My 2 sec stop by the cops today

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I was out walking (I was carrying as usual) did about 8 miles and about 200 ft from my house a cop pulls over and stops me. He walked up to me and I walked up to him, note my hands were and my side left hand in my pocket and right hand by my pistol. this is what was said.

Cop- Nathan right?

Me- Yep

Cop- we've contacted you before?

Me- yea but I contacted you guys first

Cop- yea you did

Cop- ok you know not to reach for it right?

Me- as long as you don't go for yours first (with a big grin

Me- why did you stop me?

Cop- I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been. ( as he is pulling out his note pad)

Me- am I free to go?

Cop- Yea, you don't want to talk?

Me- No, thanks (I shook his hand and walked away)

This was a polite cop no problems, he shouldn't have stopped me but he didn't push ether. I couldn't help but to laugh as I walked away. He had a look like "what just happened"
:lolg:

Nate

Just sharin what happened it was funny

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ComSec wrote:

Me- why did you stop me?

Cop- I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been. ( as he is pulling out his note pad)

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What the hell business is that of his?

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Flintlock wrote:

ComSec wrote:

Me- why did you stop me?

Cop- I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been. ( as he is pulling out his note pad)

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What the hell business is that of his?

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Evidently,he doesn't have enough of his own business to mind so he will mind someone else's business for them. Well done. Outside of being stopped for no reason, I am glad it was a non event.

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ComSec wrote:

Cop- ok you know not to reach for it right?

Me- as long as you don't go for yours first (with a big grin

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LOL!!!! :lol:

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What the hell? The cop just roll up and wants to ask you where you have been and what you have been doing? Kinda odd....

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Flintlock wrote:

ComSec wrote:

Me- why did you stop me?

Cop- I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been. ( as he is pulling out his note pad)

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What the hell business is that of his?

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+1

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We'll do much better if we take it out of the realm of "his business" and put it in the context of the 4th Amendment, rights, and police department policy. It sharpens the focus. And permits analysis that may lead to useful conclusions.

The OPer handled it very well.

Theremaybe room for a complaint, though. Unless the jurisdiction he was in regulates open carry or requires a permit of some sort, there would be no grounds to contact the citizen over an OC'd gun. That is to say, that unless the OCer was doing something that gave some legitimate suspicion, the officer had no justification to contact the citizen. The officermaynot be prohibited from contacting someone, butthat doesn't mean the contact is justified or appropriate.

The officer just revealed that he thinks an OC'd firearm is suspicious. He even had his notepad out indicating an investigative element to the contact.

He suspected it was Nathan. Unless Nathan is the only person in the jurisdiction authorized to OC, and the cop was checking to make sure it wasn't a non-Nathan exercisingNathan's unique privilege, this heads in thedirection of inappropriate suspicion.

From a 4th Amendment perspective,the cop seems to have behaved acceptably.However,there was nothing suspicious going on to warrant even a consensual investigative contact.

I would send acomplaint letting them know that treating a citizen exercising an enumerated right like a suspect is completely unacceptable. The hell with whether it was consensual. It wasn't appropriate in thefirst place. Don't accept advice that what the cop did was legal, or withindepartment policy. Your 1st Amendment right to petition for redress of grievance isn't limitedby legality or policy. If it were, the government could write laws and policies until itdisappeared.

If these consensual contacts kept up I'd start using terms like "harassment" and"lawyer."

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Weird. Very, very weird. Any thoughts on what it was about, ComSec?

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If he just let you walk away, then I assume he was not investigating a crime or a potential crime, right? Then why the stop and the notepad and all that?

If only ALL U.S. citizens were as well-informed and willing to handle things as you are, this would be a much nicer, safer, and more secure place to live. Freer people, more professional cops, and everyone would win. <sigh>

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deepdiver

Well I notified the local PD awhile back that I would be OCing when I Hike/Road March, my diffrent views mixed with that make me prime target, I think they are trying to scare me into order. I see cop as Terrorist thats there power, to make you fear them. (Cop can be great people, but look at what they are trained to do)

Not fearing the Police, isthePolicesworst fear.

Sorry Radical rants again........:banghead:

Nate

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Citizen wrote:

We'll do much better if we take it out of the realm of "his business" and put it in the context of the 4th Amendment, rights, and police department policy. It sharpens the focus. And permits analysis that may lead to useful conclusions.

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My point remains. It is none of his concern. There was no illegal searches or seizures so the 4th amendment doesn't qualify here. What conclusions can there be other than some sort of complaint? He wasn't detained or harrassed, per sey.

Cops may ask questions but we don't have to answer. I think this was strictly a none-of-his-business scenario. The legality ofhis carrying a firearm was not part ofthe questioning.

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ComSec wrote:

deepdiver

Well I notified the local PD awhile back that I would be OCing when I Hike/Road March, my diffrent views mixed with that make me prime target, I think they are trying to scare me into order. I see cop as Terrorist thats there power, to make you fear them. (Cop can be great people, but look at what they are trained to do)

Not fearing the Police, isthePolicesworst fear.

Sorry Radical rants again........:banghead:

Nate

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Nate,

Maybe the police officer was investigating something besides you and hoped that being an open carry type you would have been much more aware of your surroundings than the average person.

I doubt it, but a question to the police about why they are asking questions might be in order. (i know police can lie)If they respond with a quick explanation that they are looking for a senior citizen with Alzheimer's thatwalked out ofthe rest home up the road and they know you often hike in this area, have you seen anything?, then a discussion might be warranted.

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Something was wrong with that cop. As a former LEO, I never would have approached a "suspicious" MWAG while holding a pen in one hand and a pad in the other. Doesn't lend much to officer survivability!

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ODA 226 wrote:

Something was wrong with that cop. As a former LEO, I never would have approached a "suspicious" MWAG while holding a pen in one hand and a pad in the other. Doesn't lend much to officer survivability!

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I had that same sort of "something is off" feeling from the posting That is why I postulated that this might not have anything to do with open carry. Maybe the officer considered him a "confirmed friendly" and was looking for information about something else.

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Well, assuming basic accuracy of the OP as to the LEOs words, if the LEO was looking for help he sure approached it badly.

"I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been."

is far different than

"I was hoping maybe you could help us."

Heck, after mulling it over, the LEO could have been trying to get info for a news article for an inhouse paper or some other innocuous or even supportive reason. If that was the case, it is unfortunate that the LEO used "standard" LEO language to start with.

Even it wasn't an LEO and was instead pretty much any other person in the world, including my fiancee, approaching me with "I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been." it would result in an immediately defensive response from me (and from many, many people) of none of your business - go annoy someone else (I could explain why psychologically such an approach makes many people defensive and why, even knowing that, LEO are even trained to use similar language but it would be rather long and probably boring for most people and I don't feel like typing that much ).

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deepdiver wrote:

Well, assuming basic accuracy of the OP as to the LEOs words, if the LEO was looking for help he sure approached it badly.

"I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been."

is far different than

"I was hoping maybe you could help us."

Heck, after mulling it over, the LEO could have been trying to get info for a news article for an inhouse paper or some other innocuous or even supportive reason. If that was the case, it is unfortunate that the LEO used "standard" LEO language to start with.

Even it wasn't an LEO and was instead pretty much any other person in the world, including my fiancee, approaching me with "I just wanted to ask you some questions about what your doing and were you have been." it would result in an immediately defensive response from me (and from many, many people) of none of your business - go annoy someone else (I could explain why psychologically such an approach makes many people defensive and why, even knowing that, LEO are even trained to use similar language but it would be rather long and probably boring for most people and I don't feel like typing that much ).

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if the LEO would have said anthing like "I was hoping maybe you could help us." I would have stayed and talked but I could tell he was fishing

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if the LEO would have said anthing like "I was hoping maybe you could help us." I would have stayed and talked but I could tell he was fishing

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+1

I have no problem with the police, so long as they aren't the ones causing problems in the first place.

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Thundar wrote:

Nate,

Maybe the police officer was investigating something besides you and hoped that being an open carry type you would have been much more aware of your surroundings than the average person.

I doubt it, but a question to the police about why they are asking questions might be in order. (i know police can lie)If they respond with a quick explanation that they are looking for a senior citizen with Alzheimer's thatwalked out ofthe rest home up the road and they know you often hike in this area, have you seen anything?, then a discussion might be warranted.

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http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum65/10418-1.html

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ama-gi wrote:

http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum65/10418-1.html

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Note the continued two-step by the apologist, 'did too; did not; too, not' - ad nauseam.

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