Prichett in his own words: Can a black man own a gun in Cook County? 

from John Birch, ConcealCarry.org
john@concealcarry.org

August 19, 2003

ILLINOIS GUN OWNERS - YOUR TRIAL IS ABOUT TO BEGIN...TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th 

Now is the moment for gun owners in Illinois to send a message to Cook County prosecutors that we are not going to tolerate being routinely prosecuted for transporting our weapons in Illinois.

Contact: John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc., 630 660-3935 email: john@concealcarry.org 

Our local "Black Man With a Gun," Roderick Pritchett is about stand and face felony charges in Cook County. Roderick could have copped a plea to a lesser offense, but he believes in gun rights passionately and has refused to compromise. He is risking it all...a fully felony conviction...and as people of conscience we must not let Roderick face this trial alone. Details of Roderick's arrest follow in his own words and you will NOT believe how Roderick has been treated. As you read this, remember this could be you on the way home from the gun range....

STATEMENT BY RODERICK PRICHETT 

My name is Roderick Pritchett and I would like to humbly thank and acknowledge everyone who has made a contribution in my defense involving my pending Unlawful Use of Weapons trial. All E-mails, letters, and phone calls, have increased my courage to continue pursuing justice. 

In November 2002, just days before Thanksgiving, my life changed forever. 

I lived a normal life for pretty much considering the neighborhood. I grew up on the rough streets of the South-side of Chicago. My father walked out on us, so me and my younger brother assumed the role of the men of the house. I dropped out of high-school at sixteen to help my mother with the bills my father left behind. My mother, always very religious, raised us to be God fearing. The fear of breaking my mother's heart, and embarrassing our family name, knowing we knew right from wrong, prevented me from turning to the streets and leading a life of crime. 

House keeping skills my mom acquired being raised in Jamaica, and being a maid wasn't the life she envisioned for her children, but it kept a roof over our heads. She stressed the importance of an education. I got back in school earned my GED and continued my education. I met and fell in love with my girlfriend, I became a father, and we moved to a decent area of the north side that we agreed would be a safe neighborhood to raise our son in. Soon I landed a job working for Charles Schwab & Co. and all was well. 

Most of my work associates hunted for sport, and I became interested through conversations, and the snack meat we ate during our lunch breaks I've come to learn was venison. I was taught the laws and procedures of purchasing a firearm in Illinois, and became familiar with the transportation laws of Illinois. After complying with the necessary requirements, and waiting what seemed to be forever, in August 2002, I was able to purchase my first Firearm. Exercising my second amendment right, in a safe environment, I made frequent trips to the shooting range to to practice. 

On my way back from the shooting range in Harvey IL, I'd always stop by to check on my mom, and run some errands for her. Her poverty populated neighborhood was a haven for crime and violence. My Ford wagon, with its baby car seat in the rear, was very odd to a group of my peers. Being a young black male why wasn't I driving something fancy? Eventually my random presence drew hostility from the natives involved in suspicious activities. That's when I realized that my firearm would also serve as a means of protection. I'm not a killer! So Please don't misconstrue my owning of a gun as condoning killing. 

Enter the down hill spiral called my life: After September 11, my job announced they were going to do layoffs. I was one of them. 

In November, 2002 I ran an errand accompanied by a friend for my mom in an area, which even armed police find dangerous. 

During this errand my life changed forever. The police lights came on behind me. My incident with the police came about because of my old green wagon's faulty tail light. 

The cops asked for my license and registration, which I then kindly presented. But when my passenger was told to walk home, without the police even knowing the distance my passenger had to travel at night in a high crime area, thoughts of "Will I become the victim of random physical police abuse," began to fill my head. The police had sent my witness home and now, whatever happened, it would be my word against the two of theirs. 

I got nervous. When told they were going to perform a search on my car, I became petrified with fear. Fear of becoming an innocent victim. I feared that they would find my gun, encased, unloaded, and then kill me. It might sound crazy, but a woman in Chicago was killed because a nervous police officer thought her cell phone was a gun. 

In New York Diallo's wallet got him shot forty-one times. 

What would they do to someone with a real gun? I thought. 

I immediately volunteered my FOID card stated my business and told them where to find my encased unarmed pistol. (Unknowingly I gave up my Miranda rights). 

The police chose a different abuse for me, far more satisfying than death. Punish an innocent man forever, with a felony charge of unlawfully using a weapon I had never fired out side of a shooting range. But for transporting a weapon I was about to be charged with a Class IV felony, Aggravated Unlawful Use of Weapons (UUW) 

As a result my car was impounded and retrieving it carried a seven-hundred dollar price tag. I was sent straight to jail. Photographed and fingerprinted. I sat next to murders; I had conversations with rapists. Too afraid to sleep, I laid on the floor of an overcrowded jail next to crack addicts going through withdrawals. I shared open toilets with homeless people, consumed with the smell of death, and all I could do was think about my family. 

I was handcuffed to walls and then in the back of a pitch black truck, that hit every pot hole. I remember being thrown around like a rag doll then handcuffed to benches as I was moved around from jail to jail. 

I though the worst was over, until I got to my final destination, the Cook County jail. There, stripped naked, searched, threatened and ridiculed by police officers. As a child I was taught not believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. I was however taught to believe in real people, real super heroes. Heroes like "officer friendly." But In reality, in the world of reality there is no officer friendly. Just guys with badges versus guys like me...without a badge. 

I was forced to undergo a series of psychological test such as "do I consider myself to be a weakling?" With a Sharpie pen a number replaced my name and was inscribed on my forearm. I spent three an half days in the Cook County jail. Undergoing an experience some would compare to alien abduction and others to slave ship conditions. X-rays was performed. Hours of invasive exams, and physicals were carried out. 

Imagine rooms full of angry, drunk, and bleeding men. Imagine a soup line of men, humans stripped of their dignity. Imagine the look on my face when an officer told me to place my penis over a garbage can, then proceeding to force a q-tip into my penis. 

What was such an experiment for? Purchasing a firearm? Did I deserve this? I asked myself. When was the rehabilitation to begin? I found it a full time job to control my anger. 

The single filed lines quickly moved on to where blood was drawn. For anyone afraid of needles, please stay out of jail. There I sat bleeding through the vein in my arm where my identification number was. Wondering what would become of me. I glanced around the crowded cell. The inmates who've been through the process before sat with an unconcerned look on their face. Rookies such as my self were easy to spot. That's what makes you a prey to a predator. An announcement came allowing us to use the phone. During the shoving I lost my grip on the cotton swab we were given to hold over the bleeding holes in our arms. 

A visible blood clot formed under the puncture and I had to notify someone because I became concerned for my safety. When you can see a bruise on a black man its cause for concern. I informed a nearby officer of the situation. The officer, in an attempt to get me killed because I had spoken to him, had the privileges of my cellmates and as I to use the phone taken away. Lucky for me my cellmates took pity. The day was Thanksgiving and I would be thankful my life had been spared while I munched my baloney sandwich. 

Bail for me was set at five hundred dollars, a fortune to me. My mom used her holiday and rent money savings to bail me out. (Note from John: Fortunately members of CC, Inc. and CCRA donated the bail money back to Roderick's mom in time to save the holidays.) 

I came home to an ocean of debt, including legal fees. I my girl friend and I, had lived out our studios lease, and were renting on a month to month basis. I explained the situation to my landlord; he read about my case in the paper and knew of my unemployed so he refused to rent to us for another month. With no place to go my family and I moved in with my mom. We scraped together the last of what we had to get our car out of the city pound. 

No company will hire me because of my pending UUW. case. With no job, I can't pay rent, so I applied for housing assistance. Housing also performed a background check, and refused to rent to me. Now I have no convictions, just this one pending nonviolent UUW. For being a gun owner my life changed forever. 

In the police didn't have to shoot me. They assassinated my character. All they have to do is lie on police reports. 

The pressure from this case has turned the responsibilities of functioning normally in society for me into a task usually burdened upon violent convicts. All my rights, including, innocent until proven guilty, were eradicated the day I was brought up on charges. All I want is to have my life back, which is being fought for in court under the jurisdiction of the State of Illinois. 

Thankfully, there may be no officer friendly or super heroes; but there is Concealed Carry Inc. Your support has been my lifeline to sanity. I hope to see as many of you at my trial as possible. I am going before the jury to state my case and I will waive my 5th Amendment rights and speak the truth. 

No matter what happens.. 

"We won't die so some liberal Utopians can test their theory of passive resistance to armed thugs on law-abiding citizens." 

Roderick Pritchett
talawah22@yahoo.com

THE CALL TO ACTION 

After nearly a year Roderick Pritchett's Aggravated Unlawful Use of Weapons felony trial is upon us Monday, September 15th. We have to treat this just like the cops treat a trial of a cop killer. The cops PACK the court room sending a clear message to the jury. We must do the same for Roderick. 

When you arrest one gun owner, you arrest all gun owners. 

The Cook County Circuit Court needs to look like a well dressed NRA national convention just rolled into town. Hopefully we will have enough attend that the overflow will be in the hallway. The press will be invited as well. We have nothing to hide and do not fear the white light of the media on us. 

As word spreads that gun owners will be at the trial security will ramp up significantly at the court house costing Cook County taxpayers additional thousands. For some reason, even though statistically we are the most background checked citizens in the state, when we gun owners come calling the cops get twitchy trigger fingers. So be it. This is Illinois after all where murderers get a free pass from the governor and gun owners get jail. 

The trial will start on Monday, September 15th however that day will be primarily jury selection and instruction. 

THE DATE: We need you in the flesh at 9:30am Tuesday, September 16th @ 

Circuit Court of Cook County 
Room 108 5600 Old Orchard Road 
Skokie, IL 60077 847-470-7200 

The trial begins at 10am; however we will assemble at 9:30am in front of the court and go through security together in a show of solidarity. 

Coat and Tie is recommended, but slacks and shirt with collar would be fine. Your presence is what is needed MOST! 

We will sit quietly and respectfully during the trial however there will be NO DOUBT who we are there to support. 

PARTY: After Roderick is acquitted we will adjourn close by the court house to celebrate at a place TBD. We will pass the hat one last time for Roderick's legal defense and present the money on the spot to both Roderick and attorney Walter Maksym. 

Please pass this information on to gun clubs, organizations and to other like minded Americans. 

If you can't make it to the court house (yes, we know it is a work day for real Americans) and wish to donate you can send a check made out to WALTER MAKSYM and ASSOCIATES to: 

Concealed Carry, Inc. 
PO BOX 4597 
OAK BROOK IL 60522-4597 

Now is the moment for gun owners in Illinois to send a message to Cook County prosecutors that we are not going to tolerate being routinely prosecuted for transporting our weapons in Illinois. BE THERE or don't complain when the blue lights come on behind you. 

Just to get a feel for attendance please email me at john@concealcarry.org if you or your organization will attend.