Ohio Man Illegally Arrested for Open Carry Sparks $3M Lawsuit

[RickN]

Fortunately, what you believe and what is actually the law are not the same.

Sometimes it is smarter not to hide behind the law just to make a point.

 

[doctorjj]

Sometimes it is smarter not to hide behind the law just to make a point.

I believe it's always better to stand up for your God given, Constitutionally protected rights than to cower to illegitimate authority. And maybe you'll educate and/or put someone in their place in the process.

 

[RickN]

I believe it's always better to stand up for your God given, Constitutionally protected rights than to cower to illegitimate authority.

Only problem is, if the news stories I have seen on this are correct, Roy Call was in the wrong and could have avoided the whole thing by just giving his name and telling the officers that he had taken off his jacket in his truck and his ID / CCW are in his jacket. Instead he puffed up and tried to bluff it out. Now not only the people at the store but many nationwide see an unreasonable guy strutting around wearing a gun and have more ammo to use against us. Face it to the average citizen the cops come off looking reasonable, Call comes off looking like a a$$.

 

[doctorjj]

Please point me to the news stories that show he was in the wrong. Thanks.

 

[RickN]

Please point me to the news stories that show he was in the wrong. Thanks.

http://www.policeone.com/Gun-Legisl...Ohio-man-sues-town-police-in-open-carry-case/

This same story ran in several Ohio papers.

Open carrying a firearm without a license in Ohio is legal in most circumstances. Call does have a conceal and carry license (CCW), but Reiss said Call did not immediately provide police with his CCW, driver's license or admit that he drove to the gas station.

"Given the time of the day, the location, and the fact that convenience store/gas stations are typical targets for robberies in the middle of the night," Reiss said. "It would seem reasonable in the eyes of a police officer to ask someone who was carrying a gun if it was legally permissible for them to do so."

Police reports show a citizen at the Speedway at 3201 Valley Pike was concerned that a man had a gun in the open and told Riverside police Sgt. Har-old Jones, who motioned to Call to come outside.

The lawsuit recounted that "After Call complied with Jones' request, which was made with no probable cause, or a warrant, and without legal authorization, Sgt. Jones questioned Call, 'Why are you wearing an open gun?' Jones continued to question Call even though Call asked, 'Am I free to go?' to which Jones told him no."

Call was charged with obstruction of justice, but Riverside City Manager Bryan Chodkowski said that charge was dropped Oct. 2.

"Based on the totality of the circumstances, we recognized that it was probably a viable charge at the time," Chodkowski said. "But recognizing what it meant in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a charge that we felt was worth pursuing."

Jones' incident report said Call would not answer questions relating to his identity. "He eventually said he had no identification with him. This was actually a lie as his identification was approximately 50 feet away in his truck along with his CCW card," Jones' report said. "This was not found for several minutes. He told me he was exercising his Second Amendment rights to openly carry a gun."

Like I posted earlier, you can not legally drive and open carry a loaded weapon in Ohio (yea dumb) and it is NEVER a good idea to lie to the police especially if you have done nothing wrong. This guy seems to have done both.

 

[doctorjj]

http://www.policeone.com/Gun-Legisl...Ohio-man-sues-town-police-in-open-carry-case/

This same story ran in several Ohio papers.



Like I posted earlier, you can not legally drive and open carry a loaded weapon in Ohio (yea dumb) and it is NEVER a good idea to lie to the police especially if you have done nothing wrong. This guy seems to have done both.

Yeah, because its perfectly reasonable to assume that a guy as well informed about the law as Mr. Call would break the law by open carrying in his vehicle.

/end sarc

So this is pure conjecture on your part.

If he is being detained, it doesn't matter if his ID is 50 feet away or 5,000 miles away. He didn't have any ID with him when they asked. That's not a lie.

 

[RickN]

Yeah, because its perfectly reasonable to assume that a guy as well informed about the law as Mr. Call would break the law by open carrying in his vehicle.

/end sarc

So this is pure conjecture on your part.

If he is being detained, it doesn't matter if his ID is 50 feet away or 5,000 miles away. He didn't have any ID with him when they asked. That's not a lie.

A whole lot of people only pay attention to the laws they want to, and frankly all the LEOs knew when they stopped him is that he had driven there and was open carrying. In other words, they had reason to believe a law had been broken.

You can keep dancing around it but I believe the police had a reasonable cause to ask for ID and Call was just being an a$$.

 

[MoBoost]

You can keep dancing around it but I believe the police had a reasonable cause to ask for ID and Call was just being an a$$.

If they had a reasonable cause to ask for an ID - why did they let him go without seeing one? Oh, yeah, because they didn't have a cause ...

Sad music please

 

[DFarcher]

If they had a reasonable cause to ask for an ID - why did they let him go without seeing one? Oh, yeah, because they didn't have a cause ...

Sad music please

They let him go because eventually he did reveal his identity and the police were able to confirm he had a carry permit and no warrants. The more information that comes out on this the more it looks like the police behaved reasonably.

 

[doctorjj]

If they had a reasonable cause to ask for an ID - why did they let him go without seeing one? Oh, yeah, because they didn't have a cause ...

Sad music please

Exactly!

Does anyone really think these cops would have let this guy go if they had ANYTHING on him? They were ready to pounce. They had no cause and they knew it. They tried to scare and coerce him into playing their game but he wouldn't.