There's a disturbing, infuriating story in the Daily News about open carriers--or more accurately, about comments East Palo Alto police detective Rod Tuason allegedly made about them on his Facebook page:
"Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!"
Tuason even took the opportunity to ridicule the fact that "law-abiding" gun owners can't get concealed carry permits. From the screenshot on the "Oaklander" blog":
Haha that's when you attend one of their meetings and laugh at them cuz they can only dream to have a ccw...
We've seen the "Only One" attitude at its most ridiculous--I developed the meme in response to DEA agent Lee Paige: "I'm the only one in this room professional enough that I know of to carry this Glock .40," he told a roomful of school kids in an anti-gun/drug lecture, then proceeded to shoot himself in the foot trying to holster the weapon.
Now we see it manifest itself in police state elitism that's chilling--particularly the implication that a citizen breaking no laws can be murdered and the state perpetrator will be rewarded with paid time off. And the rest, who are intimidated into defenselessness, are to be laughed at and held in contempt by armed enforcers.
A poster claiming to be Tuason and using the screen name ".45shooter" is a regular at the CalGuns forum. He claims to be pro-gun and says he "should have chosen [his] words better...".
Yeah, no kidding, genius. I don't buy that he didn't let slip a state of mind that has been developed over years in an environment fostering the "us vs. them" divide." So much for "securing the blessings of Liberty".
I understand that many police work under conditions where wanting to go home at the end of their shift can be a real concern. I and my fellow gun owners would like to go home at the end of your shift too, fellas. And our lives are worth a hell of a lot more to ourselves, our families and our children than two weeks leave for you, followed by the standard declaration that official protocols were followed.
Nice job, detective. More of us than you know are disgusted and angered instead of cowed by your words.
So thanks for the "2 weeks off!!!" slogan. What a useful tool for refuting the myth that creatures like you are the "only ones" we can trust with guns.
UPDATE: Dave Workman weighs in.
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Bucking the Bradys in the Cowboy State
Cheyenne Gun Rights Examiner Anthony Bouchard updates his earlier piece about a Starbucks manager in Casper refusing service to open carriers:
A Starbucks Representative contacted me and said "there has not been any policy change and Starbucks follows the laws of the state and municipalities they are located in"
Click here to read more.
Bouchard also writes about a Firearms Freedom Act with teeth as an alternative to one without. He tells me in correspondence:
I have edited the article and included the assigned bill number and link, so it is official. They have already assigned the Miller bill to a committee so we are waiting to see what they do with ours.
Stay tuned.
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Speaking of Starbucks...
I'll be talking about that story and more with host James B. Towle today on Trigger Sports Live!
The program starts at noon PST, and my segment has typically been starting around 20 after, but as always, I encourage you to watch the whole show.
Click here to do just that.
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"No Sheriff Left Behind" tour update
Today's story shows the critical need for peace officers who understand the Constitution. Sheriff Richard Mack is someone who knows first-hand.
I talked about his Ohio tour the other day. I've since learned that Dayton will be replaced by Cincinnati. Here's an update from Ohio Liberty Council:
1. Tuesday, March 9 – Findlay, OH – sponsored by The Findlay 912 Project
2. Wednesday, March 10 – Columbus, OH – sponsored by Buckeye Firearms Foundation
3. Thursday, March 11 – Cincinnati, OH – sponsored by the Cincinnati 912 Project
4. Friday, March 12 – Marietta, OH – sponsored by The Marietta OH 9-12 Project
5. Saturday, March 13 – Akron, OH – sponsored by The Ohio Second Amendment Group
Click here to read more. I'll put out occasional updates as the time approaches.
For now I want to add that it's great seeing groups working together. My contact from the Ohio Second Amendment Group was concerned with my last announcement because she wanted to make sure all the appropriate people working hard to bring us this tour received credit. Those of us who have been involved in activism for some time have seen the alternative, where some groups want to hog all the credit for themselves. When you see folks concerned with sharing, it's a real indicator you're dealing with good people.
Comments
Tuason needs to find a new line of work.
The cop should recieve his two weeks off WITHOUT pay for his comments. His attitude is an insult to every citizen that helps pay taxes that make up his paycheck. We seem to hold everyone else responsible for their ill-chosen words so why not this cop? Even chilren have to pay the price so this cop should be no different under zero tolerance. The San Francisco Bay area has had a rash of police instigated.assaults/killings recently and one trial was moved to Los Angeles because the defense seemed to imply they could not find 12 people in Okaland/bay area who might let the BART officer charged with murder off. I cannot believe a DEA took a loaded firearm into a classroom either. There is clear and obvious disregard for human life being put on diplay by men charged with protecting us and that tells us the worng people are in charge of hiring police. No one wwnats a coward for a cop but we do not want one that kills the citizens they are charged with protecting with impunity either.
Calguns.net should be informed of this issue with this detective because he is definitely not the type of person we want among us with that kind of attitude towards others. He has the right to free speech but he also has a responsibility to project a responsible and positive image as a cop at all times.
Police are not responsible for protecting us.-U.S. Supreme Court. In order to do that, they would need to follow us around all day with a gun at ready. Police are used to find, arrest, and seek information "after" the commission of a crime.
I just read that article and am as infuriated as I am glad that I don’t live in that liberal petri dish of failure that we call California. I found it hilarious that the police chief, or whoever commented on this officer’s behalf, said that he didn’t want to infringe on the officers 1st amendment rights, because it was his private Facebook blog. While he obviously represented the Palo Alto police in discussing how they plan to infringe on the locals 2nd amendment rights. I think this guy is an idiot and should watch his back. His ‘tin’ badge doesn’t mean anything if he’s ever faced with someone who has a loaded weapon on them. That piece of ‘tin’ wont make him any faster on the draw, and if he isn’t he’ll have a lot more then 2 weeks off!
Sounds like too much Choir Practice. Probably was singing some hymn at the very moment he was typing. Make that one a double, Barkeep.
Where's that brotherhood when you need it?
No surprise this garbage is coming from Palo Alto, who's sister city Berkeley called U.S. Marine recruiters "uninvited and unwanted intruders" two years ago. The San Fransisco area, and California in general, produces more than it's fair share of garbage i.e. Pelosi and rabid gun grabbers. Is there any wonder why California is so completely socially and fiscally dysfunctional?
California is currently releasing 40,000 inmates from prison due to over crowding and police are ridiculing gun owners who only want their Constitutional rights to be left alone.
News flash Mr. Teflon officer, before the inmates target disarmed Californians, they'll probably want some pay back from the people who put them behind bars in the first place.
I don't need cops and neither does anyone else. Let's make these vermin get *honest* jobs.
""The reason people are open carrying is because in San Mateo County they're unable to get concealed carry permits," Hudson said. "This East Palo Alto policeman basically said he would shoot you in the back — a law abiding citizen exercising their Second Amendment rights. ... You're going to invite law enforcement into your life when you open carry. That's why I don't do it.""
I do believe this whole attitude is quite designed to have a chilling effect on the free exercise of the 2nd Amendment. Perhaps those who advocate for the detective's 1st Amendment rights (as well as the detective himself) should feel that chilling effect upon the rights they want to so freely exercise as well. We can begin at the most basic right.
If I was an AG I would push to remove him from the force. He has fully compromised himself and the integrity of his unit. How can any Prosecutor convict anyone with his integrity, values, and honor so compromised?
I would then force him to 320hrs of community service; instructing citizens on the proper and legal manner in which they can carry their firearms. I would partner him with an ACLU or 2A lawyer who would go on to instruct the class on how to conduct themselves when dealing with a 'peace officer' and carrying protection.
Who has seen flexyourrights.org videos? Who can produce an instructional video like these for owners of personal protection devices? I just sent an email to Steve at flexyourrights.org/about/contact to inquire if someone is intending on producing a video and letting him know that 200M firearm owners are potential customers.
Who do you know that could help put together a training video that makes it easy to digest the majority of key advice?
It's not just the civilians in the sights of these uniformed buffoons. A while back a uniformed NYC cop shot dead a black man in civilian clothes he saw running down the street with a drawn weapon. It turned out the man he shot was the undercover cop who had made the backup request the uniform was responding to. NYPD "solved" the problem by requiring their personnel attend "sensitivity" training to underscore that a black man with a gun might not be a criminal.
I can't believe that you mentioned the ACLU. They are responsible for us losing our liberties more than any other single group, except our politicians.
This officer is simply murderous hearted scum. His only downside from his department will be for telling the secret.
He is reminiscent of the TonTon Macoute of Haiti. All he needs is a strongman to back him, as law and justice mean nothing.
I am numb with rage. However, this A#$hole's views are no different from 99% of cops on the street. They feel that they are gods answerable to no one. I grew up respecting the police however the older I get I realize that they are the greatest threat to freedom this country has ever faced. They have become "opinion enforcement" officers....judge, jury and executioner. Cops lie on the stand and judges never question them because they work for the same team.
Where are Tuason's brothers in blue? Let me hear you defend his worthless As$ I don't want to hear what wonderful public servants these creatures are. This country would be much safer without these thugs terrorizing everyone. I have many close family members who are cops and they are some of the stupidest, most violent and most arrogant people imaginable. They are looking for a reason to kill someone and they know their superiors and brothers in blue will defend them. Revolutions have been fought over far less.
Det. Tuason needs to be ordered not to carry a weapon nor drive a department vehicle pending a disciplinary hearing. He has revealed himself to be a danger to the citizens he serves. I have served for twenty-five years on my police department. The Det. has shamed us all.
I am still glad my wife can call 911 if she has to. I am glad the police patrol our city streets at night. I am glad someone risks their lives to protect our communities while we conduct commerce. They deserve our respect, our thanks and yes, our admiration.
But I still believe the 2nd Amendment is about opposing a tyrannical government and that all of us have the right to be armed. All of US.
He who appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. He who can not take care of himself without that law is both.
I have nothing but ill will for this officer, and any who think like him. He has every right to say and to think what he wants, however, when he hassles, hurts, or even kills others, under the color of "law", for not being willing to bend to his will, the world would be better off without him.
Every case this bone head has ever been involved in needs to be reviewed to determine if any bias on his part was applied. It is POS like him why I cross the street when I see cops. I would do the same when approaching a group of hooded thugs. They need to drop this guy off in the middle of Alabama wearing a sign with his beliefs printed on it and see what happens next. It can be the next big reality show "Run dip s%!t Rod run". I know not all cops are bad but this makes it even tougher to trust any of them. How many other thugs on the "force" share his beliefs about the 2nd amendment? Watch out people, pay attention because more and more elitists are showing their asses and we need to pay attention to see who is showing their true colors and stop them when they slip up. Amazing!!
The cop is going to need more than 2 weeks off in order to prepare his defense of murdering a citizen. Citizens and not permitted to open carry LOADED weapons. So, knowing this, the officer just committed murder of an unarmed man. Carrying an unloaded weapon and being shot is like having a car with no gas in the tank and being ticketed for speeding.
@Otter - Careful, there are many States where you can open-carry with a loaded pistol with a round in the chamber etc. In some States you can carry with a mag in your pocket but not in the gun etc. Regardless, I treat every weapon as if it were loaded and so should law enforcement.
I think this is what they call a "Teachable Moment" for all of us.
While it is certainly true that officers like Tuason give all cops a bad name, it is even more true that the truly good cops out there are not doing themselves any favors by failing to weed this kind of attituide out of their departments. I even see this attitude taking hold in my area of rural Idaho. It needs to be nipped in the bud quickly because a lot of the people here are a lot less likely to put up with it than the sheeple in Kalifornia.
I find it completely disgusting that a civil servant would utter such an implication of a criminal action towards a law abiding citizen. Had this been reversed cops would be knocking on their door within hours.
For their continued violation of the rights of the citizenry, their most trusted ally against crime, they choose to suffer at the hands of the criminal's wanton disregard for life and limb over the alliance with the armed law abiding citizen.. FOOLS OR TRAITORS ?
..the wages of disarmament don't suffer fools for long.. and rightly so.
there are good cops out there somewhere over the rainbow. definitely not many in the big cities. i know we re all human and we make mistakes, but most our mistakes, unlike cops mistakes, dont ruin people's lives.
TAP, my State permits open carry of a loaded firearm. I just read where a citizen was walking along a highway open carrying. A police officer stopped, drew his service weapon and ordered the man to stop. Another unit arrived and the officer threw the man to the ground and hand-cuffed him. They then charged the man with inducing panic, confiscated his weapon, and took him to jail. The first officer only stopped because he saw a man with a gun. This was written into the police report. The citizen sued the police officers, the police department, and the city. They settled out of court with one of the requirements of the settlement that the local police officers be schooled in the firearm laws of the State. Any citizen walking along a public highway exercising their Right to openly carry a firearm, should not be stopped, thrown to the ground, have their weapon confiscated, detained, handcuffed, arrested, and thrown in jail. The police officers of my State are slowly learning.
Wow..just wow!
This man jokes about killing Execution style simply because they're exercising their RIGHT?
Fire him. Otherwise the Palo Alto police department will likely be sued into the poorhouse.
Not only that but he's a menace to the very citizens he's charged to serve!
There is an appropriate response to this. Is it time yet?
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