OUDaily:
I am a retired police officer. I’m also a gun owner, but I am weary of the “guns-solve-everything” mentality. I’m tired of the proliferation of open carry proposals that increase the visibility of firearms in public places — particularly in schools, colleges and universities. I am not convinced more firearms on campus will deter or stop active shooters.
Frankly, people who openly carry sometimes make me nervous. Some of them seem smug, over confident, even demonstrative — wanting people to notice they are indeed carrying a loaded weapon. It is a political statement, a warning and a boast. I watch them strutting into stores, sitting in restaurants and walking down the street fairly oblivious to the burden of carrying a firearm in full view.
Except for him. You see, he isn’t tired of LEOs carrying guns, just you. And by God, make sure that no one sees that you’re carrying. He is a LEO, just like you, only better. Only he can be seen carrying a gun.
As for the part about making a political statement, I’ve never done any such thing (not that it would necessarily be a bad thing to make a statement), and only open carry when it’s hot and I sweat my weapon when I carry IWB. Here in North Carolina – a traditional open carry state – I’ve never had a problem with LEOs giving me a hassle about open carry. And blood doesn’t run in the streets around here, and women and children don’t run down the road screaming.
But apparently it’s even worse in Connecticut.
In an effort to cover up their unconstitutional actions, Connecticut State Police made up charges against a young open carry activist last year.
The state eventually dismissed all charges when they heard Michael Picard’s recording of cops plotting to trump up charges against him to “cover our ass.”
Now Picard is suing Connecticut State Police with the help of the ACLU for trumping up fabricated charges against him as well as violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.
The September 2015 incident was all caught on video after State Troopers John Barone, Patrick Torneo, and John Jacobi illegally seized Picard’s camera and inadvertently left it on, all while their illegal actions were plotted. The video can be seen at the bottom of the page.
“Let’s give him something. We can hit him with creating a public disturbance. We gotta cover our ass,” Barone was recorded as saying.
Picard was in West Hartford protesting a DUI checkpoint by holding a big sign that alerted drivers. After an hour of protesting, police approached Picard and knocked the camera out of his hand, noting that Picard didn’t have a First Amendment right to record the trooper.
It was then that the troopers illegally search Picard and discovered he was open carrying a gun, which is legal in Connecticut. The troopers confiscated the camera along with the gun to run a permit check, only to find out that Picard’s gun permit is valid, all while violating the young man’s Fourth Amendment right to protection against illegal search and seizure.
“Oh crap we gotta punch a number on this guy,” a trooper can be heard saying.
“What we say is that multiple motorists stopped to complain about a guy waving a gun around, but none of them wanted to stop and make a statement.”
But then one of the troopers noticed that Picard’s camera was still on.
“Oh shit!! I think the camera is on, it says it is still recording.”
There you go. It’s that pesky constitution thing again. If LEOs just didn’t have to mess around with things like law and rights everyone would be safer.
Connecticut. Oh yea, that’s the home of communist and traitor Barbara Bellis. I’m kind of getting bad vibes about that place.