Today I stopped in Best Buy on my way home to buy a music CD. While I'm browsing the CD's I'm approached by an older guy telling me I can't carry like that in Philadelphia. I asked him if he was a Cop or a Lawyer and he said No, so I told him. I know the Law. He proceeded to follow me around the store harassing me and then called the cops to report a Man With A Gun (MWAG), following me around giving them my description and our location etc. I pay for my CD, leave the store get in my work van to leave and he follows me all of the way out, gets in his car and follows me down the street. None of the Best Buy Employees said a word to me, and neither did anyone else. The store employees rang me up and that was all.
I get down the road a few lights and I'm pulled over by a Philadelphia PD car. I pull over immediately and he approaches my car with his gun drawn and says to me put your hands out of the vehicle. So I'm sitting there with my hands outside of the truck as he approaches me with his gun drawn and so it begins with the insulting "You're an idiot" "What do you think you are, John Wayne?" begins. 7 more Cops arrive and there's a total of 8. 3 cars and a van. In between their bullshit comments they open the door, unbuckle my seat belt and take my whole holster off of my right side.
They grab my arms and make me step out and Immediately begin searching the work van and my pockets. They take my wallet and take out my License To Carry a Firearm (LTCF) and my Driver's License. They're all insulting me and rambling nonsense that even disagrees with each other about how it's illegal to open carry in Philadelphia. A Sergeant arrives and has to tell them all, It's legal to open carry in Philadelphia. He tells them it was changed recently. (It's actually been that way for years) The sergeant also goes to the guy who was following and harassing me and tells him that recently it was changed to make Open Carry legal in Philadelphia.
They all stand around complaining about how they had to stop watching TV because of me (this asshole) and take turns telling me how stupid and irresponsible I am.
I'm standing behind my work van with my hands against the van for about 45 minutes and eventually they start to leave 1 by 1 and they run the Tag on my work van and ask me who's is it. I tell them it's "My companies delivery van" the cop said back "Not anymore". They said it's not registered so I asked to get the paperwork out of the Van. They let me and I show them the pink slip. They insist the van is not registered so they're going to impound it.
They write me two tickets. One says "Unlawful Tag Display" and the other says "Tag registered to a Dodge". About an hour later of standing there while they sit in their cop van watching their little TV they give me my tickets, a copy of the Live Stop paper, my LTCF, my License, my Glock (Chamber open, unholstered, they took all of my ammunition out of my two magazines and gave me them back in a pile) They told me they think Hollow Points are illegal and kept one of the rounds. (They're not illegal, except maybe in New Jersey.) They had to ask me if they were Hollow Points because apparently they didn't even know. They also never returned my Sunglasses which they snatched from my face in the beginning so they could "See who we're dealing with." and before I leave the cop tells me he's lucky the Sergeant was there or this wouldn't have happened this way.
If ******** did not have his encounter with PPD and have his gun stolen, then I would have been ******** and my gun would have been stolen.
Names and places have been intentionally omitted.
IF the Original Poster wants full credit, let me know, I'll link this to the original post on the forum it came from.
Aside from training on the laws of Pennsylvania, it seems to me PPD needs to better train their officers on how to identify the various types of ammunition. I mean, my mother would know the difference between full metal jacket and hollow point ammo on sight. These cops must be half blind. Maybe that's why they stole the poster's sunglasses.
Current Mood: Highly disappointed that police anywhere in the US would act like those above.
Current Music: None
My Carry Pistol: RIA M1911-A1 Polished Nickel Plated show off piece.
2 comments:
I have yet to have any experience with beat cops in Philly whilst carrying, but I have had quite a bit of experience with Philly cops; It seems to me like I've been to almost half their facilities, including their drug labs and FIU -- where I must say practically every officer I spoke to seemed to be a big fan of lawful gun ownership, and there were guns lying around *everywhere*
It seems to me that the issue is more one of the wrong people becoming police officers -- people with the wrong temperament doing the job for the wrong reasons; There are far too many jackasses on power trips employed as police officers, and it is not a problem unique to Philadelphia.
I sincerely hope the example provided in the reported incident is an exception to the rule.
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