TexasCHLforum.com

cb1000rider wrote:

charliej47 wrote: More and more I see our Rights being violated by those in authority and them getting away with it!
Using tinting to go hunting is a bad way to teach a rookie how to work and will develop bad habits that the LEO will use.

What rights were violated here? LEOs have the authority to disarm at will. If you're suggesting that we take away that ability, I think that's going to cause more harm than good.

I'm not crazy about it either, but it's something that I'm OK with leaving up to officer discretion - some level of that is necessary to do the job. What I wouldn't be OK with is disassembling or confiscating the firearm, which didn't happen in this case. What would be worse is a PD policy of "disarm everyone" which technically is within the "rights" of law enforcement.

And lets be honest, the appearance of the person stopped was most likely an influential factor here..

What, didn't like his haircut? Yeah, he was a big guy with a funky doo but he didn't do anything that could be perceived as threatening or cause for concern. I think the most troubling thing was calling in his gun's serial number. Just imagine what could have happened had there been an error in that process and the gun erroneously came up as stolen. Then there is the question of whether that information is being recorded and retained.

My impression is that this was a training exercise and the officer was basically running down each point in some procedural checklist under review by a supervisor. It seemed excessive but I thought the officer looked like he was trying to show his supervisor that he knew the procedure...every step. Mr. Strange was probably stopped because of the car and quite possibly because he is Black, but I think that once the stop was made a trainee was following a checklist.

I would have been aggravated by the length of the stop, and while I have some concerns about the potential for misunderstanding or accidents due to being disarmed, the idea of it doesn't offend me. But then I've been stopped several times and never been disarmed or even had the officer show any particular concern. OTOH all the times I've been stopped I've been out in the country...maybe the level of officer caution is higher when you're in a more populated area and the driver is not an old white guy. Whatever motivated the stop I didn't really get the impression he was being treated differently because of his race. He's a big guy and his size may have been more of a factor than race.