Stopped by Joint Task force members

**prophet23** · September 25th, 2009, 07:45 PM

So i find myself in Oakland after taking a nice walk from the South Side (since business is all but stopped in the city i have had an ample amount of time on my hands). I walk through south oakland to forbes and see armored riot police on every corner. At least 3 to a corner. Im OC'ing my .45 at the time and I walk up to one of these riot cops and ask them if there is any trouble as I would prefer to stay away from it if there was. He said that there wasn't and that they were just a "presence" to dissuade ne'er do wells. I said ok and continued my walk. Cops walked by, drove by etc and besides a few slow roll by's nothing was said or done.

Take a little walk through Schenely park, wrap around CMU and then come walking down Fifth toward downtown. I pass by the Joint Task force assembly area it appeared right behind Primanti brothers. They have there big trucks and there are about 20-30 just congregating, taking a load off. I walk by, strong side showing, no issues. I stop by for some Rita's italian ice, order up some pumpkin pie flavor (delicious by the way) and continue my walk as the officer behind me orders his. I'm thinking to myself that OC is finally accepted and the words gotten out and all is good. I pass two more street corners with riot cops on em and on the third 3 cops perk up and swarm me. I honestly don't think they grabbed me but rather just got close so that if i went for my pistol they could press me down. I don't think they grabbed me because I just kept on eating my Italian ice the whole time.

The conversation was rather interesting. They start off by asking me if OC was legal in PA. I say it is. They say they are from the Joint Task force and don't know the legalities of it and if i wouldn't mind just hangin loose for a minute while they ask. Im like sure, one guy calls it in and I ask them where they are from. ILLINOIS of all places. One male cop asks if its real, i give him the "it has to be" spiel and he asks if its locked n loaded i told him it was. He nods the "that makes sense" nod. The one female officer says my Italian ice looks good and I tell her it is. I can hear on the radio that one of the male officers was saying "yeah, we got a guy here with a .45 out in the open, checkin on if that's allowed here." The response was "if he's waving it around thats assault but if its just open yeah he's fine. First cop said ok thanks and got off the radio.

Cop who was on the radio tells the other two that we're all good here. The female cop said thats cool and we need some of that (referring to OC'ing) in Illinois. An surprising statement to my ears but a welcomed sentiment none the less. The older officer said that he knew it was legal in Arizona and other places but didn't know all the states. I think thats understandable and I tell him that about 40 something states allow OC and only some require a license.

The younger male cop asks what the process is to get a OC license in PA. I explain that you only need a license to carry concealed and that if you are 18 with no criminal record or mental defect you can carry openly.

They appreciated the info and thanked me for my understanding in why they stopped me. I told them to be safe and continued on my way.

All in all it took less than 2 minutes from when they crowded me to a stop to when we finished chit chattin.

**snakeman21** · September 25th, 2009, 08:16 PM

Sounds like they were respectful, as were you. It's nice that they didn't play the whole it-must-be-illegal-here-because-it's-illegal-where-we-come-from, and simply checked on the local laws. No disarming, no demand for ID, overall a decent encounter. And you were able to educate them.

**mjfletcher** · September 25th, 2009, 08:27 PM

Sounds like you could have used 2 pocket fulls of flyers.

**JayBell** · September 25th, 2009, 08:30 PM

they better be respectful... they dont live here..

**granuale** · September 25th, 2009, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by JayBell

they better be respectful... they dont live here..

Yeah, they were respectful while they were illegally detaining him. Great.

**xxthe_beastxx** · September 25th, 2009, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by granuale

Yeah, they were respectful while they were illegally detaining him. Great.

Wow. I wish that the Constitution applied not only in this case but all cases across the U.S.

**GRIZ** · September 25th, 2009, 09:07 PM

Yeah, they were respectful while they were illegally detaining him. Great.
__________________

They say they are from the Joint Task force and don't know the legalities of it and if i wouldn't mind just hangin loose for a minute while they ask. Im like sure,

"if I wouldn't mind" and "I'm like sure" sounds consensual to me.

I think you handled this well prophet. No arrogance and I'm sure you educated them.

What Joint Task Force were they from?

**00gt1** · September 25th, 2009, 09:08 PM

sounds like a good encounter, props for them doing their job and not overreacting and you doing you playing it cool.

**granuale** · September 25th, 2009, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by GRIZ

They say they are from the Joint Task force and don't know the legalities of it and if i wouldn't mind just hangin loose for a minute while they ask. Im like sure,

"if I wouldn't mind" and "I'm like sure" sounds consensual to me.

Are you willfully ignoring the earlier part of his post? Seriously?

Originally Posted by prophet23

I pass two more street corners with riot cops on em and on the third 3 cops perk up and swarm me. I honestly don't think they grabbed me but rather just got close so that if i went for my pistol they could press me down.

**Defender** · September 25th, 2009, 09:29 PM

Sounds like a good interaction between a civilian and LE. Quite a difference than what happened with that "Task Force" down in New Orleans after Katrina when they were jackin up citizens and stealing their guns.