You try to tell the police, but they interrupt you? What do you do in a situation being verbally abused like that? I think the guy did very well keeping his composure during the officer's tirade. I hope I am never in this situation. Very scary stuff.
I'm thankful for all of our good officers out there and I hope you good ones would have the courage to call this guy down on a traffic stop.
I'm thankful for all of our good officers out there and I hope you good ones would have the courage to call this guy down on a traffic stop.
http://reason.com/blog/2011/07/22/i-should-blast-you-in-the-mout
A reader points out a police dashboard video posted by Ohioans for Concealed Carry that vividly illustrates some of the problems with the state's requirement that people with carry permits "promptly" announce that they have a weapon if they are stopped by a cop. In this case, two officers in Canton pull up behind a car to investigate what they think is solicitation of a prostitute. The driver, William E. Bartlett, repeatedly attempts to notify them that he is legally carrying a handgun, holding out his permit for them to see, and he is repeatedly silenced or interrupted. When Bartlett finally is able to say "I have a CCW," the officer near him, Patrolman Daniel Harless, panics, grabs the gun, and goes off on an extended, adrenaline-fueled, profanity-filled tirade that must be heard to be believed, telling the disarmed, handcuffed man that his failure to promptly report the gun shows he is too stupid and irresponsible to have a CCW permit and would have justified a swiftly administered death penalty:
I should blast you in the mouth right now....I'm close to caving in your head....I tell you what I should have done. As soon as I saw your gun, I should have taken two steps back, pulled my Glock 40, and just put 10 bullets in your ass and let you drop. And I wouldn't have lost any sleep. Do you understand me? He [his partner] would have been a nice witness as I executed you because you're stupid.
In the most comical moment, Harless expresses doubt that Bartlett, who has been holding out his CCW permit for the officers to see since he was stopped, has a permit at all. He goes scrounging through Bartlett's personal effects and car, looking for the permit, which Bartlett is still holding in his hand as he sits handcuffed in the police cruiser.
According to an update added today, "Canton Police announced Thursday that the officer was relieved of all duties in June following an internal investigation complaint filed in this matter." Even if we assume/pray that Harless is unusually hotheaded, the encounter, which occurred on June 8, shows how difficult it can be to comply with the CCW notification requirement, which is in any event open to interpretation. (How prompt is "prompt"?) Ohioans for Concealed Carry argues that the rule, violation of which can result in arrest and loss of the permit, "has substantial 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment problems."
Since 2000, The Canton Repository reports, the police department's internal affairs unit has investigated 16 complaints against Harless, a former Marine and Ohio native who came to Canton in 1996 after working as a police officer in Virginia for four years. "Obviously," says Bill Adams, president of the Canton Police Patrolmen's Association, "whatever transpired on that video is an isolated incident."
http://ohioccw.org/201107214955/cantonpd.html
Shortly after HB12 became law in 2004, Ohioans for Concealed Carry began to hear horror stories about the way law enforcement had reacted during traffic stops. Motorcyclists were told to conceal their guns instead of carrying them openly (motorcycle open-carry then was required by law). Computers in some police departments generated a felony warrant indicator when processing a license plate linked to a Concealed Handgun License. This caused multiple police vehicles to converge on a licensee in order to perform a felony traffic stop.
Those days, for the most part, are behind us. They've been replaced with occasional stories of rogue cops who have abused the concealed carry law in one way or another. In 2006, Daniel Sayers was filling his gas tank and washing his windows at a gas station when someone called the police to report a "man with a gun" leaving the station. After minutes of dash camera footage showing a police cruiser hurtling through side streets and breakneck speeds, we watched as Sayers promptly pulled over thinking the cruiser was trying to pass him. Within seconds Sayers had an AR-15 pointed at him, accompanied by officers ordering him out of the car, despite a malfunction in his car windows and doors.
Police continually screamed orders at him. Sayers was eventually pulled from the car, handcuffed, and placed in the back of the cruiser. Later, he was charged with failure to inform police that he was armed and had a concealed handgun license. The fact is, Sayers was unable to notify.
The same events played out in Beachwood, Ohio when OFCC member Bryan Ledford was approached by an officer pointing a taser at him and ordering him to exit his vehicle. Every attempt Ledford made to communicate with the officer was met with a refusal to acknowledge Ledford's attempts to inform the officers of his handgun license. In Ledford's case, officers spent 30 minutes rummaging through his vehicle, without a warrant, looking for something with which to charge him, until it finally hit them: Charge him with failure to inform. They went to court insisting that 53 seconds had transpired between the time they engaged Ledford and the time he informed them, and that somehow this time frame justified arresting Ledford, putting him into jail, and charging him with a misdemeanor.
But none of this compares to the atrocity that took place on June 8, 2011 to a man named William who had obtained his concealed handgun license approximately one month earlier. Early that Wednesday morning, William pulled his car to the side of the road to let out two passengers, but only the female occupant managed to exit before the police pulled up and began screaming at all three parties. "Stay in that car, I'm not going to mess around," screamed one of the officers at the two people attempting to exit the vehicle. The driver and concealed handgun licensee, William, remained seated in his vehicle when an officer entered the rear of the vehicle.
William stated, "I have a concealed carry, and..." when he was abruptly told to shut up. Dash camera video footage shows the driver turning his head, and his voice can be heard, but the words are inaudible. A few minutes passed while the officer continued to berate the two passengers. He proceeded to the driver's side and tries to open the door but is delayed by a seat belt. ...people like you don't deserve to @#$%#$ move throughout public. Period!... William states "I have a conceal..." and the officer demands that he better tell the truth or else! This interruption causes William to "tell the truth" and his attempt to notify is interrupted. William exited the vehicle with his driver's license in the same hand as his concealed handgun license. He held it up for the officer to see, and the officer said, "Why are you having that?" This gave William the opportunity to say, "I have a CCW, and..." The officer then said, "Do you have a gun?" William answered yes, causing the officer to grab it from William's waist.
At this point, William was handcuffed and put into the police cruiser. The officer then started to berate William, stating: "I should blast you in the mouth right now ... I'm close to caving in your head." and "you're just a stupid human being!"
The remainder of the threats, including executing the licensee for "being stupid" must be seen in the video to be believed
Last edited by a moderator: