MORE interesting reading about the Gibson Raids

[zigzag]

Yes the day the raid occurred someone here posted a link to a TN news organization that was on the premises, the butt of the gun was directly on his shoulder with the muzzle pointing down as he prepared to enter one of the entrances.

 

Pretty amazing that that was recorded by news media before agents even entered the premises. Must have been quite a spectacle. Shades of Waco.

[Searcy]

Here's an interesting bit from the AP.

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) – More than a week after federal agents raided Gibson Guitar Co. factories in Memphis and Nashville, taking pallets of Indian rosewood, the company's acoustic guitar plant in Montana continues to use wood from the same shipment.

Gibson Acoustic plant general manager Dennis O'Brien tells the Bozeman Daily Chronicle he and other officials reviewed the rosewood's documentation, found no discrepancies and decided to continue using it.

He says the Bozeman factory has not been contacted as part of a federal investigation in which rosewood, guitars and electronic records were seized from the Gibson plants in Tennessee on Aug. 24.

Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of Nashville-based Gibson, has said authorities did not say what they were investigating, but suggested that using wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal.

 

So... why was the Montana plant that is using the same wood from the same LMI shipment not raided and that property not taken?

[milod]

1. Bozeman is almost certainly in a different federal region - ergo different agency people involved and ergo different agency/individual agendas.

 

2. RE: "swat" teams. Yeah, I recall the vid footage too. It need not be a SWAT team to have shoulder arms, but in my experience, shoulder arms do tend to intimidate a lot more than handguns if you know your firearms at all - which is likely in Tennessee.

 

3. I think a number of us who are concerned about the way this has gone down has nothing to do with HenryJ and whether or not we even know enough about him to think he's a guy we'd like to go have a beer with. It's the principles involved in terms of "why Gibson?" Why haven't other firms getting the same woods from the same importer been targeted? Why haven't imports that almost certainly have the same woods been targeted? If HenryJ is, as has been mentioned, the biggest jerk in the world, there's something wrong with targeting his company vs. others and/or all of 'em.

 

4. At worst this would be "white collar crime." Why is it being handled as though it were a major drug lord complete to armed murderous minions?

 

5. Why has there been no prosecution or release of woods taken in the earlier raid? Is the taking of materials punitive rather than evidentiary? Ditto the removal of company computers that nowadays are as necessary to operating a business as manufacturing tools?

 

6. Why have Gibson's attempts at "discovery" apparently been thwarted and, let's face it, why is the whole thing kept behind the scenes and without any freedom of information by law enforcement and prosecution?

 

The argument is, "ongoing investigation." Sure, but when that brings severe damage to a major employer beyond zapping an white collar criminal, are we not to see that the entire company is being hit with punitive action as opposed to prosecution of individuals who might possibly be involved in white collar crime?

 

I keep thinking it has decreasing appearance of Lacey Act and more to do with something else that angered somebody in the Tennessee fed bunch that saw in the Lacey Act a way to go after Gibson. I never forget that in most places you can find yourself in real trouble if your candy bar wrapper misses the outdoor waste can if an officer wants to make a big deal about it.

 

m

[j-dub]

milod, with time hopefully we know the answers that are being dodged. <_<

[zigzag]

...armed murderous minions...

m

 

Nice alliteration.

[milod]

Ziggie...

 

<grin>

 

m