PTK, I'm not arguing with you, I'm not saying you did anything
wrong. I'm not even casing around veiled accusations about your mental status
as other have. I did ask why on earth you carried so heavy on a trip to wally world, which you answered and that answer seems to makes sense. I don't personally agree with that logic, but it's your life to live and
your chiropractor bills for your back.
Surat, thank you very much for your rare (on THR at least) perspective of how the police mind works. It's making much more sense why the officers responded the way they did after reading your explanations.
NP. I'm trying. What a lot of people don't understand is that the entire world starts to look like perps when you are on the job. Separating the sheep from the goats is why we talk to people, ask hard questions, and check them NCIC etc etc. If people don't understand what I mean, then go for a ride along a couple times with your local agency Better yet, come to
mine and ride with me. We have per capita rates that are nearly identical to New York City's.
I
am arguing with the “the man is out to get us and cast us all into slave chains” faction along with the "cops are all bad, they just want my guns” faction. Attitudes of LEO's vary from place to place and laws differ from state to state. What a LEO says is not case law or statute. It's just his opinion. He is not a judge sitting on the bench. he is as someone else said, a guy with a badge who opened his mouth. If the officer in question made a bogus charge or false arrest this would be different. There was no rights violation on the OP. Period dot. It was an unfortunate circumstance brought on by a somewhat dimwit citizen who called in and, to my eyes, the lack of forthright communication on the part of the OP. Sorry PTK, if I was you "I'm packing and I've got a permit" would have been the
first words out of my mouth. Too many cops have been shot by other cops on mistaken ID.
As for the statement of:
Unless they have reason to believe that a crime is being committed (and carrying a gun or three is not by its self a reason to suspect a crime is being committed) police should leave people alone. In some places it even works that way.
Great, I can see you have no clue how law enforcement operations work.
Every single call is answered. BS or not. Telecommunicators cannot “10-22” (“disregard” around here) a call. They are in a building (sometimes a hundred) miles away. I answered a call the day before yesterday from a (personally) known paranoid schizophrenic who claimed people were breaking into her house. How can we be sure that there weren't people actually breaking in this time? Every 911 hang up, even when the TC can tell it's a fax machine. Every barking dog call. Woof Woof. It's not the job of the TC to investigate the call but the job of the officer. Maybe it works different in where you live but not at our department. All Suzie Scanner on asile 2 sees is “a man with a gun”. She doesn't know that robbers don't generally carry high dollar ordinance with nice holsters. She just sees a gun on a guy at Wal-mart at 2am.
Someone stated to the effect “All the officers had to do was ask for PTK to produce a permit and leave.”
OK, I tell you what, you volunteer to be the cop to ask that. Is
he gonna pull out a permit or a .S&W .500 and blow your head off? How do you know this is a honest god fearing upright member of the community? Because he “looks ok”? Pray tell, answer that. If he pulls out a gun but I beat him on the draw, now I have to shoot him and I really don't wanna go through that.
How do I know that the permit he produces is still valid? Now I have the guy, who I
know is armed but maybe his permit is revoked. . . now I have to effect and arrest of an armed subject.
Another aside. To most cops, except maybe newb rookies, criminals lie or evade, while honest people tell the truth. Simple fact. When you refuse to speak with an officer in a open forthright manner on the grounds that "his investigating is violating you god given rights", then you are acting like a suspect. If you get treated like a suspect, don't be surprised.
As for the inevitable wise elbow that crackd off "where are your papers" etc.,I hope that was a joke because you
so don't wanna go there. Gotten so much as a cell phone contract without a social security number? Let me know how well you can write a check without your government issued ID (driver's licence). Ever had your print's taken for a job application or the like? Don't even get me started on AFIS. Been in the military and had your DNA collected (mouth swab)? Use a debit card? Gotten a passport?
