Posted on 01/21/2012 5:36:19 AM PST by marktwain
This summer a man was arrested, threatened with execution while handcuffed in the back of a cruiser, and then forced to deal with the real life tragedy of having to go through a criminal trial for something he shouldn't have been charged with in the first place.
William Bartlett spent the next four months of his life having a prosecutor dangle sweetheart deals in front of him that always came with a catch: Plea to this and we'll drop the more serious charges. Sign a waiver that releases the city from any culpability or legal liability and we'll make this go away.
Bartlett stood his ground and refused. Ohioans For Concealed Carry became involved and learned that there was dash camera footage that was horrific to say the least. If you've never seen that video stop reading this right now and see what happened that night.
That video became internationally viral. Every major news station in the Cleveland market ran pieces of our edited video and the pressure on Canton was substantial. As the days went on other "victims" of the officer came out and the news media started requesting back dated copies of dash camera footage, eventually leading to a disciplinary hearing and the subsequent firing of Officer Daniel Harless.
Canton Municipal Court Judge Stephen Belden dismissed the charged against Bartlett shortly after the prosecution had rested it's case and the defense made a motion to dismiss. Sadly, the news media simply never covered how this could have been prevented.
Ohio Law requires that a person who is lawfully armed and carrying a concealed handgun must "promptly" inform a police officer upon their approach. Failure to comply with this law is a crime, but the law makes no effort to define what "promptly" is. In fact, Beachwood police arrested a man because he was unable to interrupt the officer and convey that he was armed in under fifty five seconds. The fact that both of these men were making a concerted effort to notify and hide absolutely nothing was irrelevant until they went to court. Both cases were prosecuted, and both were defended by the same attorney Timothy Bellew, Esq.
This is one of many knee jerk changes to Ohio's concealed carry law that were adopted to get parties on board to pass it almost a decade ago. The concept is that by forcing a good person to tell a police officer that they're armed somehow improved officer safety, but the reality is that this is absurd. Police officers are trained to assume everyone is armed. Telling the "good guys" to openly admit that they're armed is foolish because we know a bad person won't admit they're armed, and in a worst case scenario officers could become lax in their awareness.
In fact, by passing a law that says you must notify the police we've created a staggering amount of police officers who believe you must notify the police that you're a concealed handgun licensee - even if you're not in possession of a firearm at the time that they interact with you.
What this bill does is simple: # It eliminates a criminal charge ripe for abuse where the officer has discretion in determining if you met his or her definition of the term "promptly" that particular day. # It removes the statutory obligation to notify at any time, as well as a criminal penalty. # It removed the "hands in plain sight" requirements since a police officer could simply say your hands were not visible, which results in the same criminal charges.
In our country we presume that you have the right to remain silent and the right to not incriminate yourself. Ohio's concealed carry law mandates that you must verbally state something unlike any other law. If MADD proposed that everyone must tell a police officer just how many drinks they've had "promptly" the ACLU would be up in arms -- yet we accept this with being armed under the guise of officer safety.
Under the current law in Ohio if you're pulled over and state "Officer I am licensed and I have a firearm" and later realize you left your wallet at home you've just admitted to a crime. If you realize you forgot your wallet and choose not to say that you're armed, you've committed a crime with a similar penalty. This clearly is a fifth amendment violation.
What this bill does not do: # It does not prohibit or prevent an officer from asking anyone if they're armed or have firearms in the vehicle. # It does not preclude an armed individual from the obligation to answer police officer questions truthfully (or choose to remain silent) # It does not preclude the occupant of a vehicle from having to obey lawful police orders such as "keep your hands where I can see them" # It does not prohibit a concealed handgun licensee to say, at any time they wish, that there is a firearm in their vehicle or on their person.
HOW YOU COME IN: Representative Ron Maag has taken over the job of spear heading our legislation in the Ohio House and has set a deadline for co-sponsors to join this bill for THIS FRIDAY at the end of the business day.
You need to immediately call your Representatives and politely ask them to become co-sponsors of Representative Maag's Law Enforcement Notification Reform Bill before the end of Friday.
Since many law makers leave Columbus on Thursday after their committments are met and return to their districts its important that you make this call right now and leave a message on their voicemail if you must.
Follow these simple steps:
1. Go to http://legislature.state.oh.us 2. On the right under "Locating Legislators" choose Zip code and enter your zip. 3. dentify Your Represenative and their phone number (do not email them!)
Determine if your Representative has already committed to co-sponsor this legislation:
If your representative is Blair, Boose, John Adams, Johnson, Uecker, Watchmann only THANK them for their support, they've already committed to co-sponsor this bill.
For any other represenative call (do not email) their published office phone number right now, and:
* If you reach them off hours leave a polite voicemail indicating who you are, that you're a constituent, and that you are asking Representative XYZ to co-sponsor Representative Maag's Law Enforcement Notification Reform Bill before the end of Friday. Tell them that OFCC has written a story on it's website OhioCCW.org explaining the purpose of the legislation.
* If you reach a person politely introduce yourself and ask if you may speak to Representative XYZ about a piece of legislation you would like them to co-sponsor before Friday. Some offices and some legislative aides will allow you to speak to the representative directly, others may ask if they can take a message. Do not hang up without expressing what you want your representative to do, and then if you get a call back explain why you want your representative to co-sponsor this bill.
Tell them that OFCC has written a story on it's website OhioCCW.org explaining the purpose of the legislation.
Remember - You might be the only person who reads this alert and makes a call to the representative in your specific district, so its imperative that everyone reading this do this. Do not assume someone else is calling and you'll be fine, PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL.
Remember - Ohioans For Concealed Carry is funded by the dollars and donations of people like you. We are an entirely volunteer work force and we have expenses to run the organization. Tax return time is upon us and some of our more fortunate supporters are likely expecting sizable returns.
Please consider a donation to Ohioans For Concealed Carry Here On Our Website
I remember that video of that complete jerkoff Canton cop. I felt like driving up there and beating his nazi azz into the ground.
What a stupid law that is.
If William Bartlett is smart (which he has patently proven he is not), he’ll quietly get himself a job at WalMart and keep his big mouth shut about this whole sordid episode. If he does not, I predict he’s going to find himself in a very bad way — sooner or later.
Jus’ toooo much lawing going on.
One of many examples were a law abiding citizen can run afoul of the law because of a huge gray area in the law that can be interpreted in many ways.
Ohio and Missouri were two states where Concealed Carry legislation was passed, but only after compromises had to be made.
Here in the Missouri even after the compromises in the CC legislation the governor vetoed it. In 2003 there were enough votes in the legislature to override the veto.
8 years later some common sense changes have taken place, yet more are needed. It is still a long slow battle in Missouri.
I now have first hand knowledge that in the cities Anderson and Greenwood, it is "policy" that an officer, after having been notified of a legally carried concealed firearm by a permit holder, take temporary possession of the firearm and run the serial numbers through a data base. (Supposedly to check if the weapon is stolen).
To me, this is "back door" registration. Once they have the record of "contact" with you, and they have your make, model, and serial number of whatever weapon you happen to be carrying that day, there is a data base SOMEWHERE that the particular weapon belongs to you.
What if an officer comes to the door, and asks if there are any weapons in the house... are they going to "run the numbers" on those as well? It sure would make confiscation a lot simpler, wouldn't it?
Unfortunately, I have lost all confidence in our Governor. I doubt she would sign any legislation protecting gun owners.
Canton’s Psycho Cop helped the cause for reform by his actions that were caught on tape by the camera in his police car.
... must “promptly” inform a police officer upon their approach.
In our class for CC we were instructed that if we were stopped in our vehicle by a police officer to have our driver’s & CC licenses ready in our hand on the steering wheel. (TX)
What do you mean?
There is at least one data base of ammunition purchased from a retail store.
I walked into a Cabelas store and purchased one box of Remington rifle ammunition. I paid for it using my Cabela's Club Visa card.
3 months later I received an email from Cabelas asking me to write a Customer Review about the ammo. To say the least I was surprised!.
I use customer reviews before purchasing a wide verity of products, but 1 box of plain jane Remington ammo? I checked their web site and there were approximately 100 customer reviews already posted there for this brand and type of ammo.
Since they already had me in their system I thought I would play the game and see what happens. I wrote a generic review emailed it to them and in 3 days it was published under Customer Reviews.
Cabelas uses this information as a sales tool, but the information about my purchase had been stored in a data base SOMEWHERE !
Us, too - and our instructor told us never to hand the weapon to the officer because his partner behind the car can’t tell that we’re doing it in response to a request. We’re supposed to say, “no, but I will get out of the vehicle and you can retrieve it yourself”. Not a great response, but understandable.
For me, the most surprising aspect of this whole episode is that the dashcam was working and that the video was not *accidentally* erased.
Here in Missouri I think the law says "it must be handed to the officer if he/she asks for it".
Of course "what I think" would not hold much weight with a judge. It is time for me to recheck that part of the law.
“Jus’ toooo much lawing going on.”
Don’t forget that a number of lawyers made a fair chunk of change out of this deal. Just the way the lawyers who wrote this law intended from the start.
I have no idea under what legal theory the cops in those towns are operating under when they think, as a matter of policy, that they can seize your legal property to run it. I suspect their legal theory is do what you think you can get away with until you are called on it.
As for a data base, I know that when I was on the job, that sort of transaction(running numbers)was not collected, saved, etc beyond what was on the radio transmission tape which was erased after x amount of days. I retired over 6 yeras ago so I have no idea what civil liberty curtailment strides they’ve made since then.
I live by a simple rule. I avoid all cops, trust none and have nothing to do with any of them. At best, they will be neutral. They are definitely not my friends.
In my agency, the tapes were in a locked steel box in the trunk. The patrolman didn’t have a key. His supervisor did.
My point, exactly...although it's possible in this case, this guy was a real PITA, and his supervisor put the video online...
That’s good to know, I’ll remember that (hope I’m never stopped though).
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