" About three years ago in Bellingham, a man named Robert Stratton was walking down Samish Way when he was confronted by a police officer with a drawn pistol. Stratton is an open carry activist and he was briefly detained. Stratton subsequently went to the police department to file a complaint, and there – according to his account to this column – was handcuffed and arrested and advised that if went to city hall, he would be arrested again. He was allegedly not allowed to file a complaint, and allegedly threatened with further harassment if he continued to open carry.
Stratton contacted an attorney and pursued a legal action against Bellingham police that lasted more than a year. Ultimately, the department settled out of court.
Alas – as we witnessed in 2011 in Canton, OH and covered most recently by this column – some individual officers go to extremes even with citizens who carry concealed.
Despite the best efforts of activists, working with police agencies, some police in Washington and elsewhere still don’t get it, and thus one sees confrontations in which an individual cop might just declare that “your rights can be terminated if you’re creating a scene or whatever.”
It may be educational to the mainstream press for this sort of thing to happen occasionally between reporters and cops. It reminds people that in addition to having their First Amendment rights “terminated,” other rights are equally at risk unless and until people like Stratton step up to the plate, or a Chicago film crew captures one of these moments and it goes viral across the Internet."
He mentions SVG's issue with Bellingham PD, I usually try to read a citation or link, before I spout off about the relevance, but your mileage may vary.
Continue reading on Examiner.com Chicago cop: ‘Your First Amendment rights can be terminated…’ - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-...ndment-rights-can-be-terminated#ixzz1phDcToaJ
