Source.
CLEVELAND, Ohio— A community activist sued Cleveland and police officials on Monday, saying officers wrongfully arrested him for openly carrying a shotgun and a handgun in the city’s Glenville neighborhood, which is legal under Ohio law.
Antoine Tolbert’s federal lawsuit said Cleveland police Sgt. Lance Henderson knew Tolbert wasn’t breaking any laws, yet he still ordered Tolbert’s arrest. A Cuyahoga County grand jury later rejected charges in the case.
Tolbert is the president of New Era Cleveland, a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing resources to communities and conducting safety patrols with trained and armed citizens.
Tolbert has in the past spoken to Cleveland police recruits about how to have proper interactions with residents.
After a spate of gun violence in Cleveland on May 23, including the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old girl who was lying in her bed in Glenville and a quintuple shooting at a memorial service in Collinwood, Tolbert set out to conduct a community safety patrol.
He hoped to establish his organization’s presence in the community to deter future violence, the lawsuit said. Tolbert carried a 12-gauge shotgun and a handgun.
Officers arrived and questioned Tolbert about the guns. Tolbert said it was his right to do so. The officers said he was not under arrest and acknowledged the state’s law that allows people to carry guns openly.
Tolbert walked away before Henderson arrived. The sergeant told officers Tolbert couldn’t walk down the street with a gun.
Officers again drove up and surrounded Tolbert. Henderson got out of his cruiser with his gun drawn and pointed at Tolbert. He ordered Tolbert to put his guns on the ground, according to the lawsuit and body camera footage of the incident.
Tolbert asked why he was being detained and told Henderson he wasn’t breaking any laws.
Henderson, according to the lawsuit and the body camera video of the incident, said “You can’t walk down the street with a gun in your hand…I’m not going to allow you to do it.”
Henderson ordered the officers to arrest Tolbert on charges of carrying a concealed weapon. The officers initially laughed, and Henderson later said to arrest Tolbert on a charge of improperly handling a firearm. That charge only applies to the requirements of transporting a gun in a car.
The officers arrested Tolbert, who spent 36 hours in jail before he was released without formal charges.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors later presented the case to a grand jury, which declined to indict Tolbert on a single count of carrying a concealed weapon.
There are so many failures here that it’s difficult to know where to begin. First, the officers stopped him. They had no right – Ohio is an open carry state.
Next, the idiot sergeant came along and the other officer showed unthinking obedience towards him, failing to clarify to their management that he couldn’t be stopped because he wasn’t violating any laws.
Next up, they laughed when the idea of a false charge was floated.
Then to top it all off, the idiot sergeant told him he could do what he was doing because … wait for it … “I’m not going to allow you to do it.” As if he can just make up law out of whole cloth because he feels like it.
I hope he gets the entire lot of them fired. They’re worthless.