Qualified Immunity Defense Rejected, Officer To Stand Trial For Illegal Arrest Of Gun Owner

[hack89]

If you’re out in public, minding your own business and breaking no law, you shouldn’t have to fear being arrested, handcuffed, and tossed into a squad car.

But if you are so treated, can you sue the officer for damages? That is the substance of an Ohio case recently decided by the Sixth Circuit, where a man had been arrested for legally carrying a gun. The court’s ruling in favor of the plaintiff is good news not just for gun owners, but all other Americans who might now be spared arrest, humiliation, or worse.

Within a few minutes, Officer Dan Bright pulled up in his squad car and encountered the Northrups. In an astounding overreaction to a non-threatening situation, Bright told Shawn that he would shoot him if he went for his gun. Bright then disarmed him, handcuffed him, told him he was under arrest for “inducing a panic,” and put him in the back of his squad car.

Writing the court’s opinion, Judge Sutton concluded that on the facts presented, Officer Bright was certainly not acting reasonably. He tried to convince the court that he thought his only choices were either to “respond to the communities’ fear and the appearance of the gunman or to nothing and hope he was not about to start shooting.” Judge Sutton rightly called that specious argument a false dilemma. There were no grounds for thinking that Northrup was “about to start shooting.” (Good grief – a guy out with his wife walking their dog is about to start shooting?). He needn’t have done nothing, but could have easily ascertained how unthreatening the situation was if he had just spoken calmly to Northrup for a few moments. Instead, he overreacted and resorted to force when none was necessary.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2015/05/20/qualified-immunity-defense-rejected-officer-to-stand-trial-for-illegal-arrest-of-gun-owner/

This is going to give the controllers and other authoritarians a sad.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

1. A simple overreaction...

...by cops that are overarmed and under-trained.

[Romeo.lima333]

2. This is going to give the controllers and other authoritarians a sad. and give the ammo sexuals

a chubby but really the police had no business arresting him. from an authoritarian controller

[petronius]

3. Good. IMO (with the caveat that I am not a legal professional or scholar) courts should

be very skeptical when it comes to immunity for LEOs or other officials. People should be individually responsible for their own deliberate actions, regardless of their job title when they committed those actions...

[HassleCat]

4. I'm With the NRA Here

When guns are criminalized, only criminals and cops will have guns. And I'm not sure if I'm more likely to be shot by a police officer, shot by a criminal, or caught in the crossfire between the two groups. Cops get very, very tense when they see a non-cop with a firearm. For those of you who are NRA, into open carry, and that 2nd Amendment stuff, be very careful. You are in almost as much danger as if you were wearing a hoodie. And I'm not sure if I'm being sarcastic or not. The police are an extremely nervous, fired up bunch of people these days, and they can shoot at you for strange reasons.

[Eleanors38]

5. An individual "responding to the communities' fear." What an existential leap.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

6. "Officer Bright." Well, there's an unfortunate misnomer.

[Duckhunter935]

7. I hope this makes them think twice

and actually EVALUATE the situation before overreacting as they too often do. Especially with minorities.

[NaturalHigh]

8. But what if he had been planning something EVIL with his handgun?

You know that gun owners are like that.

[pablo_marmol]

9. Love it!

And yes......the officer's name makes the story all the more amusing!

[NaturalHigh]

10. LOL...Just caught that.

"What were you thinking, Officer Bright?"

[ileus]

11. Law enforcement should know the law.

[DonP]

12. Hey! He was just following the advice of many DU control fans

How many times have we seen posts on DU that call for the immediate tackling, arrest and/or beating of any open (or concealed) carriers, laws be damned!

Heck, he might even be a poster in Bansalot? They all think they are pretty "Bright".

[Duckhunter935]

13. Why has this not been posted in "bansalot"

I am curious how the two or three posters over there missed this important story.

[DonP]

15. They seem to have a very "selective" process for posts

But they do seem to love "dancing in the blood" of every accidental shooting and crimes. They never miss a chance to post those but somehow miss any self defense stories.

Well, that and repeating supposed gun memes that no gun owner ever really said. "If only the child/wife/victim had a gun" etc.

But their very favorite myth is "FEWER GUN OWNERS", always supported by some generic media source and never quite explaining the "anomaly" of things like the Illinois FOID card explosion.

You'd think if that were so true, they'd be celebrating the eventual disappearance of gun owners in the US. But they still seem so angry and smug at the same time?

[Duckhunter935]

16. I saw that "fewer gun owners" bulll again

posted over there.

I have to laugh every time I read it as if I would actually tell some stranger over the phone I have weapons, LOL

[DonP]

18. The Violence Policy Center says so, so it must be true

Now there's an unbiased source for data.

"Hello, this is the Violence Policy Center calling, we're the people that have been pushing to publish gun owners names and addresses in the local papers. Do you have any firearms in your home? No? Thank you for your honesty. Hey Jerry, another no guns house to for the new graph."

Almost as authoritative as Mother Jones editorials and Everytown/MDA numbers

[Duckhunter935]

19. Sounds about right

[ileus]

14. Let's face it...the banners want to see guns used on the "proper" people.

rude toter gunner types...

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

17. Even tyrants develop groupies and cheerleaders n/t

[beevul]

20. Wait, what? "Toters" have rights?

Wait, what? "Toters" have rights?

This is going to give the controllers and other authoritarians a sad.

And then some.


I'm still looking for a downside.

[DonP]

21. Odd that no one in GD is highlighting this "Rogue Cop" story, ain't it?

[Duckhunter935]

22. Yep. Nt

[spin]

23. I grew up in Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s. ...

I remember walking down the main street of my home town with my father and seeing a guy wearing a cowboy hat with two western style revolvers in holsters on a gun belt walking toward us.

I asked my father if those were real guns. He told me that they were and this guy commonly walked around town with the guns strapped to his side. I asked if this was legal and my father laughed and said, "It is in Ohio. Don't try it in most states."