Posted on 07/28/2011 5:54:16 AM PDT by brent13a
In California, where I live and work, there has been an increasing movement among a segment of legally-armed citizens to carry unloaded sidearms in plain view. This trend is happening elsewhere, but there seems to just be more “activity” around the movement here in the Golden State perhaps because it seems so much more difficult to get a CCW here than in most other states.
In my humble estimation, the video of Officer Matthew Lyons of the Oceanside (Calif.) PD could be a training video for any agency that has to deal with “open carry citizens.” In fact, the video of video below in which Officer Lyons encounters one of those individuals stands in stark contrast to another we posted to PoliceOne last week.
There has been quite a lot of traffic to the video of Canton (Ohio) Patrolman Harless not just here on PoliceOne, but all over the Internet — and his less-than-stellar response to a legally-armed citizen in his sector. I’m told that Harless has been — or soon will be — relieved of his badge. Well, regardless of the outcome of that particular case, there are myriad examples out there of officers encountering an open-carry citizen, and I point to this one with Officer Lyons as a compelling example of “doing it the right way.”
Officer Lyons has been hailed by a handful of bloggers, including one for CBS News which bears repeating here:
“Officer Matt Lyons with the Oceanside Police Department definitely deserves a shout out for this almost 3-minute encounter. Officer Lyons, we salute you, not only for your incredible professionalism, sense of humor, and great on camera demeanor, but also your dedicated 22 years of service in the United States Marine Corps.”
(Excerpt) Read more at policeone.com ...
One thing that cut in favor of "Jeremy" was that both he and Officer Lyons are Marines.
semantics... he asked under the authority of a badge and took the gun out of the holster himself...
wise up. toady.
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Exactly. Exercise the “rights that are available”. Keep moving the line bact towards full exercise of our 2nd Amendment rights.
This is also forcing the LE’s to become informed and educated as to our rights.
It may not currently serve a so-called “practical” purpose, but in the long run, it hopefully will once people accept it and change the law to permit full on (loaded) open carry.
Really? Do you have any clue what Paul Revere's ride was about?
I don't agree with everything a 100%. So What? It's my job to enforce it.
I'm sure that a few of the guards at Dachau felt that way, too.
Do you know what the word "Kapo" means? Look it up.
I’m not ashamed of anything my government employed son does. He risks his life every day.
He’s almost lost his life twice. Once by falling through a 3-story house all the way to the basement when he was short of air hunting for somebody’s grandma and her cat. They couldn’t find him. The second time he and his partner pulled up in an ambulance to a truck reported to have a driver passed out who ran off the road. When they approached the truck, the driver pulled his gun and put two bullets in his partner’s chest and one in my son’s leg. And 3 nights a week he rides Life Flight for a private company, and it’s a risk every time they take off from the pad and land among the poles and electric wires in the dark to save somebody.
SO NO, I’m not going to be ashamed if his badge gets him off a ticket for going 62 in a 55 mile zone on a road nobody else was driving on at the time.
So take your piety and stuff it!
Welcome to the world of cop-hating FReepers. I’ve been dealing with it for years. Some can at least see a few feet in front of their faces, but many will simply call you a Nazi and be done with it. No amount of common sense can shake their perception that ALL cops are thugs.
Hey, if the shoe fits, fellow toadie.
All police act the same to us whether we are armed or not, you think we are the enemy. By your reasoning all civilians should look at all police as the enemy. There are a lot of civilians who die at the hand of police. If the police had to live by the same rules as the citizen then you would understand what the real problem is.
I agree it wasn't great. It could have been worse.
Here in AZ citizens are not denied our right to keep and bear arms. We have an increasing number of out-of-staters who are frightened by the sight of a firearm. There are some non-natives functioning as cops. All of these factors can contribute to a unnecessary difficulties when one is simply exercising his right.
Other posters in this trhead question why someone would carry an unloaded firearm. It can be loaded quickly enough. Of course it's better if it is loaded, but prunepickers must do the best they can, avoiding empirial entanglements while preserving what they have left of their right.
A right unexercised is soon lost.
I understand the sentiment when applied to a person you suspect, for whatever reason, is a thug. But if you approach every citizen with that "I gotta do what I gotta do" attitude of superiority, you are going to be making enemies, where you could be making friends and allies.
Your posts have the same effect, but you're anonymous here, and the only thing you risk is people posting derogatory remarks about your character or ignoring you.
Bla, bla, bla, Mr. Keyboard Warrior. You’d never spew this crap to a real cop/soldier’s face so I pay you no mind.
Before I even got to the end...when I read it was in Oceanside..I thought to myself..I bet the cop is a US Marine.
I'm sorry, but police are seldom held liable for the "mistakes" they make, and it's only those instances that are so blatantly outrageous that they are sometimes held to acocunt for.
Good grief. I suppose considering that it’s California, it could have gone a lot worse. And I have no doubt that a lot of Illinois cops would act the same way. Thank God I’ve long since moved to a free state where we don’t tolerate that sort of BS. If agencies in most states tried to use that pointless detention (which I believe is based on one very specific California law that’s being challenged in the courts) as training material for any purpose other than “here’s what NOT to do to citizens going about their business”, it’d lead to a lot of unnecessary lawsuits.
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