This entry originally appeared at Shredding Gnar Snowboard Blog as “Free Charlie Toups!“

The people in this country are generally pretty decent. It’s the rat bastards that work for the government that you need to worry about.

Until this winter, Charlie Toups had been shredding the gnar like none other. He had skied 120+ days per season at some of the biggest ski resorts in the western United States without having held a real job in decades—he earned his keep by doing odd jobs at the resorts in exchange for lift tickets.

According to the Denver Post, “In all his years of homelessness, [Toups] has never collected any public money. In the past three years, he’s earned about $20,000, mostly from shoveling snow and moving furniture.”

For 33 years, he lived the ultimate ski-bum life. Until he finally ran afoul of Ranger Rick and the U.S. Forest Service for the non-crime of camping on public land (a CDOT parking lot, in fact).

Since November, when he was arrested for failure to appear (a ticket issued in June, 2009), his home has been a Georgetown, CO jail cell where he’s being held without bail. The US Attorney’s office, in collusion with whatever Honorably robed nincompoop was sitting on the bench that day, have portrayed Toups as a menace to society, and a (I kid you not) “danger to the community”.

“This defendant has shown he is dangerous, that he has no place to go,” [U.S. Attorney Michelle Heldmyer] said. “Being that he — all he wants to do is apparently ski and not work and live this alternative lifestyle, makes him a prime candidate for flight, not to mention he has exhibited himself now as a danger to this community, openly hostile to the government.”

“Open hostility” really means he was agitated at the time of arrest. It’s not like he’s the freaking Unabomber or something. These trumped-up charges against Toup, along with possession of “misdemeanor” amounts of marijuana found in his pocket, mean that he’s facing more than two years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines.

Toups should see the inside of a courtroom sometime this month, although he could “walk free with time served if he admitted his guilt.” But he won’t.

“I’ve lived this life for 33 years and now all the sudden I’m supposed to admit I’m guilty? I can’t do that…”

Here’s to Charlie, and hoping that his “day in court” sees him some real justice, may he be acquitted on all counts. If you’re listening, Denver, ask yourself what good it does to lock this man up? And ask yourself, what threat does he really pose?

Be honest with yourself, the answer to both questions is “none”.

This story reminded me of the plight of David Csaky, the eccentric Seattle “vagrant” who lived in a tree on a vacant lot, bothering nobody. Both cases involve eccentric individuals, minding their own business and not hurting anyone, who were eventually strong-armed by the Law for a total non-crime. And in both cases, someone helped out a stranger in need.