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BMWAG arrested AND jailed

danbus

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Hampton, Virginia, USA
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On Oct 21 around 7:35pm, I went to walk down a street because I was notified that the police were speaking to a young man. In this particular neighborhood, the police come frequently and seem to harass the young black kids. I went to see what exactly was going on.

I approached armed with my firearm in my holster. I asked, "what's going on?". They replied there were just doing an investigation. They then proceeded to ask me to put my hands on my head so that they can disarm me. I declined and asked why. I was told the "for officer safety" line. I asked if I was free to go or was I being detained. They said I was being detained. They also affirmed that I wasn't doing anything illegal. At this point, I turned on my voice recorder and got the KEY point in the arrest. They asked for my ID, which I declined repeatedly. So they arrested me with Obstructing justice (18.2-460).

I did get a voice recording of 80% of the encounter, however the arresting officer took it as evidence.

I was cuffed, taken back to the car, searched, and placed in the car. At no time, did I ever get Mirandarized.

Around 9pm, I arrived at the regonial jail, my picture was taken, prints taken, and the magistrate set my bail at $500. This whole situation has me reaffirming that law-abiding citizens can be effectively disarmed just because the officer feels "unsafe". We are "guilty until proven innocent".

As you well know, not ALL my LEO encounters, I wasn't disarmed.

I was bailed out approx 2:30am. My property returned and I must pick up my firearm from the Suffolk PD HQ.

I had a hearing date on 10/29/07. My trial is on 12/28/07. I do believe that I was in the right by refusing to be disarmed when I wasn't doing anything illegal. I shouldn't have been "detained" when the officers didn't have reasonable suspicion. If the officer felt that unsafe, he should have asked me to step away from his "investigation", however I wasn't "free to go".

My case would prove a huge landmark for gun-owners rights vs officer safety when it comes to open carrying.


When it came time to pick up my firearm, the secretary told me the LEO wasn't going to return ANY items. She gave me a few numbers to call. I immediately called Internal Affairs and a Sgt gave me an interview and got ALL my belongings returned.

The officer told me he arrested me because I refused to be disarmed, but on the voice recorder, he stated that if I don't show him ID, he will put me in handcuffs.

It's hard being black and armed.

_______________________

cant seem to get the recording on here, yet
 

dng

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Sorry to hear you've had trouble again. Please share the audio when you get that figured out. Do you know if that audio was messed with at all? When you said it had been confiscated, I wondered if the file might have had an "accident". I am really interested to hearwhat the officer had to say, and how he said it.
 

DreQo

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So this is what incident number 4 for you? This might hurt your case in the long run. I could see how someone could say that you went out looking for trouble, and found it. I am not at all trying to justify the cops actions. They were wrong, again. Its just starting to look like you're going out and trying to cause problems. People are going to try and make the point that there was no reason for you to walk down the street and bug the cops.

Anyway I don't think you're doing anything wrong, and I'm sorry you're getting so much negative attention. I hope everything works out in the long run.
 

Doug Huffman

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http://www.rheacountynewspaper.com/Editorial/your-right-to-defend.html

Your Right of Defense Against Unlawful Arrest Crakston Cryler, editor

“Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer's life if necessary.” Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306.

This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case: John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529. The Court stated: “Where the officer is killed in the course of the disorder which naturally accompanies an attempted arrest that is resisted, the law looks with very different eyes upon the transaction, when the officer had the right to make the arrest, from what it does if the officer had no right. What may be murder in the first case might be nothing more than manslaughter in the other, or the facts might show that no offense had been committed.”

“An arrest made with a defective warrant, or one issued without affidavit, or one that fails to allege a crime is within jurisdiction, and one who is being arrested, may resist arrest and break away. lf the arresting officer is killed by one who is so resisting, the killing will be no more than an involuntary manslaughter.” Housh v. People, 75 111. 491; reaffirmed and quoted in State v. Leach, 7 Conn. 452; State v. Gleason, 32 Kan. 245; Ballard v. State, 43 Ohio 349; State v Rousseau, 241 P. 2d 447; State v. Spaulding, 34 Minn. 3621.

“When a person, being without fault, is in a place where he has a right to be, is violently assaulted, he may, without retreating, repel by force, and if, in the reasonable exercise of his right of self defense, his assailant is killed, he is justified.” Runyan v. State, 57 Ind. 80; Miller v. State, 74 Ind. 1. “These principles apply as well to an officer attempting to make an arrest, who abuses his authority and transcends the bounds thereof by the use of unnecessary force and violence, as they do to a private individual who unlawfully uses such force and violence.” Jones v. State, 26 Tex. App. I; Beaverts v. State, 4 Tex. App. 1 75; Skidmore v. State, 43 Tex. 93, 903.

“An illegal arrest is an assault and battery. The person so attempted to be restrained of his liberty has the same right to use force in defending himself as he would in repelling any other assault and battery.” (State v. Robinson, 145 ME. 77, 72 ATL. 260).

“Each person has the right to resist an unlawful arrest. In such a case, the person attempting the arrest stands in the position of a wrongdoer and may be resisted by the use of force, as in self- defense.” (State v. Mobley, 240 N.C. 476, 83 S.E. 2d 100).

“One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910).

“Story affirmed the right of self-defense by persons held illegally. In his own writings, he had admitted that ‘a situation could arise in which the checks-and-balances principle ceased to work and the various branches of government concurred in a gross usurpation.’ There would be no usual remedy by changing the law or passing an amendment to the Constitution, should the oppressed party be a minority. Story concluded, ‘If there be any remedy at all ... it is a remedy never provided for by human institutions.’ That was the ‘ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression, and to apply force against ruinous injustice.’” (From Mutiny on the Amistad by Howard Jones, Oxford University Press, 1987, an account of the reading of the decision in the case by Justice Joseph Story of the Supreme Court.

As for grounds for arrest: “The carrying of arms in a quiet, peaceable, and orderly manner, concealed on or about the person, is not a breach of the peace. Nor does such an act of itself, lead to a breach of the peace.” (Wharton’s Criminal and Civil Procedure, 12th Ed., Vol.2: Judy v. Lashley, 5 W. Va. 628, 41 S.E. 197)

DISCLAIMER: Legal information is not legal advice! We are not lawyers

Ya have to feed 'em their pablum, too many won't read beyond OCDO. There are none so blind as those that will not see - or read.

I apopogize for the formatting. Making my security suite function properly with a third of the references on this page filtered out is difficult.

Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns and the truth. LAB/NRA/GOP KMA$$

 

danbus

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DreQo wrote:
So this is what incident number 4 for you? This might hurt your case in the long run. I could see how someone could say that you went out looking for trouble, and found it. I am not at all trying to justify the cops actions. They were wrong, again. Its just starting to look like you're going out and trying to cause problems. People are going to try and make the point that there was no reason for you to walk down the street and bug the cops.

Anyway I don't think you're doing anything wrong, and I'm sorry you're getting so much negative attention. I hope everything works out in the long run.
I wouldn't have done so otherwise if I was somewhere else.

This area is where a friend of mine stays. It's not the safest of areas, but it's not a war zone. The police are they at least once a week and sometimes twice on a weekend. Never are any arrests made. Most of the time it's the cops coming by harassing the kids. I don't expect anyone to understand, who doesn't live in such a area and that isn't black. I hate it for it to be a racial thing, but it's fact that most of the LEOs that come around don't do anything but harass the kids.
 

peter nap

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You still haven't said what you are charged with. The Magistrate gave you a copy of the warrant. What was on it?

PS, You don't have to be read your rights. It doesn't appear that they need any evidence from you.

I'd like to know what the charge is and what's on the recording before I take sides on this.
 

Mainsail

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Silverdale, Washington, USA
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I haven’t had any more troubles here in Tacoma (WA) since my last encounter with the police about six months ago. I understand there was some remedial training given because of it. That said, I seriously doubt a BMWAG would go unmolested here. If you ever travel to the wet coast Danbus, PM me and I’ll buy you lunch.
 

dng

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peter nap wrote:
I'd like to know what the charge is and what's on the recording before I take sides on this.
I'm with you on that. It just makes sense. Find out all the facts before making a decision. I realize it doesn't really matter what I think, but I think it's wise to say "I want to know both sides before I take sides".
 

markand

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peter nap wrote:
You still haven't said what you are charged with.

Sounds like the charge was: "Obstructing justice (18.2-460)" based on the original post. If that's the case, here is the quoted statute:

§ 18.2-460. Obstructing justice; penalty.
A. If any person without just cause knowingly obstructs a judge, magistrate, justice, juror, attorney for the Commonwealth, witness or any law-enforcement officer in the performance of his duties as such or fails or refuses without just cause to cease such obstruction when requested to do so by such judge, magistrate, justice, juror, attorney for the Commonwealth, witness, or law-enforcement officer, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
B. Except as provided in subsection C, any person who, by threats or force, knowingly attempts to intimidate or impede a judge, magistrate, justice, juror, attorney for the Commonwealth, witness, or any law-enforcement officer, lawfully engaged in his duties as such, or to obstruct or impede the administration of justice in any court, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
C. If any person by threats of bodily harm or force knowingly attempts to intimidate or impede a judge, magistrate, justice, juror, attorney for the Commonwealth, witness, or any law-enforcement officer, lawfully engaged in the discharge of his duty, or to obstruct or impede the administration of justice in any court relating to a violation of or conspiracy to violate § 18.2-248 or subdivision (a) (3), (b) or (c) of § 18.2-248.1, or § 18.2-46.2 or § 18.2-46.3, or relating to the violation of or conspiracy to violate any violent felony offense listed in subsection C of § 17.1-805, he shall be guilty of a Class 5 felony.
D. Any person who knowingly and willfully makes any materially false statement or representation to a law-enforcement officer who is in the course of conducting an investigation of a crime by another is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
(Code 1950, § 18.1-310; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1976, c. 269; 1984, c. 571; 1989, c. 506; 1993, c. 747; 1996, c. 718; 1999, cc. 770, 800; 2002, cc. 527, 810, 818; 2003, cc. 111, 149; 2004, cc. 396, 435; 2007, cc. 220, 282.)

IANAL, but, it sounds like they are trying to charge a violation of § 18.2-460 A which is a misdemeanor. It would be a stretch to charge that open carrying is "intimidation" (paragraph B) or a "threat of bodily harm" (paragraph C, a felony), but stranger things have happened.

So, the police position is apparently this: do exactly what we tell you, or you'll be charged with obstruction. This charge shouldn't stand up to a careful, legal examination.
 

ChinChin

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Good lord Dan! If ever there were a person who needed a camera crew to follow behind him. . .its you my friend!

You could easily be a news channel investigative report unto yourself. Invest in a pocket digital video recorder and have a buddy trail behind you during your outtings. Post the videos on Youtube and get yourself a media deal.
 

PT111

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, South Carolina, USA
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I am just going to say that if the police were investigating an incident whether or not a crime had been committed and someone comes walking up trying to find out what is going on while carrying a weapon,then they have every right to disarm that person and question them the same as they would the person they were questioning to start with. Since you took the liberty to interject yourself into their investigation then they had every right to consider you as part of that investigation. IANAL nor do I play one on TV and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express lst night. However if I were a LEO and someone tried to get involved with it they are either a partner or better be their lawyer. Seems to me you went looking for trouble,
 

peter nap

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Sounds like the charge was: "Obstructing justice (18.2-460)" based on the original post. If that's the case, here is the quoted statute:

That's what it sounded like to me also but he didn't say that I could find. What was the result of the other three charges?

and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express lst night
Neither did he!:celebrate

OOPs sorry, that damn bad tase of mine again:banghead:
 

psmartin

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Richmond, Virginia, USA
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danbus wrote:
On Oct 21 around 7:35pm, I went to walk down a street because I was notified that the police were speaking to a young man. In this particular neighborhood, the police come frequently and seem to harass the young black kids. I went to see what exactly was going on.
Not to bust your chops.. BUT!!!

It's not wise tomeddle with an active a police investigation.. My wife is a news reportor, and with State Police press credentials, you can REALLY REALLY bug the police with near immunity, but I think that might even cross the line.

OCDO'ers aren't gaining any traction by meddling in police affairs of others.

I'm behind you all the way (literally, I'm standing behind... a long way behind).

Call me crazy.. But if the the police are called in my neighborhood.. I'm NOT going to be walking over to make sure the police are doing their job.

Unless I'm COMPLETELY misreading this, you might want to have a lawyer to make sure the book doesn't get thrown at you.. If you get the wrong judge, they just might throw the book at you.
 

Doug Huffman

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The police have NO 'rights'. As representatives of the state they have powers. Please attend a Grass Roots Gun Rights South Carolina Legislative Tactics Seminar. If there isn't one scheduled nearby then sponsor one in your neighborhood. http://www.scfirearms.org

Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns and the truth. LAB/NRA/GOP KMA$$
 

UTOC-45-44

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Morgan, Utah, USA
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HankT wrote:
danbus wrote:
...

It's hard being black and armed.


I agree that there has been a racial component to your various travails with Wal-Mart and various police agencies in the last several months.

But it ain't the only thing.

There are a other black members of this forum who don't seem to be having the troubles you have.

Have you ever considered trying to figure out what your part in this continuing saga of ejections/arrests might be? You might try that sometime.

Although it is clear that various LEOs have not acted properly in some/many aspects of your stops, it's not like you are behaving all that perfectly.

At this point, I ambeginning to consider the argument that your are an overallnegative to the OC movement because of your part in the string of stops you have endured.

Boys and Girls. I hate to say it...I HATE TO SAY IT:cuss:.

IAGREE with HankTon this one danbus:uhoh:...&%^&*(&@#.

Can you imagine that? A soon as I don't think I agree with HankTanymore comments like these are made and I just have to throw my hands up in the Air and say that I Agree. Where is this world going???:lol:.

danbus...I think that there is MUCH more to your "innocent" behavior, than told.

I have NEVER been arrested possible "detained" for a moment.1 Bad time that HankTreminds me of ALL the time:cuss:...:lol:.

I always have Officers just look at me and ask me a Q and no problem. In myyears of carrying I have only had the Harmon experience that was "bad". NEVER face down, Bracelets and stuff. Disarmed once by not making an escalated situation worst due to that I decided NOT to make it worst ( resist ,when I Legally could have ) . All the other times my "piece" has always stayed in it's holster.

NEVER risk Your Freedom to Lose your Freedom.

danbus. I think unfortunately that you might wanna reevaluate if you are maybe a little bit too "eager" to "stand your ground"...

What do I know. I was never at ANY of the 4 (?) instances. But it's starting to be a Pattern. Which could start to look "Bad" for the OC community. I Love OC, don't get me wrong.

Here is an Article where we are Interviewed by Deseret News about OCing during an OC dinner. http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695220748,00.html.

If you want to be treated with respect...show respect.

Just my .44
 

cato

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I can see an obstruction charge being valid if theyordered, not asked,him to stand back and not talk to them during their investigation etc... and DB didn't comply. The fact that he was in a public place and OCing near a police action is irrelevant IMO. If they felt the lawfulpresence of DB in a public areaor anyone else for that matter was a safety concernthen calling for moreback up to watch DB watchthem is the appropriate action. Crowds do gather sometimes around police activity and will often yell things if they're excited. That doesn't necessarily give me the right to arrest everyone there with out some reasonable warnings as to where to stand etc...so as to not interfere. Calling for back up when suchconcerns are evident is quite standard.

I'm curious what the other individual was stopped for. FIOA time!

added:

I have no problem with citizens watching the police. But next time, DB, turn on your tape recorder first, better yet a video camera, and bring your own back up. There is a smart way to watch the police.

Now for everyone who thinks DB initiated the contact or was perhaps even rude, that is irrelevant when dealing with letter of the law issues. And that is what I'm interested in. If people want to be polite and "reasonable" that is fine. But I see nothing in DB's account (one sided I know) to cause me to support an obstruction charge. The fact the DB claims to have an audiorecording leads me to believe for now his version.
 

Citizen

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Years ago, amale co-workerand I were returning to work from supper.We'd walked a few blocks to eat, and had a few hours left to go before the end of the work day. It was an urban setting. On the way back, we witnessed four men chasing a fifth. They cornered him and pulled him down, not 12 feet from us. We had a suspicion the chasersmight bepolice,but no evidence. We decided to check into it; we weren't inclined to let an assault to go unchallenged. I asked for and was shownpolice ID.The officer used one hand to help hold the guy down, and the other to flip open his ID wallet.

A few weeks ago, I watched a police car make an aggressive U-turn a ways in front of me. Just as I passed I saw the car stopped and one of twopolice officers calling a teenager to the car, the officer pointing to the hood of the patrol car. The teenager seemed to be just walking. I had a powerful urge to stop and record the proceedings, andtell the kid to shut up. Only the work piling up on my desk prevented me.

I can understand Danbus wanting to check out the situation. Its called a sense of responsibility.
 

peter nap

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Judgment and ego's doen'y necessarly go together. The way it looks to me, is like you went there to satisfy your ego. The I can Carry and you can't stop me.....attitude .

That's fine and is your decision.

Cops have to carry and show ID, Reporters have to carry ID, Insurance Agents have to carry ID. Ordinary Citizens do not! But a citizen approaching a crime scene, armed should exercise some judgment and have ID...and show it on request. That's not the same thing as a police officer interrupting your dinner at Fudruckers and asking for ID.

If one wishes to make a statement and NEVER SHOW ID...that's his business, but don't whine about it when you get hauled down to the pokie. This makes all gun owners look bad and especially OC'rs.

Black and armed irritates me also. I DISLIKE RACISTS. I also dislike people who use their race to explain poor judgment. IMHO...under the same circumstances. the same thing would happen to a white person!
 

taurusfan

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As mentioned in the forum Dan couldn't afford $400 for a new XD but he'll be paying a lawyer more than that!

I'm disappointed. I thought Dan was lying low until the other case was resolved.

Now he introduced himself with gun during a police investigation? Damn foolish I think.

Best wishes!
 
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