Reply #22: you pay the price to exercise your rights you mean [View All]

[YllwFvr]

he was boned by the police in Philadelphia, police who bent or broke the law repeatedly when they harassed him. For the third time I believe. I hope he sues them, they definitely broke the law under Pa's Official Oppression law, plus left themselves open to a US 1983 lawsuit in my opinion.

Pa is one of the most open carry friendly states in the whole US. There are thousands of people who OC every day here, my brother is an officer in a small police department covering several towns and has run into a couple. He treated them very politely, which is how every encounter should be. Cautious and polite. Some cops have chosen to harass OCers anyway which has resulted in four lawsuits that Im aware of. The problem being the statewide training all cops receive warning them OC is legal. Philadelphia just thinks they can get away with it. Over and over they get told OC is legal, over and over the officers down there are informed it is legal. They just dont seem to get it, and the only way to teach them I guess is for the city to start paying for it. They even have internal directives letting the officers know its legal and still we get this kind of thing.

I havent had to deal with an OCer yet, but if I do I will be cautious and polite. Just like I would like to be treated when I OC out and about. I have spoken to Mark before. I dont know him well but have chatted with him a few times. He is just a normal OCer, he doesnt look intimidating at all. He carries a recorder like most smart OCers do. All over the US there has been video of lawful OCers getting harassed by police and it is the only defense they have. Otherwise its the cops word against the citizens. I cant speak for the rest of the US since laws vary state to state, but in Pa it is legal to record the cops without consent or there knowledge. Thats not true for everyone else, its an all party consent state. But for cops, they are a public servant, performing a public service, and as such have no expectation of privacy while doing there duty. Thats pretty boiled down and of course there are exceptions.

Its cops like this that give the rest of us a bad image we have to fight against. I havent applied in Philly, and I wont either. I dont want to work alongside people like that. Id like to the im constitutionally aware of peoples rights.