My opinion of Long Gun Open Carriers is well-known and need not to be repeated. However, it is interesting that Moms Demand have used the arrest of two of those activists while taping police procedures on public property as crying rally.
Cop Watchers is simple in concept: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (But who will guard the guardians?) There is the unfortunate (and becoming expensive) belief among Police Departments that they can control and deny the taping of their actions in public property.
I say unfortunate because they as public servants have no expectation of privacy in the fulfillment of their duties on private property just as we civilians do not have expectation of privacy as we walked down or congregate in public places. They use an assortment of excuses (interfering with an investigation, fear for their lives, etc.) to try to block or even arrest and destroy the video or photography taken. And I call it expensive because time after time courts end up siding with the videographer and the county has to shell some serious dough in compensation.
The funny thing is that police departments have no qualms asking the public for cell phone videos of crimes committed to solve them, specially if one of their own is the victim. So it is clear that a selective application of what can people tape or not tape depending on what the police thinks.
I am betting that just in past cases, the charged will be dropped and some sort of settlement will be reached.
With the millions of people with camera-ready smartphones, the idea that you can stop and scrub an incident just because badges are present is stupid and a violation of rights.That Shannon Watts and the rest of the Moms Demand cast is OK with it shows once again that gun control is not about the guns but the control of people.
I do love when they manufacture enough rope to give themselves a nice 13 coil tie.
If you are interested in more info about Cop Watching, you may wanna follow PINAC (Photography is Not A Crime) by Miami’s own Carlos Miller. For sanity’s sake you may want to stay away from the comment section.
Anti-freedom, not anti-gun!
Weer’d right… sigh
MDA is going to be around for some time, we just have to stand up for whats right.
Its thier way or GTFO, Be carful Shannon, you just might get what you wish for………..
i LIVE two blocks away from a Krogers store. I buy everything there. (Well, everything that’s not firearms related which they don’t tell in this University town.)
When Krogers announced that they were not going to post GUN FREE ZONE signs, I went to their website and wrote them a letter of appreciation. I told them that I was a CHL (Concealled Handgun License) owner. I didn’t mentioned whether I shopped while carrying.
But I told them that I NEVER shop at stores which are posted against guns. I feel safer knowing that at any given moment probably 10 percent of their customers who are armed … and the bad guys know it. When’t the last time there was an armed robbery in a Krogers store?
And I clicked on the “please don’t reply” option before I sent my comments, because I didn’t want them to think I’m trolling for some kind of coupons.
My only reason for writing was because I want to encourage them in their acknowledgement of respect for their customers’ rights.
I don’t LIKE the obnoxious Open Carry folks whose demonstrations are so smugly “in your face” that they tar quiet people with the same brush.
If YOU want to make a political point, patronize stores which don’t post anti-gun signs. And then tell them about it. And spend a LOT of money there, to make sure they know you’re a good customer.
Nothing encourages a business to Do The Right Thing as much as making money at it.