Officers Can't Stop Citizen From Exercising His Rights

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers disorderly conduct constitutional rights and constitutional awareness and is brought to us by don'tcomply.com channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve sometime around june 25th 2013 blogger and second amendment activist zack horton who writes under the pseudonym murdoch pizgati was planning to open carry his long rifle through his neighborhood in little elm texas mr horton contacted the little elm police department to inform them that he would be exercising his second amendment rights in case they received any calls about his activity soon after placing the call sergeant john samples and officer christopher nordman came to mr horton's residence to discuss his plans hey afternoon how are you doing police department hey good to meet you mr horton yes all right how you doing today i'm doing well how about you excellent what's going on today buddy oh we're just doing a normal second amendment exercise we're gonna walk around the neighborhood with uh with my rifles slung over my back pointed down with a chamber flag in in the chamber okay so what are we uh what are we attempting to achieve here uh we're helping to uh show the uh the general public that it's a perfectly legal activity in the state of texas to open carry long guns and you think that your display is going to achieve that uh it definitely will so at the time that people that that may uh not understand that it's a legal activity call into you know say they've moved here from new york and they come and call the and they 911 a dispatcher and says hey there's a guy walking with the gun i got you you know wouldn't this the simple dialogue be um wouldn't the dialogue be you know well is he wheeled in around is he is he threatening anyone with it no no he's not okay well that's perfectly legal in texas uh if you want to call in about that maybe called the non-emergency number or something that might be lived in the community i'm sorry how long have you lived in the community uh we've been here a couple years okay puppy dog well as you know good afternoon man come on girls well as you know one of the safer communities in north texas well yeah right go inside go inside has the safest in texas with a population over twenty five thousand yeah well uh hold on it what i'm trying to say is we don't we didn't achieve that by everybody showing their guns walking around the streets in order to do that okay and i don't believe that you doing that it's gonna is it gonna achieve that in the first uh month that we lived here our house was broken into and now the one that took the report yeah the back door got kicked wide wide open and uh you know so it's not the safest neighborhood in my eyes because i've been a victim of those crimes and uh you know if more people were walking around displaying their uh their second amendment rights to uh to open carry long guns then maybe there wouldn't be little hoodlums walking around believe officer norman has already explained the disorderly conduct law okay now now are you going to uh say that that i calculated to cause alarm by walking with it slung to my back in a proper given you've given you for a warning that it's going to calculate it's going to cause an alarm section 23 of the texas state constitution's bill of rights upholds the second amendment right to bear arms but also empowers the legislature of texas to regulate how citizens may exercise that right texas has several laws specifically pertaining to the use and carrying of firearms including laws that prohibit guns in certain areas and dictate how they may be displayed in others the law that the little elm officers are referring to is texas penal code 42.01 which is texas's disorderly conduct statute subsection 8 of that code states that a person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly displays a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm the officers are hinging their argument on the idea that any display of a firearm may cause alarm and because mr horton was warned beforehand that he would alarm citizens his actions would be considered calculated the higher courts of texas have addressed this issue in the past and we will discuss that aspect of this interaction in a moment but it is important to highlight the officer's assertions and acknowledge that there are certain circumstances where displaying a firearm is illegal in the state of texas okay and i guarantee you we're going to get about a hundred calls and then yeah and listen to me you're a law-abiding citizen i respect you okay i'm a law-abiding citizen or i want to be in the position that i am right okay i love guns i've got my own collection i don't see that it's fit for me to be walking around my own neighborhood showing guns i would understand if you've ever been in a whole afghanistan yeah a different story that's an opinion right and it's my opinion and that's what we're having here it's just an opinionated talk between us okay two men two grown men okay right who both have the exact same rights absolutely i chose to live in this community because i feel it's a safe community right i have my family here as well as you and i feel that we're exemplifying that safety and those rights by going out and properly um open carrying our our long guns and you know walking through the neighborhoods but i'm sure you've heard the same before just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should does that make sense i mean i don't see why not i don't see why we okay just because you can use the n word should you be going around town blasting it left and right well i guess i could you could it's a first amendment but sure is it really in good taste to do it i don't see how the law thinks so i don't see how the law enforcement of this town has anything to do with taste i think it should rely on it or not a lot of it has to do with taste on how we present ourselves to people how we treat people sure you know we can be like new york officers and be cruel and corrupt and ugly to the citizens but we're not we choose not to absolutely all right so we're here to serve you guys okay all right you want to practice your second amendment right by all means go ahead great okay so but as soon as you come within the confines of a law that you violate you're going to go to jail right okay and i don't want it to get to that point but since i'm here but since i am not calculating uh to cause alarm in another person i'm carrying it in the most un aggressive manner possible to be carrying a gun i will have it slung through my back pointed down not no hands on it completely hands-free i don't see how that can be uh calculated on my part as to cause an alarm honestly don't think that it's gonna cause an alarm you don't think it's okay if i have a right to open carry my gun i'm asking you how do i do it without just answering it match my question you don't think that that's going to cause an alarm as mentioned earlier the crux of sergeant samples argument is that displaying a firearm inherently causes alarm and because mr horton has been informed of that then displaying a firearm in public would be considered a calculated means to cause alarm thus violating code 42.01 texas courts first addressed the notion of calculating to cause alarm with a firearm in the 1906 texas supreme court case of king vs brown where the court concluded that the discharge of firearms in a public road did amount to a calculated attempt to cause alarm before concealed carry laws were established in texas the court addressed the issue of causing alarm once again in the 1910 texas court of appeals case of jones versus state and held that quote no person unless he be a peace officer not even the owner of the premises can go into a social gathering and carry on or about his person a pistol in the jones case the court held that open carrying a pistol by any means is considered a calculated cause of alarm because carrying a pistol was patently illegal the texas court of appeals addressed the issue again in the 1973 case of sparkman vs people's national bank and held that the defendant was guilty of calculating to cause alarm when he used his shotgun to frighten patrons of a foreclosure sale that he was attempting to stop the most relevant case in regards to this interaction came in 2008 when the texas court of appeals held that quote the mere fact that the police were called is not evidence of the way in which the gun was displayed in the case of grieve versus state this ruling essentially nullifies the sergeant's entire sentiment and solidifies the notion that the manner in which a weapon is displayed is the primary factor for determining whether it was calculated to cause alarm mr horton is well within his rights to open carry a rifle in public so long as he does not carry it in a manner which would suggest that he is a threat to the public at large and texas courts have upheld this right many times in the past i don't i don't think in a well-educated public that it it will cause an alarm i think and i don't get educated and i don't think it should cause an alarm you obviously don't think our public's educated because you're saying that you're wanting to educate we are helping to educate you so we've got an uneducated public through for what you've said so that's going to cause an alarm sir being in the presence of an uneducated public does not dissolve the rights guarantee to all citizens under both the texas constitution and the constitution of the united states and it is important to explore the implications of the sergeant's philosophy the idea that because a group of people are unaware of the civil liberties established in the constitution renders them non-existent implies that those unalienable rights are conditional and subject to the whims of unlearned individuals in 2017 the constitutional convention published a poll showing that 4 in 10 americans could not name a single right protected under the first amendment and that 33 of americans were unable to name a single branch of the us government it stands to reason that these startling statistics suggest that a majority of americans are largely uninformed about their rights and their government as a whole and by sergeant samples logic that would imply that no americans are entitled to exercising their rights the sergeant's ad populum assertions are contrary to the elementary principles of individual liberty and this mode of thinking opens the door to the orwellian ideologies that the bill of rights was designed to combat well i'm just saying the issue is this i have the right to open carry a long gun what manner in your eyes is not calculated to cause an alarm wouldn't even carry it now what do you mean no no i'm asking what is the way to do it i wouldn't do it so you're saying that it's not legal no that's not what i'm saying i'm saying well you're saying you're saying if i if i do something that's illegal to put words i'll be arrested let's keep the civil okay all right yeah but you're talking in circles around the issue that i'm going to be arrested for disorderly conduct for doing something that is legal mr horton and sergeant samples continue their banter for several minutes and the officers eventually agreed to disagree and leave the scene without further incident following the interaction mr horton posted on his blog site that he went on to exercise his rights against the advice of the sergeant and did not encounter any officers while doing so mr horton went on to meet with chief wayland rhodes of the little elm police department who assured mr horton that he would educate his officers and personnel about the open carry laws in texas and work with mr horton to establish programs to better inform the public of these rights overall sergeant samples and officer nordman get a c because although they displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of constitutional rights nothing the officers did was outside the bounds of their authority and making consensual contact with the citizen to express the concerns of members of the public is not unlawful it is clear that the sergeant believed that he was operating in the better interest of his community but his flawed logic and ignorance of the most basic principles of the constitution effectively abrogated his intentions enforcing the will of a certain group of people at the expense of an individual's constitutionally protected liberty has the potential to systematically dismantle the authority of the constitution and craft a society where citizens are governed by uninformed emotional outrage rather than an objective rule of law arbitrarily enforcing laws out of context only serves to normalize pseudo-democratic behavior and is contrary to foundational tenants that the united states was built upon i sincerely hope that the officers have learned from their mistakes and gained a deeper understanding of the constitution and the rights that it protects mr horton gets an a plus for engaging with the officers in a civil dialogue refusing to surrender to the sergeant's flawed logic and following up this encounter by orchestrating a productive meeting with chief rhodes mr horton's constitutional awareness served him well during this encounter and he was able to navigate the conversation with confidence despite the mental gymnastics of the officers reaching out to chief rhodes in an effort to establish educational programs for his community is admirable and i appreciate mr horton's dedication to spreading constitutional awareness mr horton deserves acknowledgement for having the courage to exercise his rights even after being discouraged by the officers and threatened with arrest i commend mr horton for insisting that his rights be respected and doing so in a way that was both peaceful and constructive let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to like and subscribe for more police interaction content you

Channel: Audit the Audit

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Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: 0sbf5tNEvyw

Length: 13min 30sec (810 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020