Washington DC—A federal jury acquitted a DC resident and former Department of Justice employee of misdemeanor assault of a federal police officer on Thursday. It brings an end to the flying sizzling sandwich saga captivating social media channels since August 10 earlier this year. The sandwich thrower unwittingly found fame after a guerrilla social media post depicted him challenging a group of federal police as they readied for an operation outside a nightclub in Columbia Heights on its latin night.
The sandwich guy’s name is Sean Charles Dunn. You’re going to need to remember that name. Because it could end up making its way into the history books as the Paul Revere of the 21st century. The guy who finally had enough of federal police agencies and ICE hounding documented immigrants, refugees seeking asylum, and American citizens too. He decided to do something about it. He stood up and said no to ICE with the help of his hero sandwich, catching the attention and the admiration of DC residents just like the colonists of 1775 Boston did. And the video is such a hoot too. It’s just an everyday guy in a pink shirt with blue shorts and white tennis shoes. First he threw the sandwich point blank at an armed officer and then he ran like a rabbit straight through a field of wolves. What could be more dorky than that? And egads! He worked at the Department of Justice! That’s a “deep state” affair if ever there was one. At least that’s what Attorney General Pam Bondi referred to it after she had Dunn fired.
There’s no confirmation of what ingredients the hero was made from and why Dunn’s weapon of choice rose to the level of a charge for felony assault, but lettuce presume it wasn’t a veggie hoagie based on the ham-handed way the system meted out justice in this case. One might say this hoagie welding hero who targeted his footlong throw at the chest of Customs and Border Protection Agent Greg Larimore didn’t even rise to the level of a misdemeanor. Dunn beat the wrap, didn’t hold the ham, but spread liberal amounts of mustard and onion all over CBP Officer Larimore, as the agent later testified.
Something spontaneous was bound to happen one way or another with the Department of Homeland Security operations across primarily blue-state cities, but with a sandwich? Couldn’t it have been something more dignified though, like a well placed social media post, a witty sign, umbrella, white rose, or even a well rehearsed song—anything more noble than…a sandwich.
Seriousness Of Justice Gone Awry Belies The Silly Sandwich Story
This is the point where comedy and tragedy come head to head. Because people are being harmed by application of a cruel immigration and customs enforcement division and its newfangled immigration policy. Its dehumanizing effects and aftermath are forever going to burn emotional and physical scars on the victims and their families. It is also likely going to be a dark stigma on this country’s history. It may wind up ranking with the inhumanity of slavery, indigenous population oppression and relocation, and internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII.
The sandwich dude caught on in popularity as his wheat-pasted black and white caricature was plastered on nearly every alley wall in DC during August and September. People wore shirts of the sandwich dude’s caricature. Stickers went up inside metro stations and on lampposts, walls, and billboards. As word of his courage spread, his fame sparked the resistance to action with anonymous roving patrols to document ICE movements, food drives, and deliveries for refugees and immigrants who had by then began going into hiding. But all this was before ICE began what became known as ‘Kavanaugh stop’ jump outs against whoever fit their description of what an immigrant or refugee should look like, or anyone who spoke out or stood up in opposition to them, rounding up anyone in their way without a warrant or an explanation of why they were being detained.
ICE brutality escalated and incidents became more violent after the Supreme Court September 9 ruling on the emergency docket. ICE and federal agents were by then being captured on video shooting pepper balls point blank into protesting citizens’ faces, ramming cars, shooting at citizens, body slamming, and bouncing heads of detainees into concrete. All of these incidents were caught on video, without repercussions being taken against the real source of the incident violence cascading through U.S. cities—ICE agents themselves. And while word of crowded conditions inside detention facilities were percolating out, they were not being captured on video and one could only guess how dire those conditions were.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued on September 9 in an emergency ‘Shadow Docket’ case (Noem, DHS v. Pedro Vasquez Perdomo et al), with the majority ruling overturning an earlier ruling of a Los Angeles federal court that ICE had failed to meet the legal requirement of “reasonable suspicion” for conducting stops on people based on their appearance, in this case their race. Kavanaugh wrote, in part, “[R]easonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status. If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”
Brief encounter. Remember that phrase because it’s likely to be cited time and time again against the Department of Homeland Security ICE agents in future lawsuits brought by American citizens. Those brief encounters that lead to people being beaten, slammed, rammed, or shot, for appearing to be latino or other races not fitting the arbitrary profile of what an American should look like; wrongly detained and held without an execution of a properly issued warrant. Those short encounters.
On Thursday there was another important trial result with at least equal consequence but it was much less prominently unreported. In her oral ruling on a case challenging ICE for its suppression of First Amendment protection of protest rights, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis described a list of incidents where citizens were tear-gassed “indiscriminately,” beaten and tackled by agents and struck in the face with pepper-spray balls. “I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible.” She did not buy into Gregory Bovino’s testimony about the nature of CBP enforcement; meaning the government was lying about its application of enforcement measures during civil protests. “The use of force shocks the conscience,” she said in issuing an injunctive order that DHS CBP agents cease their draconian enforcement methods and notify the court by 10 pm (Thursday night) that every agent had been notified of her order.
The Jury Is The Voice That Matters
At first federal prosecutors charged Dunn with felony assault but later a grand jury refused to indict him on the weighty charge which could have resulted in a sentence of up to 20 years. Federal prosecutor Jennie Piro’s office entered a misdemeanor assault charge but the jury did not buy it in the end.
After his acquittal, Dunn spoke from outside the Federal Courthouse in DC, thanking those that supported him and he especially thanked his legal team at Steptoe which gave him “uncounted hours of pro-bono representation.” He said he just wanted to get on with his life. He didn’t think of himself as a hero and never feigned the title.
But he did speak as to the context of what he did on behalf of immigrants. “That night I believe I was protecting the rights of immigrants. Every life matters no matter where you come from, no matter how you got here, [and] no matter how you identify. You have a right to live a life that is free.”
As a result of his acquittal, his loss of employment at the Department of Justice and his back pay and benefits should be restored to him. He will have to fight that battle at the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). The MSPB adjudicates tort claims against the government involving adverse evaluations, demotions, and dismissals of federal employees and a decision in Dunn’s case could take years to complete. But that’s a fight for another day should Dunn choose to stay in federal service.
