Dear Sheriff McCabe,
As a former reserve deputy and chaplain in Albemarle County I am horrified and ashamed to read that your deputies are not only habitually violating the Second Amendment rights of citizens within your bailiwick but are doing so in a sadistic, brutal, and unprofessional way.
The detention on June 10, 2007 of Mr. Szymecki was a flagrant and disgraceful abuse of the authority of your office. It is evident from other incidents that some of your deputies either do not know the laws of this Commonwealth or consider it part of their job to harass citizens who exercise their rights under those laws.
I do what I can to encourage citizens to support Law Enforcement Officers. I know there are many wonderful, brave, and honest men and women serving their communities in this often thankless work.
When deputies and other Law Enforcement Officers take the law into their own hands, the consequences are very bad indeed. People lose respect for you and for other sheriffs. Time and money are spent in the court system and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office nolle pross-ing cases which never should have been brought in the first place. And finally citizens, such as myself, of the Commonwealth have to dig into their pockets to support the lawsuit against Norfolk and your office which will almost certainly follow this dreadful abuse of authority.
I was very proud to be a reserve deputy and to work with Sheriff Ed Robb. I am also very proud to be a life member of the NRA and the GOA and also a member of the VCDL. I will be happy to give sacrificially to support any suit against Norfolk which addresses the habitual abuse of citizens by your deputies.
Very truly yours,
Mad Dawg [okay, I didn't use my handle]
I don’t understand why anyone would carry open, at a family festival event, with so mny people in close proximity to each other. Having both hands pre-occupied, lends itself to having one’s weapon easily taken. Regardless of the lagality, I think it was a pretty irresponsible thing to do.
VCDL?
It seems the Gestapo is making a comeback in Norfolk ,Va.
save
by a black female Sheriff’s deputy!
What does this deputy’s race have to do with anything? Did you notice that you wrote that? I get the message of the posting but that line causes me to pause.
“We don’t smoke, We don’t drink, NORFOLK! NORFOLK!”
There’s two sides to every story. I would reserve judgment until and unless the City’s comes out.
Ping-
Excellent usuage of the word “sacrificially”!
My biggest hope for my family is still to get MrsMac (and any of our spawn) training and familiarization with firearms. Being stationed in Va Beach... this could be a problem.
Did he get his pistol back?
Why did he not say “Yes Sir” and left when given that option?
He could have gone to his car, removed the firearm or concealed it and returned.
And why was his firearm not considered a ‘firearm ‘ under the law? A pellet gun? ??
This sounds like he was ‘pushing the envelope’ looking for a confrontation to make a point.
Ping
The modern Police Force is literally homogenized by recruits from all over the country. There is a fair amount of headhunting that goes on. One common point of entry is to establish credentials on a small town force (easier to get hired) and then move on to the big town salary. So it is no real surprise an officer who has been hired to balance diversity needs of a large department will be more confrontational and politically correct.
Since the gunowner in question was offered a choice- stay or leave- rightly or wrongly he probably should have left and filed his paperwork afterwards. Police in the 21st Century are on a hair trigger when it comes to confrontation and once that officer assistance call goes out over the radio a felony arrest is all but inevitable. (Felony arrest being defined as using techniques required to apprehend a dangerous criminal up to and including deadly force.) Eating a waffle when confronted by a testosterone addled officer (male or female) is a darned good way to escalate a situation right into deadly force.
Right now, a possible course of action is to subpeona the the Department CALEA standards governing Officer Conduct at Street Festivals and other public venues.
It may be necessary to rewrite those manuals to prevail in this instance.
Hope this helps
Best regards,
“Chet’s wife attempted to record the scene on her cellular phone and was told she would be arrested if she did not secure her phone immediately!!! “
Somehow, to me, this is the most disturbing thing about the incident. The Gestapo demanded that no recording be made of their actions.
The only reason that they would not want it recorded is if they knew they were acting illegally, or in some punishable manner.
No official should be able to force a citizen to stop recording, audio or video, any actions the official is taking in his official capacity.
“Chet was expecting the situation to totally dissolve within minutes”
Which it did, into chaos thanks to the ignorant officers.
Norfolk,VA used to have signs on their lawns “Salior nad Dogs keep off the grass”
I’ve NEVER seen anybody openly carrying at any sort of festival anywhere in Virginia. And I’ve been to many. The Norfolk police were stupid, but I imagine they werre also getting lots of nervous people coming up to them and reporting this guy walking around with a gun. Firearms at a crowded family event just seems like a really dumb idea.
Here is a thread on the VCDL incident
Was he clean, too? </Obama Reference>
At that point she should have asked for a written statement to that effect while continuing to record. There is NO law preventing someone from recording another arrest. Damned nazi cops following illegal laws.
People wanted to know if the police would resist disarming citizens .... there's our answer.