Posted on 12/30/2014 10:13:46 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A year ago this New Year’s Eve, John Filippidis of Florida was driving south with his family on Interstate 95 when the Maryland Transportation Authority Police pulled over his black Ford Expedition and proceeded to raid it while his twins, wife and daughter looked on — separated in the back seats of different police cruisers.
The officers were searching for Mr. Filippidis‘ Florida-licensed, palm-size Kel-Tec .38 semi-automatic handgun, which he left at home locked in his safe. (Maryland does not recognize handgun permits issued by other states.)
When the search turned up nothing, Mr. Filippidis, 51, was allowed to go and was issued only a speeding warning.
The incident gained national attention. Mr. Filippidis went on multiple radio programs and described in detail how scared and outraged he and his family were. He wondered: How did the police know he was licensed for concealed carry, and what right did they have to search through his personal items on the side of the busy interstate filled with holiday travelers on that 10-degree day?
“My wife’s hysterical, shaking and crying,” Mr. Filippidis recalled in an interview with The Washington Times. “I don’t have a criminal record. I own a business. I’m a family man, and I tried to explain that to [the officer]. But he had a bad attitude, didn’t want to hear my story. He just wanted to find that gun and take me away from my family. That was his goal, but he couldn’t do it, because I didn’t have a gun, like I told him.”
Mr. Filippidis‘ case earned the support of Second Amendment advocates and subsequent apologies from the MDTA. But an internal police review concluded his stop and search were lawful and did not violate police protocols.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
infomercials...don’t you just hate ‘em?
infomercials...don’t you just hate ‘em?
We need police reform. This was bullying and cruel.
No, the driver was allegedly speeding and tailgating the officer. (72/55) The officer pulled him over for speeding and saw the driver's concealed-carry permit as the driver was "searching for his driver's license and registration in his wallet."
Having "personally observed" the permit, the officer then ordered the driver out of the vehicle and asked where the gun was located within the vehicle. The driver informed the officer that there was no gun in the vehicle.
The officer did not believe the driver and so asked the front passenger (wife) where the gun was located. The wife answered that it might be in the console or the glove box and reached for the location before being told not to do so.
"Having received conflicting information about the location of the gun," the officer decided he had probable cause to search the vehicle for the weapon because ... why?
Oh, yeah. He "smelled marijuana upon his initial approach of the vehicle."
True story.
Note: The man and his wife had their children in the car with them and were driving home from a family Christmas celebration. The driver had no idea that the officer used the suspicion of marijuana possession as probable cause.
When you arrive at the Arizona border, you are asked by a Highway Patrolman if you are carrying a weapon. If you answer, “No,” he will assign you one.
I know in Texas, if I’m stopped and for some really stupid reason I do not have my CHL sidearm on me......I’m not required to show the license to the officer or tell them I do not have a firearm on me.....
Yet....
When they return my driver license to me after a wants and warrants check they will hang back at the B-Pillar and ask why I did not tell them I was armed.... They know from ones drivers. license that you have the CHL / CCW permit when they enter it in the computer or radio dispatch.
I am one that will say as required I am a CHL holder armed or to be polite to the officer albeit not required if not packing my pistola...not armed.
In a liberal progressive socialist state such as MD where 98% of the populace are liberal socialists or criminal liars I can see where cops can not believe anyone they stop.
But to trash a vehicle, throw all their possessions around and search the vehicle without permission without a detector dog alert giving probable cause for a roadside search etc ......
No ....these MD state troopers screwed the pooch if just the info running the license told them the driver had a CCW/CHL permit in another state was probable cause to toss the entire vehicle.
Seems more needs to be done to target the individual officer and of course his department for such BS. LEO’s and FLEA’s use to be able to think for themselves and understood policy is not law.
Too bad this family wasn’t illegals the state of Maryland may have given them a free gun, car, home, bank account, food stamps etc ...
“arizona you can carry it anywhere”
Not in Illinois
The 3rd page of the article had important information.
Here’s my take:
The driver was speeding, the cop pulled him over. Before leaving the cruiser, the cop ran a license plate check and saw the owner had a CC permit. He took the driver to his cruiser and asked about any weapons in the car, then cross-questioned the wife and got a different answer (might be one in the car).
Decided to search and needed probable cause so ‘suddenly’ smelled pot, and ‘felt threatened’ by the driver’s ‘hidden’ hands.
Basically, the cop fabricated the reasons for probable cause to try and snare a handgun.
My take-away, the driver needs to get his wife onboard with what to NOT say about his guns..
In a slightly related incident, I was rear-ended by the son of a small town councilman and the arriving cop was determined to give ME the ticket. He said he smelled alcohol and asked if I would do a breath test, I consented and it was negative. He didn’t bother to check the other driver, so I said, “If you smell alcohol and we know it isn’t me and you don’t think it is the other driver, it has to be YOU because you are the only other person here!” He got pissed and I demanded a supervisor on the scene. Another cop came and they put their heads together and found something to charge me on, later thrown out in court.
Cops can be real thuggish when they wan to be and it seems they want to be more often these days.
“.......how the MD cops could have known about that *specific* Kel-Tec”.........
The author of the article seems to have interviewed the gun owner who more than likely, told the writer that he had a Kel-Tec and that it was home in his safe. To me that was pretty clear as there is no way the cops would have know if the gun had been a Colt Peacemaker, S&W or Kel-Tec anything.
“And yet you have still to explain how the MD cops could have known about that *specific* Kel-Tec. They couldn’t know from Florida.”
From the article, the officer saw the CCW permit in the man’s wallet as he searched for his driver’s license. He then asked the man about the gun, the man said he did not have it with him. The man may well have told the officer the make and model at that time.
Then he asked the wife, separately, about the pistol. She said it might be in the glove box. He could have got the make and model from her.
More than anything, this shows the folly of talking to the police. If the man and his wife would have agreed not to give any information to police, other than required by law, they might have got a ticket and been on their way.
I suspect the officer is rabidly anti-second amendment, and carefully looks for these sort of things. He preys on law abiding peoples trust of police, on the assumption that the “system” will work for them. Unfortunately, they were naive.
“Thinking about it, what can the Gov really do to a state who does not comply
with the Constitution while the citizens of said state continue to vote
those people into office? I’ve never seen anybody arrested for Treason for
ignoring the Constitution, but I would like to!”
The president can send in federal troops, like Ike did to force school integration.
Federal judges can appoint a “special master” to administer the law in certain areas, such as happened several times with school busing.
The federal government can pass laws that withhold funding unless the state does what the federal government wants.
So, the catch 22 is if you “legally” register you’re firearms and play by the good citizen rules your subject to a search because the state does not recognize your states issuance of said permit. I do have to pay attention to doing 72 in a 55 mph zone (foolish driving) in another state . I have traveled that corridor many times and never had to deal with any cops ...but I have always believed that registering your guns is foolish, remember what the authorities did to legal gun owners after Katrina...blatant confiscation of legally registered guns. The purpose of owning a handgun is personal protection of life and property when threatened ...well protect yourself and resolve the situation entirely and involve no one and move on. The fact is that criminals now are protected more by the “legal” system than the citizen that funds and abides by the multiple scattered laws....it truly is a free for all with law abiding citizens being undermined with the very laws they usually obey.
I try to inform my friends and family of exactly what you posted...and the majority of them look at me like I have two heads. The less information the government has about you the better your life will be. I know a guy who has had .45’s ever since he left the Army ...he has never registered them and he bought them from a private party,he points out what happened in the aftermath of Katrina and the confiscation of registered firearms his main reason. I have a lot in common with the guy I know.
I hate that rotgut state. $8.00 rip off toll on the I_95 plus one time I exited and threw change in the toll bin. The light never turned green so off I went. They gave me a nice little fine by mail. Also a cop got me at a speed trap going over 10mph the limit. I asked the cop for leniency since I was running late to make a flight. No dice-— another little extortion fee fine. Flux Mal-land.
But an internal police review concluded his stop and search were lawful and did not violate police protocols.
*************************
This is the reason why police get shot... in general cops are not heroes, they are merely instruments of aggression of the state against the people. This man likely had a “NRA” or similar bumper sticker on his car. In America Andy Griffith is no longer with us ,, the Sheriff of Nottingham is.
Who did you hear that from?
***************
I’ve been told the same from FL cops.
>>In the article the cop spokesman claims the MDTA does not have access to those data bases threw their plate scanner. That of course does not mean they do not have that information available by other means.
Quite often, those other means are bumper stickers.
Yes, that is true. Also, here in Georgia you are not legally required to inform an officer who stops your vehicle that you are a Georgia Weapons Carry Licensee.
Georgia HB60 prohibits an officer from asking this without valid articular suspicion. It further prohibits the formation and use of any multi-county GWCL data in these instances. The instructor that taught my wife and daughter (a former LEO here in GA) told them if they are ever asked if they have a weapon in the car (if they have a GWCL) is to say “none that you should be concerned with.”
Georgia gun laws are generally 2A friendly, but the one biggie I don’t like is you cannot open carry a handgun without a GWCL.
For those who are not familiar with just how shockingly unconstitutional Maryland’s gun laws are:
https://www.mdsp.org/FAQs.aspx
“How can I legally transport firearms within / through Maryland? Answer: They must be unloaded, in a carrying case, holster with a flap and the ammunition should be separate. It would be best to keep the unloaded weapon in the trunk where you do not have access to it. There are further regulations but essentially you can only transport a handgun between residence, to and from a repair shop, a shooting sporting event, between a residence and place of business if substantially owned and operated by the person.”
This People’s Republic is not in any way part of the United States or any other free country.
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