A Twitter discussion earlier tonight between our friends @eyeonannapolis, @baltospectator, and @justin_fenton pointed to @bob_smithey's Tumblr blog. Posted on 06/08/2011 9:13:59 PM PDT by jeffq73
A Twitter discussion earlier tonight between our friends @eyeonannapolis, @baltospectator, and @justin_fenton pointed to @bob_smithey's Tumblr blog.
The blog post in question contains an image, found below at the bottom of this post, of an Intelligence Bulletin from the Baltimore PD's Criminal Intelligence Division. The bulletin, dated May 31, 2011, shows a picture of a window decal (seen at the top of this post) sold by Legally Concealed, a company that also sells a line of clothing and accessories with this same logo on it.
The bulletin points out in big red letters that:
All officers should be familiar with this symbol especially when dealing with the public or conducting traffic stops. While the individual who is displaying the symbol may not be armed , the presence of the symbol provides an early warning indicator that you MAY be about to encounter an armed individual.As noted on the bulletin, and pointed out by Fenton on Twitter, the source of the information in this bulletin is the WRTAC. That acroynym stands for the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center, which provides a daily open source intelligence briefing. The Washington Post discussed the WRTAC in their heralded investigative series Top Secret America.
Legally Concealed appears to be a part of the National Rifle Association's Business Alliance and has no appearance of being a fringe website at all. It is interesting that the WRATC and Baltimore PD find this information newsworthy enough to inform law enforcement officers about it. As the son of a career police officer, I would hope smart officers would go into every traffic stop thinking about the possibility of there being a gun in the car.
In fact, people who have gone to the trouble of going through all the legal process and have standards to meet and maintain to hold on to that concealed weapons permit are, in almost every case, the least of the worries of a police officer in Baltimore City. Additionally, as someone who took a concealed weapons training course in another state, there was instruction given on interactions with law enforcement. I specifically remember being told to verbally tell the officer and hand over your concealed permit along with your license, registration and insurance information when stopped.
The city police department in Baltimore at times seems obsessed on how many guns they've taken off the streets rather than criminals who possess those guns illegally. Those are the people the law enforcement officers needs to worry about far more than law-abiding concealed weapons holders. This may not be intended as profiling of concealed weapons permit holders, but it certainly smacks of that very thing. I have to assume the WRTAC has been passing this information on to law enforcement officers in the whole Mid-Atlantic region and I'm sure law enforcement in Maryland might not be as accustomed to this type of thing since Maryland does not have "shall issue" weapons permits like other states. The Maryland law is the old system (I saw it with a family member getting a permit in another state that now has shall issue) where political favoritism and law enforcement cronyism are the only reliable way to get a permit to protect yourself.
I would expect all the brainpower assembled in the original Twitter conversation, especially Justin Fenton, might get to the bottom of this as well as anybody might in the coming days. Maybe it is just a well-intentioned, but misguided, effort to keep law enforcement informed but, to reiterate something I already said, the firearms owned by a concealed weapons permit holder are probably the last firearms a Baltimore City Police Officer has a major cause for concern over. Specifically, the smaller number of permits out there due to the state not being shall issue cuts down on the numbers of permit holders in addition to the unlikely possibility of a permit holder being a threat. What's next - an intelligence bulletin telling officers to watch out for people with NRA stickers on their cars?
The image of the intelligence bulletin provided by @bob_smithey is below.
If you see that symbol you are probably dealing with a responsible person who may be armed. If you don’t see the symbol and find a person who is armed they may be irresponsible.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
In my state, you can walk down the street with a gun on your hip. You can have it in your car, in plain view.
To hide it,(conceal it) you need a permit...
Anyone who is stupid enough to advertise, however obscurely, that he holds a CCW is too stupid to have the permit.
Guns in the hands of non government citizens constitute a crime in and of itself punishable by summary execution if the officer gets the opportunity to say “he made a move.”
Depends on the state. In CA my instructor told us NOT to show, CA doesn't require it and CA cops are notorious for harassing CCW holders at traffic stops if they know you are armed. Some states require showing your CCW, I don't know why, it is none of the cops business if you are legally armed or no.
I got stopped the other night in Idaho. Forgot to give the Sheriff of Nottingham a sack of gold for the privilege of using the public roads.
Aside from the delay, there was no problem.
I handed the deputy my DL, registration, and concealed weapons license, he checked to see if I had warrants (at least, I guess that was what he was doing back there), returned my documents, let me off with a warning, and that was the end of it.
Not a word was said about my concealed weapon.
Cops here don’t wet themselves at the thought that a citizen might have a firearm.
Wonder how long that will last.
Oh, yeah, almost forgot: to those cops in Californistan, Maryland, New Jork, and other places where cops act like an armed citizen is worse than a bad outlaw—ESAD, ya pussies.
Maryland police will not accept your out-of-state Concealed Carry permit, even if you are an off-duty or going-to-duty police officer or federal contractor who has a Q clearance if you tell them that you have it loaded in the glove-compartment. They will seize your weapon unless it is unloaded, ammo separate and in different parts of the car.
Some of these cops are anal-retentive assholes and don’t realize that CCW people, esp. other cops/law enforcement people are their best second-line of help in an emergency. They have now lost that back-up, possibly at the cost of their lives, thanks to a few assholes in Montgomery County.
One judge wondered out loud why Maryland didn’t have a cross-state recognition policy for both DC, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
My son is a combat veteran of Iraq and a federal police officer yet the Maryland cop won’t give him a break (my son told him that he had a concealed permit and weapon in the car). The cop couldn’t give a damn and had the weapon seized and it was never returned.
Maryland has turned into a marxist state under O’Mallery and you don’t know if you can trust the police anymore. I lived there for years and worked with the police. In those days they had common sense and appreciated the help that some of us were able to provide.
What a shame that the Democrats have fucked up another once decent state to live in.
If I had a gun or guns I wouldn’t join any gun associations, NRA, GOA etc. What’s a better place for the gun grabbers to find a data base of gun owners?
Ping
Slap ‘em on cars parked at the local democrat party headquarters, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, etc.
Well, I guess that the phrase "YMMV" must apply, as my own experience contradicts that assertion.
Anecdotally as well, having discussed this exact question with more than a few CCW holders and LE folks over the years, the exact opposite obtains more often than not ... the copper's reaction being "oh, this guy's stand-up....why not warn him about the moving violation (or whatever) and send him on his way?"
Like I said, YMMV, and no doubt regional differences come into play in a state as large as Cali, but I call foul on the blanket assertion.
A personal tale: I was on the phone with my wife as she was driving home a few months ago. A statie had come up behind and put on his lights so she hung up with me. She was exiting the interstate near the house, actually on the ramp. The statie’s first question to her was: Do you have a gun in the car? My wife said yes. He: Where is it? Wife: Why right her beside me officer. He: Is it loaded? She: Yes sir. He: Why do you have a gun? She: NYDB. (My wife is notoriously strong-willed.) He: You didn’t turn on your blinker when you exited. She: Yes I did.
He let her go with a warning. It was only later that we figured out that he had run her plate, saw that there had to be a CCW permit holder in the car, and pulled her over just to adjust her attitude. Mother of ten, Wal-mart shopper, church-goer... the Indiana State Police have nothing better to do?
CA cops will harass people with CCWs if they know they have one and know they are armed. Not ALL CA cops but enough of them that the smart thing to do is to not hand them you CCW at a traffic stop. I know at least 4 people personally who were stupid enough to show their CCW in CA(this area) and got harassed, one of them was arrested briefly.
BTW, I have no f***ing what "YMMV" means. Try spelling things out next time.
One last thing you accuse me of making a blanket assertion, but you are making one about cops NOT harassing CCW holders in CA. What makes your blanket assertion any more accurate than mine?
Bump...
YMMV=Your Mileage May Vary
Many of us decided years ago that “when they come for the guns they can have the ammo first” (at least part of it, the copper jacketed part)...
A completely different situation once you cross the border into Virginia.
I’ve been pulled over within the last year (burned out tail light). Entire encounter lasted three minutes including the time it took him to run my drivers license. Very polite, no problems.
Police/CHP run-ins do happen here, but they’re unusual. Probably a reflection of the large percentage of the population that owns guns as well as gun politics in the Commonwealth. Virginia gun owners (thanks to VCDL) are very quick to howl/protest/sue whenever there is an issue.
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