WI: Open Carrier Exercises Rights in Germantown

Gun Watch ^ | 17 March, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Open Carry in Arizona

A man in Germantown was accosted by police for exercising his rights on Saturday.   William Polster was carrying a holstered pistol and a shotgun on a sling on his back.   He says that he carries the firearms to educate the public about their rights and for personal protection.

Police claim that some people called them and were upset.  This is certainly possible, but in other cases, such as with the Culver 5 in Madison, and with open carrier in Michigan, calls turned out to be mostly asking the police whether open carry was legal or not, something that furthers the education effort that that Mr. Polster said that he is trying to accomplish.  From 620wtmj.com:

 Police realized Polster was exercising his right to open carry. Since he wasn't breaking any laws, they let him go.

The education effort appears to be working with the police.   It was not reported that they pulled guns on Mr. Polster, knocked him to the ground, or handcuffed him as they have done with a number of other open carriers.   Several settlements of thousands of dollars have gone from city budgets to open carriers who have been victimized in this way.  It is clear that the police understood that this was a citizen exercising their rights, and not a criminal or crazy person.  Hint for those who have not considered this: Mr. Polster was not shooting or pointing the firearms at anyone.  He did not even have them in his hands.

People may believe that the police are being insensitive and are trying to chill the exercise of a constitutional right.

Mr. Polster says that he is going to keep carrying firearms openly, and exercising those rights.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Open carry education continues.

[marktwain]

I have informed the moderator of my misspelled headline.

[MeganC]

A man in Germantown was accosted by police for exercising his rights on Saturday.

No, he wasn't. I'm not one of the folks who has unconditional love for the police so take that into mind as I say that what I see here is the police responded to some people who were concerned about this man carrying arms. The police did their job and checked out what they were called for, found nothing wrong, and then went back to whatever they'd been doing before.

And some more citizens have been educated that open carry is legal in Arizona.

Mission accomplished.

But I'm not seeing where anyone was 'accosted'.

[RKBA Democrat]

“And some more citizens have been educated that open carry is legal in Arizona.”

Actually this was in WI.

I respectfully disagree with you. The dispatcher should have been trained to tell the callers that it’s legal. No reason to send out the cops for nothing.

[marktwain]

I think the first two definitions apply:

ac·cost
[uh-kawst, uh-kost] Show IPA
verb (used with object)
1.
to confront boldly: The beggar accosted me for money.
2.
to approach, especially with a greeting, question, or remark.
3.
(of prostitutes, procurers, etc.) to solicit for sexual purposes.
noun
4.
a greeting.

[MeganC]

In context it sounds like the man had his rights violated. But as I read it the story indicates the police probably asked him some simple questions, found nothing amiss, reported the same to whoever called them, and then they moved along.

Which is what should happen.

[marktwain]

Exactly correct.