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Lovell Wheeler: a neglected anniversary
WJZ-TV has deleted its online archive of the story (although thankfully it had been cached by Google). The Washington Post has done likewise, killing a story in which writer Tim Craig fairly shouted, " NO!, NO!,NO!…I DON’T CARE IF THIS GUY WAS WHITE, BLACK, GREEN, or anything in between..there is no way someone with that much hatered [sic] in his heart and mind should have that much fire power!!, NO WAY!!!!!!….and yes I say hold him until the cows come home, just think if his actions were not found out then there might have been a blood bath on some street, office bldg, or school…. YEP HOLD HIS ASS AND CHARGE HIM WITH SOMETHING MORE THEN A MISDEMEANOR!!!!! " [how much "firepower" would be acceptable to this writer?] A Baltimore City Paper scribbler using the byline Afefe Tyehimba blurted, " ...the Wheeler incident has been treated largely as a judicial matter where civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution were perhaps wrongly challenged. ...Bull. Legal or not, Wheeler's stockpiled arsenal was downright scary--not just because it seems an overtly racist pastime or an entrepreneurial endeavor (Wheeler's purportedly a gunsmith), but because Wheeler's case tangibly demonstrates how pockets of American culture remain ideologically twisted..." The writer failed to note any similar ideological twist in the pronouncements of black activists such as the Revs. Farakhan and Sharpton. Still, a number of black writers and thinkers did perceive that a violation of civil rights had occurred, and were brave enough to have said so publicly. Kudos to Greg Kane of the Baltimore Sun who observed "A lot more probable cause was needed to raid the Wheelers' home than an unconfirmed anonymous tip and Lovell Wheeler's hunch that there may be a race war. Black columnist Carl Rowan even wrote a 1996 book called The Coming Race War in America and kept a gun in his home. ...I'm sure no one remembers Rowan being arrested on such skimpy probable cause." And Warren Brown, a [black] defense attorney in Baltimore often vilified for taking unpopular cases observed, "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." WBAL-TV's report noted that "Prosecutors pushed for a high bail amount out of concern that if Wheeler was released, he could stash ammunition and gunpowder in other places..." [neglecting the principal that the idea of posting bail is to guarantee that an accused defendant shows up for trial, not to forestall future actions (criminal or otherwise) that he might be speculated to undertake.]
You don't have to agree with "Artie" Wheeler's view of the world to see that he was done a grave injustice. And there but for the grace of God go you and I. 
Odds are, none of the local media will note that today is the third anniversary of the day Baltimore police arrested Lovell Wheeler and threw him under the jail, as the expression goes.
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I'd like to get in on this business of "disappearing" anyone I disagree
with.
Well, of course Wheeler refused to disappear. That is, when he was offered
a plea bargain a year later that would have given him probation before
judgment on the charges, he declined to be coerced.
He HAS disappeared, as far as the media are concerned. And I cannot imagine
why the Feds never initiated an investigation into the egregious way his
case was handled.
And of course neither the ACLU nor the NRA came to his defense. The man
succeeded in becoming the ultimate Tar Baby, apparently.
Thanks, an interesting case...
Exactly that, Boris. And considering that the police raiders seized not
only Wheeler's guns and supplies, but took his wife's identification papers
and cash, nobody was in a position even to post bail, much less start a new
stash of firearms and ammo. She could have pledged the title to their
house, but the place is not worth enough to have represented 10% bond on a
one-million dollar bail. And of course, the bail was revoked altogether.