By Matt Agorist
In 2017, the Free Thought Project brought you the story about constitutional activist Josh Martinez when he was arrested for refusing to give his age to police on a Nevada courthouse steps. He was attempting to enter the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse without having to identify himself. Since then, Martinez has fought a series of battles for his freedom — going up against clearly false charges — as he fights for the freedom of others.
Now, he is battling what appears to be yet another set of bogus charges. This time, however, the stakes appear to be much higher. Martinez was indicted this week on what some are saying are trumped-up and retaliatory charges.
In February, Martinez, 32, was arrested after he made Facebook posts that are entirely legal. To be clear, Martinez’s posts were in poor taste; however, they were completely legal.
Earlier this year, Martinez posted a Facebook photo of a flag-draped coffin carried by uniformed officers with the caption, “How police officers take out their trash.” Above the photo, Martinez said, “I can’t wait to see the news and hear that Detective Kenneth Mead is in that casket.”
Showing how ridiculous the charges are, that post didn’t even violate Facebook’s terms of service and it was allowed to stay up on Facebook.
In another post, Martinez posted a photo of Dickerson with the statement, “This is Michael Dickerson. He is Detective Kenneth Mead’s bitch. Dickerson, I hope you and Mead die a slow and painful death… Mead, I have a message for you — Molon Labe.”
Again, though this post was distasteful, it was entirely legal. One need only scroll through Twitter or Facebook for a few seconds to find millions upon millions of similar posts about Trump, Biden, cops, judges, local politicians, and individuals whose politics draw them the ire of the political foes.
According to the criminal complaint against Martinez — which apparently justified a million dollar bond — Martinez threatened Mead with the intent that Mead be “placed in reasonable fear of death or substantial bodily harm.”
We spoke to a source close to Martinez this week and they tell TFTP that the reason Mead felt he was in fear was that Martinez called him. To be clear, Martinez was not stalking Mead, he was merely trying to get back his property from the aforementioned arrest in 2017. According to policy, if you need to get back your property, you can contact the arresting officer — Mead was the arresting officer in that case.
The idea that these posts or the phone call placed him in “reasonable fear” is laughable. Literally every single day, TFTP gets hate mail and death threats, directed at our employees and even their families and children, and no one is ever placed in “reasonable fear” because of them.
The emails directly threaten our families, claiming they will murder, rape, etc. If you are reading this now, you can probably even scroll down to the comments and find a threat below. But we don’t even report them, as some pissed off asshole ranting on the internet does not justify reasonable fear.
Nevertheless, Martinez is facing a lot of time behind bars because of it. He was facing four felony charges — aggravated stalking, challenge to a fight with use of a deadly weapon, stalking with use of the internet or electronic communication and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. He also faces two misdemeanor harassment charges.
On Wednesday, however, the feds upped the ante and charged Martinez with two felony counts of possession of a firearm and two counts of felon in possession of ammunition.
Prosecutors claim that when Martinez — who was previously convicted for standing up for the Constitution and is not allowed to own firearms — was raided over the memes, police discovered two firearms.
However, a source close to the case tells TFTP that one of the guns was not his and in pieces and the other was his brother’s in his brother’s locked car, in which Martinez had no access.
James Freeman, a friend of Martinez expressed his opinion on what is unfolding in this case, and it is nothing short of corrupt and infuriating.
These are the charges put on Joshua Martinez for making Facebook posts that Detective Kenneth Mead with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department didn’t like. The posts were in my personal opinion distasteful, but there was no harassment or threats. The posts were used by Joshua to express to his friends how much he dislikes Kenneth Mead, after Kenneth Mead spent years terrorizing Joshua and his family.
Kenneth Mead is part of the Anti Terrorism task force in Las Vegas. He has made ZERO PROGRESS on the Vegas shooting case, but has spent thousands of hours, and hundreds of thousands in resources terrorizing Joshua because he believes in the constitution of the US. Kenneth Mead’s violent actions against innocent civilians are terroristic.
Indeed, it is hard to argue with this.
Freeman put together a powerful video which highlights many of the unscrupulous aspects of Martinez’s case. It is below. Also below is a video made by TFTP’s Jason Bassler in January of last year, explaining the persecution of Martinez.
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Minds.
