This law student has a polite but well-informed conversation with police officers. My suspicion is that this encounter would have ended very differently, maybe even with a little taser action, if the young man hadn't been so well-informed about the law. I think the police realized that they couldn't mess with him without serious repercussions.
With the TSA daily trampling the rights of American citizens for no "suspicious activity" other than flying somewhere, my confidence is being seriously eroded that conversations like this young man had with law enforcement officers, with this result, will continue to happen for much longer in this country.
People, if we are to retain our rights it is up to each of us, every time, no exceptions to speak up, to stand up.
QUESTION AUTHORITY.
Yeah...right about now would be good, libs....how about now?
We must not yield. We only have the rights we are willing to fight for. And if we aren't willing to fight for them when the fight is just a conversation with an ignorant, overbearing cop, will we be willing to fight for them when that cop is ready to shoot us for speaking up?
If not now...when?
If not us...who?
In the meantime....
That's one heck of a lot of law to quote. Just a thought, would making up some reasonable, but obviously obscure, law cases work as well.
ReplyDeleteI.e. legal sounding BS ?
Or, just educate the hoplophobe public that open carry is legal in their area?
That's one heck of a lot of law to quote.
DeleteThat's my point. What might have happened if you or I had challenged this cop's requests without being able to cite case law like that? Would we have been allowed to leave, with our gun, and without conceding to any of his requests for information? I'm not sure. And yes! it would be better to just have other citizens know that carrying a gun is legal. At least there in Portland, it is. You WOULD get arrested in Chicago or New York. And that's the OTHER problem. Our right to bear arms has been so seriously attacked and eroded from city to city, state to state, that the average citizen doesn't even know what he can or can't do and where.
"Our right to bear arms has been so seriously attacked and eroded from city to city, state to state, that the average citizen doesn't even know what he can or can't do and where."
DeleteAnd it's not just the right to bear arms (though that is the most important) it's ALL laws, regulations etc. Just about everything we do every day breaks some law, rule or regulation - making us lawbreakers by default.
There are now SO MANY laws that it's quite literally impossible for the average Joe to keep track.
Not just the average Joe, nobody knows how many federal laws and regulations there are with criminal penalties. Many of which don't even require criminal intent. The DOJ tried to count them back in the 80's and gave up and just gave an estimate of around 3,000.
DeleteNot only does it make us lawbreaker by default, but even more insidiously, it transfers even more power to the state because there are so many laws, the state can't possibly prosecute everyone for everything, so they can pick and choose. Now you can be pursued if someone doesn't like your politics or your religion or your eye color. So many laws leaves the enforcement of them entirely to the discretion of our "betters." Goody.
DeleteIf you do that you'd better be a lawyer or have a good one on tap. If you've got one on tap, you can have him coach you on what to say. Otherwise you could find yourself in jail on charges of threating a police officer, resisting arrest, and whatever else they can think of. Your handy-dandy hidden camera could get lost in the evidence room or you might discover that it mysteriously failed to record anything (something that simultaneously uploads to a server somewhere would be a really, really good idea). Police are allowed to lie to you or provoke you to do or say something you can be arrested for. So you have to be sure you know exactly what to say and how to say it. That's not how it should be, but that's how it is.
ReplyDeleteYup. The kid in the video is a law student, I believe.
DeleteWe are quickly approaching an inversion of power where the government can exercise absolute authority with complete impunity while citizens must ask permission for everything from the state. Even our rights now must be begged for and "justified".
Has anyone noticed how the language of gun control has shifted in just the last few days to "gun safety"? Clever bastards.
Haven't noticed any specific shift. Safety seems like the inherent argument in gun control. Generic "safety" and "the children" are 90% of the arguments for everything control anyway.
DeleteSurprised there hasn't been a bigger push for gun insurance. That would immediately make it more expensive and more of a hassle to own a gun and it would create a bigger cash pot for lawyers to dip into in the inevitable lawsuits. Also, voila, instant backdoor registration system. Then later you'd probably get some kind of national gun insurance program with home inspections, training certifications, etc. etc. For safety, to protect the children, of course.
They are doing that in California. It's already been introduced into a super majority Democratically controlled legislature.
DeleteBye bye, 2nd Amendment.
I think you said once you were going to stay put, at least until your daughter finishes high school. Is that still your plan?
DeleteYes. We are clinging to life here...hahahaha! Actually, if it weren't for the fact that the Democrats control the state legislature, where we live is almost like living in Idaho with better weather. Shame we are all effected by the politics of the larger population areas. LA and San Francisco run this whole state.
Delete