When our current president decided to send armed military personnel into Washington, D.C., arguing that there was an ongoing danger to the public, and that military troops were needed to restore safety and order, Sean Charles Dunn, a local citizen and a former Justice Department employee, obviously disagreed with this decision. In protest, Dunn hurled both obscenities and a sub style sandwich at one of the federal officers who had been deployed against the local citizenry.
Dunn was charged in federal court with felony assault on law enforcement, and the White House posted a highly stylized social media video of his arrest on those charges. Dunn was then ordered released.
In fairly short order, a federal grand jury declined to return an indictment againt Dunn. The ordinary citizens who served on that grand jury did not think that Dunn's conduct warranted a felony prosecution.
What do you think? If you throw a sandwich at a law enforcement officer, should you go to prison?
Part of our idea about how "self-government" is supposed to work requires that judgments by ordinary citizens will decide, in serious cases, which crimes are prosecuted, and the guilt and innocence of those who are charged with criminal behavior.
Let's give a round of applause for our jury system, and for the "grand jury" system that requires that ordinary citizens get real power in deciding who will get prosecuted and punished.
I wasn't on the grand jury that declined to advance felony charges against Dunn, but I think it did exactly the right thing. Throwing a sandwich at a law enforcement officer is not polite, or appropriate, and it probably is a crime of some kind. How about "littering," for instance?
A multi-year term in a federal penitentiary seems like an excessive punishment for throwing a sandwich at a law enforcement officer. That's what the grand jury decided. Again, I think they were right, and I hope everyone will not forget that our system gives ordinary citizens the right, in various ways, to prevent the abuse of authority which is always a temptation to those who have the guns, and a sense of their own great importance.
Why did they charge him with assault? His sub sandwich made contact with the officer, therefore that constitutes battery. An ordinary misdemeanor battery conviction, 6 months in jail, and regular probation with anger management classes for that gentleman is in order. He is not above the law and he is a regular person. The White House should know better than to exacerbate a petty situation such as this.
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