 Black said his officers are trained on gun laws.JERRY: I don't understand, your officers are trained on gun laws? |
Posted on 06/18/2008 10:21:41 AM PDT by neverdem
WEST VALLEY CITY - With his Smith & Wesson .40-caliber semi-automatic holstered on his right hip, Travis Deveraux addressed the mayor and City Council on Tuesday.
Deveraux says he has been harassed by West Valley City police for carrying that gun and treated like a criminal.
"A criminal does not want [police] attention, and they will not openly carry a gun," Deveraux said.
With 10 other gun-toting civilians - who came from as far as Bountiful, Santaquin and Lehi - to support him, Deveraux told the council that their police department has consistently overreacted to his gun carrying. And in one occasion last year, he said, the police officers violated his civil rights.
Deveraux said he was walking around his neighborhood to exercise last December, when he was stopped by a Granite School District officer and "informed that if I touched my gun, I would be killed." The officer called West Valley City Police Department, Deveraux said, three squad cars arrived, and he was detained and his gun taken from him - then, after a few minutes, he was released.
Those were violations of his federal and state constitutional rights, said the Swede who became an American citizen this January.
And they are civil rights abuses that he has only encountered in West Valley City, Deveraux said.
"I don't blame them for being a little bit extra careful," he said, noting that the crime rate is high in Utah's second largest city, "but there's a line they crossed between being a little bit careful and a little bit too careful."
Assistant Police Chief Craig Black said he hadn't been aware of the incident involving Deveraux until hearing about it at the City Council meeting. He said there would be a review of the case by the professional standards board to determined what happened.
Matt Murray, of North Salt Lake, said he has never been bothered by any police officers for openly carrying his gun. Kevin Jensen, of Santaquin, said he has had a few police encounters that were "very professional . . . they just want to make sure you're not a nutcase." But Lehi resident Jeramiah McDonald said he has had problems similar to Deveraux's.
McDonald said that because he is only 19, he can't apply for a concealed-weapons permit and his only option is to openly carry his guns.
Because he felt police officers violated his civil rights, McDonald filed a lawsuit.
Deveraux said he doesn't want to sue anyone, or get an officer fired or fined. He wants West Valley City officers to be trained, or receive more training on gun rights.
Mayor Dennis Nordfelt encouraged Deveraux to file a complaint with the professional standards review board, which oversees any resident problems with the police department.
Black said his officers are trained on gun laws.
mariav@sltrib.com
“Assistant Police Chief Craig Black said he hadn’t been aware of the incident involving Deveraux until hearing about it at the City Council meeting. “
Let me be the first to say “bullsh**”.
I'll second that.
Oh, so now LEO's are also psychiatrists?
”Deveraux said he doesn't want to sue anyone, or get an officer fired or fined.”
By God, if an officer doesn't even know the laws he is paid to enforce, he should be fired. If they want to write law, run for the state legislature.
Gosh. In Utah, yet.
I thought this was only a problem “back East”, where I live.
Assistant Police Chief Craig Black should be demoted for dereliction of duty and not knowing what his men are doing.
It’s his job to know.
In the future his replacement will be aware that he could be demoted too.
That's not the same as being trained on gun rights, which is specifically what Mr. Devereaux requested.
There's two types of cops in this world --those who've been caught in their lies and those who have yet to be caught.
| Black said his officers are trained on gun laws. JERRY: I don't understand, your officers are trained on gun laws? |
Then Black is either a liar, or his "training" was piss-poor, or both.
If the police are so afraid of law abiding citizens carrying guns they should find themselves another line of work. I am not afraid of those citizens so give me their badge and I will do the job they don’t want to do.
“Well, then wouldn’t that make the “Swede” an American?”
I think that was just their way of letting you know he was originally from Sweden. At least they didn’t use “Swedish-American”, which might have led people to believe he was just some blond-headed dude. Or something...
Heck, I don’t know. I can’t keep track. Is there some matrix or chart I could use? ;)
“Good grief, we can’t have CITIZENS armed to defend against crime?”
“We NEED crime.” said the Chief, adding “It’s JOB SECURITY” as he reached for another glazed donut.
Ha-Ha, that was good.
Notice he didn't say what country's gun laws they were trained on. Could have been Nazi Germany's gun laws or the former Soviet Union's gun laws.
1. Lawsuits to the max. If it took the rest of my life, I would sue everyone I could think of and anyone else remotely connected with the dude within his chain of command.
2. Cause the biggest stink I could via the media, and make the police explain everything they think they know about the law
Statement:
. . . he was stopped by a Granite School District officer and “informed that if I touched my gun, I would be killed.”
Response:
Gee, I dunno Barney—I’m pretty fast.
bttt
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