[CS-FSLUG] Humor me a moment

[Ed Hurst]

I don't wish to post here about politics; this about my crazy life.
Please humor me for reposting here from my blog. I want to make sure
this is on the record, in case something unpleasant happens. This is not
fiction.
-------------------------------------------------------------

They're At It Again


I wrote once how the US Marshals ruined my work at a local church not
too far from where I now live.

While living in Oklahoma in the late 1990s, I struck up a friendship
with a man who ran a drug store business in eastern Oklahoma County. We
discussed Bible History and Theology at length over a few years' time.
He remains in essence a student of mine. This good friend of mine had an
elder brother working with him, running a pharmacy as part of the
company about two miles away. This elder brother got in serious trouble
with federal authorities. He was caught in a sting, offering to sell
illegal quantities of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride ("sudafed"). This is
a critical ingredient in homemade crystalized methamphetamine ("meth").
You may have heard such labs are terribly dangerous, and have resulted
in explosions and fires in motels and such, where criminals set up
clandestine labs for producing large batches of meth ("meth labs"). The
product is fast replacing crack cocaine as an abused substance of great
potency. With the large effort to crack down on the trafficking of
cocaine across our southern border, meth as a homegrown substitute is
catching up to the same flourishing level of trade in the underground
economy.

This man was arrested by federal agents because he made the offer to
sell a massive quantity of sudafed to an undercover narcotics officer.
They had the goods on him, and while out on bond, he fled prosecution.
His pickup truck was found a short time later parked at Los Angeles
International Airport. I am told the man had access to sufficient cash
reserves that flying to Central or South America would be easy, not to
mention places in the Asian Pacific area. That would be a smart move if
the man was determined to escape justice. My friend is totally unlike
his brother in that respect, acting with high moral standards and
carefully observing the requirements of the law. He often hosted
weeknight Bible studies where I was the teacher.

Under God's leading, I moved to Texas -- just about a week after the
elder brother's disappearance. I didn't even know about that mess at the
time. My younger sister and her husband had joined with my parents in
buying a ranch of sorts, and they asked me to live on the property with
them and help clear scrub trees and so forth. Once we were settled in
here, my friend began calling me often, carrying on the Bible study we
had engaged before I left Oklahoma. He also sent me a check, mostly as a
love offering, to help my family and I during the transition before any
of us got work here in Texas. He had mentioned this whole mess once we
established regular phone contact, as his phone was being tapped and his
mail being intercepted. He felt obliged to warn me, in case I was
uncomfortable with the idea. Given the timing of all this, I am not
totally surprised the US Marshals believed my presence in a remote rural
area might indicate I was hiding my friend's brother. They came to visit
a month or so later, and asked questions regarding this suspicion of theirs.

My final three years in the US Army as a Military Policeman I served as
a DARE Officer. You may know that was a program whereby police officers
were trained to enter the school system and conduct classes with
students to convince them to stay away from the temptations of substance
abuse and gangs. So there could not have been anyone more on the
Marshals' side at that point. I still had a pair of police handcuffs,
and had this fugitive shown his face at my door, I would have used them
to restrain him while waiting the police to come retrieve him. I invited
the Marshals to look the place over, including a search of my residence,
knowing they would not find evidence of his presence. They declined and
left after we talked a short time.

What I did not know was they had spent the morning in the town nearby
asking around if folks knew me. Their questions were aimed at
establishing if anyone felt I was the sort of fellow who would hide
fugitive from justice. At that point, I had become the Music Director of
the local Baptist church. The deacons were all big shots in that little
town, and very nearly had me fired that week. As it was, the tenor of
the questioning was that the Marshals already knew I was such a criminal
kind, but were seeking confirmation. This is completely unethical, but
not illegal by their rules. As it was, I could never effectively
minister in that town again. That was in 1999.

It was quite some time before I learned how the Marshals had
intentionally defamed me in this way, and I wrote them a note
complaining of this treatment. A part of my message was that this sort
of ham-handed approach was the sort of thing that turned their best
supporters into enemies. No one offered so much as a mere "sorry about
that." When I began looking into the possibility this was their becoming
their typical behavior, I was inundated with information that proves I
got off rather lightly. I have since written articles hostile to this
oppressive and hateful handling of citizens.

Well, they are at it again. This past week, they returned to harass my
friend's family some more. They have contacted people who attended our
Bible studies, characterizing me as a sort of Anton LeVey, leading a
weird religious cult. They describe me as a bald, evil-looking fellow
who often wears a black robe. I suppose if you visit a couple of forums
of which I am a member and look at some of my posts, you will see an
avatar I made from an old picture of me. At that point I was shaving my
hair close and had a mustache and goatee. Yes, perhaps I do look "evil"
-- as do a large number of men living out this way, who also shave their
heads and sport similar facial hair. However, I do not own a black robe,
nor even a good choir robe of any color. I once had a brown costume,
with a hood and rope belt to resemble a medieval friar, but that was
before I was stationed in Europe in 1988.

When I first opened this blog a year ago, I posted a large amount of
material that could be fairly characterized as hostile to my national
government. Make of it what you will. Federal agents have worked hard to
earn my hostility, and I continue to see it as a much larger pattern of
an growing police state. I called a truce a while back, because I really
had better things to do. Still, do not be surprised if they come to
visit me again and I disappear from the Net for awhile.

-- 
Ed Hurst
-----------
A Bible Site -- http://webs.tconline.net/softedges/
Linux & Unix Help -- http://ed.asisaid.com/
Blog -- http://ed.asisaid.com/blog/