0
0
The case of Sean C. Dunn, free man and innocent of the charges against him, gives me hope that the world will not end tomorrow. Mr. Dunn, ironically an employee of the Justice Department, had been accused of a felony. His crime? Tossing a sandwich at a federal agent following a verbal confrontation on the streets of Washington DC. Mr. Dunn appeared before a grand jury on Tues, and in the face of video evidence showing him forsaking his uneaten sandwich in order to deposit it into the agent’s midsection, the prosecutor was not able to get the jurors to approve the indictment against him.
To offer a bit of background concerning the US justice system, it is well recognized that grand juries are basically rigged for the prosecution. The defense is not present to offer any countering evidence, and the standard of “probable cause” is far lower than a standard jury’s burden of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” In summarizing the process, the former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals stated that any district attorney worth his or her salt could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
Which raises, of course, the legal question of whether Mr. Dunn is a free man because he had ordered tuna on rye—or turkey on wheat—or maybe, just maybe, pastrami on a Kaiser roll.
Mr. Dunn is my hero (or shall I say, the man for whom I would buy a hero) for momentarily losing control. His was a “crime of passion,” a moment that reminded us of that scene from the classic movie Network where people all over the city tossed open their windows and screamed, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Federal agents may have guns, but we have baguettes. Federal agents enforce the will of Donald Trump, but we will man the barricades led by the Pillsbury Dough Boy. It’s not quite a fair fight, but the fact that the grand jury did not find probable cause for punishing Mr. Dunn says that small acts of defiance may someday flourish and lead to the defeat of the fascists out there.
Sandwich Guy has become a folk hero. In downtown DC small marches have sprung up. I love the sign carried by one protestor: One Small Sub for Man… One Giant Gesture for Democracy.
