Posted on 08/10/2013 7:15:45 PM PDT by marktwain
With a .45 caliber legally strapped to his side, Jordan McManus decided to photograph the federal courthouse in Phoenix last night, realizing he would probably draw attention from police, especially after reading about Raymond Michaels experience last May.
But he was still a little surprised when a police helicopter hovered over him with a spotlight as two patrol cars pulled up next to him and another two cops approached him on foot.
They immediately tried to disarm him, but he refused to let them do it as it is legal to open carry in Arizona.
Then they tried to pat him down, which didnt make sense considering he was already showing a firearm. But he wouldnt let them do that either.
Youre carrying a firearm and taking a picture of a federal building, the cop exclaimed, trying to justify the pat down.
Then they demanded to know who he was, but didnt get anywhere with that either.
Here is a portion of the exchange:
Am I being detained right now? McManus asks.
Absolutely you are, yes, the cop responds.
You have reasonable suspicion that I committed a crime, right?
Well, Im concerned
Youre concerned. Are you detaining me?
I am, he says weakly.
Under the suspicion that I committed what crime?
I dont know yet. Youre not giving us any information.
And there you have the reason why police are always demanding to see peoples identification even though the people are not breaking the law. It gives them a hope that if they run your name through their system, they will find a bench warrant and have an excuse to arrest you.
(Excerpt) Read more at photographyisnotacrime.com ...
Well, thanks a lot. Now there are 10 cops knocking on my door, wanting to know why I’m looking at a picture of the courthouse...... :-)
But I just put my dog in the basement. So I think I’ll be OK.
That poster has become *Awesome*.
It is so spot on, I can almost see it being quoted and admired on DU.
How could any agent of Obama or Holder have anything but respect for you!!
by helicopter.
“Have we ever actually caught a terrorist taking pictures while openly carrying a handgun?”
Actually, they caught two ragheads taking pics of bridges in New York. Had to let them go as didn’t catch them in the act, but you know they were up to no good. And there were other ragheads, I think it was out west somewhere, taking pics of dams and another one of nuke facilities, and here in Chicago, some Muzzies were taking suspicious pics of the Sears Tower. And you are intentionally missing the point. This guy was setting up the cops equally intentionally. And bringing them out for suspicious behavior (I assume someone called in on him, unless a squad car came by) took these cops, plus an expensive to fly helicopter out while another actual crime could have been happening on the other side of town while manpower was being wasted on this idiot. Keep trying to justify it you guys. You can’t, but just to make as equally a stupid point as this guy was making, you will continue on.
Am I the only one who can’t load the video, or the entire website? I only get a half of a picture at the top of my screen.
It’s a good thing he didn’t bring his dog with him.
It worked for me, but it took a while to load.
Thank you — very much.
It is so spot on, I can almost see it being quoted and admired on DU.
LOL - I would get a kick seeing that. Hell, I'd probably laugh until my sides hurt and/or I peed myself.
;)
How could any agent of Obama or Holder have anything but respect for you!!
That's right, because they're not The Government, they're Our Government!
“Right; for information on how to properly interact with government agents, try this brochure I made:
Stop, Drop, and Cower
[Direct Link]”
Not interested in interacing with gov’t agents. I think you need to take the tinfoil hat off and get a life.
Read and heed your own tag line, lady or are you just a slogan spouting Troll?
No they didn't!
How dare you question the nobility, integrity, and righteousness of our policemen!
I think you need to:
Stop, Drop, and Cower
[Direct Link]
Thanks
IMO, it's time we really work overtime to desensitize to Open Carry.
Guerrilla civil-war will be much, much easier if we can hide in plain sight with weapons.
“Not interested in interacing with govt agents. I think you need to take the tinfoil hat off and get a life.”
The problem is, sometimes they are interested in interacting with *you*, and there is not much you can do about it.
Heard the latest about the IRS and conservative groups :-)
How about the NSA and phone calls.... ;-)
interacing = interacting above. Typo.
Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse at night...All lit up so the bad guys can't see it.
No expense is too much for the feds when their using your money.
There are several thousand more pics available of this small modest courthouse, on the Internet.
Thank you for the laugh.
That was the point, it would be hard to miss — if you think the cops are overstepping, you test it by committing legal acts and standing up to them when they try to stop you.
Once we were handing out republican literature at an annual meeting of an electric cooperative. The police came to stop us. We had to speak quite some time to convince them that while the meeting was “private”, the sidewalk in front of the public building could not be “reserved” and therefore was available for literature and protest.
We can of course just stop doing anything that police don’t want us to do. But police don’t make the laws, they enforce them. There is no law against standing on a public sidewalk and taking a picture of a public building. The only reason he could “bait” the police is because the police decided it was suspicious.
And while a vast majority of terrorists have been muslim, a vast majority of muslims are not terrorists. And surprisingly to some, muslims do some things “normal” people do, like sightseeing. Until we get that whole “precog” thing working, we will be stuck with mere speculation that people are “up to no good”. And either sadly or thankfully, we don’t let police decide who is “up to no good” based on their speculation.
And that means that terrorists will get away with some terrorism, and that is the price we pay for not getting locked up for legal activity. A police state can be a safe place. It just isn’t a place I want to live.
“The problem is, sometimes they are interested in interacting with *you*, and there is not much you can do about it.”
Not this time, Charlie Brown, not this time. And heaven help you if someday you need the help of a cop or they get your *ss out of the wringer. I personally would leave your *ss in the wringer, just for chuckles and to make a meaningless point.
What happened to being ecologically friendly?
And I can’t imagine why a terrorist would ever bother taking pictures of a building. It would be useless, and almost every building worth attacking has, as you show, thousands of pictures.
If you were looking to attack something, you’d be taking pictures of the surroundings, of hidden alleys, of stuff that would be useful for attacking. holes in fences, places where the lights are blocked by obstacles, etc.
The 9/11 terrorists didn’t have to take pictures of the World Trade Center before the flew planes into them.
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