WTOP is reporting that gun rights activist Adam Kokesh is being denied bail after being arrested in Virginia over his 4th of July video showing him loading a shotgun in Washington, DC. The police later raided his house and arrested him for undisclosed drug-related offenses. During the arraignment, the judge said “I consider your client to be a very dangerous man” and ordered Kokesh to be held without bail in the DC city jail.

85 COMMENTS

    • Not to himself, IMO, but certainly to the paradigm politicians live under. That’s the only reason they’re holding him without bail. He has no history of violence.

      They are scared to death of his voluntaryist ideas that an awful lot of people are starting to catch on to.

      The irony is that by doing this, his ideas will get more publicity!

    • Depends on what is the measure used.

      Taking himself out of the breeding population? Dumbass (at least for his sake).

      Standing up for what’s right? Then he qualifies as a political prisoner.

      Sadly, I think he wasted his time. As not nearly enough people are able and organized to fight the tyranny present in the U.S. government, and that has been there for many years (even non Obama-ian ones).

  1. Quite obviously they want to send a message and punish Kokesh to an extreme degree to make any future political disobedience as unappealing as possible. They can’t literally stop political speech (yet) but they can punish it to an unreasonable degree to try to make people think twice.

    They know they can’t get him due to the first amendment so they cleaned out the evidence locker. Isn’t it funny how almost everyone that speaks out politically has a secret drug problem?

    • The dope could have been planted, but from what I’ve heard it could just as well have been his. Overall, I don’t know what to think about this guy.

      • Kokesh is a drug user, and is open about that, but I’ve never heard him talk about using mushrooms. He knew the raid was coming and emptied out his house, I think the mushrooms were planted.

        • Kokesh has talked about using DMT. It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to go from DMT to psilocybe mushrooms, given that the former is much harsher/more bracing than the latter. Mushrooms are more beginner-friendly than DMT, for sure.

        • Can you think of another open drug user that you would give the benefit of the doubt when police catch him with something more serious than pot?

        • Can you think of anybody the Gov would be more motivated to plant mushrooms on than Kokesh?

      • He KNEW they were coming, so why would he keep drugs around? Use your noggin. It’s a clear set-up, as he claims, and those of TTAG who won’t speak out for him will eventually suffer the same fate as Kokesh.

        • Simple answer: he’s an idiot. The other option is that there is a grand conspiracy at work here and much like the ones involving 9/11 and JFK, they have no merit.

  2. If you remember back to how they treated G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt in the Watergate dealio, you’ll understand why they put Kokesh in the DC Jail. He will be beaten multiple times every day by the black gangs that occupy the jail. He has a good shot at being raped there also. The powers that be understand the situation completely. They also understand how to punish folks in extrajudicial ways.

      • Er no hes not, extra judicial punishments are very common in all liberal societies with large autocracies, we have them in the UK. The comment about homo fantasies is beneath contempt.

    • So the Virginia State Police are now the shock troops of the New World Order and Kokesh was so dangerous they had to marshal their forces and take him down?

  3. Kokesh is problematic and can’t be trusted. He’s an anti war activist who’s tied to Code Pink and other communist organizations. Don’t fall for his pro-gun antics.

    • He’s anti-war because he served in Iraq and took part in Fallujah and saw it first hand. He came to his own conclusion about war. He’s not a communist, he’s an anarcho capitalist.

      • Anarcho-Capitalism is completely fraudulent. People who label themselves as such are typically provocateurs or useful idiots. Any real Anarchist will tell you this. By “real” I mean to exclude the contemporary liberals who play at Anarchism. They are completely detached from the roots of the ideology and this includes self styled “Anarcho-Capitalists.”

        The very idea of “Capitalism” as we know it today was popularized by Marx. It is a myth that Americans are in general are “capitalists,” most are and have historically been too poor to make major investments. For some time, America has largely been RUN by individual, corrupt capitalist dynasties and we are essentially their peons. That is Capitalism as Marx described it and it is essentially an accurate description of the system we live under, though I disagree strongly with Marx’ prescription for change.

        Many of these individuals who call themselves Anarcho-Capitalists rally around Ron Paul. Ron Paul is the biggest nepotist in Congress. He is a showboating opportunist who knows what to say and when to say it. He is a puppet for the establishment who has drained the bank accounts of countless useful idiots. In the 1980s he had no problem attaching his name to racist screeds. His antics are disgraceful and so are those of the FRAUD Adam Kokesh, who in my opinion, is sitting pretty right now in an undisclosed location.

        • “…sitting pretty right now in an undisclosed location.” I would guess that location is a DC jail overflow facility like the Federal Pen in WV. Getting beaten up by his fellow inmates regularly because of his mouth.

          He endures it because of all the free publicity he’s getting from the media and blogs like this one. And he’s still unbalanced.

        • FLAME DELETED

          Anarcho-capitalism posits that human beings own themselves, they own their own labor, and when they invest that labor in unowned property, they then own that property and may do with it as they wish. No other individual, group of individuals, or states have a moral right to aggress against or harm other individuals or their property. If you have a problem with any of those values, it’s generally because you’re either an advocate of one of the billion forms of socialism that the world has produced or believe that human beings belong, generally in some mystical sense, to one another, and thus what you create is partially mine.

          You also falsely conclude that since most Americans can’t make significant investments–a self-evidently false conclusion, based on the number of automobiles and homes sold in the United States over the past century–that capitalism, namely the belief in private property and unrestrained trade (which is far from how Marx, whose lunatic understanding of epistemology doomed about a billion people to misery for a century, understood it), is somehow harmful. In the interest of saving the rest of the world from more of your ravings, please pick up a remedial text on the nature of free trade before you set finger to keyboard again. FLAME DELETED

          The rest of your post is an idiotic screed against Ron Paul, who 1) has never identified as an anarcho-capitalist 2) is no longer in the House (welcome to 2013!) and 3) is the furthest thing from a nepotist, given that Rand Paul was elected as Kentucky’s junior senator by democratic vote and has enjoyed a far larger role in the actual functioning of the GOP than his father ever did.

          Outside of those errors, you’re pretty much spot on.

        • So he signed up to go to war so he could be anti-war.

          This guy is a loon, a danger to everyone around, and a danger to himself. Most of his plans are concocted while he’s tripping on mushrooms or under the constant fog of smoking weed nonstop.

        • Nothing you just said is in any way correct. I should know I border on AnCap.

          For anyone here who is not a loon, you should read some Murray Rothbard, maybe with a side Ludwig von Mises, F.A.Hayek, and Israel Kirzner to get a more “conservative” look at the voluntarist movement and why they think it’s morally superior.

          In short, shut the hell up Fug. Go back to whatever it is you do because it’s damn obvious you’re neither a political philosopher or an economist.

    • You’re one of the ones I specifically wrote about. When you need help, you’ll be on your own, because you won’t stand up for your brothers.

      Lotsa luck.

  4. I can’t do Gandhi justice in his qoutes, my memory isn’t that good. But he said something along the lines, if you consider a law to be unjust, violate that law. BUT, be prepared for the consequences of your actions.

    When you smack a bear across the nose with a switch in his own cave, they’re gonna be consequences.

    • +1

      Kokesh was silly, but denying bail altogether is BS of the most fragrant variety.

      Is there any recourse when a judge denies bail on the flimsiest of reasons?

    • Yeah, but, Ralph… those guys were merely a danger to other mundanes. Kokesh thumbing his nose at the establishment is clearly more of a threat to the status quo. He must be locked up before his radical ideas about liberty infect others.

  5. He loaded one shotgun round in D.C.

    Oh yeah, he is soooo dangerous.

    This doesn’t exactly speak to the courage of our government if they think this guy is a big threat.

    • “A Fairfax County judge first refused Kokesh bail after the activist refused to walk to his arraignment or acknowledge the court during questioning. A judge later offered to release Kokesh if he posts $5,000 bond, but a week later he remains in custody.” [http://rt.com/usa/adam-kokesh-drug-president-329/]

  6. His arrest should motivate us, but Kokesh is dirt. We can’t always fight our battles for saints, but it bears keeping in mind. The man is a worm.

    • Worm, saint, sinner, politician, poet: the law must be applied to all equally, if it is to be perceived as fairly applied.

      That’s different than whether it’s a good law, of course; the bad laws shouldn’t apply to anyone, even worms.

  7. If you’re going to do something illegal only do ONE illegal thing. Don’t mix your publicity-whore gun performance art with drug offenses.

  8. So much for the whole “No excessive bail” part of the Constitution… and yes, held without bail for a non-violent crime IS excessive no matter how you spin in.

    • Spin it they’ll continue to do, because they lack the courage of their own convictions.

      If they have any.

  9. Kokesh may be an extreme example, but every gun owner in America is eventually going to get the same government classification: extremely dangerous. In fact we already have. Now all the government has to do is come up with enough provocation so that they can take the same action against the rest of us. Kokesh was an easy nut to crack (not sure what set him off), but pressed hard enough we all will. They’re counting on it.

      • Absolutely agree, and the same will be true for ranchers and farmers using the IRS and EPA. Single family residences (suburbs) will get similar treatment through taxes and such. Dot Gov is doing a great job of making people alienated from their government.

        • Kokesh has balls. Period. We need more guys non-violently defying this Gov. Banging out a email to your local wealthy and connected Congressperson is meaningless.

    • “Kokesh was an easy nut to crack (not sure what set him off)…” My guess is PTSD. Which includes LOTS of veterans. Time will come for nearly everyone sooner or later I fear.

  10. I deeply admire Kokesh’s fortitude and willingness to sacrifice his liberty for the good of all.

  11. I think Kokesh is in the same class as Alex Jones but he still has rights. It’s time for the ACLU and/or the SAF to step up and challenge this unlawful detention on 8th Amendment grounds.

  12. He might be able to get away with it, if he can convince a judge it’s political speech. Elizabeth Book got arrested in Florida for flashing her chest in public, but the judge said it counted as protected speech under the first amendment, because she was intentionally protesting the nudity laws.

  13. Are the shrooms his roommates?

    There is no doubt that he is being held without bail because of his politics more than the actual charges. Most sheep haven’t picked up on just how hard-ball BHO and Holder are with regards to politics and circumventing the law. This entire 5 years has been a real eye opener to just how far we (USA) have fallen.

  14. The 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution:
    Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

      • Why is he an idiot? Why is he a hero? Why not someone in between? He reminds me a lot of the guys we only read about in history books. You know, the guys who created this country. A bunch of rabble rousing rebels.

    • Idiot yes, but this is just dumb. The fact that he has been given no bail while gang bangers and murderers regularly are is a joke. That judge just made one of the dumbest decisions he could and may have given Kokesh allies like the ACLU,

  15. i am 90% sure the drugs were planted. however, he is still stupid for doing something that could (and is now) endanger all his rights.

  16. Imagine that. A member of the Imperial court thinks this guy is “dangerous” because he racked a shot gun.

    • I made a video of me loading a lever action rifle to show a problem with the rifle feeding before sending it in for repairs. According to this asshat judge, that makes me “a very dangerous person”.

        • So what zipcode you are in when you are holding an inanimate object determines if you are a “dangerous person” or not?

        • Loading your shotgun in your living room with the curatians drawn doesn’t make you dangerous. Loading your shotgun in an area you know it’s illegal doesn’t make you dangerous either, just foolish.

  17. For anyone who cares about what actually happened before pontificating:

    A D.C. judge called Adam Kokesh a “very dangerous person” in denying bond to the gun rights activist on a charge stemming from a video Kokesh posted in which he appears to load a shotgun while standing on Freedom Plaza.

    Kokesh, 31, was in D.C. Superior Court on Monday morning in connection with the July 4 video, which Kokesh posted as to taunt the District’s strict gun laws. He is charged with a single count of carrying a gun outside a home or place of business, which carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

    He was transferred to the District’s custody last week after spending a fortnight in a Fairfax County jail following his July 9 arrest at his home in Herndon. U.S. Park Police, which has jurisdiction over Freedom Plaza served a warrant on Kokesh following the appearance of the July 4 video, confiscated 10 guns, including a Maverick Arms 12-gauge pump action shotgun similar to to the one shown in the 23-second clip.

    Kokesh was being held on $5,000 bond in Virginia on charges of drug possession and having a gun while also possessing a controlled subject. He was re-arrested Friday on the District gun charge…

    http://dcist.com/2013/07/adam_kokesh_denied_bail_in_dc_court.php

    The last sentence kinda explains why he’s still in stir.

    • Oh, and he sorta illegally transported a gun across state lines (for the purpose of committing a crime in DC, as he threatened to do), which nobody is really talking about right now. That may also have had something to do with the judge’s no bail decision.

    • And I just found out “Adam Kokesh, jailed gun rights activist, to run for president.”

      “Jailed gun rights activist Adam Kokesh has vowed to run for president of the United States in 2020 on a platform aimed at abolishing the federal government.” [http://rt.com/usa/adam-kokesh-drug-president-329/]

      He’s just not right, which may just save him from a sedition charge.

      • Right, standing up against the never ending violation of our rights makes him “just not right”. Jesus, this is why there’s no hope for this country. Too many people like you crave oppression like a child craves sugar.

        • THANK YOU. It’s hard to make your way through so many authority-worshipping boot-lickers alone.

        • Hey William, when was the last time you talked to your congresscritter? Or attended a rally?

          Y’all who are so ready to blast the government and yelling revolution are actually talking sedition. Remember how that turned out for the Confederacy.

        • Yup, Billy boy. There’s the Hitler Youth mentality I was expecting to see. “Anyone who disagrees with the government is a traitor and deserves to die”. Seriously, read some of the writings from the founders of this once-great nation.

        • It’s a valid question Tote, what have you done? except to pound angrily on your keyboard what have you done?

        • Exactly.

          Hate to break it to you William, but just because we both own guns does not make us brothers. This might also blow your mind, but you come off as Kokesh-worshiping boot-licking sheep.

          I know it hurts to see your mentor in prison, but you can start a letter writing campaign to Kokesh. That way he knows all of his followers believe in him, but won’t follow his lead.

        • *chews popcorn*
          LOL
          i remember when internet commandos used to make me mad. Now i just look at it and laugh. 🙂
          just remember one thing Willy..

          “only sith deal in absolutes”

  18. Just spoke with my son this evening (he’s 41), he was stopped for an expired tag sticker (registration) on his car (I know, that’s dumbass) and the police asked him if they could search his vehicle. He said no. They said alright, we’ll get a sniffer dog. Of course, the dog was all over the car (outside) and they claimed he ‘got a hit’, so they asked my son to get out of the car and they searched it. He said he learned that if they want to search your car, they’re gonna search it. No, they didn’t find anything.

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