Gun-rights activist Adam Kokesh arrested in Herndon
Reuters. – Anti-war protestor Adam Kokesh is seen outside Capitol Hill in Washington in this September 2007 photo.
Kokesh, a former Marine, was being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, charged with possession of schedule I and II drugs while in possession of a firearm, said Lt. Steve Elbert, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office.
Video
A video posted on YouTube that appears to show activist Adam Kokesh loading a shotgun in Freedom Plaza.
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Adam Kokesh arrested in Herndon
Activist, whose plans for an armed D.C. march on July 4 were foiled,faces drug and gun charges.
The search warrant was served by U.S. Park Police, a federal agency that is responsible for policing Freedom Plaza, the park on Pennsylvania Avenue NW where Kokesh was videotaped loading a shotgun, in violation of local gun laws, according to a YouTube video posted on July 4.
“We will not be silent. We will not obey,” Kokesh, an Iraq war veteran and Internet talk show host, says in the video. “We will not allow our government to destroy our humanity. We are the final American Revolution. See you next Independence Day.”
Kokesh unveiled plans in early May to lead an armed “Open Carry March” into the District on July 4. He described the proposed event, in which he said participants would carry loaded guns across the Memorial Bridge from Arlington into Washington, as an act of civil disobedience against “tyranny.”
But the march was canceled after police said they would enforce D.C.’s strict gun laws, which prohibit the carrying of loaded weapons.
According to a news release from Kokesh’s Internet television show, police in cars and helicopters approached Kokesh’s house in Herndon, a suburb about 25 miles west of Washington, at about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday. Roads were blocked in the area around the house, in the 1500 block of Snow Flake Court, while the search was underway.
Herndon town police assisted in the search, a communications technician from the agency said.
Kokesh’s news release accused police of “aggressive, forceful conduct.”
The Park Police did not respond to inquiries early Wednesday about the reason for the search or the charges Kokesh is facing.
In six years of headline-grabbing activism, Kokesh has embraced causes including peace in Iraq, free speech in the United States and the unsuccessful 2012 presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. He has invoked Mahatma Gandhi and the First Amendment, and used both dancing and loaded weapons to make his political points.
“We will continue to spread the message of liberty, self ownership, and the non-aggression principle regardless of the government’s relentless attacks on our operation,” the statement posted on Kokesh’s Web site on Wednesday morning said.
“We will continue to combat its desperate attempts to crush a worldwide, revolutionary shift in the people’s understanding of the state’s illegitimacy—after all, good ideas don’t require force.”
In 2007, Kokesh was arrested at the Hart Senate Office Building wearing a T-shirt that read, “Iraq veterans against the war.” He was arrested again in 2011 when he led a group dance party at the Jefferson Memorial. He has gotten into trouble for protesting in a Marine uniform and for taking a souvenir gun home from the battlefield.
Martin Weil contributed to this report.
