daughter, 25 year old Chiara De Blasio was blocking traffic in an effort to setup an ambush to kill a NYPD cop. Chiara De Blasio was arrested.
Should be charged with attempted murder if true, but there is no law in New York unless you commit the crime of having a picnic or wedding or funeral with your family.
She also made some stupid comments about her fathers white privilege.
Independent– I liked her stupid comments about her father’s stupid white privilege. Reminds me of Obama saying the grandmother who raised and nurtured him was just ‘a typical white woman’.
Let their radical cancel and humiliation culture turn back on them.
Speaking of, isn’t his daughter looking for some “I am extremely ugly” advantage? What a freak.
True story: I recently watched a video on FB where security cameras showed a young black man go out into the street to a parked police car and poured accelerant all over it. When he lit it, it flared up on him. The next video was from another security camera apparently inside the lobby entrance of a building where he had run, totally ablaze, and then it just continued as he literally burned to death. I thought, what in the world did I just watch??? The video is gone now of course. These people are dangerously stupid.
Good outcome though. The moron might have set someone else on fire and that would have been bad.
On the breakdown of law, it seems the Court of Appeals can’t make up its mind whether to follow precedent in the Flynn case.
When even judges don’t respect the decisions of higher courts [been a lot of that lately] why should anyone?
Next stop Sup. Ct. and who knows how Weak Reed Roberts will bend over?
Judge Wilkins, a black, Obama appointee, injected a race-based hypothetical into the questions. Now I wonder if race unity is a factor, a black judge protecting another black judge. Unfortunately, that no longer sounds as bizarre as it once would have done to me. Race has become paramount in every issue. Not a way to run a country.
Everything is political, everything is racial.
Independent– “Everything is political, everything is racial.”
So it seems, so it seems. Hard to have any respect for these courts. They want to be politicians they should be treated like politicians.
Maybe they should all be elected.
I do not like the federal involvement in a local criminal issue. But it seems that in some places there is either federal law or no law. Maybe it would be more effective to find federal charges against a few mayors and prosecutors. I can’t make up my mind. The extension of federal jurisdiction here seems very thin on law. Bad precedent for a good purpose.
Meanwhile, on a true federal issue, what happened to the FBI agents who knelt to the mob? They and their supervisors, maybe on up to Wray, should be fired. Unless they, too, have been corrupted the US Marshals would not have done that.
Young – J. Edgar used to have places where he sent agents who he disliked. Those agents who knelled should be sent to those locations.
Not liking an agent might lead to reassignment. Disgraceful conduct, cowardice really, submitting to a mob should lead to immediate firing and disqualification from any law enforcement job, ever. How many more wimps with badges like the Broward Cowards who stood by while school kids were mudered can we tolerate?
Are we witnessing the expansion of Federal authority based on a an application of something akin to a butterfly theory in the reaction to these rioting protestors? Almost any of their antics can arguably affect interstate commerce one way or another. Looting a Walmart for goods produced out of state, blocking an Interstate highway, torching a gas station, etc,. all affect interstate commerce. Where does it stop? Desperate times created by rioting mobs provoke desperate measures, which measures sometimes look overly extreme in the calm of their aftermath.
Christopher Hoey – the Commerce Clause is how they expanded the Civil Rights enforcement.
Today, we forget how radically FDR and the Supreme Court expanded federal power through the New Deal commerce clause jurisprudence (court packing, Wickard v. Filburn, etc.). On the day after D-Day, the NYT front page included an above-the-fold article on a Supreme Court decision (US v. SEUA) holding that insurance was interstate commerce subject to federal jurisdiction. SEUA overturned an 1869 SCT decision holding that the insurance business wasn’t commerce, let alone interstate commerce. SEUA was controversial enough to be a 4-3 decision. Imagine something so newsworthy to share the front page with the D-Day landings. Yet today we rarely give a second thought to how radically federal government power was transformed only 80 years ago, to the point where virtually everything touches commerce in some way.
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In principle, Professor Turley makes a good point, one that I’m inclined to agree with at least in theory. Yet, what do you do when a state is unable or unwilling to prosecute a violent felon caught in the act? As you allude, there’s a good argument to be made that the riots violate the civil rights of the ordinary people who have the misfortune to live and work in the area. That certainly stands things on its head.
Part of her sentence should be a new tattoo on her forehead high above covid type mask level.
A bullet hole in the forehead would be more attractive on some of these people. What in hell happened to local government and maintaing the peace? Arson, robbery, assault–no big deal apparently.
Does everybody get a trophy for participating?
Whoops/ “Here we are in the 2020s….”
UNEASY?
Professor, torching police cards DEFINITELY “AFFECTS COMMERCE.”
Think about it. Shouldn’t take like to figure out this one’s a lot different than “wickard v fillburn”
JT, you state she would face state charges. Have those been filed? If not, why not?
I wonder if she’s out on bail.
“The alleged arsons happened on May 30 around the area of Sixth Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle. Local police abandoned the nearby East Precinct building, at 12th Avenue and Pine Street, earlier this week following violent protests that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. Demonstrators have moved in to the surrounding neighborhood and declared it a “cop-free” area that they call the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.”
So, it appears no police were present to arrest or charge Margaret Aislinn Channon with breaking Washington state law. If she or her cohorts had injured someone, you have to wonder who’d step in to protect the victim.
If there is not a sufficient, measured yet effective law enforcement and investigation response to this nationwide campaign of riot and chaos, then we will experience a country in which a campaign of destabilization proceeds to the next phase in the guerilla warfare textbook, open insurgency
Oh wait– with the “CHAZ,” we already have proceeded to that phase.
https://mwi.usma.edu/fm-3-24-2-0-us-counterinsurgency-doctrine-needs-update/
“If she or her cohorts had injured someone, you have to wonder who’d step in to protect the victim.”
Nobody.
Maybe because the city is Democrat and Antifa are the street troops for the DNC.
This to the question why state charges have not been filed.
yeah it’s pretty obvious this is shaping up as a low grade civil war lead by the Democratic party leadership.
although it’s not really a war, it’s more like a massacre, because the Republican side has done precious little to defend itself, or its leader, let alone law and order.
I tell you, if the country club republicans think they can throw Trump under the bus and survive, they better think again. but i will tell you how to see which big names are the worst. look for the elites that were slow and reluctant to embrace the trade war against China are precisely the ones who will be the first to stab him in the back.
top of the list: Kroch brothers losing money in their ag businesses.
“BIG AGRICULTURE” are the very ones who made out from NAFTA by the way. like gangbusters.
I don’t want to hear any crying about family farmers. Most family farmers were forced out of business back in the days of “Farm aid”
grain farming in america is heavily financialized and corporatized and these money men like the Koches are chief among the Republican factions who dislike Trump and want an end to tariffs, fast.
Kurtz– I agree. It is hard not to despise the established Republicans. They had two years holding the House but did nothing.
Squeeky said she thought banana repiblic death squads might be coming. She might be right. Import banana republic politics and somebody may decide to import banana republic cures.
Terrible situation.
Statement is rendered moot unless you define Republicans In Name Only who work for the left and the Constitutional Republic-ans. Same is true all Democrats were and remained socialists of one stripe or another. Difference is more has been done to clean up the GOP act than done to clean up the DNC act. Either way the terms are meaningless unless seriously defined.
While I’m aware the controlling law is that forbidding arson in the state of Washington, there are valid Federal concerns named by Prof. Turley but, as of yet, not by the US Department of Justice. The main one to me seems the defendants’ willingness to destroy property not belonging to them in order to create an atmosphere of terror. Anitfa wears masks for the same reason the KKK did when about their errands – to create the impression of an Invisible Empire of violence whose agents were free to act at will without let or hindrance.
Not only is Attorney General Barr and the justice department correct in acting against violent Invisible Empires of this kind, they are required to by the social contract that binds us all together in a commonwealth described by Thomas Hobbes in his book Leviathan. While Hobbes preferred a monarchy to protect the commonwealth, he allowed that aristocracy and democracy could also do so (he wrote during the English Civil war, and may have wished to hedge his bets).
Regardless of the nature of the sovereign holding its leash, Hobbes was aware that a legitimate commonwealth could only be legitimate if it had a Leviathan – an armed force ready to punish those who would destroy the commonwealth by force of arms. And here we are. Regardless of who they call themselves, our commonwealth is imperiled by violent radicals.
Strange
NYC 16 year old looter & arson suspect caught on video. Bronx mama wants justice.
You can see 16 year old Jahmel trying to start a fire with his homie. Then Jahmel is pushed to the ground & slams his face on the asphult by the homie who takes off when he sees the NYPD @ the 2:05 video mark.
The little turd got a small taste of what is owed to the other rioters. This fat, slob mother is a failure as a parent.
Why are the soi disant ‘poor’ so god-damned fat?
I think because they mostly eat carbs, which are cheap.
I think they eat too much of everything.
So?
Since she was previously “missing”, I wonder if this is a Patti Hearst situation. The SLA, or the Seattle Liberation Army.
She also appears to have crossed state lines. I appreciate that the feds are stepping in since the states are letting the looters go.
LOCK HER UP and also add the domestic Terrorism Charges. Washington State is out of control. A Governor who hates Trump loves lockdowns of citizens but Green Lights destruction, riots and etc. then a Mayor of Seattle who thinks this is all peaceful???? Total out of control
The great thing about the Left is that they don’t have the brains to run a lemonade stand.
You’re exactly right. As in the case of CHAZ, they only have brains enough to overtake the stand, drink all the lemonade, then Tweet that they need someone bring them more lemons (organic only, please), bottled water (Perrier, Fuji, or similar please–but not in Earth-killing plastic bottles, of course), and organic free-range sugar. Oh, and if someone could just go ahead and mix it up for them, they’d have more time to devote to keeping The Struggle Against The Man ™ going!
Maybe a generation of basement-dwelling-Cheetos-eating will help curtail their brawn until it matches their diminutive “brains.”
kydave – I am looking at a Fiji water bottle (purchased by my liberal wife) and it is PLASTIC!!!!
Ask her why she hates the planet. Well, maybe not unless your couch is comfortable!
kydave – you have to pick your battles. 😉
I’m enjoying the reign of rapper Raz Simone who’s taken to beating the crap out of Antifa when they disobey his “lawful” orders. De-civilization is alive and well. Trump should let the place self-destruct like every other commune and occupy what’s left after the guillotine work is over.
A little ahead of schedule: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/12/chaz-shouts-down-black-women-frustrated-they-highjacked-black-lives-matter-movement/
Yeah but the people who are paying them to conduct this campaign of destabilization are pretty smart and they own the intelligent machines.
Take a look at who’s handing out the extra money now, and its a list of all the companies that have been negatively impacted by Trump’s trade rivalry with China.
I have to say, this is not about George Floyd, his death was a spark but not the tinder and not the fuel. Perhaps a bad guy but one who should have been arrested and delivered to jail alive, not killed. The job of the police is to arrest suspects and let the judges mete out punishment after due process trials, not perform the executions themselves. Nor is it about the crazy ANTIFA psychopath criminals; it’s not about the “protest organizers” — it’s about those who are paying to keep this anger hot, those who won’t report on any of the other major news– it’s about those powerful financial interests who completely hate Trump because he inconvenienced their business operations. This is a destabilization campaign, mobilizing real social concerns, not to address those concerns, but to unhorse Trump.
Trust me, if the Democrats get their “blue wave” come November, it will all settle down pretty fast. The problem will evaporate, because they will turn off the attention in the mass and social media, they will turn the volume down, and let business get back to normal. Hey, the COVID will suddenly become less of a problem too, perhaps! As if by magic. It wont be magic, however, it will be design.
Sure, the CCP likes this chaos in America, but understand, they could not have executed this. It was Americans who took an awful police mistake or bad act; and exponentially projected it via the national mass and social media, and sent all the right messages from above to unleash the fury and green lighted the riot.
Understand how this country works. Nothing big happens without some powerful financial interests behind it. They may be organized from a wider base or a smaller one, but nothing big emerges by accident.
Among the green light messages encouraging riot looting and arson, is a tepid weak response from law enforcement at all levels.
It’s always easier to target the poor troublemakers than the big ones.
They certainly know how to ruin one!