A Policeman does it Right

[Trung Si]

The Cop is just fine, but my question here is, are the three guys parading around with ARs doing us Gun Owners a favor????

 

[Eleanor416Rigby]

"routine" is not "right"

Yes, cops routinely ask for an ID from everybody they encounter. Just because they routinely ask for it, does not mean you should give it up.

Police officers routinely entice people to waive their rights, and some react poorly when you don't. As a kid from 16 to early 20's, I had cops on several occasions become irritated and chastise me for not carrying ID. One even told me I was legally required to do so. (It was not while driving.) That's why we have Miranda forcing LE officers to apprise citizens of certain rights.

This cop reacted well to being denied ID, but I don't think he deserves praise for acting according to the direct mandate of the supreme law of the land, emanating from the United States Constitution. That's the way he is legally bound to act.

Too many cops for too long have depended on ignorant and submissive citizenry routinely waiving their rights. The badge, the nightstick, the gun, the blue code, and the fear of the officer using one or all of them illegally tends to make people just give it up and hope for the best. It's analogous to the overbearing and controlling husband whose submissive wife finally decides to assert herself. Until she does, he will never treat her any better.

Those 3 guys were bonehead drama queens IMHO for going out and instigating that. Given the choice, I'd much rather break bread with the cop in the video than those three guys.

 

[RBid]

The Cop is just fine, but my question here is, are the three guys parading around with ARs doing us Gun Owners a favor????

Exactly.

I'm of the opinion that this practice is counter productive. OC or rights rallies in high profile areas are one thing. Shock & awe in areas populated heavily by people who don't know any better is a bad idea.

As a firearm owner and gun rights advocate, I would still be looking sideways at somebody walking around with an AR on his back. We have to, because it is out if the norm, and we must be aware of our surroundings. We don't have the luxury of assuming that it's nothing. Condition White is where victims are born.

 

[littlebluevette]

Plus one on your comment....

 

[itsa pain]

There's still no telling what happened between the time the idiot proving a point strapped on, the 911 call was made, the operator relayed the message, and the cop received it. A neighbor kid around 5 years old had a habit of acting stupid, seeking attention, and no parental attention on a regular basis. His parent left power tools plugged in on a picnic table in the front yard and the kid picked up an electric buffer, turned it on, and approached his younger sister showing off for 2 other similar aged kids. With no parents in sight, I called it in exactly as I saw it - kid flailing an electric polisher (like is used to buff car paintjobs). A few minutes later a highway patrol shows up and the kids run away screaming. After questioning the parent(s), he asked me what I saw, and I told him. The point of this? He doesn't respond to household issues. He was in the area and heard a call on the Sheriff's channels about kids acting in a gangster manner with chainsaws or similar, attacking people in the street. He responded to a terrorist threat. So, from my call to the radio relay, there's no telling who took liberties. My call was a CPS type concern which translated into a terrorist act and it didn't happen on my end. It escalated on the end of the operator. Think about it if I had exaggerated from the start. In the OP, a call still might not have been warranted, but it likely could have been handled much better. "We'll investigate" doesn't ALWAYS have to be the response. A house cat in a tree doesn't deserve an investigation, whereas an alligator in the street might. This could have easily stopped at the dispatcher level as a cat in the tree since, while "unusual", there were still no laws broken.

God have mercy on this country. you had to call the cops? why didn't you just yell at the kid or heaven forbid go over to him and ask him to put it down. lucky no one got shot

 

[12131]

A bunch of jerks wasting valuable LEO time/resources.
Thumbs up to the officer.

 

[Roadking Rider]

Some people just have to try to take things to the extreme to the point of being stupid. I agree. Open carrying an AR around town does absolutely nothing to help our open carry cause. It's a waste of tax payers money.

 

[ultratec1]

Amazes me how many people are moaning and belly aching about a cop that RESPONDS to a CALL of a man with a gun and in my opinion does a great job and is friendly to the 3 ****** bags that are in this video.

If the cop would have driven by and not done anything and then found out that they were going to shoot someone then once again the same people would b#*&H that the cop didnt do anything to stop it.

 

[Orion8472]

The cop HAD to stop by. It is his duty to do so. . . . .because there ARE dangerous people out there. . . and criminals with firearms. His request wasn't an outrageous one [by any means]. I think these types of videos are absurd . . . just "to prove a point".

The streets of America are not war zones. There is no reason why someone should be carrying like that, but to stir up problems.

 

[itsa pain]

A bunch of jerks wasting valuable LEO time/resources.
Thumbs up to the officer.

the person that called 911 wasted resources. it makes me laugh when people say they waste resources the whole object of LE and all other govt operations is to waste money

 

[TCB in TN]

Why are you driving that sports car? We all know that "gangstas" drive sports cars, you should all be stopped and checked.

Why are you speaking out at a protest? We all know that "terrorists" speak out and protest, you should all be stopped and checked.

Why are you reading the Constitution? We all know that domestic "terrorists" read the Constitution, you should all be stopped and checked.

Why are you on that 2nd Amendment forum? We all know that "whack job, mass shooters" are all over those forums, you should all be stopped and checked.


It may be legal, but since you do not approve of the action then they should all be stopped and checked! Civil rights, Civil liberties, freedom..... just words, maybe it is time to pass out those national ID cards, put out rolling check points, and start checking to make sure "your papers are in order".

Where is the puking smilie when you need him?

 

[gym]

Smart Cop, Dumb Students. They need a part time job. Walking around with a rifle in a public place near the center of town is just a self indulgant thing to do. They are wasting everyones time and money for no reason other than to make their video. Our tax dollars at work paying for the hundred calls they needed to respond to by calming people down and possiblly stopping someone from being hurt in the process.
The officers could have been better used in the time they wasted dealing with those 3 guys who didn't even sound as if they were as educated about the regs as the officer was, let alone the weapon.

 

[labhound]

I think Friday's Santa Monica shootings pretty much sums up why the cop needed to stop and ask for the ID's of the stupid students!!! :banghead:

 

[GoWolfpack]

The officers could have been better used in the time they wasted dealing with those 3 guys

Yes, and if stupid hyper-ventilating soccer moms hadn't called the police he wouldn't have been wasting his time.

 

[fanchisimo]

It may be legal, but since you do not approve of the action then they should all be stopped and checked! Civil rights, Civil liberties, freedom..... just words, maybe it is time to pass out those national ID cards, put out rolling check points, and start checking to make sure "your papers are in order".

I hate to use these words, but I think common sense would show the difference between a policeman talking to a group of armed men walking on city streets and a tyrannical government is obvious, especially in this case. The officer didn't infringe on any of the three's rights. He was just exercising his first amendment right to have a conversation, which no harm came to anybody. I'm sure if these three were walking through the woods with these rifles and this cop saw them, he might just wave and keep going since nobody has called in to dispatch.

 

[robhof]

robhof

My problem is the protecting of their own, even ex or retired Le. We have one in our neighborhood that shoots at dogs crossing his yard or urinating on his mailbox post. When called the local sheriff doesn't even bother to come out, their patent reply is that it's out of the city limits and his legal right, so I open carry(legal in Ky out of city limits) when I walk my dogs, he calls sheriff and I get a friendly visit; he told them I was intimidating him with the gun. I had neighbors to back up my side of story and they left, only to come out 2 days later when I carried again; their story to me is to walk somewhere else or keep my dogs on other side of street. I now carry a video camera every time I walk and when LE comes to visit. I've also got the neighbors to call LE every time he discharges a gun. My nephew is a deputy in Fl. so I'm not anti-cop, but I'm considering a harassment suit if they continue to visit me for legally walking my dogs.:banghead:

 

[TCB in TN]

I hate to use these words, but I think common sense would show the difference between a policeman talking to a group of armed men walking on city streets and a tyrannical government is obvious, especially in this case. The officer didn't infringe on any of the three's rights. He was just exercising his first amendment right to have a conversation, which no harm came to anybody. I'm sure if these three were walking through the woods with these rifles and this cop saw them, he might just wave and keep going since nobody has called in to dispatch.

Ah, but the difference is that people on here are critical of them because they wasted his time (which is absurd since he stopped them). So you are suggesting that he just stopped to "visit"???? If that was the case then no one on here has a case to blame his wasting time on them.

BTW your definition of tyranny is obviously different than mine. If I am not breaking any laws (which they were not), then I or they should not be stopped and checked up on by the police.

As for no harm coming to anybody, well IMHO any time an officer stops someone merely because they are armed then we are all harmed. If people on here cannot see that then our nation has fallen further than I thought.

 

[larryh1108]

People are a bit antsy with the mass shootings we've seen, especially lately. Those kids baited the LE community by walking around with their weapons clearly visible. They inviited confrontation for their 15 minutes of fame on youtube. Please tell me one good reason to walk around a city with an AR clearly visible other than because they could. That "because they could" would be a good rally cry in an organized demonstration or planned event. They were there to waste the time of whatever cop was assigned to see what was up and to waste the taxpayer's money in doing so. They did it because they were bored and wanted attention, like so many 4 year olds. They did nothing to further our gun rights and actually hurt it to those who watched them intimidate the sheep, just because they could. Purely infantile behavior which makes us all look like loons. Our nation does fall further when you have men acting like children, with loaded weapons strapped on their back, looking for something to film for their own entertainment. Save the rhetoric for those who deserve it. These kids do not deserve to be praised for defending our rights. They were acting like jerks.

 

[JPG19]

At the end of the day, the kids in this video failed miserably at their stated goal; I learned nothing from this video except that if you plan to bait an officer, you may not get what you planned for. Is it legal? Yeah. Is it stupid? Yeah.

 

[kendak]

cop should have called for backup & thrown the jerks in the can for a couple of hours...this stupidness is what gives gun owners a bad rep...JMHO

 

[fanchisimo]

He didn't stop them, they could have kept walking and left at any time so they were prolonging the episode. To me, him overreaching his authority or tyrannical behavior would have been something more than an exchange of words, IE cuffing, pulling his weapon out, arresting. Heck he even showed them his AR. I just can't see any fault in this officer's behavior. He acted exactly like I would want to be treated. You say any interaction from the police even if no law is broken is akin to tyranny, but your proposal of total absence is anarchy. Cops check things out in the hopes of preventing problems. Sometimes they can't help but clean up after, but that is another issue. I'm sorry but I cannot understand your position, but it just seems so unrealistic. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

And LarryH, I don't think anybody has praised them. I have forgotten some of the posts, but I think gun owners everywhere are in agreement with you in that these three are just acting like kids.

Kendak, I think the officer had backup nearby. At one point in the video the camera zooms in on a very official looking SUV in the background. If the police had arrested them, it would only give them fuel for their cause and more attention. Let them fade into obscurity where they won't bother anybody.

 

[smalls]

cop should have called for backup & thrown the jerks in the can for a couple of hours...this stupidness is what gives gun owners a bad rep...JMHO

Oh man, this is beautiful. Now we should be jailed for exercising our rights. Sounds a lot like tyranny to me.

 

[TCB in TN]

cop should have called for backup & thrown the jerks in the can for a couple of hours...this stupidness is what gives gun owners a bad rep...JMHO

Were I an unkind person, I would hope you run into an officer with just this mentality for exercising yours rights, and performing a completely legal act!

 

[GoWolfpack]

cop should have called for backup & thrown the jerks in the can for a couple of hours...this stupidness is what gives gun owners a bad rep...JMHO

Kids do something stupid but legal: should be thrown in jail. I hate to think what should be done to people who actually break the law.

 

[gym]

I'm sure it wasn't just soccor moms calling police. It was probablly every person who noticed them carrying an AR down the street, including seniors with heart problems. In todays world you don't wait for someone to start shooting people to call police. It was a stupid thing to do, in an urban area where there are schools and Govt. buildings. Very easy for a problem of dire consequenses to occur.
One armed citizen driving by who doesn't have knowledge of the law, or one of a hundred different things could have gone wrong, ending up with a kid shot.
Once you shoulder a rifle, and march down the middle of town, anything can happen.