First encounter with police since permit issue

[DiscoRacing]

Interesting in Huntington WV at 2:30 am this morn. While parked at the Greyhound bus station myself, girlfriend, and brother were confronted by the police. Not sure how they can walk up to a vehicle parked, with no suspicious activity,at a bus station and ask everyone for ID but its all good. The first officer walks to my door, opens it, since we have power windows and could not put the window down without turning the key. He askes what we are doing there at that hour and I tell him we are dropping my brother off to catch the greyhound bus at 2:30am. He askes if I have ID and I said "Yes, and I also have two loaded handguns and a permit for them in my wallet also." Tho Ive done nothing erratic nor evading, I thought, he takes me out of the car, handcuffs me and says he will check my permit in a bit. Everyones ID is checked, the whole car checked, my permit checked, both gun serial numbers checked. Not a single problem with anything thus far, Im still handcuffed without a jacket in single digit weather. All officers, 7 at this time, were rather polite, except one, who tells me that there is something wrong in my head to be carrying two guns. One is ok he said,,but two tells him that something is wrong with me, in his words. Then he says that if I think im some kind of badass,,,then he will have my permit to carry revoked, to which I only said"OH". Finally, aprox 20 min later, the initial officer takes the cuffs off. Thing that struck me funny,,,,even more than being handcuffed for 20 minutes with a permit that I told them I had, was that they put my two handguns in the truck of the car, put the two magazines to them by a lamp post 30yds away, and told me that I could retrieve my mags when they leave and not to load the guns till we had left town.


.. I guess I had thought that when a person is stopped,, and you tell them that you have a permit,,, you dont get handcuffed, and im not even gonna try to figure out the little bit about the guns in the trunk and mags on the light post.

I gave polite answers thru the whole deal, nothing offensive nor bad language. I have a friend or two that are police and going to find out if that is how they generally handle it around here is that even tho you have a permit and telll them that before you are asked to get out of the car,,,if you still end up handcuffed,,,for their safety.

[OldShooter]

In my state we don't have to inform an officer that we are legally armed and I wouldn't. No sense in complicating a situation if you haven't done anything to justify a search of your vehicle.

[BILLtheDJguy]

In Florida, you are required to present your CCW with your DL if and when the DL is requested.
I've only been pulled once since my permit, but wasn't carrying at the time. The Deputy saw my permit when I was removing my license from my wallet, and asked if I had any weapons in the car. I told him that it was at home and that was the end of it.
In hindsight, I attribute the warning I received over the $117 ticket, to the permit....

I'm not sure what to make of your situation. Seems ALOT fishy, but then again, I don't live up there. I always thought that WV was a little more lax, but maybe that was the old days....

[tet4]

If it really went down the way you stated, and I have no reason not to believe it, write a letter to the sheriff complaining about the treatment of the situation and that you think it's not professional. Write a letter to the AG asking them to clarify if detainment for 20 minutes is excessive and if it was legal for the officers to tell you not to load your guns.

I'm glad you want to tell your story here, but if you want change, you need to tell it to those in power.

[Skans]

File a complaint against the officers who did this. Make sure it makes it into their file. That's what I would do and have done. The officer was clearly way out of line in what he did. Don't think that filing a formal complaint does nothing - when the officer gets a couple of these in his file, its a real problem for him.

[Aguila Blanca]

Yep -- file a complaint.

First -- he is not legally allowed to conduct even a "Terry stop" unless there is a "reasonable suspicion based on clearly articulable facts" that a crime is being committed, has been committed, or is about to be committed. Dropping a passenger off at a Greyhound station, last I knew, was not a crime. He had a right to ask what you were doing, but NOT to disarm you, NOT to require ID, and certainly not to handcuff you.

Once you were handcuffed, you were (in legal terms) "detained." You were not free to leave. He had NO legal basis on which to detain you.

They searched the whole car? Without a warrant? Did they "ask" your permission? I hope you didn't allow them to conduct a warrantless search.

Please do not allow this to go unaddressed. The police need to understand that if they want US plebeians to obey the laws ... they (the police) have to also follow the laws.

[Brian Pfleuger]

I would absolutely file a complaint. That whole situation is crap.

[Ludarue]

That just sounds like a crappy situation, and I would have been pretty upset about it if it was me. I'm glad to hear though that you were able to handle it well right there in the moment. Sounds to me like he was the type that any kind of little reason he would have hauled you off to the department. Like everyone else has stated I would def file a complaint with them.

[Casimer]

That sounds like deliberate harassment - they wanted to get you out of town.

[boredom]

as the others have stated, i would definitely file a report and not let it get swept under the rug. there is no reason i can think of where you would be detained for any longer than it took to verify your permit and the serial numbers. i hope you got or remembered the officers name or badge/car number, because you will need that information. i drove into a license checkpoint (unarmed) and presented my permit and DL and was sent on my way, without them even running my name/DL number/or permit number.

please dont let this get swept under the rug.

[Wag]

I sincerely hope you file complaints with everyone under the sun.

Ridiculous behavior on the part of the cops. Almost as if they were attempting to provoke you.

--Wag--

[golfballshootr]

Disco, file the complaint. You informed freely that you had weapons and the permit to carry said weapons. Disclosure is the law here in OK too, if you are carrying at the time.

All the rest as well as the initial instigation to search sounds like those guys were pushing their authoritative powers just a wee bit.

[JBial]

Dropping a passenger off at a Greyhound station, last I knew, was not a crime.

I'm guessing you've never rode on a Greyhound

Like the others have said, file a complaint. Sounds like unwarranted harrassment.

[Gbro]

except one, who tells me that there is something wrong in my head to be carrying two guns. One is ok he said,,but two tells him that something is wrong with me, in his words. Then he says that if I think im some kind of badass,,,then he will have my permit to carry revoked, to which I only said"OH"

By what you wrote you did your part. We all cannot expect smooth interactions with Law Enforcement at all times.
Your 2 guns? My way of reloading also.
Even though some comments are sitting on the tip of the tongue, by what you wrote, again you did good.
7 officers and placing your magazines at a lamp post gives me an indication they had you stereotyped.
And the "Get Out of Dodge" statement is really something! Wow!!

[jimbob86]

File a complaint. If you don't document it, it did not happen.

He will do it again, and if he gets into trouble over it, he'll get a simple reprimand, beacuse "He has no history of harrassment or abuse of power."

Document, Document, Document.

[Standing Wolf]

We treat ordinary law-abiding American citizens like criminals, but we're not a police state: after all, no one was sent to New Jersey.

[jimbob86]

We all cannot expect smooth interactions with Law Enforcement at all times.

Why not? If a Law Enforcement Officer is going to harass people who do perfectly legal things he does not take a shine to, then he is in the wrong business. Do your part to either correct his actions or help him find a more appropriate calling.

[DiscoRacing]

Ive called the chief of police for that area...and of course they have not called back. From what I have learned there are extensive arrests there for drug and handgun trafficing from Detroit...


... None the less I was very aggravated...and did not want to have any trouble at all.... so I chose to remain for the most part..Silent.

[carpfisher]

All it takes for evil to triumph is for Good Men to do nothing.

[BILLtheDJguy]

Just about every town has one, or two....We call ours, "Superman"....

He walks around like he owns the whole place and has an attitude that matches his physical demeanor...All in all, he is a decent guy when you get to know him out of uniform. But, over-zealous is a severe understatement, when he is behind the badge.

I think they teach it at the academy, that EVERYONE is a suspect, until you determine otherwise...It's not a communistic approach, so much as a fail-safe to keep the rookies alive...

Sometimes they don't grow out of it with experience, though.

[Rifleman1776]

File a complaint. You were wronged.
Even though I support law enforcement, I treat individual officers like strange dogs.
One dog will just want to be petted. Another will bite you without warning. Problem is you can't tell one from the other just by lookings.
There is a reason why police units are structured in a military fashion, they need the control and disipline.
File the complaint. You are an honest citizen that was treated in a criminal fashion by those charged with protecting you.

[mete]

Next time tell them two guns is what is called a "NY reload" !!

[Buzzcook]

Luckily you weren't taserd.

Unfortunately the more power we give to police to go after "bad guys" the more frequently it is used on non-bad guys.

What the cops did was probably technically legal.

[kx592]

The officer could have had a prior incident that went south that you are not aware of and you having two weapons on you may have triggered something weird in his mind and that's why he reacted the way he did, or he is plain out a jack a...Either way file a complaint and see where it leads you.

[Dave P]

"In Florida, you are required to present your CCW with your DL if and when the DL is requested."

DJ, this is false. Unless you can provide the FS 790 section number??