Posted on 09/13/2013 5:17:26 AM PDT by rellimpank
Two men heading to Appleton's downtown farmers market with AR-15 rifles slung over their shoulders and handguns in holsters swiftly attracted the attention of police officers last weekend.
Now, they're attracting attention across the Internet, with some gun rights advocates expressing outrage that the pair were held at gunpoint and handcuffed, while others voice frustration at what they consider a foolish and dangerous stunt.
The men, Charles Branstrom, 27, and Ross Bauman, 22, ultimately were released without tickets or charges.
Branstrom recorded the confrontation with Appleton Police. About six minutes into the recording, one officer sees Branstrom's camera, confiscates it and attempts to turn it off — but stops only the video. The device continues recording audio for about 45 minutes.
Gun rights advocates think the police acted inappropriately.
"I would never blame police for following up on 'man with a gun' calls, but they still have to behave within the limits of the law and abide by people's constitutional rights," said Nik Clark, president of Wisconsin Carry, Inc., a gun rights group. "I believe the police were acting outside of their legal authority when they pointed guns at the individuals and involuntarily detained them."
Milwaukee's police chief ridiculed the pair.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
—ping—
Plenty of criticism for everyone involved. Yeah, they may have the legal right to open carry in a sheep pasture. That doesn’t make it a good idea. Way to set up a confrontation or a tragedy.
The cops need to learn the law and obey it regarding gun rights and video recording. As to the chief, how typically elitist for a senior employee of the people. Without looking at the video, I just know he wears the four stars of a General.
A pox on them.
TC
They kept recording, answered questions, stood on solid ground, were not disrespectful and the cops had NOwhere to go but ... "Have a nice day, guys."
LOVE it.
This kind of crap will continue until some lame stream media type is arrested or detained for writing an unpopular article. No, on second thought, the relationship between the first and second Amendment would still be lost on the sheeple.
Idiot cops who don’t know the law throwing their weight around.
My respect for law enforcement continues to decline.
I can understand why cops would be called (don't like it, but I understand that there are plenty of anti's out there...).
I can understand why the cops, after being called, might even stop and ask a few questions. After all, the only thing that they know is that someone has called them about some men with guns. A couple of polite questions - at the most - would quickly clear things up.
No, what I have a problem with is the following quotes:
An officer replies that while Wisconsin recognizes the right to openly carry guns in most public areas, "there's a point where that can be crossed and it becomes disorderly conduct" and that's what the officers are investigating.
and
"It's taking the Second Amendment a little too far," one officer says
There's no such thing as "taking a law a little too far". Either a behavior is legal, or its not. If it's legal to carry a gun, and the men are behaving legally with them (not threatening people, not acting aggressively, etc) .... then that's that. End of discussion.
Scary times we live in. 30 years ago, where I grew up, two men carrying guns wouldn't have been given a second look. Unless the cop wanted to admire what they were carrying.
Colorado is supposed to be an open carry state. Incidents like this are why nobody does.
A Right not exercised can be easily taken.
A point made VERY well by these open carry demonstrations.
“Yeah, it’s your Right. We just don’t want you doing it.”
Very dangerous attitude for folks to adopt.
These few words sum it up perfect. It is the attitude of all nanny state busybodies both (R) and (D), on any subject.
As was pointed out on another thread about this incident, the queers have been so in-your-face about their activities, that they have won queer marriage in many places.
Gun owners need to be in-your-face about open carry, until it becomes normal and un-remarkable.
/johnny
Ah, is it possible they've identified the motive behind all this?
/johnny
I don't know. Other than cuffing them and one or two of the comments I don't see a lot to criticize. They responded to a citizen complaint. I don't blame them for drawing on the two since they had no idea of their intent. They questioned them, checked things out, determined no crime had been committed, and let them go. They could have gotten a lot worse than that.
Here is the first article. The new media beat the MSM by four days. In fact the Milwaukee Journal links to this article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3064760/posts
It is the clearest case of conspiracy to violate constitutional rights I have seen. Everything is on the tape. One officer brags about violating the First Amendment. The Seventh Circuit has ruled that taping police officers is a First Amendent right. He confiscates the video camera, and later brags to his buddies “This ain’t going on on YouTube!”
-—good point—
How wrong he was. LOL!
/johnny
get used to it LEO community. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.
That’s OK. After several million dollars have been handed out to gun rights activists, perhaps they’ll get the hint. I’m loving it.
New York state passed a law (posted here a while back, thank you FR) making it a crime to ‘annoy’ a cop, specifically, to photograph them while they work. Screw that s***. Molon labe!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.