Land of the Free, Part VI

Land of the Free, Part I
Land of the Free, Part II
Land of the Free, Part III
Land of the Free, Part IV
Land of the Free, Part V

With my court appearance scheduled for 8:45 am on Friday January 21, 2011, my mom and I left for Indiana on Thursday afternoon. Due to the heavy snow and single-digit temperatures, the drive was both dangerous and time-consuming. Nevertheless, we made it to Putnam County in one piece.

Early the next morning at the courthouse, we met my public defender, Scott Adams, for the first time. Considering there was no merit to any of the charges against me, Mr. Adams was confident that I would be acquitted. Still, even though I knew the charges were baseless, I was very nervous because I'd been screwed over by the legal system before. Just the fact that I had to be there for court that day is a pretty good example of what I'm talking about, considering I was the victim of serious crimes, not a perpetrator.

In the courtroom, I was surprised to see that both Sheriff Fenwick and Corporal Chadd showed up to testify against me. I figured they had satisfied their sadistic need to victimize me several months earlier when they harassed me, beat me up, kidnapped me, and ultimately forced me to spend three nights in jail. But apparently that wasn't enough for them. So here they were again, taking pleasure in their quest to further punish me for crimes they committed against me.

(Every time I read that last paragraph, I feel so much disgust and hatred for those piece-of-shit scumbags. It takes a really sick-minded person to commit crimes against someone you're paid to protect, then to go out of your way to try to punish the victim even more than you already have. And that's after having six months to grow a conscience. Unbelievable!)


* * * * *

With court in session, the prosecutor called Corporal Chadd to testify. At this time Scott Adams requested that the judge instruct Sheriff Fenwick to leave the courtroom during Corporal Chadd's testimony. When Sheriff Fenwick left the room, testimony began.

As Corporal Chadd began his testimony, he explained that in response to a report of a suspicious pedestrian walking east near the Putnamville Correctional Facility, he stopped his vehicle near the Lincoln Park Speedway and established contact with a pedestrian who met the description of the suspicious person. When the prosecutor asked Corporal Chadd if he could identify the suspect, he said he could. Quickly identifying me as the suspect, Corporal Chadd then added that my hair isn't as long as it was when he stopped me. I don't specifically remember much more of what Corporal Chadd said as a witness for the prosecution.

Eventually Scott Adams began his cross-examination of Corporal Chadd. As nervous as I was, I don't remember any specific questions Mr. Adams asked Corporal Chadd, but I do remember Mr. Adams masterfully setting the bait to reel in Corporal Chadd. With the greatest of ease, Mr. Adams took Corporal Chadd out of his comfort zone, much like I had done in July of 2010. This time, though, Chadd had to think even harder to keep his responses in line with the lies he had already told. This time he was being watched, so he couldn't just make things up and get away with it as he had done the previous summer when the only witness to his crimes was his co-conspirator, Sheriff Steve Fenwick.

Without much effort, Mr. Adams used a kind of intellectual misdirection to confuse Corporal Chadd into unknowingly admitting that his suspicion of me was based entirely on hearsay, rather than any real evidence. Once Corporal Chadd finally realized he was saying exactly what Mr. Adams wanted him to say, Corporal Chadd had already damaged his story beyond repair. As a result, Corporal Chadd began altering minor details of his story, trying to make it appear as if he was clarifying his story, hoping no one would notice.

With the minor changes, Corporal Chadd's new story went something like this: "Actually my first contact with the suspect was in the cemetery near the speedway." By saying this, Corporal Chadd apparently hoped to establish that he initially encountered me more than a couple hundred feet from the road, with me trying to hide in a wooded area. If that had been true, it may have suggested that I actually was behaving suspiciously, thus justifying his investigation. However, Mr. Adams quickly reminded Corporal Chadd that his own testimony and arrest report had already established that I was neither hiding nor attempting to hide. Here's what Corporal Chadd said in the arrest report: "When I arrived in the area, I observed a male subject sitting in the grass on the north side of US 40, just east of the Lincoln Park Speedway entrance." (That doesn't really make it sound like I was trying to hide, does it?)

Corporal Chadd is not a good liar. In fact, he's a very bad liar, and every word from his mouth made his story even more difficult to believe, especially because Scott Adams is damn good at catching the lies, then asking follow-up questions that expose the lies. Over and over, Mr. Adams pointed out the inconsistencies in Corporal Chadd's ever-evolving story. As a result, Corporal Chadd's testimony unintentionally helped my case. Corporal Chadd's testimony effectively proved that his "investigation" of me was based entirely on hearsay.

Well, hearsay is almost never admissible as evidence. Legally, this meant that as far as Corporal Chadd was concerned, there was never a suspicious person to investigate. And if there was no suspicious person, Corporal Chadd had no reasonable suspicion that I (or anyone else) had committed an infraction or violated an ordinance.

This law exists precisely because of situations like what happened to me. The report of a suspicious person was a total lie. Since there was not actually a suspicious person in the area, there was nothing for Corporal Chadd to investigate. If a cop tries to investigate someone for something that never happened, that person doesn't have to cooperate. In fact, the prison guard's false report of a suspicious person is the only crime that had occurred prior to Corporal Chadd's arrival on the scene.

In case you still don't get it, think about it like this:

If I had called 911 yesterday from a pay phone and reported anonymously that the resident of 123 Main Street murdered Ryan Powell (yes, me), then left Ryan's body in "the woods near the high school," the first thing the cops would have done is attempt to contact Ryan in case he was actually still alive. If they were unable to contact Ryan, they would have immediately begun searching for his body in the woods near the high school. (In fact, they probably would have done both of those things concurrently.) If they couldn't find a body in the woods near the high school, yet they still thought that Ryan may actually have been killed, the cops would probably have then attempted to contact the resident of 123 Main Street to ask some questions about the reported murder. However, since there is no evidence that a crime has even occurred, the resident of 123 Main Street would not have to cooperate with the cops, nor should he. Until there is some evidence that Ryan is actually dead, the resident of 123 Main Street cannot be considered a suspect in Ryan's murder, particularly because I am obviously still alive.

No one can be forced to cooperate in the investigation of a crime that hasn't happened. Because I am alive right now, the resident of 123 Main Street cannot possibly have killed me. Furthermore, he doesn't have to prove that he did not kill someone who is very much alive. Similarly, because there was no evidence that a crime had occurred that day in Indiana, I could not have been suspected of having committed a crime that never occurred. And since I was not suspected of having committed a crime that never occurred, if a cop chose to treat me like a suspect (which is what happened), I had the right not to cooperate. End of story.

Establishing that Corporal Chadd's "investigation" was based entirely on hearsay is all it took for Mr. Adams to dismantle the foundation of the prosecution's case. Corporal Chadd's argument essentially became, "When I saw some guy sitting near the side of the road, I assumed he had committed a crime, just because. I treated him like a suspect, and he didn't like it, so I charged him with offenses that he could not possibly have committed, then I sent him to jail."

Sadly, as obvious as it was, I don't think the judge ever figured out that Corporal Chadd had lied with almost every word he spoke, both throughout the arrest report and during his testimony. If the judge did figure it out, he didn't care.


* * * * *

I remember essentially nothing about Sheriff Fenwick's testimony, I guess because there was nothing memorable about it. All I remember is that when Mr. Adams had finished his cross-examination of Fenwick, Mr. Adams asked me if I wanted to testify. He indicated that he felt good about how everything was going so far, and that I didn't need to testify if I didn't want to; he was just making sure I knew I could now testify if I wanted to. I responded by telling him that I trusted him and that I was too nervous to testify.

Since I chose not to testify, the prosecutor gave his closing statements. Mr. Adams then followed with his closing statements.

I was already impressed with Mr. Adams, but his closing statements blew me away. Having established long ago that Corporal Chadd's suspicion was based solely on hearsay, Mr. Adams used that as a stepping stone to his remaining arguments. Citing the case of Adam Starr vs. State of Indiana, Mr. Adams demonstrated that "a passenger in a car is not subject to the same criminal penalties by refusing to identify himself when, unlike the driver of the vehicle, there was no reasonable suspicion that he had committed an infraction or violated an ordinance."

OK, toss out the 'Failure to Identify Self' charge. That was easy.

Now let's take a look at Bobby Greeno vs. State of Indiana:

"The Fourth Amendment permits a police officer, without any reasonable suspicion of any wrongdoing, to approach a citizen to ask questions; however, that citizen remains free to ignore the questions and walk away. Accordingly, when a citizen in such a circumstance walks away from the officer, the officer must have reasonable suspicion a crime is, was, or is about to occur prior to yelling stop and chasing the citizen. Because the officer had no reasonable suspicion when he yelled for Greeno to stop and then chased after Greeno, his warrantless search of Greeno was improper."

This says that Corporal Chadd had the right to approach me and ask me questions, but it also says I didn't have to answer any of his questions. Since the report of a suspicious pedestrian was hearsay (which effectively means there was no suspicious pedestrian), and since I was not legally obligated to identify myself or speak at all when Corporal Chadd approached me, at no time was Corporal Chadd enforcing a law. This means I could not possibly have resisted law enforcement, no matter how hard I tried.

That means we get to toss out the 'Resisting Law Enforcement' charge, too.

With that charge gone, since I had not committed ANY violations, the search that yielded my pipe was a warrantless and illegal search. The pipe was fruit of the poisonous tree, and thus it never really existed.

Slam dunk. 0 for 3, prosecution.

The judge clearly wanted to rule that I was guilty, without even hearing a word of my side of the story, but Scott Adams gave him no choice. Mr. Adams basically said, "Here's the law. The law clearly says he didn't break any laws. We're done. See ya."

The judge took a minute to look through a couple law books before APOLOGIZING to the prosecution team for the 'Not Guilty' ruling he was about to make. He said, "If I convict him, it's just going to end up being overturned in appeals court." After explaining to the prosecution team (particularly the sheriff) why he had to find me not guilty, the judge then lectured me about how I'm such a punk for doing what I did. He said if he had been in the cops' position, he would have done exactly what they did. He said if I was his son, he would have kicked my ass.

Basically, the judge revealed that he is almost as much of a scumbag terrorist as Sheriff Steve Fenwick, Corporal Jon Chadd, and the Putnam County District Attorney. He showed that they all believe they're above the law, and that it's wrong for the general public to know their rights. Even more unbelievable, he obviously thinks it's wrong for someone to stand up for his constitutional rights when he's been victimized by the people who are paid to protect him. Essentially, he proved that they are all very stupid, and that they all get off on wasting the taxpayers' money to fuck with people who clearly have not done anything remotely illegal.

So yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that one, judge, because YOU ARE WRONG. You are very wrong and I was very right. Not only was I legally right, but I was also morally right. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't do anything different. So you can go fuck yourself, and you can also thank me for standing up for your rights, asshole.

With all the bullshit I'd been through, all it took was about 200 words to prove that all the charges against me were bogus. Like I said several posts ago, this was not a difficult case. So if any of the people who were trying to crucify me are reading this, what do you have to say now?


THE END



* * * * *

Now that it's all over, let's flash back to something Corporal Chadd said in his testimony.

Remember when Corporal Chadd identified me as the suspect, when he said something about my hair being shorter now than it was back in July 2010? That remark was kind of interesting because the day I went to court, my hair was actually about an eighth of an inch longer than it had been when he victimized me last summer.

Could it be that Corporal Chadd's memory was just off a little when he said that, or did he actually possess something that he thought was an accurate reminder of the length of my hair? Something like my drivers' license, which I haven't seen since he illegally confiscated it from me back in July 2010 near the Lincoln Park Speedway?

I took the following picture a week after the false arrest (and I didn't get a haircut during that week). My hair is the same length in this picture as it was when Corporal Chadd identified me in the courtroom.




It's kind of interesting that his memory told him my hair was longer during the incident than during court, considering it was actually shorter. Again, I wonder if his inaccurate memory of longer hair has something to do with the fact that I haven't seen my drivers' license since the moment Corporal Chadd illegally confiscated it from me. I'm not alleging that he kept it as a trophy (like serial killers keep their victims' possessions), but the evidence seems to point in that direction.

This is about how I looked in my drivers' license pic:




* * * * *

One more thing:

In case you're wondering, I almost never smoke pot. In fact, I almost always turn it down when someone passes me a joint or a packed bowl. However, the weed I found was a gift from the tramping gods, as was the pipe, so hell yeah I smoked it. I most certainly did inhale, and I also enjoyed it. I'm not ashamed to admit it, just as I'm not ashamed to admit I drink a beer every once in a while, too. If that lowers your opinion of me, I'm over it.

Also, Scott Adams, if you ever find your way to this story, I want you to know I have tons of respect for you, and I truly appreciate the passion you displayed in your quest for justice. Keep it up, man. Thank you!

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Land of the Free, Part V

Land of the Free, Part I
Land of the Free, Part II
Land of the Free, Part III
Land of the Free, Part IV

I was taken to the Putnam County Jail sometime during the evening of Saturday July 24, 2010. There's not much to say about this except that I was there for almost three full days. The dude who was responsible for scanning my fingerprints didn't even know how to use the scanning machine, even though it gave him clear instructions with every step. Since it took him at least three tries with each finger to get an acceptable print, I kept suggesting that he try it a different way (the way the machine kept telling him to do it), but he just didn't get it. It was a scene straight out of Idiocracy.

After two days in jail I was transported to the Putnam County Courthouse in shackles and cuffs, along with five other male prisoners and two female prisoners. Since all but one of the other male prisoners were frequent guests at the jail, these prisoners helped me get an idea of what to expect during court. Blown away by the ridiculousness of the charges I was facing, especially considering I was 2,600 miles into a coast-to-coast walk, these guys expected the judge to throw out my charges.

The judge didn't throw out my charges.

Instead, he accepted my 'innocent' plea and set my bail for $3,000, although I only had to come up with 10 percent of it (or $300) to be released. (I don't know the proper terminology here, and it's not very important, so if I got it wrong, just deal with it.) I was then given a piece of paper that contained information regarding my next court date, as well as the contact information for the public defender who had been assigned to my case.

As we were getting ready to leave the courtroom, our female jail guard began acting friendly and helpful to me and the other guy whose bail had been set. (Jail employees mostly get off on being assholes to the prisoners, so this was a shock.) Aside from asking questions about my walk, she also said when we get back to the jail she would let me use the office phone to arrange a Western Union money transfer to take care of my bail.

Upon returning to the jail, I waited patiently for someone to let me use the phone. There was a phone in the jail cell that I could have used to make a collect call whenever I wanted, but I didn't plan to use that phone because the guard had made it quite clear that she would let me use the office phone (which I assumed would be free). A few hours later, though, I realized no one was ever going to let me use the office phone. So eventually I used the phone in the cell to call my parents collect and let them know I had been in jail for the last two days. During that call I also told my mom what I thought she needed to know if she intended to bail me out. (My dad, of course, was very pissed off at me as soon as he found out I was in jail.)

The lady guard had also told me someone from the jail staff would take me to the Western Union at Kroger to receive the bail money if I could get someone to wire it there. This would have been a lot more convenient for my parents than driving four hours from central Ohio, which would be an expensive trip considering the costs of gas and a motel room. During our expensive phone call, in an attempt to save my folks some money and trouble, I informed my mom of the Western Union option.

It turns out that the guard lied to me about this stuff, too. So after wasting all that time waiting for the jail staff to let me use the phone, I unknowingly blew my chances of getting out of jail that night. It also caused me to spend a lot more time talking to my mom, making sure she had the details straight, thus leading to a much more expensive phone call than was necessary.

Shortly after noon the next day (July 27), someone called my name through the jail cell's PA speaker. When I responded, the voice informed me that my bail had been taken care of. A guard came to the door to escort me to the dressing room near the booking desk, where I changed out of the orange and white striped jail clothes and back into my own clothes. Since the jail staff had thoroughly sifted through my gear when I was booked three days earlier, leaving a total mess inside my pack, I had to spend a lot of time and effort re-organizing it all. While I organized everything, I had to try to account for at least a couple hundred different items I was carrying during my walk.

After I'd finished organizing my gear, all that seemed to be missing was my prescription medications. (Well, there were a couple other things missing, including the glass pipe I found in Arizona, as well as the peppercorn-sized nugget of weed that remained of the bud I found way back in California. Of course, I already knew I wasn't gonna get either of those things back.)

After I brought my missing prescriptions to the attention of the jail staff, someone indicated the pills were not where they were supposed to be, so it looked like I wasn't going to get my medication back. Needless to say, this pissed me off, so I made a smart-ass remark, directed to no one in particular, yet to everyone at the same time because I was kinda sick of being fucked with, which seemed to be the only thing they do in Putnam County, Indiana. Eventually my pills turned up and I was escorted to the front of the jail building, where I awkwardly met my parents.

Before leaving the building, I realized they had not returned my drivers' license. When I brought that to the attention of the receptionist, she told me the district attorney's office probably had it. So we drove to the courthouse in downtown Greencastle, where the district attorney's office is located. I then went to the DA's office and informed the receptionist that I was told my drivers' license would be here.

They didn't have it. (What a surprise!) They told me my public defender should have it, and I needed to talk to him if I wanted my license back.

See a trend here? Yeah, the justice system of Putnam County, Indiana exists just to fuck with people.

Unable to establish contact with my public defender, Scott Adams (who is very cool, by the way), my folks and I eventually went to a bank to try to cash a check the jail had given me in place of the cash I'd carried into the jail. (The check was written for $2 or $3 less than I carried into the jail because they charged me for the shitty quality bathroom supplies I never asked for.)

Even though my mom has accounts in Ohio with PNC bank, this branch of PNC Bank would not cash my check from the sheriff's department. Instead they gave us directions to the bank that issued the check, so we chased our tails to the check-issuing bank in another attempt to cash the check. This bank's teller cashed the check for me, but she gave the impression that she was breaking the bank's normal rules by doing it. (That oughtta tell you a little more about the Putnam County Sheriff's Department.)

After all the bullshit Putnam County had put us through since my parents arrived, it was not difficult for my dad to figure out that Putnam County had been putting me through even more bullshit almost since the moment I set foot in the county. Understandably, he was no longer pissed at me. Like me, he was now pissed off at the people who caused all this unnecessary trouble.

With everything finally taken care of (excluding the retrieval of my drivers' license and my return to court, of course), my folks and I stopped for lunch at a fast food joint before they finally dropped me off outside the speedway, where my walk had been so unlawfully interrupted three days earlier.

My mom suggested that maybe they should drop me off at the border of the next county, to eliminate any possibility of being victimized again by the Putnam County scumbag thugs, but that was not an option. My objective was to walk from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, not most of the way from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

I don't cheat, OK. I don't cheat when I walk, just as I don't cheat in any other aspect of life. Throughout this walk, I never allowed anyone to transport any of my gear for me, nor did I ever push my gear in a cart, nor did I skip even the shortest segment of my walking route. Whenever I needed to go out of the way, I walked out of the way and then I walked back, always carrying my gear. Had I made the decision to skip either ten miles or ten feet, I knew I would never be able to say, truthfully, that I walked from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean.

In case I haven't made it clear yet: I didn't walk every inch of 2,600 miles just to let a couple terrorist cops ruin everything.

The day I was released from jail, even though I didn't get started again until 4:30 pm, I still walked almost 14 miles, from the speedway to Stilesville. The next day I walked a little over 24 miles, to the eastern edge of the Indianapolis airport. (I walked a few miles out of my way that day to get an x-ray at an urgent care facility because my ribs constantly hurt like hell from being beaten up by Corporal Chadd and Sheriff Fenwick. My ribs continued to hurt for the next month.) The next few days I walked 26.4 miles, 30.3 miles, and another 30 miles, ending up about 5 miles into Ohio. The next day I walked another 20 miles by 6:00, stopping at my grandparents' house for a short, well-deserved break.


* * * * *
My next court date was set for September 16. Since I wasn't sure if I could finish the walk by then, the timing of the court date kept me pretty stressed out. About ten days after being released from jail, though, I was finally able to talk to Scott Adams, my public defender, who told me it shouldn't be any trouble to postpone the court date. His reassurance eased a little bit of my stress, but the Putnam County incident had me stressed out in about 15 other ways, none of which could be eased at least until my court date.

After what I endured in Putnam County, Indiana, I spent a lot of time thinking about cops. I even considered quitting the walk because I was so stressed out from constantly worrying about the next run-in with cops. You never know when the next cop is going to stop to harass you, and you worry about it every time you see a cop car. In fact, you worry every time you see a vehicle that even looks like it might be a cop car, especially in rural areas, where cops tend to be incredibly stupid.

As you should already know, I didn't quit. After walking to my parents' house in central Ohio, I rested for a week. Following my week off, I had still only taken about 20 days off since beginning the walk 174 days earlier and 2,829 miles away. When I started moving again on August 13, I had less than 600 miles left to go (or so I thought) and 30 days to do it. My goal was to finish by September 12 because that was the final day of the Coney Island Cyclone's operating season.

Judging by what Google Maps showed me before I left my parents' house, I thought I only had maybe 560-580 miles left to go. But extra miles add up quickly, especially in places like Pennsylvania, where there are about 200 possible routes to take, with none standing out as better than any other. Google Maps tells you one route one day, then it tells you some other route on another day, and Google Maps also doesn't take into consideration whether its best route takes you through enough towns.

As beat up as I already was when I left my parents' house, I really had to bust ass, averaging at least 20 miles a day over the next few weeks, if I could to expect to have any chance of finishing the walk by September 12. And I did bust ass, averaging about 22 miles a day when I pulled into State College, Pennsylvania on August 28, more than a day ahead of schedule.

Even though the distance from home to Coney Island ended up being 624 miles, rather than 560-580 miles, I still made it to Coney Island on September 12, as planned. Unfortunately, I didn't get to ride the Cyclone because it rained all day. I have no idea if the park even opened earlier in the day, but it was a ghost town by the time I arrived, as afternoon became evening.

Bummer.

The main reason I picked Coney Island as the walk's endpoint was so I could ride the classic coaster just before finishing. Having wanted to ride this coaster for years, I'd never had a chance. And now, my third visit to Coney Island, I still couldn't ride it. But hey, at least Totonno's was open, as was Nathan's, each of which constituted my final meal of the walk.


* * * * *
Walking around in Central Park on September 13, now finished with the walk, Scott Adams called me to check on my status. Even though I could have made it to Indiana for my scheduled court appearance three days later, I asked him to push it back a little to give me some time to recover from the walk. I figured it would only be set back a few weeks, but they ended up rescheduling my court appearance for January 21, 2011.

(Read the exciting conclusion of this story in Land of the Free, Part VI.)

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Land of the Free, Part IV

Land of the Free, Part I
Land of the Free, Part II
Land of the Free, Part III

Are you sick of reading this yet? Yeah, well I'm sick of writing it. This story should have ended a long time ago. However, Corporal Chadd's total disrespect for the law wouldn't allow it.

Most of what I've said so far in this series of posts has been in defense of my own actions. I never broke a law, and Corporal Chadd's own account of the situation proves I never broke a law. But his arrest report also proves that he and Sheriff Steve Fenwick committed some serious crimes against me. So I'll now use the remainder of the arrest report to further pick apart the charges against me, as well as to demonstrate how Corporal Chadd incriminated himself in the offenses he committed against me.

---

In the first two paragraphs of Corporal Chadd's arrest report, all he established is that he saw me sitting on my backpack beside the road and he asked me a few questions, two of which I willingly answered (even though I didn't have to answer any of them). When he asked me the magic third question, though, I invoked my constitutional right to remain silent and I stopped cooperating because, as I've already explained, I don't cooperate with harassment from law enforcement officers.

Corporal Chadd continues:

At this time Sheriff Steve Fenwick arrived at my location at which time I again asked the subject for identification to which he again refused to provide. At this time Sheriff Fenwick asked the subject to provide identification to which he again refused.

First of all, he has not accused me of breaking any laws so far.

Right off the bat, though, he tells a lie. Sheriff Fenwick certainly was not on the scene yet, as Corporal Chadd didn't even call for backup until near the end of the report. I don't know why he chose to lie here, saying that Sheriff Fenwick was already on the scene, but I suspect he did it in an attempt to establish a witness that would back up his story. That is, I suspect he did it because he figured the lies of two cops would hold more weight than the truth. Apparently, though, he lacks the mental capacity to understand that he is one of the worst liars on the face of the planet, and it doesn't matter how many people back up your story if your story doesn't back up itself.

Don't just take my word for it when I call out his lie. Instead, weigh my account of the incident vs. Corporal Chadd's account of the incident to figure out whose account adds up to a believable story.

Some questions you might want to ask yourself (if you're trying to make an informed judgment by weighing the evidence):

• Since Corporal Chadd had only asked me a few quick questions before this paragraph, and since he did not indicate that I reacted in a hostile manner, exactly when or why did he call for backup?
  
  
• Does my lawful refusal to answer one question seem like the kind of thing that would make a 250-pound cop call for backup? (Remember, I weigh 130 lbs.)
  
  
• If he did call for backup so soon after responding to the report of merely a suspicious pedestrian, does it make sense that the sheriff--the actual sheriff, not a deputy--would have responded to his call for backup?
  
  
• And here's the biggie: How could his backup already have arrived on the scene by this point in the report, considering he had accounted for no more than 30 seconds prior to this paragraph?

His report doesn't add up, does it?


* * * * *
Like most cops, Corporal Chadd is not accustomed to dealing with people who legally assert their rights, for at least two reasons: 1) Most of the people he stops have actually committed a violation, which obligates them to identify themselves, and 2) Most Americans don't know their rights, so they cooperate with cops even when they don't have to. (Recent comments on this blog prove my point, as do almost all the posts on the law enforcement message boards that have been trying to vilify me for standing up for my rights.)

Instinct vs. Critical Thinking

Police work is filled with repetitive tasks that rarely require much critical thought. The repetition involved in police training and police work builds instinct, not critical thinking skills. So when a cop finds himself in a position that requires him to think critically, rather than trusting his instinct, he becomes a deer in headlights. He finds himself in a chess match, except he doesn't know how to play chess. Considering the instinct-oriented nature of police work, Corporal Chadd had rarely been presented opportunities to develop the critical thinking skills required for handling the kind of situation he created when he began harassing me.

Usually when a suspect refuses to identify himself to a cop, the cop has already charged the suspect with an offense. Having already charged the suspect with an offense, the cop is allowed to use necessary force to arrest and restrain the suspect. One very important detail in my case, however, is that I hadn't already been charged with an offense, nor was I suspected of having committed an offense, which means the law did not require me to identify myself or cooperate with Corporal Chadd. My refusal to cooperate put Corporal Chadd in an unfamiliar position and obligated him to play by rules he didn't know quite as well as the normal rules. (Actually, my refusal to cooperate obligated Corporal Chadd to leave me alone, but he chose instead to stick around and harass me.)

When I refused to identify myself to Corporal Chadd, I took him out of his comfort zone. Also when I refused to identify myself, I forced Corporal Chadd to start thinking about how to respond to my actions, which means he could no longer rely on instinct. In fact, every subsequent move I made throughout the encounter forced him to think hard before making his next move. I effectively took instinct out of the picture.

If you put yourself in Corporal Chadd's place for a moment, it shouldn't be difficult to understand why he was caught off guard by my refusal to cooperate with his harassment. Since he didn't have any built-in, rehearsed responses to any of my actions, I unintentionally took him off his game. My actions took away his ability to rely on instinct and forced him to think before acting. As a result, he constantly had to revise his gameplan in his effort to persuade me to comply with his unwarranted demands. You can tell by reading his next several statements that he doesn't really know what to do because he keeps doing the same thing over and over: He tries to intimidate me, hoping I'll cave in to his pressure, but I call his bluff every time, so he backs off and tries again with a slightly different approach.

---

At this time I attempted to reason with the subject and asked for his name and birth date to which he again stated he did not have to provide.

(He still has not accused me of breaking any laws.)

Why did he keep asking me the same thing over and over instead of arresting me?

Here's why: Because he can't arrest someone just for pissing him off. By restraining himself from using physical force, Corporal Chadd demonstrated that he understood he couldn't legally do anything except continually ask me to cooperate, which by now had become harassment and misconduct.

But why would he have called for backup (as he implied he had done early in the arrest report) if he intended to continue "reasoning" with me? And if his backup was already there by this point, as Chadd claims in the report, why did Corporal Chadd still feel such a need to keep "reasoning" with me? Why didn't the sheriff give him a hand?

The answer: He wouldn't have called for backup. And contrary to his earlier claim, he still had not called for backup at this point in the report. There still were no other law enforcement officers on the scene at this time.

Unlike Corporal Chadd, I was very accustomed to this kind of situation because I had to deal with unwarranted police stops on a nearly daily basis for the past several months. With all the police harassment I'd endured throughout the first several months of my walk, I had become very practiced at responding to such harassment; I knew exactly what to expect during these police stops, and my responses had become very fine-tuned (which is confirmed by Corporal Chadd's description of my reactions in the arrest report). So I continued to stand my ground, knowing full well that there was nothing remotely illegal about my behavior. Not only was it my right not to cooperate with Corporal Chadd, but I also consider it my responsibility.

---

While speaking with the subject he continued to yell and tell us that he was a US citizen and did not have to provide us with any information and that he was aware of the Constitution. After numerous attempts to reason with the subject and asking him to quiet down and cooperate, he stated that he would not provide us with any information.

(He still has not accused me of breaking any laws.)

Not that it matters, but I didn't yell. Also, as before, I didn't say I was a US citizen; I simply reminded him that this is the United States of America, Land of the Free, where you are allowed to walk from sea to shining sea without having to fear that you might be harassed by cops every day, just for walking.

Take note that Corporal Chadd is still trying to "reason" with me instead of arresting me. What this tells you even more clearly than before is: 1) He was very aware that this was not a serious situation, and 2) He knew he had no legal justification to either use force on me or arrest me because he knew I had not broken any laws. He just wanted to get his way because he's a power-mad criminal punk.

This all supports my claim that Corporal Chadd still had not called for backup. So here are a few more questions to ask yourself:

• If he had actually called for backup, and if his backup (the sheriff) had already arrived well before this point, why does most of Corporal Chadd's language make it seem as if he was still the only law enforcement officer on the scene?
  
  
• Between Corporal Chadd and Sheriff Fenwick (who, according to Corporal Chadd's arrest report, was already on the scene), do you really believe the best strategy they could think of was to ask me for my ID over and over if they had ANY suspicion that I had committed an offense?
  
  
• And if they actually were both there, asking me for my ID time and again, what else does that tell you? It should tell you Corporal Chadd is a really bad liar, because regardless of whether the sheriff had already arrived, this story just doesn't add up.
  
  
• If anything Corporal Chadd says is true, why didn't he and his supposed backup just take me down and cuff me right away?
  
  
• If I kept resisting his legitimate attempts to gain control of my arm, as he claims I did a few times, why did he keep putting up with it? Especially considering he and the sheriff outweighed me by something like 500 lbs to 130 lbs. Why? There's gotta be a reason!

I'll tell ya why: Because he had no justification to arrest me, touch me, or even speak to me. He has effectively admitted he had no legitimate business with me by writing an arrest report with so many obvious holes, in addition to the fact that the report never mentions any of my alleged violations.

---

At this time I told the subject to turn around and place his hands behind his back to which he stated that I better not touch him and that he was not going to comply. At this time I again asked the subject to place his hands behind his back to which he again stated he would not.

ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?!?

OK, so if I had already committed a violation that warranted arrest, AND if I was being so loud and belligerent, AND if Sheriff Steve Fenwick was already on the scene to back up Corporal Chadd... then why didn't Corporal Chadd or Sheriff Fenwick arrest me after any one of NINE defiant acts he has now listed?

And why did he hesitate when I told him he "better not touch me"?

By this point he was starting to get a little more physical with me, and I began sensing that he might be the kind of guy who considers himself above the law. So I told him it would be a good idea for him to go read the law before he tries anything else with me. He responded, "Oh, I know the law; I'm an attorney."

Yeah, right. That's pretty believable.

If by this point I had committed any violation that warranted arrest, and then I resisted arrest, as is implied by my alleged statement that he "better not touch me," why didn't he immediately take me down and cuff me? I mean, if I was so clearly a criminal and a threat to the safety of innocent people, why has he already allowed me to resist arrest more times than I can count? And why have I still not been arrested?

Come on now, Chadd! Your story just doesn't add up. Did you even try to make it add up, or did you just assume your corrupt boss would have your back on this one because he had your back so many other times in the past, when you pulled this shit with other innocent citizens?

Regarding his claim that I said he better not touch me: There was a point when he started making a motion that suggested he intended to restrain me, at which point I said, "Don't even think about touching me" in an authoritative tone. He then backed off and began to ponder his next strategy, which makes it even more clear that he knew I had acted within my rights and also that he had long ago exhausted his authority to continue questioning me.

But his huge cop ego still wouldn't allow him to leave, even though he knew he was legally obligated to leave me alone long before we got to this point.

---

At this time I attempted to gain control of the subjects arm to which he jerked away and took a few steps and again told me not to touch him.

OMG, OMG, OMG!!! He said it again! I really didn't think he was going to say it again, but he said it again. He still has not accused me of breaking any laws, but he now has accused me TEN TIMES of knowing my rights.

Now he's also trying to make it sound as if a 130-pound guy escaped the physical grasp of a 250-pound veteran law enforcement officer who could have had me subdued and disabled on the ground before I even knew what hit me. I don't remember this happening, but if this did actually happen, then his own words have yet again incriminated himself, not me.

How much is enough? Remember, I didn't write this ridiculous arrest report; I'm just responding to it.

Shortly after his most recent attempt at intimidating me, Corporal Chadd made a phone call for backup (which is not the same thing as calling for backup on the CB radio). Since he used a phone instead of his radio, I assumed he was calling his superior to assist him at the scene. This reminded me of what happened back in Kiowa County, Kansas, so as he began making the phone call, I asked him if he was calling his superior, to which he answered, "I am the superior."

Obviously.

Thinking we might finally be nearing the end of this ridiculous waste of what could have been productive time for both of us, I walked to my backpack several feet in front of Corporal Chadd's vehicle. I sat down on the backpack and faced slightly away from Corporal Chadd, then I patiently waited for him to comply with the laws that say he must leave me alone and disappear. Corporal Chadd remained at his vehicle while waiting for his backup to arrive.

Remember how the report placed Sheriff Steve Fenwick at the scene throughout the entirety of this post? Yeah, well Sheriff Steve Fenwick did not arrive at the scene until several minutes after Corporal Chadd's phone call. When Sheriff Fenwick did finally arrive, I was calmly sitting on my backpack, several feet in front of Corporal Chadd's vehicle. After Sheriff Fenwick's arrival, the two cops met near Corporal Chadd's vehicle, I assumed to discuss the situation and conspire to intimidate me just a little bit more before finally conceding defeat and leaving. When they finished their discussion, they both approached me as I remained sitting on my backpack.

---

At this time I assisted the subject to the ground and placed him into handcuffs and advised him to stop resisting, to which he then complied. At this time I patted the subject down and located a wallet in his front pocket that contained an Ohio drivers license identifying the subject as Ryan Michael Powell.

At this time I advised Mr. Powell of his Miranda Rights to which he stated he understood. At this time I contacted dispatch to have the jail van enroute to transport Mr. Powell to the Putnam County Jail. Upon arrival of the jail van Mr. Powell and his belongings were loaded and he was transported to the Putnam County Jail.

Not quite.

Note that he still has not accused me of breaking any laws, nor did he claim to inform me that I'd broken any laws. He also doesn't claim to have informed me that I was under arrest. He just says he assisted me to the ground and cuffed me, without explanation. And then, according to him, he informed me of my right to remain silent.

Hmmm, isn't that exactly what I've been doing ever since he asked me for identification? And isn't my silence precisely what has led to this non-arrest? So then, if he did advise me of my Miranda Rights, isn't he just informing me I'm allowed to do precisely what I've already been doing ever since he asked for my identification? Yes, yes, and yes.

According to Corporal Chadd's logic: If I refuse to talk to him, my refusal to talk is grounds for my arrest. But if I get myself arrested for refusing to talk to him, then I don't have to talk to him.

Uhh... Yeah, right.

Here's what really happened: When the two law enforcement officers approached me, I was still sitting on my backpack, waiting patiently for this harassment to end. Neither Corporal Chadd nor Sheriff Fenwick informed me that I had committed an offense, nor did they inform me that I was under arrest.

Without any warning as I sat calmly upon my backpack, one of the cops suddenly grabbed my arms, twisted both arms behind my back, then rotated me about 90 degrees and threw me to the ground. Immediately after I hit the ground, both Corporal Chadd and Sheriff Fenwick pounced on me before cuffing my hands behind my back. With about 500 lbs landing on me all at once, forcing my ribs into the ground, it felt like I'd just been hit by a car, pinning me against a solid brick wall. To say they used excessive force is putting it mildly, especially considering they both knew I hadn't done anything, which means they both knew they had no right to touch me.

That's police brutality right there, folks, as well as false arrest.

Since the "arrest" was unlawful, when Corporal Chadd emptied my pockets in search of my identification, without my consent, he violated my Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Also, Corporal Chadd's claim that I resisted this false arrest is simply ridiculous; I never even had a chance to resist their false arrest. (If I had actually resisted, I'd be the first to admit I resisted, just as I admitted my refusal to identify myself, because it's not a crime to resist an unlawful arrest, just as it's not a crime to withhold ID from a cop who has no justification to ask for ID.)

The moment Corporal Chadd and Sheriff Fenwick forced me into the jail van, they had committed the crime of false imprisonment. Once the van started moving with me inside it, they had also kidnapped me. Those are some serious crimes, and Corporal Chadd's own words in his arrest report are proof that he and Sheriff Fenwick committed these serious crimes against me.

Contrary to the claim in the arrest report, no one EVER read me my Miranda Rights or informed me that I was under arrest. Before committing the crimes of false imprisonment and kidnapping, they simply beat me up and cuffed me.

If it had been an honest mistake and they had arrested me because they believed in good faith that I had committed an infraction, only then could anyone attempt to argue that Corporal Chadd and Sheriff Fenwick's actions did not constitute police brutality, false arrest, false imprisonment, and kidnapping. But they didn't believe in good faith that I had committed an infraction, and the report proves it because the report never even accuses me of committing an offense.

You may counter that maybe these officers just didn't know the law, to which I respond: Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.

---

After arriving at the jail and during the process of placing Mr. Powell's belongings into the property room, a glass smoking device was located in Mr. Powell's bag commonly used to smoke marijuana. At this time Mr. Powell was remanded to the jail staff on the above stated charges.

As jail employees processed my property after my kidnappers directed the van driver to take me to the jail, the jail employees searched my gear inside and out. During this search, they found a glass pipe, which explains the Possession of Paraphernalia charge.

Of course, had they not conducted this second illegal search, they never would have found the pipe, which means the pipe never really existed and the charge has no merit.

Directly as a result of Corporal Chadd and Sheriff Fenwick's crimes against me, I got to spend the next three days and three nights in jail, without actually being accused of violating any laws.

(Continued in Land of the Free, Part V)

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Land of the Free, Part III

Land of the Free, Part I
Land of the Free, Part II

Even though I have already provided sufficient evidence to support my position that Corporal Chadd was legally obligated to cease contact with me once I'd refused to identify myself, I'm still nowhere near the end of this story, simply because Corporal Chadd repeatedly chose to disregard the law.

Why wouldn't he just leave me alone? Even while this was happening, I was 99 percent certain there was nothing unlawful about my refusal to cooperate, particularly because I'd been through similar incidents with dozens of other cops in almost every state from California to Illinois.

As much as cops don't like being told what to do, almost all cops back off a little once they realize you know your rights and you're not going to let them strip you of your rights. Even then, they still lie to you and continue trying to intimidate you into playing their game. But when they run into someone like myself, who absolutely refuses to compromise, they eventually realize they're not going to get their way. At this point they give you a little more tough-guy attitude before they finally leave.

Could it be that the rules regarding this Indiana incident aren't quite as black and white as the words that make up the rules? If so, then I'm determined to figure it out and better understand why Corporal Chadd continued to treat me like a worthless criminal who has no rights and deserves no rights.

So let's look at this incident from some new angles.

According to the Indiana statute I cited in Part II, regarding detention: If Corporal Chadd did not already suspect, in good faith, that I'd committed an offense prior to his request for my identification, then I had no legal obligation to identify myself. Even if he did suspect that I'd committed an offense, if he failed to inform me of the suspected violation, I still had no legal obligation to identify myself. However, if Corporal Chadd suspected, in good faith, that I had committed an offense even as petty as jaywalking, all he had to do was inform me of his suspicion, at which time I would have been obligated to identify myself to him.

But he didn't suspect that I had committed an offense, which is why he didn't inform me that he suspected I had committed an offense, nor did he allude to any such suspicion in his arrest report. This means Corporal Chadd had no legal grounds to obtain my identification, address, birthdate, driver's license, or anything else I possessed, which also means it was not an offense for me to refuse to identify myself.

Regarding the charge of Refusal to Identify Self: I have never denied that I refused to identify myself to Corporal Chadd. In fact, I most certainly did refuse to identify myself because I already knew the law says I don't have to identify myself to a cop who has no justification to ask me for identification. It's that simple, and this paragraph is all I really needed to write about it.


* * * * *
Here's yet another angle that explains why this confrontation should have ended as soon as I refused to provide identification:

Since Corporal Chadd did not charge me with a violation that would have required me to identify myself, he established that he legally had no business with me. He knew I hadn't broken any laws, and he knew he was legally obligated to respect my Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure, which I first invoked when I refused to provide identification.

At the same time that I refused to provide identification, I also stopped volunteering any other information, which is an act protected by my Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate myself.

As a long-time veteran of the Sheriff's department, Corporal Chadd understood that his only legal option was to leave me alone, which, according to his own report, I had already requested. But he still chose not to leave me alone.

Unlike my encounter with the prison guard half an hour earlier, I remained calm during my encounter with Corporal Chadd, and I mostly didn't even talk. I didn't raise my voice or use profanity, even though the First Amendment of the United States Constitution gave me the right to tell Corporal Chadd to go fuck himself if I had felt so inclined.

In case you've wondered: Yes, I have often taken advantage of my First Amendment right to tell cops to go fuck themselves. Having been harassed by so many cops in so many places, particularly during the walk, I figured out their game a long time before I set foot in Indiana. And regardless of the fact that I have occasionally reacted in a belligerent manner toward cops who harass me, I've always walked away without being cited or detained because, unlike Jon Chadd, most cops respect the fact that they must obey the rules that apply to them, even if they don't like it.


* * * * *
I had never been arrested before the incident with Corporal Chadd. I'm not just talking about during the walk; I'm saying I had never been arrested in my life. So now that you know that, surely you think I'm unbelievably stupid for refusing to cooperate with cops, when all I had to do was give them my ID and just wait for them to find out that I'm not a criminal so I could move on without incident.

There's a lot more to it than that.

During the walk, I had to deal with unwarranted police stops every few days, on average. For the first 1,500 miles or so, I almost always cooperated and showed cops my ID whenever they asked for it. But even though I cooperated, I had grown very tired of cops interfering with my freedom all the time, for no reason other than they are very bad profilers.

In Kansas, the frequency of these unwarranted police stops skyrocketed to almost once a day--sometimes even more than once a day--and it finally pushed me past my limit. These police stops stressed me out, and each stop held me back at least a mile, while also keeping me from getting the rest I needed. So about halfway across Kansas, totally fed up with constantly being treated like a criminal by moron cops, I resolved not to let it happen anymore.

If a cop stopped to make sure I was all right, that was fine. I had no problem talking to him, even if it turned into a long chat that subsequently made it more difficult for me to hit my daily mileage goals.

But that's not how it usually went down when cops stopped me. Usually it would begin with the cop asking me a few questions to get a feel for who I am, which I happily answered (just as I did with Corporal Chadd). But after these initial few questions, they would ask me for my identification, which to me is the same as saying:

"We're just going to assume you're a criminal for now, OK, even though you've given us plenty of reason to believe you're not a criminal. We're also going to assume you're too stupid to know your rights because, I mean, you're carrying a backpack, and everyone knows what that means. So, um, why don't you just stand there carrying that heavy backpack out in the hot sun for another 10 or 15 minutes while we hold you up and keep wasting your time?"

So what do you think happened when I cooperated? Yup, I got to stand there in the hot sun, carrying my very heavy backpack for another 10 or 15 minutes. As you suspected, my cooperation ALWAYS led to them finding out what should have been obvious: that I had no warrants and I'd never been arrested.

Don't even hit me with the "But they didn't know" argument here. I established a long time ago that the law says they don't always get to know.

So let me ask you a question (especially those of you who have led a clean enough life to have never been arrested): Do you enjoy being treated like a criminal almost every day?

That's what I thought.

Yeah, well guess what: It turns out that I don't like being treated like a criminal almost every day, either. Imagine that! The difference is that I was being treated like a criminal by cops damn near every day for two or three months, for no reason.

Seein' how I done heard this here America was a free country, I implemented my ass a new policy: I decided I would cooperate with cops until they asked me for my identification. From now on, though, if any cops asked me for identification without justification, I considered it harassment (because it is harassment), and I would stop cooperating with them. No exceptions.

In my entire walk across the United States of America, there was only one other incident in which a cop used physical force with me. Back in Kiowa County, Kansas, I was roughed up and cuffed after I walked away from a Sheriff deputy's unlawful order for me to stop and donate my valuable time to him. Not surprisingly, he ultimately had to set me free after his superior showed up and informed him that I hadn't broken any laws. As much as he didn't like it at first, this cop quickly realized there was nothing he could do except apologize to me and let me go. And even though he broke the law by roughing me up, I left on good terms with him and I actually apologized to him for being a little more confrontational than I should have been.

In this case, my refusal to cooperate actually helped this guy become a better cop because I forced him to realize that he wasn't allowed to do what he did to me. He learned a little bit about the law that day and he probably learned something about the prospective consequences of mis-profiling people, as well.

Most cops aren't stupid enough to behave like Jon Chadd did with me, probably because most cops work for agencies that hold them accountable for their actions. Most cops work for agencies that punish them when they victimize innocent citizens. Unfortunately, the Putnam County Sheriff's Department is not one of these agencies. The Putnam County Sheriff's Department has no integrity, and they actually reward their deputies for victimizing innocent citizens.

There are people talking on the internet about how I was so wrong to expect cops to respect my rights. They don't say it in those words, but they think I should have just done what the cop asked of me because they apparently think it's wrong for me to expect my rights to actually mean something. But does anyone think maybe it might be a little more appropriate to hold the cops accountable for obeying the law and respecting people's rights, even with people who don't know their rights?

I do.

And if I ever hear a story about cops stripping you of your rights, even if it seems like you were a dick and should have just played their stupid game, I will support you. Even if you are one of the idiots who are trying to turn me into the bad guy here, I will support your rights if you are ever stripped of them. In fact, I already have. I protected your rights when I stood up for my own rights.


* * * * *
Regarding the other two offenses I allegedly committed during my contact with Corporal Jon Chadd (not including Possession of Paraphernalia):

I was never actually charged with Disorderly Conduct. Since I was not informed of any of the charges against me until after I'd been taken to the jail, I don't even know why Disorderly Conduct is listed on the arrest report. Perhaps it was dropped almost immediately; I don't know. All I know is that the arrest report is the only piece of legal paperwork I received that mentions Disorderly Conduct.

Similar to the 'Refusal to Identify Self' charge, Corporal Chadd also had no grounds to charge me with 'Resisting Law Enforcement.' A law enforcement officer must be in the act of enforcing an actual law for someone to even be able to resist enforcement of that law. Since Corporal Chadd was never enforcing a law during his interaction with me, it was impossible for me to have resisted the enforcement of a law.

That leaves one charge remaining on the arrest report. You've probably already figured out why the remaining charge was bogus, but I'm not going to dissect the remaining charge until I finish responding to the remainder of the arrest report.

(Continued in Land of the Free, Part IV)

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