TexasCHLforum.com

TXtoothpick wrote:Thank you all for the replies and the welcome.

I did contact a lawyer for that traffic stop incident who said he thought I didn't have much of a case, or maybe he just wasn't interested. I also contacted the Texas Civil Rights Project which reviewed my case and sent me a rejection letter stating that they "could not represent me in this matter".

That incident was not the only time this happened to me recently.

I had another unrelated CHL incident just a few weeks ago in front of the downtown Austin Police Department / Courthouse where a homeless guy was charging at and threatening to physically assault me and bothering other people in the Courthouse parking lot. I was armed at the time and in the parking lot. I decided to approach and wave over 2 officers who were walking across the street close by, right in front of the downtown Austin Police Department. The officers did nothing to the homeless guy who wasn't even approached by the officers, and they said people had complained before about him. But the officers did ask if I was carrying, I said yes, so they disarmed me, unloaded my revolver, took my boxcutter pocket knife, and THEN handcuffed me in broad daylight in front of bystanders until I could show them my CHL license, which they verified and they told me I did everything right. But they then told me that I should have told them that I had a gun on me when I first approached them (as I was being charged at by a crazy homeless guy?). This is a pattern, just like the traffic stop where another officer said essentially the same thing, that I had a duty to tell the officers that "I had a gun" before they even knew what was going on or asked me for my ID or CHL license. Bad guy goes free, I get handcuffed and told that I did something wrong.

I have developed a second-guess attitude as to whether I should even ask police for help now. Will they make up law or berate me or handcuff me in broad daylight for all the world to see, even after disarming me? How humiliating. And then tell me it was my fault because I didn't tell them immediately that "I have a gun" as I am approaching them quickly because I am being chased by a homeless crazy guy?

When citizens need police immediately should their priority be to stop and first explain their CHL status and beg police for protection or explain to them Police Texas CHL statutes? And the homeless guy gets away to repeat threats to people another day - no wonder downtown Austin has a very bad rap recently about violence and people getting assaulted. Law abiding people like me are increasingly avoiding the area and avoiding the police but the riffraff is free to stay and cause problems.

Sorry for the rant.