Mainsail
Regular Member
imported post
Well, after walking the Ruston Way 4[suP]th[/suP] of July while open carrying, and passing literally dozens of police officers, I figured that someone in the TPD had passed the word that OC is legal in Washington. Apparently not.
Bear in mind that I’ve skated on Ruston Way several times since my encounter with Officer Olsen without incident.
Tonight, on my second lap around, I was stopped again. The TPD was doing another emphasis patrol of the area, so there were at least seven or eight officers, cars, motorcycles, and even bicycles. As I was approaching a police car that I had already passed at least once, I saw his door swing open and he gestured for me to stop. I didn’t think it prudent to be reaching for my tape recorder in my pocket, so I was unable to record the conversation.
Officer Martin began by asking if I had a driver’s license. I thought that was odd, since I was at least a mile from my car. I asked if I was being detained, he said, “I just want to see your driver’s license”. Now, I would like to interject one thing here, Martin was at all times polite and respectful. If you’re going to be illegally detained, he’s the guy you want to do it to you. So I again asked if I was being detained, every bit as polite as he was, and he said yes. I asked for suspicion of what crime was I being detained, he answered that he was aware that it was legal to carry a gun, but he needed to check me out to determine that I was clean and allowed to carry. I reminded him that to detain me he had to have reasonable suspicion that I had committed a crime, and again asked what crime he was detaining me for. He said, “Because you’re carrying a gun”, and if someone on the waterfront called it in, that he wanted to know my name. I asked if he planned to give them my name and he said no, so I still don’t know why he needed to write my name in his notebook.
The long and short of it is that he detained me for no other reason than that I was carrying a gun. None of the other officers felt the need to stop and inspect my papers during the 2+ hours I was down there, and they did see I was carrying. The stop was less than ten minutes, and he did nothing other than write my name in his notebook.
I’m pretty peeved that TPD has little respect for our rights. I will call TPD on Monday and try to reach Sgt Griswold and reengage him on the issue.
Well, after walking the Ruston Way 4[suP]th[/suP] of July while open carrying, and passing literally dozens of police officers, I figured that someone in the TPD had passed the word that OC is legal in Washington. Apparently not.
Bear in mind that I’ve skated on Ruston Way several times since my encounter with Officer Olsen without incident.
Tonight, on my second lap around, I was stopped again. The TPD was doing another emphasis patrol of the area, so there were at least seven or eight officers, cars, motorcycles, and even bicycles. As I was approaching a police car that I had already passed at least once, I saw his door swing open and he gestured for me to stop. I didn’t think it prudent to be reaching for my tape recorder in my pocket, so I was unable to record the conversation.
Officer Martin began by asking if I had a driver’s license. I thought that was odd, since I was at least a mile from my car. I asked if I was being detained, he said, “I just want to see your driver’s license”. Now, I would like to interject one thing here, Martin was at all times polite and respectful. If you’re going to be illegally detained, he’s the guy you want to do it to you. So I again asked if I was being detained, every bit as polite as he was, and he said yes. I asked for suspicion of what crime was I being detained, he answered that he was aware that it was legal to carry a gun, but he needed to check me out to determine that I was clean and allowed to carry. I reminded him that to detain me he had to have reasonable suspicion that I had committed a crime, and again asked what crime he was detaining me for. He said, “Because you’re carrying a gun”, and if someone on the waterfront called it in, that he wanted to know my name. I asked if he planned to give them my name and he said no, so I still don’t know why he needed to write my name in his notebook.
The long and short of it is that he detained me for no other reason than that I was carrying a gun. None of the other officers felt the need to stop and inspect my papers during the 2+ hours I was down there, and they did see I was carrying. The stop was less than ten minutes, and he did nothing other than write my name in his notebook.
I’m pretty peeved that TPD has little respect for our rights. I will call TPD on Monday and try to reach Sgt Griswold and reengage him on the issue.
