I had a Carry/Police Incident last night too..

[RobertNashville]

[fl0at]

[C. Richard Archie]

Being an out of state resident at the time, and severely outnumbered and outgunned, I operated at the time under the premise of "Salute the man with the switchblade". Having my son with me at the time made me very cautious of any reaction that would escalate the situation. Had it occurred in Weakly County, where I had connections, I would have reacted much differently, simply trying to be smarter than what I was working with.

I filed a written complaint with the State, and the Shelby County Sheriffs Department. Never received a reply from either, and sans spending dollars on legal action, I let it go.

Spoke with my brother, who is an attorney, and he said that the "War on Drugs" was a big push, as dollars that could be generated by LE from confiscation was a big ticket item as a revenue source. Wanted to know how much I wanted to spend to not achieve anything.

[fl0at]

[TacticaLogic]

The problem seems to be that people have different opinions... Wow, what a concept.

While I can see a valid point in Massad Ayoob's idea of going ahead and handing the officer your HCP when you hand him your DL, not every officer wants to take possession of the HCP on a stop. The veteran police officer that taught our HCP class was asked the question "do we need to give an officer our HCP when we hand him our DL?" He response was, no you don't have to, and personally I don't care to see it - if you have a valid HCP permit on file, I'll know about it when I run a check on your DL. The same instructor was asked "should we tell the officer that we have our carry gun on us?" He stated that he didn't really want to know about the gun, but that if you are pulled over, don't make any sudden moves that would cause the officer's stress levels to go up. In other words, in his world, he is trying to be respectful of peoples rights and their privacy. In otherwords: don't do anything stupid and you should be fine.

In Dan's case, he did nothing wrong (outside of the headlight violation as per TCA 55-9-401, with which he stated he had no problem and that yes his headlight was out.) What did happen was that an officer, probably with not so many years on the job, was not properly trained and proceeded to advise a citizen, incorrectly I might add, as to what the obligations of the citizen were. When the citizen knew better, I think it would be safe to say the officer took it as a personal insult. Well now, it's "Katy bar the door" time because John Q. Public can't be allowed to get away with that... The citizen is under no obligation to tell a law enforcement officer from where they have just come... That shouldn't be too hard to understand. Folks say "what's the harm?" I suggest that they do a little research... or at least watch this video: regarding the reasons you shouldn't volunteer any information at all.

There is a reason that our little TFA cards have the following information on the back:

IF YOU ARE INVOLVED IN A SHOOTING

To Any Law Enforcement Officer:
My Name:_________________________
My Address: ______________________
My Date of Birth: __________________

FORMAL NOTICE:
1) I do not with to answer any questions at this time.
2) I do not consent to any search including but not limited to my person, property, home, car or baggage.
3) I do not waive any rights that I may have at this time.

If I have John Harris telling me this is what I need to do in a shooting situation, I believe I will heed his advise. You see, more people are convicted, perhaps even wrongly so, because of things that come out of their own mouths, than you would think.

To be perfectly honest, I (were I pulled over for a traffic volation) would not have handed over my HCP to the officer unless he requested it - this based upon the words of the officer that taught my class years ago, and based upon conversations with other law enforcement officers. Nor would I have answered a question regarding my travels, departure point or destination. That is my business... I will ask the officer if I am about to recieve a ticket... If yes, I will sign it and be on my way. If not, I will ask him if I am free to go. I will at no time be impolite - I will even say "yes sir", and "no sir". But I will also not answer anything that is not required to be answered by law.

Regards,
Mike

[Dan Lee]