Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Over the past several months I have seen several posts on our forum regarding the HSUS and their siezure tactics and possible impersonation of law enforcment agents. It finally hit me square in the face that I had seen some information in the Code Enforcment documents for my state pertaining to laws against impersonating an officer. Indiana has law enforcment codes on the books regarding imerpsonating law officers, badge wearing and other specifics of impersonation. Here is an excerpt from the Indiana Code IC 35-44-2 in reference to the matter of impersonation.

IC 35-44-2-3
Impersonation of a public servant
Sec. 3. A person who falsely represents that the person is a public servant, with intent to mislead and induce another person to submit to false official authority or otherwise to act to the other person's detriment in reliance on the false representation, commits impersonation of a public servant, a Class A misdemeanor. However, a person who falsely represents that the person is:
(1) a law enforcement officer; or
(2) an agent or employee of the department of state revenue, and collects any property from another person;
commits a Class D felony.
As added by Acts 1976, P.L.148, SEC.4. Amended by Acts 1977, P.L.340, SEC.57; P.L.6-1987, SEC.21; P.L.214-1997, SEC.1.

I thought I would share this with everybody here on the forum as a possible means at combating any attempts by persons from HSUS organizations to perform illegal siezures of animals from any of my friends in the reptile industry. Remember, the excerpt above is only for Indiana. I have not done a search for other states yet so there may be similar Code Enforcment that pertains to your state as well. Maybe this will help us gain some protection for our property and investmants. I plan on digging a little deeper into this issue in my state to see just how much enforcment this may provide if the HSUS and their so called agents come knocking on my door. I also plan on having a copy of this document in a folder at my door just in case. I hope this will help foster advances in our ability to fend off attempts by those groups that seek to destroy our hobby.

I used google and just searched under this reference "indiana impersonating an officer". That gave me several links right to the actual cose. The first time I saw it was during a marathon session reading thru Code Enforcment to see if there were already any local codes against reptile ownership and the Indiana proposed senate bill S280.

Chris

Wisconsin's law reads:

Except as provided in sub. (2), whoever impersonates a peace officer with intent to mislead others into believing that the person is actually a peace officer is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. (2) Any person violating sub (1) with the intent to commit or aid or abet the commission of a crime other than the crime under this section is guilty of a Class D felony (Wis. Stat. Ann. § 946. 70).

Here is another form of the same code on a federal level.

Title 18 U.S.C. § 912 (1994), provides that

Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

After reading a few of the cited cases, looks like this could hit the hardest on persons showing badges and claiming to be Federal Fish and Wildlife Agents or persons from similar agencies.

We really need to confirm whether or not there is such a position as an officer of the HSUS that is actually en enforcable position. If HSUS personnel do not legally have a right to portray themselves as "Officers", then there may be a real means of stopping illegal searcha nd siezures from occuring.

Chris

The AR crowd convinces law enforcement that there is a criminal situation and goes with them. The law enforcement act upon the information given to them by AR people and then hand the seized animals over to animal welfare organizations to care for them until final disposition can be determined.

It would not be unreasonable to pursue a cause for Malicious Prosecution or Official Oppression/Misconduct for a remedy.

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

I first heard about this a couple months ago. They were making "citizen's arrests".

I have a contact from one of the reptile shows that cliams to be a police officer in one of the local districts here. He and I actually spoke for some time at the January swap meet in Indianapolis where he informed me that there were two undercover DNR officers on site. He claimed that he and his daughter were looking for some Boas. If I run into him again, I will ask if I can see his credentials and then go further into this particular subject from there. I will post anything that I find out.

Chris