Saturday, June 23, 2007
Some rights are more equal than others
A Knoxville man is assaulted by a cop for carrying a handgun, notwithstanding a permit to do so. If a police officer did this to somebody exercising his rights under the First Amendment, there would be a national outcry. Why doesn't the media notice when the victim relies on the Second Amendment?
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Sat Jun 23, 09:55:00 AM:
Although I'm not usually an advocate of hiring a lawyer (and I am a lawyer!), this one goes beyond insult. You won't see the ACLU taking up this guy's cause, but I'm guessing that someone will. Whether people agree or disagree with the handgun laws in various jurisdictions, beating on a person who is in compliance with the law is out of line. Especially if you are a law enforcement officer. If this cop wants to change the law, he should run for the state legislature.
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Sat Jun 23, 10:39:00 AM:
Its not uncommon at all to have to tell the cops what the firearms laws in this country and your own state are.
I had to do it when the Lake Worth PD flat out refused to take a report on firearm that was stolen from me by an FFL. They claimed it was a "civil matter".
It wasn't until I showed up at their station toting my copy of 27 CFR and the Florida criminal statues law books and demonstrated that several felonies had been committed that they agreed to file a report and enter the gun into the FDLE database.
Through the whole process they were very uncooperative, even though it was obvious there was a corrupt gun dealer in the city that needed shutting down.
ATF in Miami was similarly uninterested in trying to shutdown the corrupt dealer, but at least offered sympathy rather than a borderline abusive attitude.
By , at
Sat Jun 23, 02:07:00 PM:
Low hanging bumper and video camera yields aggressive cop behavior. In that instance, they'll probably trade off their behavior and "let" the boys off for the audio portion.
In this case, the cop should lose his badge and surrender the firearm. Let's face it. If you don't know the law, you should not be entrusted to enforce it.
This is why cops are pigs to a lot of people.
By Purple Avenger, at
Sat Jun 23, 02:59:00 PM:
One could teach a full semester university level course in Federal firearms law. There is that much of it and much of the case law is fairly nuanced as to where the fine lines have been drawn.
Cops aren't given the training to understand all this before being thrown on the street and almost of necessity take a "roust'em all and let god sort'em out" mentality in most matters.
