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I sent the company that Patrick Burke works for an e-mail and this is what
I got back.
Thank you for your email. Due to the DA's
filing of formal charges now, we are unable to discuss the case.
I can however share with you a follow-up statement to the media
that may be of interest to you. Should the circumstances allow it,
we will contact you in the future.
Thank you for your support.
From: de Becker, Gavin
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 11:41 AM
We don't identify to whom our protectors
are assigned. Also, since some Port Authority officer decided to
turn this into an arrest mater, I don't want to comment on the case.
Just to avoid a misunderstanding,
we never confirm or deny to whom our protectors are assigned; our
first statement does not say Patrick Burk was once assigned to Michael
Moore; it says "If you believe Patrick Burk was ever assigned
by our firm to protect Michael Moore, or any number of other public
figures, you might accurately report "A bodyguard who was once
assigned to protect Michael Moore..."
Other than naming to whom our protectors
might be assigned, I can now give you some full and helpful insight:
Even were Patrick Burk working as
a bodyguard in NYC, he would not have been carrying a firearm there,
period - and was not carrying a firearm in NY City. We know the
laws well, working within every day all over the world.
In our firm, only protectors licensed
to carry firearms in a given area (city, state) carry firearms in
those areas while working. Many protectors do not carry firearms
at all, and when they are not authorized to carry a firearm in a
given area, they do not.
*** Note that the DA is NOT alleging
that Patrick Burk carried a firearm while working as a bodyguard
in New York City, nor should you story do so, of course, as you
know that would harm Patrick Burk's livelihood.
Note also these important points that
will help you avoid anything libelous to Patrick Burk, whose livelihood
depends in part on your accuracy:
1. Police do not allege that Patrick Burk was carrying a firearm
in NYC at any point.
2. Wherever he worked and to whomever Patrick Burk was assigned
in recent days, he never carried a firearm in NY City.
3. Most notably for your story, when the Port Authority officer
decided to arrest him, Patrick Burk was not working as a bodyguard
for anyone, much less Michael Moore.
4. Patrick Burk was traveling through JFK when he legally and appropriately
and voluntarily informed the airline that he had a locked gun in
his suitcase, just as our personnel and other protectors do hundreds
of times every week, according to the law.
Believe me, I know how anxious you
may be to find a Michael Moore connection, and that you want to
say "Michael Moore's bodyguard," but it's just not accurate,
period. It gives the false implication that Patrick Burk was protecting
Michael Moore on Wednesday night and carrying a gun in an airport,
no part of which is true.
Though we do not identify to whom
our protectors are assigned, even had Patrick Burk once been assigned
to Michael Moore recently, you know he wasn't working for Michael
Moore when arrested, you know he has never been employed by Moore,
and you have no reason to believe or assume he ever carried a gun
in NY City.
Any Moore connection is a reach, one
I understand that you and even someone in the DA's office trying
to stand up - but it's not there. Patrick Burk has recently protected
many people, but was off-duty traveling when the Port Authority
officer made his unusual decision.
*** Even Fox News has removed the
link from their home page.
best to you -
gavin
Best-
Michael LaFever
President & Managing Principal
Gavin de Becker & Associates
http://www.gavindebecker.com
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Tickets
are $35.00 each and you can expect the usual auctions, door prizes, bucket
raffles and other special raffles. (I hope to win another gun and other
stuff like I did last year.)
I
am trying to look it up now but a few years ago a civil lawsuit
in NY that tried to hold "gun makers and dealers ... liable
for injuries or deaths caused by the criminal use of their weapons,"
was thrown out because no law had been broken. This is now the law
on the books that will be broken so that a civil lawsuit can advance.