Justice attained through luck, not rights

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views November 3, 2003]

"If he was an ordinary dope dealer with guns in his house, he would have a bail, but because he is a white supremacist, they stick it to him." So says defense attorney Warren Brown, as quoted in the Washington Post ("Supremacist Case Unites Improbable Contingent," 10/26/03). This "white supremacist" managed, finally to get his due process under law, and, after being incarcerated for four months without bail, walked away with a five-year suspended sentence and three years probation.

Lovell Wheeler, of Baltimore, enjoyed what is now almost a privilege, and not a right, of relatively fair treatment at the hands of law enforcement, only because his arrest garnered lots of media attention in the city, with even the usually mealy mouthed "law and order" talk show hosts chiming in their dissent. With various civil libertarians, gun rights advocates and prominent legal voices, including some blacks, speaking up for Wheeler (and the media actually covering what they had to say), his story does not end with a projected three-year prison sentence, or with him thrown into a bottomless penitentiary pit. Other "white supremacists," or white nationalists of varied shadings, who are arrested in venues around the country, are usually not so lucky. [See 10/20/03.]

Wheeler's nightmare began when, in June, a tactical police force of over 50 agents raided his home, hacking down the front door of the rowhouse in southeast Baltimore. Failing to find Wheeler at home, the police confronted his wife, Elizabeth, who it turns out is a member of the National Alliance, a white nationalist group. A group, one might add, that, in spite of persistent attempts by our country's self-appointed "watchdog" crews (such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the B'nai Brith Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP ) to depict NA members as "violent," does nothing more subversive than openly sell books, magazines and videos, and distribute flyers with racial messages. Elizabeth Wheeler also hosts a white-oriented Internet radio show.

Working from a neighbor's tip that Lovell Wheeler had gunpowder in his home, and having in hand some of Wheeler's race propaganda literature, the law decided to put two and two together, and deem Wheeler a domestic menace. Hence, the raid.

As a machinist and gunsmith, Wheeler makes and sells guns, and has done so all his life. The raiders did, indeed, find guns, smokeless gunpowder, and ammunition in his home. None of the weapons or other materials in his possession, however, constituted felonies. But that did not stop a judge from revoking Wheeler's bail, which had originally been set at a whopping $2 million. The Post reports:

Sanford Abrams, vice president of the Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, said it is not unusual for a gunsmith to possess large amounts of smokeless powder, which is less volatile than black gunpowder. "Even if handled improperly, it will not explode," Abrams said. "That is only in movies."

"I think it smacks at his First Amendment rights," said A. Dwight Pettit, a lawyer who has long been active in Baltimore's black community. "I think a lot of judges are more sensitive to the racial aspect of it than they are the constitutional aspect."

In a follow-up Post article of 10/29/03, the day of Wheeler's release from jail, we learn that he pled guilty to three misdemeanor charges -- reckless endangerment, possession of gunpowder without a license, and improper storage of gunpowder. We also get a confirmation as to why Wheeler, now labeled with the despised "white supremacist" tag, received some degree of justice.

Douglas L. Colbert, a law professor at the University of Maryland, said Wheeler should have been freed from jail a long time ago. "I guess the important message here is having a zealous advocate is the best guarantor of reaching a fair outcome," Colbert said.

As for Wheeler openly espousing his views, [Defense Attorney Brian] Thompson said: If he "doesn't want the government kicking his door down, he might be well advised to stop. And that is a little scary."

Much more than a little scary.

Wheeler received a five-year suspended sentence with three years probation. After a year, the conviction will be expunged from his record.

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