INDIANAPOLIS, IN – It was a sunny morning on May 14th. I was behind the wheel of MARV driving northeast on I-59 in Mississippi. Adam was sitting shotgun and navigating. Jason was in the back sleeping. We had had a great meetup the night before in New Orleans (here and here) and were making good time to meet a couple of friends for breakfast before heading to Nashville for a meetup that evening. All that changed when Deputy Atkins of the Jones County Sheriff’s Department pulled us over. And though Atkins soon admitted that the reason for us being stopped – that our vehicle had temporary tags from New Hampshire – was cleared, he and his colleagues detained, arrested and threw us in a cage for 10 hours and as seen in the video below, thoroughly thrashed our home.

Fortunately, others (including Allison Gibbs featured below) did not stand by idly but contributed their time (300-500 phone calls to the jail, sheriffs department, attorney general and others, etc.), treasure (to help cover the cash bond we needed to pay to secure our release from their cage, motel room, etc.) and talent (letters to the editor, outreach to those in their networks, recommendations to us, etc.). Not only did this have the immediate and very-real benefit of helping us, but it demonstrated something that still makes me teary-eyed when telling this story to this day: the willingness of others to stand for what’s right. I trust in the good-nature of people to help those in need – it just so happened that our time of need came due to the actions of  those who wear a badge and who claim to act out of a desire “to protect and serve” us. The very significant take-away for others who face such rights-violating actions is that they are not alone – there exists a community that will support them.

We advocate freedom and responsibility. We believe individuals should be free to act so long as they don’t initiate force against someone else. What this ultimately comes down to is the fact that we were not harming anyone and that, for some reason, those active with the Jones County Sheriff’s Department believe simply because they have a badge they can violate our rights and not be held accountable (i.e. telling Adam he’s “going to jail” for filming).

Jones County Sheriff Department Violates Rights of MHD

Though we were all threatened with multiple offenses, in the end we were each charged with just one – Adam with disorderly, Jason with resisting and me with possessing a beer in a dry county. I won’t go into details here (for more click here) but it’s important to note that on June 24th, through our lawyer, we pled “not guilty” and now have to appear in court on Sept. 10th. This made us change our entire itinerary and head south, so en route we’re now scheduled to have meetups in Indianapolis, Louisville, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, possibly Birmingham and Laurel (in Jones County).

We’ve already heard from some people in our network that plan on joining us or helping us in some other way and we thank them in advance for their support. If you have the time/interest to help, here’s how:

Join us in Jones County!

• Our trial is Thursday, Sept. 10th at 1pm. It will be held at the Jones County Justice Court, which is located at 402 Central Avenue, Laurel, MS 39440.
• Connect with other lovers of liberty on our Facebook Fan Page to coordinate travel and/or split hotel/motel rooms.
• We’re having a meetup in Laurel on Wednesday, Sept. 9th from 7-10pm. Join us!
• Have you had similar experiences thanks to those working for the Jones County Sheriff’s Department? Let us know if you’ll be in the area so that we can interview you.
• Do you have media contacts in the area? Let us know so we can proactively reach out to them.

Connect with us online!

• Help cover our fuel costs to get back to Jones County so that we can hold those who so willingly violate the rights of others accountable.
• Have you had similar experiences thanks to those working for the Jones County Sheriff’s Department? Share them at JonesCountySheriff.com and empower others to stand up for their rights.

The crew of the Motorhome Diaries feels it is important that we all stand up for ourselves and our rights. The more exposure this case gets the less likely rouge police agencies will be able to get away with victimizing peaceful people. We appreciate all of you who had our back and we hope to return the favor one day.