TX soldier arrested for "rudely displaying gun"

[lhprop1]

If this doesn't make you rage, nothing will.  Video and more at link.  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/345714/free-cj-grisham

I just got off the phone with Army Master Sergeant. C. J. Grisham, a serving American soldier and veteran of the the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who recently was illegally disarmed by the Temple Police Department while out for a walk with his son.

“We live out in the country in Texas, near Temple,” he told me. “My son and I were on a ten-mile hike so that he could earn his hiking merit badge – it’s the last badge he needs to become an Eagle Scout.” But half way into the hike, Grisham said, “a police officer pulled up.” Initially, he was “cordial” and he “asked what we were doing.” Grisham told him. “Then he looked at my rifle. I carry a rifle any time I walk around because there are feral hogs and cougars and things like that.”

From here, things took a turn for the worse.

“‘Where you going with that rifle?’ he asked me. I said, ‘does it matter? Am I breaking any laws?’” Then, he says, the officer “grabbed the rifle without telling me – but it was attached to me. My immediate reaction as a combat veteran was to grab it back and then take a step back. I asked him what he was doing. So he pulled his gun on me. Then I thought about my son, so I put my hands off my gun and he told me to move over to the car. Luckily my son had the video camera to document the hike for his merit badge. I told him to turn it on.”

The video of the incident is below. I’d recommend you watch the whole thing. Note the officers’ ignorance of the rules they are there to uphold, the suggestion that the law doesn’t apply in this “day and age,” and the persistent claim that American citzens are presumed to have their weapons illegally unless otherwise demonstrated. Note the officer’s claim that merely owning a gun makes someone dangerous. Note the conflation of a soldier in a war zone with a citizen in rural Texas. Note the presistent refusal to explain what law Grisham has broken.

Video and more at link.  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/345714/free-cj-grisham

[bodean87]

There is more too it. From what I'm hearing he had mental issues. One report was he was a stalker. I'll post the links if I can find them. I also believe this was in a neighborhood not in the country.

[lhprop1]

That very well could be.  Did you watch the video?  It sure doesn't appear to be in a neighborhood.  Not a house in sight and the road he was walking along seemed deserted.   

[bodean87]

http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/4187625/gonew/1/Police_Anti_Gun_Prosecutor_Cla#UNREAD

Link to a forum with a lot of information.

[Jrlobo]

bodean,

      What's your evidence? Source? You make it sound like "hearsay" the way you laid it out. The video is pretty compelling, but would be illegal in MD if the officer objected to his voice being recorded. No charge, no Miranda...seems weird.

[Sponsor]

[bodean87]

Some background information. The incident is on the second page under Lights, Camera, Action.
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/stalking-soldier-arrested-disarmed-by-texas-police-some-facts-opinion-and-analysis.htm

A link to the full video on youtube.


A lot of it is hearsay. Its legal to carry a loaded long arm in Texas as long as it is done in a manner not to raise alarm. It is also legal for the officers to temporarily disarm him for the officers protection. I would assume that he merit badge his kid was trying to earn was for an actual hike not a walk down a road. This guy was looking for trouble and found it.

[twyacht]

The Officer's responses after he was disarmed does lead one to concern if this is the "norm".....Granted what happened prior to the start of filming is not known, the Gestapo factor needs to be considered after the fact, based on the Deputies responses.

[Rastus]

Handcuffs =  Arrest  

That's a legal definition.  There was more than detention there.  

And then there is the whole thing with these wanna-be-a-cop-thugs saying they do not have to follow the law.  That was all I could stomach and quit watching.

If he has a mental problem and issues related then he should have been detained/arrested for that...rudely displaying a gun...go away with that junk.  Any Uncle Fudd or nervous Nellie can call in anybody with a gun on that...even if a gun is in a gun case....and if wanna-be-a-cop-thugs like these are around and you are carrying a gun get ready to lick their boots and kiss their behind or be prepared for the minimum consequences of hiring a lawyer and getting your life back in order years later.  

I don't care if he did have a mental problem.  The "officer" (and I do say that with disrespect) gave no cause to do what he did to a citizen...a subject of a  totalitarian state yes...but a citizen no.  Just because the blue uniformed thug was all "nice" and wasn't cursing and screaming doesn't mean he was being righteous in the least....he knew he was being filmed and I hope he is just the ignorant product of public schools.  And then to say they can disregard the law because they are the popo; that is not ignorance, it is arrogance and being drunk on power....c'mon where there is smoke there is fire and I'm gagging on the smoke watching this.  

If he was a stalker arrest him for stalking.  Why wait until he's walking on the road with a gun and his child (so they can endanger a child and show how bad ass they are to the public by instilling fear of their lawlessness)?  Arrest for whatever stalking statutes they have should be made if there are legitimate charges...that is not what happened here.  Mental case...gee, if he has that then why didn't they detain him with mental health professionals in an appropriate situation...not out in the open where the "nut with a gun" could shoot their behind off.  We should use our heads and reflect on a situation and not just gobble smelly stuff down unless proven.

I'm sorry...it sounds like slurs to me without further evidence and there are a whole pile of Uncle Fudds out there who want "black rifles" to go away just as bad as Feinstein does.  Fudds seem to think if we keep quiet we will keep below the radar and keep our gun rights...that was proven wrong in the 1960's and grass roots activism like the CCW push helped gain some rights back.  Fudds believe their stuff just like shooting legal season does (female deer) was going to collapse the deer population in the South.  Very passionate...very wrong...and concerning the 2nd Amendment a very dangerous attitude of appeasement.

Heck, I'm going to say he should have been arrested imitating a fire plug which endangers public safety since he could mislead the fire dept. into thinking he was a source of water for their fire fighting efforts so that's fraud and endangerment.  That is just as good as being a mental loon and stalker...even better now because the wanna-be-a-cop-thugs have not disproved being an imitation fireplug on tape by arresting him for something other than imitating a fire plug.

[Pathfinder]

Rastus, well put.

I watched the whole thing, it made me sick, but it is in line with what I have been seeing LEOS do and think over the past few years.

Remember all the talk about the militarization of the LEOS? Most worrisome was not the hardware, but the mindset - us vs. "the enemy". Cops used to be trained to help, now LEOS are trained to view all of us as enemies until proven otherwise, and maybe not even then. And that they are exempt from the law, the thin blue line will protect them no matter what. Witness Harless in Ohio eligible to get his job back, after he threatened to kill a CCW holder during a stop.

No explanation for the arrest, once the big cop decided the hiker was going down, he was going down, one way or the other. Not even the sergeant bothered to tell him he was under arrest until they were about to load him in the car late in the altercation.

Hope a good lawyer picks this up pro bono. At the very least, get rid of the big cop from the force and get the weapons back.

Temple, TX, is in east central TX, south of Waco, and too far north of Austin to be within commuter distance. It's not a huge town, 66,000 people. If LEOS are behaving like this in the heart of TX, we are in deep crappola!

Oh, BTW, if the guy had "mental problems", he probably would have reacted very differently when the cop grabbed his rifle. Nice of some of you to fall right into the .gov trap wherein all vets have "mental problems", and need to be disarmed any way they can be.

[philw]

Papers Please......