I told you I badly butchered my encounter. And now that I think about it, I wish I did everything differently. Practice makes perfect. You could have been better prepared to protect your rights, but you're not in jail. So don't beat yourself up too badly, just do a little more studying and if you can role playing.
I still had my hoster on, as I didn't have the opportunity to remove it yet. In addition, there's camaras all over (inside, showing that I had it on me, and in the parking lot, showing me placing it into my trunk) so there's really no opportunity to deny it. DO NOT DENY or LIE to an LEO, this will get you a free night in a lovely gated community faster than UOC'ing. Besides that why would you deny anything, UOC'ing is legal, you did nothing wrong. So you may be a little nervous, which is fine, just stand firm on your knowledge that you aren't breaking any laws. If they ask you a question you don't think its relevant or you simply don't want to answer, then just zip it, go mute, you can even be a smiling mute if you want to. With some practice role playing you can even be prepared to redirect the conversation in the direction you want it to go instead of answering his question.
Once the officer approached, and ordered our hands in the air, I informed him, loudly and clearly, that the firearm is not on my person, it's locked inside a lockbox and in my trunk. I turned sideways to him to show that I had no firearm on me. Once he was satisfied, visually, that there was no firearm, he locked his into the holster. He did NOT draw down on me, he only had it out of the holster slightly to allow a quicker response. That's fine, nothing wrong here, though it sounds like he was an inch away from drawing down on you. Refer to the San Diego DA letter available on californiaopencarry.org and note on top half of page two it talks about drawing and that they better have good reason for it, which is to say the mere fact that you are armed is not enough reason.
He approached and asked if he could pat me down to ensure I have no other weapons. I told him I was comfortable with that and turned my back to him so he could perform his check. He then asked if he could hold onto my exposed pocket knife until he was done with his inspection. I told him, for his safety, I could find no objection. As a matter of fact, he actually forgot to return it. He knocked on my door not 20 minutes ago to return my knife. I thought I'd have to buy a new one. So from this I am concluding that at some point he askedfor ID and you gave it to him, by reason that he showed up at your door. So again, if you want to ID yourself or voluntarily present your ID its up to you, but people here have had that turn out real bad for them, so I don't advise it. If he wants your ID let him get it by illegally searching and seizing you, don't give up your rights needlessly. Call me a cynic, but he does this day in and day out, and I don't believe he forgot to give you your knife back, he held it on purpose for whatever reason if for no other than to show up at your door.
By now, there are a total of 3 units and 4 LEOs. My friends are being questioned, as am I. One asked my friend, Aaron, for his address. Under the stress, he was unable to recall it. I told Aaron that it's ok if he can't recall it, it's not relevent information. The officer asking him the question said it was, I responded with "is he being investigated?" The officer said he was and when I asked what he was being investigated for, he gave no reply. I know that wasn't the best course of action. But as I said before, I was doing what I felt was necessary to protect myself and my friends. I wasn't looking to have some LEO who wasn't familiar with all the laws hauling me away because he was unfamiliar with something. Actually this wasn't bad at all, it was even good, this was you standing firm in your rights to know what they are doing and why. You're not being argumentative or disrespectful but you are asserting your rights to not answer any questions you don't want to. He can investigate until the sun goes down and comes up again and you don't have to say a word,its called the 5th Amendment...learn it, know it, live it.
So the officer questioning me, dragged me outside of earshot so I couldn't interfere. I explained to the officer that I was just looking out for my friends' interest. I don't want him to get railroaded. He replied; "if he does what we tell him to, he won't." This is where an LEO will tell you if you help them, they will help you. If you just answer their questions everything will be alright. WRONG! The moment they say this is when you should be ready to zip it. They are not your friends, they are investigating a MWAG and they are ready to make an arrest the moment something doesn't seem right. Again, a little more studying here and you'll feel more confident in your lawful actions of not cooperating. Note: not cooperating and resisting are two very different things. Be sure to know the difference, in a nutshell not cooperating is fine and dandy, resisting will land you in jail.
Anyway, at that point, one of the officers asked me where my firearm was. To keep the situation from getting out of hand, I decided it would be benificial to extend some courtesy. I confirmed that it was inside a lockbox inside my trunk. I moment later, I noticed the officer was inside my car, what appeared, reaching under my driver seat. I informed him that I did not consent to a search of my vehicle. He said that I stated the firearm was in my trunk, hes only reaching for the trunk release. Again, I wasn't about to get into an arguement on if they were allowed to check my firearm if it's inside my vehicle. He had fun trying to unlock my (electronic, pushbutton) safe. I decided to assist by entering the access code for him. He checked my firearm and returned it to the safe and closed it, then closed my trunk. Excellent, you did not surrender your right to a warrantless search. But he was intent on searching your car. Practice saying these words "Get a warrant first." If he opened yourcar door, looked around,and opened your trunk, then I think its pretty clear he illegally searched your vehicle. If your car door was already open andthen youopened your trunk for him then you just surrendered your 4th Amendment right to a search. Next time, if possible, lock your doors and pocket your keys. Then if they want to searchtell them to get a warrant.
After that, I recieved the normal speech of "this isn't texas" "this isn't the wild wild west" "people aren't used to seeing people with guns" ... it wasn't a patron that saw me with a gun, freaked out and called the cops. It was mall security. The only reason they called the cops is because they couldn't find their supposed policy of no weapons. I don't care if they had a policy or not, I was willing to leave once they asked me to. I had no problem or objection with leaving. I just wanted to throw it in their face that they have no such policy. Tell him thanks for the geography lesson and he's right, the "wild" west was actually much safer than you are today. And as far as people seeing guns, tell him your working to change that. And bologna, mall security called them the moment they saw you were armed. They probably never even looked for the policy. They only came back to where you were to keep a close eye on you while the LEOs arrived.
Ok, I know I badly screwed up. I know I should have done things much differently. However, the way you know to act, and the way you should act, drastically changes based on the current situation. For one, I wasn't looking to get hauled off on some fabricated or trumped charge, weather if would stick or not. And I wasn't looking forward to having my friends railroaded or screwed by some technicality because of me. Otherwise, I would have done this much much differently. Know this, they willharass you, intimidate you, lie to you, maybe even cuff you, andpossibly even take you to the station, but if you haven't violated any laws, and you haven't confessed to breaking any laws (whether intentionally or not - which is why its better you don't say anything) they will have to release you. UOC is not a crime.
