I agree and disagree with your comment. I understand and support the exercising of ones rights. I guess I’m just more subtle and low key.
Who’s the jerk? The guy that walks into the bar to pick a fight or the guy that is minding his own business and ends the fight?
RE: The Open Carry Guys.....I see folks open carry all the time. And they’re doing just that, open carrry. What they’re not doing, in a time where folks are scared sh*tless of active shooter events and the like, are standing on a corner or walking into Walmart a couple of days after a mass casualty event with a rifle across their chest.
These cops do it right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1G1IscWi58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N30TagPCNE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDH0BDCdu4k
I get the whole.....Deez are muh rights....How about a little common courtesy to your fellow man/woman and not scare the living shit out of them for no reason other than to film cops for youtube.
Delta Force Sgt. Major Kyle Lamb (Ret.): Is open carry responsible? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6HpUi_oc9U
My point is, these guys are looking for a proverbial fight. And, because the cops are morons, more times than not, they end up in one. Because the cops are not used to being challenged nor know the actual law. One would think that this would be in roll-call training. It happened to a friend of mine who’s still in law enforcement. One of the civilians saw the guy with the camera and notified him. He walked out, talked to the guy and politely requested that if he plans on putting the video on social media that he have the courtesy to block any license plates, obscure the faces of any people he films and to be mindful of cars so he doesn’t get hit and move out of the way if someone is walking down the sidewalk. Turned around and walked away. Guy left a few minutes later.
In California it is now explicitly legal to video record in public and the fact that someone is video recording in public does not constitute probable cause or suspicion to justify an unfriendly police intervention.
CA PC 148(g): “The fact that a person takes a photograph or makes an audio or video recording of a public officer or peace officer, while the officer is in a public place or the person taking the photograph or making the recording is in a place he or she has the right to be, does not constitute, in and of itself, a violation of subdivision (a), nor does it constitute reasonable suspicion to detain the person or probable cause to arrest the person.”
And if the cops VIOLATE THE LAW and screw with someone anyway then what happens next is all on them. And I really don’t care if it’s an auditor, reporter, or an average citizen simply recording the cops doing their job.
The motivations of the citizen exercising their rights is not my concern nor should it be yours. It’s irrelevant.
All that matters is that the police are not supposed to violate anyone’s rights yet they do. Auditors bring attention to this fact and if the police stopped acting like a criminal gang then there’d be nothing for the auditors to do, am I right?
Likewise with open carry, if it’s legal then the police need to stop messing with law abiding people who open carry. It’s that simple.
We need more cops like that, and fewer who think that they are endowed with a special authority that allows them to throw Br’er Rabbit so far into the briar patch that they win the confrontation.