Welcome to Nassau County!

David Codrea posts about what happened to a resident of Nassau County, Long Island, NY, who, in the course of exercising his rights as an American, was apparently perceived by the staff of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (yes, that one) as some kind of a "threat".

David tells what happened next:

***
Mr. Razzano is a community activist and, as a member of the Minutemen, has an interest in stopping illegal immigration. As such, he works within the system, including making his views known to his congressional representative. Over the course of several years, he developed a working relationship with Carolyn McCarthy’s former Chief of Staff—to the point where this individual had even visited Razzano at his home. When he learned the chief of staff had been replaced, Razzano asked to speak with the new one, but never had his call returned.

On a subsequent trip to her office, Razzano was informed he was not one of McCarthy’s constituents due to redistricting, and his representative was Peter King. He then went to the Board of Elections and obtained a certified copy stating he was in her district.

When he went back to McCarthy’s office with his “proof of constituency,” a detective approached him, told him to leave and to stop “annoying” Rep. McCarthy because he was not a constituent. The detective escorted Razzano down the elevator—at the bottom, when the doors opened, Rep. McCarthy was there. She ignored Razanno when he tried to speak to her and the detective escorted him out the building.

The very next day, Razanno got a call from his mother who lives a few doors down—the police were at her house demanding his guns or they would arrest him. He was told there was a 911 call about him, and he needed to surrender his firearms for a 90-day “cooling off period.” In other words, they would take the guns or they would take him. It was portrayed to him by the confiscating officer as “not a big deal.”

The police took all of his legally registered guns—nine rifles and 15 handguns, and they also seized his fiancée’s handgun. This despite no statutory authority to do this-- It’s important here to note that this was not a domestic or any other kind of violence incident. Razzano didn’t even get a receipt for the seized property until a week later—after he requested one.

A little over a month after the seizures, he received notice from Chief Anthony Rocco that his pistol license had been revoked. This has been done with no adjudication under “authority” of the chief, who indicated he believed Razzano to be “obsessed with the day laborer situation” and offered his unqualified opinion that Razzano’s actions had raised “concerns” over his “suitability” to have a license.

The letter made no mention of the 911 call, and in fact, a judge had to order McCarthy’s office to identify the employee who had called 911—after McCarthy had denied any involvement...
***

For those unfamiliar with the area, Nassau County is the first county on Long Island outside of New York City. As such, law enforcement in that jurisdiction had, shall we say, a rather "border town" feel to it when I was a prosecutor there for a brief time in the Nineties. As an example, uniformed officers assigned to the highways that form the boundary between Queens County in New York City and Nassau County referred to their job as "holding the line".

Read the whole entry by David, and ask yourself what, if anything, Mr. Razzano should do if the notoriously anti-gun Eastern District of NY Federal trial court (and/or the Second Circuit Federal appellate court) finds that his civil rights were not violated and the Nassau County Police Department's actions were Constitutionally permissible.

Remember:

- no arrest
- no conviction
- no charges whatsoever
- no order of protection

Of course, as you muse, and especially if you choose to call or write Representative McCarthy to demand an explanation, make sure to be pragmatic and not upset the melanin-challenged.

Washington, D.C. Office:
106 Cannon House Office Building,
District of Columbia 20515-3204
Phone: (202) 225-5516
Fax: (202) 225-5758

Garden City Office:

200 Garden City Plaza, Suite 320
Garden City, New York 11530
Phone: (516) 739-3008
Fax: (516) 739-2973

Lots of those types in Nassau County, you know.

And they have their own heavy-handed regiments of enforcers.

Tempus fugit.