Posted on 09/24/2010 5:06:00 AM PDT by marktwain
Last Saturday the Madison, WI police department responded to a 911 call about five men openly carrying holstered handguns near a Culver’s restaurant. Police soon arrived, detained the men, now referred to by some as “the Madison Five,” and demanded they produce identity credentials.
The police ultimately cuffed, searched, and charged two men who refused to provide ID with “obstruction of justice.” Days later “Madison Police North District Capt. Cameron McLay said he believes officers acted appropriately in responding to . . . the [911] caller's concern that something might happen.”
However the 911 call recording obtained by the Examiner.com pursuant to an Open Records Act request from Dane County does not support Capt. McLay’s characterization. The caller, Ms. Phyllis Micke, emphasized to the 911 dispatcher that the guns were in holsters, and that “there’s no problem” . . . [the men are] “just sitting there extremely relaxed.”
After the dispatcher explained that open carry was legal unless they are threatening or disturbing people, Micke declared that
“there’s no problem and it’s no emergency . . .I feel bad then, if they’re not doing anything wrong then it’s my mistake.”
Wisconsin Carry Inc. (WCO) President Nik Clark is not surprised by the tenor of the 911 call. Clark said that “every time somebody has called the police about open carriers it has essentially been to ask if open carry was legal, not to report a disturbance.”
acw011 posted:
“Working to find proof of that response”
(from opencarry.org disscusion forum, here is more evidence)
Just got an email back from her:
Thanks for the publicity. I take my responsibilities to protect the integrity and atmosphere of my city very seriously and am painfully aware that the majority of conflict between people happens when others are not respectful of commonly accepted norms. We do not pack pistols in restaurants in Madison. Why not? Simply not necessary or appropriate. It’s too bad that some people feel that exercising their rights to make a point has to be such an issue. Frankly, visits that cause these kinds of disturbances aren’t economic stimuli for our city. That poor restaurant probably lost sales due to the show. As you note, you are not a Madison resident, thus don’t know the flavor of our community. This could be the best campaign incident in a long time!
I appreciate your tongue-in-cheek candor, too.
Lauren Cnare
Alder, District 3
608-226-0987 (cell)
district3@cityofmadison.com (e-mail)
Ha, ha. Give these guys the keys to the city since they own Madison now. Maybe they should fire the cops now for being stupid.
“Just got an email back from her:”
Yep - she fessed up to it and is proud of her statement - Thanks for posting.
Paging Charlie Sykes & Vicki McKenna!!
What? Didn’t Dear Leader respond by saying “the cops acted stupidly”?
“If the law allows open carry, why did this individual take it upon himself to call the police if those who were carrying were not causing any problems?”
He probably called because people don’t know that it’s legal. From what I’ve read, it was standard practice for years in WI, especially in liberal towns like Madison, to arrest anyone carrying on a trumped up charge of “disturbing the peace”. If anyone carried, they were locked up, so the public never saw people carrying, and assumed it was illegal.
So they could bulldoze it at their whim. Thats what I would do.
In other words, I (Lauren Cnare) as a Madison resident get to be perpetually offended because I was born with this stick up my butt that got me into the position I’m in as your overlord.
Alder - WTH?!!! Do these people know how to do anything other than insist you follow their ways or call you evil if you don’t?
The party of peace love and tolerance folks....
The cops are claiming there was another individual "disturbed" (Probably because they already know the 911 tapes show Phyllis wasn't)
Or it will drive their pay way up to attract people willing to take that risk.
Our military isn't subject to many of the same international laws as other militaries for this very reason.
Personally I'd like to have it where if a cop commits a criminal offense he gets at least twice the maximum sentence. My reasoning is it's often harder to convict a cop so they need a bigger deterrent to committing crimes.
Call it incentive to throw out the bozos in the next election. If I were running my campaign would certainly stress "HIS people violated your civil rights and he made YOU pay millions for it."
I'd think that if a cop followed the law and department policy he'd be personally exempt from liability. I'd even add some leeway so that mistakes and snap misjudgments don't remove that exemption. However, I am for personal liability for willful violation of a person's civil rights. This is a good example, since the cop had no reason under law or policy to perform an arrest, and it wasn't a stressful situation calling for a snap judgment.
she said EVERYTHING to difuse the situation before they rolled up on the scene...
ifn it wasnt a set-up, this lady was truly a gift from GOD...
It was a she and she just wanted to let the cops know there were 5 men carrying guns openly, not doing anything, relaxed, not bothering anyone.....because she didn’t know if what they were doing (openly carrying) was legal or nor. She’s 62 years old.
The cops had NO LEGAL RIGHT TO DEMAND IDENTIFICATION.
Yeah......he must be hiding in a closet licking his latest set of wounds, lol!
All true, but it is just as effective to sue the bastards into oblivion, too. Teach them a lesson they won’t forget. That’s what has been done to the right for decades, including taking away, through judgments, ranches and farms from people who are in the path of illegal aliens and dared to enforce their right to no trespassing. The SPLC is famous for this as are other so-called “civil rights” legal groups. Ambassador? Fine. But in this case, the courtroom will serve as a better teacher.
There was a suit filed by this group in Racine for exactly the same police conduct. The gunnies won. That’s why the cops are trying to morph this into a disorderly. First they were charged with obstructing. Then the officers fiund out what the law is and probably aboout the other suit. If they can make a disorderly stick or get one of thoise charged to cop a plea, they’re off the hook on a lawsuit. Otherwise, they’re dead meat like the Racine case. I’m sure what the chief wants right now more than anything is for this to just go away and I’m sure that internally these idiot flatfoots that brought this $hit storm down on him are getting reamed but good.
That is the only way cops in this country are going to learn what the Second Amendment means and that doing the bidding of their municipal leftist masters is a losing proposition and also that their storm trooper days when they’re the only ones who are armed are over so they can’t push law-abiding citizens around anymore.
There was nothing this woman said that was under discussion in yesterday’s thread that would give rise to what the cops did, and you know it. Quit trying to weasel out of it. You got hammered on yesterday’s thread and today will be no different if you start your crap again.
NOTHING HAS CHANGED, including your propensity to lie and spin. We just have further witness confirmation that the men were minding their own business not bothering a soul, which we, including you, already knew, so NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
I guess you didn't read what the woman said, and you are wrong as sin, the cops are not required to respond to every 911 call.
In our area, where crime is low, there are more EMT 911 calls than calls for the police.
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