Open Carry Preacher Terry Holcomb arrested at County Commisioners Meeting

[William Tell]

Open Carry Preacher and former Liberty Candidate for Texas State Representative District 18, Terry Holcomb was arrested yesterday at a San Jacinto County Commisioners Meeting.

Jacob McAdams
Terry Holcomb Sr. is arrested on Tuesday during a San Jacinto County Commissioners Court meeting. He is accused of disrupting a public meeting.



Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 11:58 pm By Jacob McAdams and Vanesa Brashier
A Coldspring man who was defeated in the March primary in the race for State Representative District 18 was arrested Tuesday, Oct. 14, toward the end of a San Jacinto County Commissioners Court meeting at the county courthouse.
Terry Holcomb Sr., pastor of Huntsville-based Crossroads Baptist Church and president of the San Jacinto County Republican Club, is accused of disrupting the meeting because he was not allowed to make public comments as the regular portion of the meeting was adjourned for an executive session.
“We’re not gonna allow public comments today?” Holcomb said to the four county commissioners and County Judge Fritz Faulkner.
“It’s not on the agenda,” Faulkner replied.
“That’s unacceptable,” Holcomb said.
Faulkner then told Holcomb he could “go outside and discuss it,” but the meeting was moving forward with an executive session.
Saying again that the situation was “unacceptable,” Holcomb accused the court of taking the rights of the people.
When Holcomb made no effort to leave the courtroom, Faulkner said to him, “You’re dangerously close to disrupting a public meeting.”
Holcomb told the judge that he was denying the people their right to have their voice heard.
Faulkner responded by saying, “You can go out there and talk to the people. We’re fixing to have executive session.”
Still seated in his chair, Holcomb said, “You didn’t want to hear from the citizens and you’re gonna hear from them. You are gonna hear from me. You are not going to silence us by your abuse.”
At that point, Faulkner called for Pct. 2 Constable Roy Pippin Jr. to remove Holcomb from the meeting chamber.
“You have been requested to remove from the court,” Pippin told Holcomb.
“I am not leaving. I am not leaving,” he replied.
Directing his comments to commissioners, Holcomb then said, “And y’all commissioners that are allowing this, you are all cowards. All of you.”
Pippin implored Holcomb to leave the room but Holcomb remained in his chair and demanded to know what law he had broken.
“No law is broken. You were given an order to remove from court,” said Pippin, adding moments later, “By not following my order, you are resisting arrest. Do you want to go to jail for resisting arrest?”
Faulkner told Holcomb that commissioners court meetings are not a political stomping ground.
“That’s all you want to do,” he said.
Outside of the courtroom, Holcomb was confronted by Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Sowell who asked to have a “private word” with him.
Holcomb asked if he was being detained and Sowell replied, “You’re about to be,” prompting Holcomb to ask if he had committed a crime.
“I didn’t say you committed a crime,” said Sowell.
Sowell placed Holcomb in handcuffs and escorted him away from the premises.
According to Pct. 1 Commissioner Ray McCoppin, Holcomb filed a written request to make public comments at the meeting. However, comments were not included in the agenda.
Faulkner, by phone Tuesday night, said comments were left off due to an already lengthy agenda. He added that public comments right before an election also tend to be problematic since people are known to use the comments portion of a meeting to make political attacks on candidates running for office.
Faulkner, the Democratic incumbent county judge, is defending his position against Republican challenger John Lovett in the November general election.
Allowing comments during commissioners court meetings are not required by law, but are a good practice whenever possible, according to Liberty County Judge Craig McNair. In Liberty County Commissioners Court meetings, the only comments allowed are those that relate to agenda items; all other comments are denied.
“Some counties don't do public comments. This is a decision set up by each county on how they want to do it,” said McNair. “Unless it's on the agenda, you can't make comments out of the blue. They have to address the item on the agenda and you have to stick to that subject.”
After Holcomb’s arrest, members of the San Jacinto County Republican Party expressed their frustrations about what transpired.
“There was no reason [for it],” said San Jacinto County Party Chairman Dwayne Wright. “That’s what activates people like myself. That’s what activates people like Terry Holcomb.”
Wright explained that Holcomb specifically wanted to address a resolution regarding the housing of illegal immigrants, which was decided against last month.
“He was upset that [the] resolution he put forth was not dealt with,” said Wright. “The judge prepared and substituted his own version [that] wasn’t even close to [Holcomb’s] version.
Not long before the start of the commissioners court meeting, Holcomb posted on Facebook that he was “fixing to challenge the county judge on his unconstitutional silencing of the people's first amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”
Cell phone videos that have since been posted on YouTube suggest that Holcomb’s supporters were aware of his plans to challenge commissioners court since the cameras began to record at the moment he began to speak.
To view the videos from the commissioners court incident, go online to https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=O5vuNb3lDiQ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk4...yphso9CXsxnNYQ.
Tuesday’s incident was not Holcomb’s first arrest. On Sept. 13, 2013, he was arrested on the grounds of the state capitol by state troopers who reportedly were concerned about Holcomb’s 1858 Remington black powder revolver, which he was carrying in a holster.
The charges of disorderly conduct were later dropped.
Holcomb, an advocate for Open Carry Texas, also caused a stir in Huntville in August 2013 when he walked into a Walmart store with an assault rifle slung over a shoulder while his supporters captured the wholeincident on cell phone video. The video is posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzw8jW0aCys
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/easte...a610a7606.html

[William Tell]

[William Tell]

Dwayne Wright, San Jacinto GOP Chair, an eyewitness to the arrest will be on show on the Apostle Claver Kamau-Imani show on Raging Elephents Radio this afternoon. The show runs from 2:00pm-4:00 pm.
http://www.ragingelephantsradio.com/

[William Tell]

Terry is coming up live on the radio:
http://www.ragingelephantsradio.com/

[enhanced_deficit]

While we claim to be land of the free, our open-carry freedoms in reality pale compared to open-carry freedoms of other countries like Afghanland.

[Spikender]

Terry = Hero.

[Origanalist]

I swear I saw something about this here but search brings up nada so..;

Waller County officials sue gun rights activist following complaint

A Southeast Texas county sued a gun-rights activist who has complained that county officials were unlawfully barring firearms from being brought into a public building.

The lawsuit filed by Waller County, 120 miles east of Austin, takes aim at Terry Holcomb Sr., the executive director of a gun-rights organization called Texas Carry.

Holcomb has sent letters to more than 75 local governments and other public entities across the state complaining of restrictions placed on license-holders from bringing a firearm into a public arena. Others have filed complaints with the Texas attorney general’s office accusing Austin City Hall, the Dallas Zoo, a nature preserve, a suburban Houston convention center and other places with unlawfully banning firearms.

In the case of courthouses like the one in Waller County, Texas law prohibits guns from being brought into courtrooms and related offices, but Attorney General Ken Paxton issued separate opinions in December saying firearms can’t be uniformly prohibited from an entire courthouse complex.

Holcomb argues that the “heavy-handed” decision by Waller County to sue him makes his case much more than a Second Amendment matter.

“We can agree or disagree on the gun issue but this is different than that,” he said, contending that the county’s suit is frivolous and “borderline official oppression.”

The suit appears to be a highly unusual step. Dave Workman, spokesman for the Second Amendment Foundation, based in Bellevue, Wash., says he’s never heard of a situation where a government has sued a person who complained about a gun restriction.

Holcomb has responded by filing a countersuit that asserts the county is acting in bad faith.

Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said Friday that Holcomb misunderstands the county’s intentions. Mathis said he’s simply seeking a ruling by a state judge that the county had the legal right to ban guns from the entire courthouse building.

The county’s suit seeks up to $100,000 in damages from Holcomb but Mathis said that was included as boilerplate language and he promised that the county would not pursue any monetary damages.

Lawyers in his office have spent months reviewing state statutes to ensure any restrictions on weapons are lawful, Mathis said, but a mish-mash of laws continue to create confusion in Texas.

“We decided we wanted to put the issue to bed,” he said.

Firearms must be barred from courthouse grounds because courtrooms are the scene of emotionally charged cases that have been known to erupt in violence.

“My courtroom doors are made out of glass and that’s not going to stop a bullet,” he said.

David Anderson, a University of Texas law professor specializing in First Amendment issues, said he understands how Waller County wants a judicial ruling to settle the matter. “But you don’t do that by suing the person who filed the complaint,” he said.

The county may be running afoul of state protections against frivolous lawsuits, Anderson said, explaining that rules are in place to prevent litigation that’s meant to silence or intimidate critics.

“I’ve never heard of a county using litigation to dissuade a person from complaining,” he said.

Mathis acknowledges he’s brought an unconventional lawsuit but says Holcomb has filed dozens of complaints across the state and is “in the business of pushing an agenda.” What’s needed now, beyond a judge’s ruling, is action by the Texas Legislature that brings greater clarity to where guns are allowed in public places and where they’re not, he said.

Holcomb argues he’s willing to compromise and wants to work with local leaders rather than antagonize. Waller County took an approach that he believes was unnecessary.

“I’m not going to kowtow to a local government acting like a group of thugs,” he said.
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/s...vist-fo/nsBQX/