DC brutalizes Iraq vet and then drops charges

Emily Miller (I’m starting to develop a real crush on this lass) at the Washington Times writes about how Army 1st Sergeant Matt Corrigan, who we discussed a few months ago, was mistreated by the nation’s capital justice system when they busted in his apartment on North Capitol Street after he made a call to what he thought was a veteran help line, but got the suicide hotline instead. When we first talked about Corrigan, I wrote;

He was awakened at about 4am by someone calling his name through a bullhorn. When he turned on his phone, he found that the police, accompanied by a SWAT Team, were calling him on it telling him to come out of his home. When he did, they cuffed and stuffed him.

He wouldn’t let the police search his house, so they broke down his door, which he had locked behind him when he came outside and searched anyway. One officer was reported to say, when Corrigan denied his permission for a search; “I don’t have time to play this constitutional bullshit”. Yeah, because it’s involving one of those dangerous, armed veterans, and they don’t deserve the constitutional rights the officer would have afforded a gang banger.

The police found three firearms, a rifle and two handguns. I’m pretty sure the handguns were illegal in the District without reporting and registering them. And that’s probably why he’s facing charges for that evening, after nearly three weeks in police custody after the incident.

From Ms. Miller;

In the dark, snowy night, the Iraq vet was an easy target. “I looked down at saw 10 jiggly red dots all over my chest,” [Corrigan] said, looking afraid of the memory. “I crumbled.”

Miller writes that the charges against Corrigan were finally dropped this week after his case languished for years;

Sgt. Corrigan, 35, and his attorney Richard Gardiner appeared before Judge Michael Ryan at D.C. Superior Court on Monday. The District’s assistant attorney general moved to dismiss all ten charges against him – three for unregistered firearms and seven for possession of ammunition in different calibers.

I know Sergeant Corrigan wants to put this behind him, but he needs to punish the MPD for their overreaction before it happens to another veteran, maybe a veteran for whom this would end much worse. I know, if it had been me, with my distaste for bullshit authority, I would have ended up in the hospital for repeated buttstrokes to the head, and there’d be some cops getting rabies shots for the bites to their ankles.

But you should read the whole article before you comment.

Category: Guns, Veterans Issues