Probably just a few cops working on an easy promotion. They research these gun meetings and show up at them. They run the license plates of anybody getting out with a gun on. And then they run the criminal history of the registered owner of the vehicle. .... If no felony hit comes up on the screen, they pack it in and leave. I doubt seriously if the video camera intimidated them. ....
And you know this because
WHY?? HOW??
Grapeshot and I have been meeting for breakfast on Saturday for, what - four?, five?, years? And we have been posting the weekly invitation/announcement of when/where the Greater Richmond OC Breakfast will be meeting on Saturday morning for what - two?, three? years. hlh has been setting up the monthly Greater Richmond OC Dinner for what - five?, six?, seven? years. The announcement/invitation goes up every month. For the last what - two? years grapeshot has been posting the list of names of who is anticipated to show up -- he started that maybe a month after hlh stopped posting the names of everyone who showed up within hours after the dinner was over. (Sorry, hlh, we really were just yanking your chain.) Peter Nap even used to post pictures of the dinner group until (IIRC) one person asked him not to post
their picture. He said it was easier to not post than to Photoshop out a face.
Just how many times have cops rolled past, let alone slowed down long enough to get licence plate numbers. I think the grand total over just the past five years is
ZERO!! Sure, there were occassions that cops happened to be in the vicinity, but even cursory research conclusively determined that they were there because of something besides a herd of gun-toters. on two different occassions (1 with VSP, one with Henrico PD) we know they saw the group of us because we made a point of saying "Hello" to them. Both times they moved on quickly - almost as if they did not want to be seen standing next to us.
I can recall at least two times when Henrico PD appeared to vacate the vicinity because they became aware that they were being video recorded. Within the subsequent
for-evver since then nobody who was there at that time has reported that they were followed, stopped, rousted by HPD or any other LEA for no apparent reason/some BS made-up reason. (Yes, a few of us have had encounters with LEOs since then, but nothing that smelled so bad as to make anybody [except Sheriff] think it was because the cops had us picked out and set up because of our OC gathering(s).
What really puts the frosting on the cake is that Sheriff says he
knows these things are going on, and
implies that he knows which "new breed" cops are doing this (or at least which LEA they work for). Yet he has said nothing that would in any way suggest that he has made any sort of report or complaint - directly or indirectly, personally or annonymously - to either the LEA or some other "watchdog" agency, And he has the termidity to complain about a "thin blue line"!
I really do feel some unease about Badgering Sheriff about this, but there's just something about Truth, Justice and the American Way that almost compels me to stand up against what he's doing.
stay safe.
PS - Peter Nap, please accept my apology for again quoting Sheriff. I did cut a lot of it, so remember that when hating on me.
