Wild life investigator
today is March 24th, 2021. It's 2:21 PM. Right now I be attempting to serve
summons on the Jeremy Bennett. Business owner Jeremy Bennett
made a simple request to an Ohio wildlife officer. Please come back when we're open. The government later responded by
threatening to throw him in jail, but can the government really demand entry
to your business whenever it wants? So I'm Jeremy Bennett and, uh,
I am a full-time taxidermist and full-time dear processor. Taxidermy is, is very much
a craftsmanship trade. Uh, there is a lot of hands-on,
there's a lot of, um, creativity to it. Our job is to recreate that memory of
the hunt, whether it be, um, memory of someone being out there with
their grandfather, uh, on a river bank catching fish with their dad. The deer processing, we are cutting
the meat, turning that into sausages, baloneys, steaks, roasts, different cuts. With the help of family and friends. Jeremy built his studio just
steps from his home in rural Ohio. The only thing the state requires
is for Jeremy to keep records. And for 15 years, he had no trouble. But about 10 years ago, um, we got
a new officer, uh, for our area and, and things got progressively more
tense, things got more intrusive. The requirements for us and not
changed, uh, but, but the way that they were going about the
inspections had definitely changed. And when we questioned that we were
given the statement that everybody does something illegal, we just
have to find out what you did. There's times where I have my
family out here, little kids, and I don't want just anybody coming in
and having access to them, whether they're law enforcement or not. I find it very intrusive to have,
uh, the division come in, take as long as they want, do whatever they
want, in your non-public space. During peak hunting season, Jeremy
is busy processing deer and keeps his taxidermy studio closed. The Wednesday after the firearm
season ended, uh, the officer called and, uh, asked if he could
come by and do an inspection. And, uh, he saw our records. Our records were in good
order before he left. He asked, he said, come while we're here. Can we go to your taxidermy studio
and take a look while we're here? And I said, you can't, the
taxidermy studio is closed. So I told him we don't do any taxidermy
work between October and January that we're focusing on deer processing. He'd be welcome to come back and go
in the taxidermy studio when we open. The officer, without saying that Jeremy
was doing anything wrong, left and demanded that he be criminally prosecuted. Mr. Bennett? That's me! I'm an investigator with the
Ohio division of wildlife. Ok, How are ya? The uh prosecutor's office, it
approved a couple of charges for not allowing that inspection. If I had any inkling that I
was doing anything illegal in saying that you couldn't come
upstairs, we'd have come upstairs. I had no clue that I
was violating anything. He has the authority, by the way, the laws
are, to in essence look anywhere he wants. But that's not true. People don't lose their fourth amendment
rights when they open a business, which means that wildlife officers
have to get a warrant before barging into Jeremy's shop without his consent. After all, private property isn't really
yours if government officials can snoop around whenever and wherever they want. The Institute forJustice is representing
Jeremy to ensure that the state of Ohio doesn't violate his or anyone
else's fourth amendment rights. I don't feel that just simply
because you open a business that you automatically give up your fourth
amendment constitutional right to privacy.
Please do not advocate for harm to come to those featured in the story, video or link submitted, or anyone else. By doing so, you are putting this sub at risk and there is a 100% chance that it will result in you being banned from this sub.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Officers need to be held accountable and if they aren't then they should be publicly shamed
[removed]