A Prefatory Note from the Author of the Petition — a Convicted Felon
Please keep in mind that virtually all freedom fighters have been a prisoner or martyr in pursuit of their goals. As a freedom fighter, my goals are also related to the struggle for freedom, justice and liberty for all. Some of the more well-known martyrs and freedom fighters who were convicts include Jesus Christ, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. The list is endless. To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau … in a land of unjust laws, a just man should be a convict.
After receiving a terse response from a law professor at my alma mater, ASU, it has become clear to me that I must clarify one commonly misconstrued fact concerning the attached First Amendment petition: I am an unrepentant, and – thanks to the equity of the justice system – unpunished, convict-at-large. I am a freedom fighter and I am proud of what I did in suffering eight years of harassment culminating in a criminal conviction at the hands of the “Arizona” Department of Gaming. I earned that distinction through a decade-long struggle with the BIA’s amoral gambling cabal’s paid police enforcers of the misnamed Arizona Department of Gaming. It is true that I was convicted of one count of criminal conspiracy, and two counts for allegedly promoting gambling, merely for attempting to organize casino cardroom poker players outside of their BIA casinos.
Is it at all disconcerting, that a three-term retired magistrate was convicted on three felonies related to poker, based on testimony of police agents, who are funded entirely by a banished gambling cartel? Is it really copacetic when trial testimony and sentencing are being stonewalled by the media? It is obvious that the media outlets are doing so merely to guard their favorite sacred cow — the local BIA casinos. Fortunately, the court recognized the charges were overblown and responded appropriately. The Superior Court system humiliated the Attorney General’s Office and the DoG police. Their lengthy witch hunt ended with the Court imposing a single year of unsupervised probation for me — no jail time, no fine. My probation has been served; my case is up for appeal. Therefore, I will be redoubling my efforts to see the inhumane, immoral, and illicit Indian Removal Act repealed.
I am as proud of my poker-related convictions as I am of any other event in my life in the pursuit of justice. My goal is to expose the Arizona gambling cartel as the immoral, untaxed, self-policing, outlaws that they are. After all, the BIA gambling cartel’s police agents that testified at trial are paid exclusively by the cartel gambling receipts. They receive nothing from the taxpayers. AZ DoG police agents guard the BIA’s criminal compact and its patently illicit Poker Memorandum of Understanding. The BIA gambling cartel officially invaded Arizona’s tribal lands in 1988. The Arizona gambling syndicate’s success is owed to the powers garnered with their illegitimate Gaming Compact. The compact is the result of an unlawful mandate from Congress, which was enacted in 1988 and subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court in 1996 (Seminole vs. Florida).
The original BIA insurgency was the Indian Removal Act of 1831. As a means of sustaining that immoral Act, along with the rogue agency that maintains it, a second insurgency was spawned: The BIA’s 1988 felony tribal gambling compact. For far too long, BIA agents have provided a safe haven for their cronies from the immoral, untaxed, felony gambling cartel. Sadly, Arizona politicos are still following the dictates of that unconstitutional criminal agreement, in spite of the Supreme Court’s finding that Congress overstepped its powers in ordering up a compact.
Proponents and minions that sustain the BIA’s illicit gambling compact, also continue allowing the people of Arizona to be fleeced with impunity. Those acts are the basis of our civil petition and demand for a redress of grievances, which is presently being served upon all Arizona elected officials. Petitioner does not seek to punish those hoodwinked by this antiquated government bureaucracy. However, it is our contention that those made aware of this petition, and who dismiss its finding as not relevant or, as being a loopy legal theory, will be betraying their oath of office. The Arizona Oath of Office requires everyone that swears to it to guard the law from all enemies of the law. Whether the enemy is a foreign or domestic entity is of no importance to that promise. To abstain is to not uphold that oath.
Respectfully, Judge Harold Lee (Retired) – Petitioner
For the record: My original 2005 ACL petition sought to organize poker players and wrest control of this beloved avocation and international sport from the BIA’s outlawed felony gambling cartel. We sought (and received) support of local authority, to open safe venues outside of Indian Country. We merely desired to play our game in a safe venue, where player prize pools could be protected from third party theft and conversion, by the BIA casino card parlors. Regrettably, the rules of evidence did not allow my jury to be privy to most of the facts contained in this petition. Hence, my conviction for three over-blow criminal charges was inevitable. Fortunately, the Court refused to punish me.
A CITIZEN PETITION FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES
To the people of Arizona let’s make this our last generation of BIA enslaved Indians.
This is a civil petition filed pursuant to the 1st Amendment right to seek a redress of grievances from the government. It was drafted by a small ad hoc group of concerned citizens, seeking a redress of grievances from their sworn elected officers. While petitioners intend to serve their petition upon State and Federal officers, we have chosen to file the first petition with the City of Tempe. Local government is the first line of defense against organized crime cartels victimizing any community. It is not our intent to chastise public officers, who may be unaware of information it took petitioners several years to accumulate. Frankly, we have all been misled for centuries by the lies, misinformation, and government misspeak, fostered by minions and dupes from the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. We appreciate your attention to our grievances.
Arizona tribal lands are overseen by the Department of Interior’s Indian Affairs Bureaucracy and its BIA agents, who have lorded it over THE REZ since political insurgents passed the patently racist Indian Removal Act. The mere name is prima fascia evidence of a government-sponsored ethnic cleansing program. The Act is unrequited and continues unabated. It remains a moral blight on our dignity as a nation of laws. Yet, the vast majority of American citizens take no notice. Of course, we continue to be misled by minions of the BIA insurgency, and ordered around by unlawful mandates. Native Americans are the forgotten souls, and their plight is misunderstood. This is why the BIA criminal sanctuary and its insurgents have been allowed to grow and prosper into the 21st Century. Regrettably, many good people simply believe nothing can be done to redress the BIA crime haven. Petitioners have faith in the power of the Constitution and the people to force the Nation to eventually abide by its’ moral and legal precepts.
The fact of the matter is: Paid BIA agents from the Department of Interior (and not “Indians”) are operating Arizona’s untaxed, self-policed, felony enterprise from within the limited sovereignty of taxpayer- controlled lands. Neither, the BIA agents or their charges can legally hold themselves to be beyond the jurisdiction of Arizona voters or the moral precepts of Arizona’s felony statutory laws. In fact, neither the BIA nor its felony gambling Empire has ever been a lawful government entity.
_____________________________
AN INSURGENCY OVER THE “LAW of the LAND” IS IN PROGRESS!
1. The following petition outlines the history and those responsible for the State of Arizona being bilked 24/7 by an untaxed, self-policing, felonious gambling cartel, even though the Arizona oath of office requires all public officers to guard the law from all enemies foreign or domestic; this most certainly must include our fellow voters within State tribal lands, who are clearly under the sovereignty of the Arizona electorate, as well as state statutory laws.
2. Andrew Jackson and the BIA launched their coup d’état by lobbying and enacting the patently immoral 1832 Indian Removal Act. The law was executed by Jackson empowering the Army to assist states and BIA agents in breaching Government treaties. This was done over the Majority opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Cherokee vs. State of Georgia. The Court held that States were bound by law to adhere to all federal treaties and contracts with the tribes.
3. Yet, that unlawful mandate remains unrequited today while, the agency responsible for executing the inhumane law (the BIA) is busy guarding Arizona’s illegal gambling cartel, from oversight of bona fide state policing agencies. Charged with guarding the taxpayer wards and “pupilage” in their custody; the BIA decided to employ its poverty ridden taxpayer wards to operate an outlawed rigged-slot machine Empire against the citizens of Arizona.
4. The BIA has conceded that the tribal trust they are responsible for has been pilfered for billions of dollars. Lawsuits like the 3.5 billion dollar Cobell Indian Settlement are only now beginning to mount. Monetary damages to taxpayers now exceed five billion dollars with dozens of more suits pending. Yet, this agency and their criminal sanctuary continue to flourish. Petitioner maintains that it is more equitable, and far less costly, to grant the tribes a fee simple title to their ancestral lands, eliminate the BIA, and allow the tribes to manage their own affairs; sans the government bureaucracy.
5. The Majority Opinion handed down in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Peters) 1 (1831), determined the tribes were not independent sovereign nations but, were domestic dependent wards and pupilage of the U.S. Government. That decision was insurrected by President Andrew Jackson, who openly ridiculed it. Jackson denied the power and authority of the Supreme Court to hand down the law of the land. Jackson’s insurgency occurred thirty years after Marbury vs. Madison (1803) had established the principle of judicial review. In his 1832 message to Congress vetoing the Bank bill, Jackson proclaimed to Congress that henceforth, he and not the Supreme Court would determine the true law of the land. He asserted that the Supreme Court did not have the power to enforce the law over him or Congress.
6. There is no dispute that the Indian Removal Act was the creation of President Andrew Jackson, who campaigned on the issue. As Chief Executive his administration empowered the BIA to execute his insurgency; as if it were settled law and not subject to judicial review. Jackson’s rebellion codified the chauvinistic jingoist policies of the Georgia Militia by enacting and enforcing the Indian Removal Act. Those policies have included such crimes as; breaching treaties, property theft and genocide, along with the internment of indigenous tribes within BIA-controlled reservations. An antebellum Congress, dominated by supporters of human bondage and slavery, had little difficulty in defying the Supreme Court and overthrowing its written Majority Opinion in the Cherokee case. It is both extremely cruel and despicable that our Country should continue to follow this insurgency into the 21st Century.
7. Since this unrequited insurrection began, Congress has been sustaining its own insurgency, by guarding the BIA reservation system as if the enslavement of the indigenous tribes was a lawful mandate, and settled law. No mandate that sanctions Government crimes such as theft, extortion, and genocide, can ever be deemed settled law. Certainly this is true to anyone under oath, who has promised to defend the Constitution and guard the law from all enemies foreign or domestic.
8. One particularly offensive congressional command, designed to sustain the BIA reservation system, required the State of Arizona to “negotiate in good faith” with the outlawed felony rigged-slot machine cartel. Unfortunately, even though that law was subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional: the decision has gone completely unnoticed by Arizona’s leadership. Hopefully, this petition will awaken elected officers to the true nature of the BIA crime sanctuary, and they can begin to uphold their solemn promise made to the people of Arizona to guard the people from crime cabals, like the one the BIA gambling cartel operates sans tax revenue or police oversight. See Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44 (1996).
9. The Supreme Court decision in the Florida case has had no adverse effect on the growth (or power) of Arizona’s gambling Cartel. The Florida case held that Article One of the U.S. Constitution did not give the United States Congress the power to abrogate the sovereign immunity of the state. Additionally, the state has further protections under the Eleventh Amendment, and the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
10. Petitioner (and the 14th Amendment) maintains that every citizen must be treated equally under the law. Voters within state tribal lands cannot be excluded. Tribal members are American citizens, Arizona residents, and eligible to vote in state elections. It is long past the time for Arizona officials to guard the law and, to garner control and oversight of the felonious gambling cartel, which has invaded the State’s tribal lands.
11. Unfortunately, the Court’s ruling in the Florida case was handed down 8 years after the unlawful congressional command. The “gambling compact” had already been accepted and passed into law by Cartel minions and obtuse government leadership. Regrettably, Arizona’s sworn officers continue to comply with the blatantly unlawful mandate, which is providing a sanctuary for the BIA’s felonious business enterprise. Apparently, Florida’s leadership mustered up the courage to disagree with Congress and the BIA gambling cabal, while Arizona’s leadership has not yet found the courage to challenge the BIA cartel. All of Arizona’s elected officials have promised to abide by the following oath:
I, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the State of Arizona, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and defend them against all enemies, foreign or domestic, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of the office, according to the best of my ability, so help me God (or so I do affirm). (Emphasis was added by the author, who faced down a potential twenty years in prison because he felt compelled to abide by his promise made under this oath.)
12. It is not possible for a sworn public officer, who is entrusted with the responsibility of “bearing true faith and allegiance” to Arizona’s statutory laws, to abide the existence of a felonious business enterprise operating against their constituents. Would State leadership be as tolerant; if the felony enterprise operating with impunity, paying no tax revenue to the state, and no direct oversight was the illicit drug cartel, or prostitution, instead of the rigged slot-machine cartel? Not likely.
13. The BIA has publicly acknowledged its duplicity in theft and genocide against the tribes, which it is theoretically protecting and assimilating into the fabric of American life as law-abiding citizens. Instead, their agents have turned them into shills and bookies for an amoral banished felony gambling cartel. That dependent government wards have been appointed to run the BIA’s crime sanctuary does not make it lawful. It merely makes it more reprehensible. On September 8, 2000 the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover (under Interior Secretary and former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt) issued a formal apology to the tribes. He acknowledged his agency’s deplorable history of maltreatment toward the Native tribes in their custody and care. Unfortunately, nothing has changed in the 12 years since he apologized. The BIA continues to enslave the tribes and their progeny, within government-controlled reservations pursuant to a despicable government policy that was never lawful from the first instance.
14. So called “Indian” reservations were created as internment compounds for the ancestors and grandparents of today’s BIA reservation residents. Their ancestors were held under the very real threat of annihilation if they failed to become civilized under the tutelage of crooked BIA agents, who were overseeing them and their property. Sadly, the progeny of those internees have become institutionalized into a life of poverty, depredation, and idleness. Under BIA tutelage inhabitants have become perpetual wards of the taxpayers. The BIA’s failed system is sustained by the defrauded taxpayers and the outlawed felony gambling syndicate’s tainted revenues. The fraud is hidden under cover of a bogus claim of independence and sovereignty proffered by supporters of the Indian Affairs insurgency.
15. Rebecca Tsosie’s scholarly critique of Secretary Gover’s BIA apology has been removed from the Poker Army Command Center blog and our petition at the request of the author. We can only surmise that Professor Tsosie believes our goal of dismantling the BIA is an unworthy one. Or, perhaps she too feels intimidated by the BIA crime cartel. Additional history on petitioner’s struggle with the BIA gambling cabal can be found at www.pokerplayerarmy.com and www.convictatlarge.me. An idea on how the government might be redress this petition via privatization of BIA controlled lands to a tribal consortium can be read at www.convictatlarge.com.
16. Arizona leaders who decline to move against the BIA crime cartel, after being made aware of its true history, will be intentionally shunning their sworn duty and betraying their solemn promise made to their constituents to “…bear true faith and allegiance…” to all of Arizona’s statutory laws; including the ban on rigged slot-machines and third-party theft and monopolistic claims over the sport of poker.
An Overview of the 1st Amendment by Cornell University
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from government interference. Freedom of expression consists of the rights to freedom of speech, press, assembly and to petition the government for a redress of grievances, and the implied rights of association and belief. The Supreme Court interprets the extent of the protection afforded to these rights. The First Amendment has been interpreted by the Court as applying to the entire federal government even though it is only expressly applicable to Congress. Furthermore, the Court has interpreted the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as protecting the rights in the First Amendment from interference by state governments.
Summation: Background and history of the Indian Affairs Bureaucracy (BIA)
Obviously, most of today’s political leaders have been deceived by the criminal antics of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ self-policed, untaxed, felonious gambling Empire. Unbelievably, all of this criminality is overseen by government employees, who are paid by taxpayers to guard Arizona’s tribal lands and oversee the welfare of their wards. Those wards are being institutionalized by draconian government policies, while BIA agents train them to shill for their banned felony slot machine cartel. Having been hoodwinked for years by the lies, misnomers, and misspeak proffered by BIA minions and dupes; petitioner sympathizes with those who have been misled as to the pedigree and true history surrounding the so called “Indian” reservations. After many years of studying the BIA, the best that can be said about this failed social experiment, is that it has always been bad public policy. Of course, the unvarnished truth is much more contemptible.
The BIA’s crime pact was euphemistically dubbed the Arizona Tribal-State Gaming Compact. Again, as with the Removal Act, the name proudly proclaims it as a conspiracy. Clearly, Arizona’s outlawed gambling Cabal and the BIA agents entered into a felony conspiracy. Sworn public officers had to betray their oath of office to agree to the so called “gaming” compact. The document is a one-sided contract crafted by Arizona’s outlawed gambling Cartel. There is absolutely no upside for the law-abiding citizens of Arizona under the terms of the agreement. The BIA controlled crime haven is allowed to operate a felony enterprise 24/7 with impunity, from within the sovereignty of Arizona’s tribal lands.
There is simply no measurable benefit or quid pro quo accruing to the State of Arizona, for providing a pool of defenseless victims for the BIA slot Empire. Arizona’s banished gambling Cartel is a huge net loss to the State of Arizona. There can be no real question as to who holds true sovereignty over tribal lands: it is the taxpayers. Ultimately, petitioners hope tribal lands will become privatized under control of the tribes. See Tecumseh Society Trust proposal at www.convictatlarge.com
Cartel balks at DoG order to cease and desist and the paymaster garners a monopoly
Circa 1998 the Arizona Department of Gaming ordered the BIA gambling cartel to cease hosting Jackpot Poker games in BIA casinos. That game requires the house to pilfer player prize pools, in violation of State law. Naturally, the order was summarily rejected by the BIA gambling syndicate, who advised their paid employees from the Department of Gaming that Poker is not illegal gambling pursuant to Arizona statutory law. (Ironically, this was the same legal premise proffered in the 2005 ACL petition to State prosecutors.)
Incredibly, the Department of Gaming saw the Cartel’s rejection as an opportunity to enhance the agency’s powers and gain support of the cartel. The DoG Director, along with various members of the Arizona Cartel determined they would monopolize the sport of Poker for the BIA casinos. The Department of Gaming responded to the BIA cartel’s rebuff by crafting 17 separate written documents for each of the members of Arizona’s felony gambling cabal. The conspirators referred to each of their written criminal agreements as a Memorandum of Understanding.
The Memorandum of Understanding was the brainchild of the DoG Director and the Governor of Arizona. Cartel members (including the Governor) conspired together to overturn Arizona statutory laws, which ban the chance gambling scheme known as “Jackpot” Poker. The DoG agents also; agreed to allow cartel card rooms to pilfer poker player prize pools, which is a third party theft pursuant to Arizona law. The clear intent of their conspiracy was to skirt statutory law and garner power over state poker players for the cartel funded DoG police. They could then use their badges to extort professional poker players into the reservation casino card rooms of their paymasters in the Cartel.
The Department of Gaming’s power and prestige was significantly enhanced in 2002, when Arizona’s gambling cabal floated their unlawful referendum past the voters, in a successful ploy to sustain their insurgency. The DoG agency became administrator of a 100 million dollar slush fund. The Fund is endowed with a single digit percentage of whatever figures the syndicate’s bookkeeper alleges are net profits for that fiscal year. The Department of Gaming launders the swag garnered from the tainted revenues of the outlawed slot machine syndicate. This alone constitutes criminal malfeasance by sworn public officers, who have promised to guard the laws and the Constitution from all enemies. No public officer can grant immunity to a crime syndicate, while upholding their oath of office.
The Department of Gaming launders much of its booty with a few paltry handouts to supporters and minions, who are selected from a list of recipients that Cartel members deem to be worthy. The fund directly pays the DoG police agency to guard the Cartel’s monopolistic claims from locally licensed off-reservation card rooms. Oddly, the Arizona Department of Gaming has no power or authority to police the BIA gambling facilities of their employers in the BIA’s gambling cartel. Petitioner maintains that the duties of the Arizona Department of Gaming amount to nothing more than extortion for the outlawed crime cabal that funds all of their police operations.
The legal opinions of local enforcement authority are routinely disregarded by the DoG’s police agents, who maintain that their gambling compact makes state and local prosecutorial authority subservient to them. Regardless, it is simply a fact that every single one of their Memos of Understanding necessitated that the parties involved ignore their sworn promise to defend and guard Arizona statutory laws. With the exception of former Governor Fife Symington III, not one Arizona official has ever voiced regret or sought to bring the banned felony slot machine cartel before the bar of justice. However, it is simply the law:
No Arizona public officer can legally or morally conspire with gamblers and crime lords to conjure up a criminal compact, without first betraying their sworn oath of office. Yet, the BIA’s felony crime sanctuary continues to grow and prosper in Arizona. Petitioner beseeches recipients to revisit the oath of office they have made to the State. It is time for the taxpayers and voters to gain direct oversight and control of the BIA’s gambling cartel. The BIA’s long term government insurgency over the constituted government of the people must be halted.
We seek your help and guidance in making our generation the last generation to sustain the BIA’s insurgency. Let our generation be the one to halt the abuse and maltreatment of the tribes ensnared within the Department of Interior’s so called “Indian reservations”. Petitioner maintains that any and all legislation enacted during the Jackson administration’s insurgency cannot be considered settled law. We ask that you utilize the powers of your office to bring these grievances to the attention of your constituency, the free press, and aid us in bringing the issue before the bar of justice. We must free the tribes; with fee simple title to BIA controlled tribal lands. The indigenous tribes were never uncivilized. However, the real question we need to ask ourselves; how civilized is the Interior Department’s BIA reservation system?
Respectfully, Judge Harold Lee (Ret.) Petitioner
March 7, 2013 — Tempe, Arizona
