Bangor police officer denied right to vote after refusing to surrender weapon
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In the 18 years that he has been a police officer in Bangor, James Dearing couldn’t think of a single time when someone has asked him to turn over his firearm.
Until last Friday.
Dearing, who was patrolling his assigned beat near the Bangor Civic Center, decided to stop in and cast an early vote. He walked into the polling place in full uniform and stood in a short line with other voters.
One of the election officials told Dearing he couldn’t bring his gun inside. The officer said he thought it was a joke.
Election warden Wayne Mallar then approached Dearing and reiterated the request: Turn over your weapon to another officer or we can’t let you vote.
Dearing refused.
“I would never relinquish my weapon,” the officer said later.
Mallar stood his ground.
The officer said he left the civic center Friday feeling embarrassed and insulted. Dearing posted details of the incident on his Facebook page late Friday and immediately began receiving strong responses.
“One fellow officer, who is stationed in Iraq, said ‘What am I over here fighting for?’” Dearing said.
The incident bothered the officer enough to draft a letter to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, which the officer also provided to the Bangor Daily News. In it, Dearing writes that Mallar claimed he would be violating state law by allowing the officer to vote with his weapon holstered.
“Mallar claims that this was a state of Maine law, however, I cannot find such a prohibition listed in Title 21-A,” Dearing’s letter read. “Furthermore, many members of the police department and I have been casting ballots at the polls for many years in full uniform and have never been required to remove our firearms.”
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Disarm a COP?! Some idiot Poll Watcher / Polling Captain / "election official", whatever they call it up there, thinks HE as a civilian volunteer can DISARM an On Duty LEO. It's THE singularly, dumbest thing I've heard yet during this voting cycle.
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Well, setting aside anything said by Joe Biden of course.
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Schteveo
10 comments:
I've seen this before, although not to this bizarre degree. The polling places are usually filled with elderly "volunteers", (hand picked hacks of the local political boss, and in NYC they're always Dems) and as such, actually believe they have the authority the corrupt political boss told them they have. In fact, it's at this level of the voting process where much of the corruption (usually called "errors") occurs.
BTW, every living, breathing, thinking, LEO knows, you NEVER surrender your weapon, especially if you're in uniform!!
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."
-Albert Einstein
"BTW, every living, breathing, thinking, LEO knows, you NEVER surrender your weapon, especially if you're in uniform!!"
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LEO? WTF are you talking about dude? I don't give up MY pistol, just because some well meaning (asshole) civilian says I have to!! Who would? Anybody who would just hand over their gun, doesn't NEED a gun.
And believe it or not, I've had SEVERAL tell me I "had to leave the premises", and these are other shoppers, or how about the one neighbor who told my younger son, "...and ONLY someone who is with a law enforcement agency can legally carry firearms (here it comes kids)...AFTER IT'S DARK OUTSIDE!!
(college students, huh?!!)
I've had shoppers in grocery stores, Wal-Mart, Lowes, tell me I had to leave if THEY (the shopper) objected to my guns.
So I totally get HOW the poll captain THOUGHT he had the power. What I don't get is their THINKING that THEY get to decide if EYE, I, ME, MYSELF get to have a gun!!?
It's nucking futs!
As far as I know, unless there is a Announcement sign (Announcement: unarmed target rich environment, criminals do not need to beware) nobody has the right to prohibit anyone from having a holstered weapon in any public place.
This especially holds true of a LEO. These are the guys that are (usually) trying to provide some kind of domestic protection. That makes them targets.
Last week I was temporarily disoriented in a "strange" town and flashed a LEO while driving. It was cold out, so I put my Air Force gloves on when I was talking to him. He kindly but forcefully requested that I remove them. No problem.... That's probably the biggest problem of law abiding citizens, you don't realize that an everyday action could be construed as dangerous.
On the other hand, asking a cop to bare his throat temporarily is the epitome of idiocy....but then again most libs don't believe that there are bad people out there. They are only misunderstood and held down by "the man."
alan,
that is the rule here too.
IF it's clearly marked, or listed in the law (i.e. all courthouses, any state gub'ment facilities indoor or out, all federal bldgs, banks, any place that sells alcohol to DRINK ON SITE, and a few others) otherwise it's OK. But I've been amazed at what the unschooled, legal experts at the street level think THEY can tell me to do.
And just how will they enforce their silliness? I AM the one who's armed after all, what can THEY make ME do!
NYC mayor Napoleon Bloomberg, the nations #1 anti-gun psycho, invented "gun-free school saftey zones", meaning;
"in or on or within any building, structure,athletic playing field, playground or land contained within the real property boundary line of a public, private, or parochial day care center or nursery or per-school, elementary, intermediate, junior high, vocational, or high school, or within 1000 feet of the real property boundary line comprising any such school."... (Law: NYC Charter, 18-C)
With the thousands of places we have that fall into this category, it would be all but impossible NOT to be in a school saftey zone.
...and as we know, places with tough gun rules are WAY safer than places with fewer laws or easy CCW / CCH laws.
You should thank the Mayor for protecting you!
Doomberg wants to even disallow donuts. What's a LEO to do?
It is plain, as LE, you don't give up your weapon, Period. As one who has had to do LE duties for the military one only surrenderd your weapon to the armorer at the end of duty. It went everywhere, the head, the chow hall, personnel, the wing commander, ect. A uniformed officer is representing the local municipality and no gray haired hippie, tree hugging communist idealog has the authority to disarm a sworn officer.
NY Post; 11/2/10;
"A cop on Election Day duty at a Greenwich Village polling station nabbed a bank robber this morning after hearing his description over the radio, police said.
The bandit had just held up an HSBC branch on Broadway near West 9th Street around 8:40 a.m. after passing a note, cops said.
The thief fled with an unspecified amount of cash but was nabbed three blocks away by the eagle-eyed officer who saw he matched the broadcast description.
Cops recovered the stolen loot, and charges are pending."
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