imported post
Ed Holmes
Police Chief
Mercer Island Police Department
9611 SE 36th Street
Mercer Island, WA 98040
Dear Chief Holmes:
I am a two year resident of our fine city, and I am writing to express my concern and dismay about a recent incident involving three of your officers, and in particular, a Sergeant Noel. I was confronted by the three officers in Mercerdale Park on June 29[suP]th[/suP] and was the victim of callous and rude behavior, not to mention, unlawfully detained and property seized because of a complete disregard or ignorance of Washington State laws pertaining to the carrying of firearms.
Because Washington is an "open carry" state for firearms (RCW 9.41.050), I was doing nothing to warrant the type of treatment I received from your officers. The fact that Washington is an “open carry” State for firearms means a person may carry a firearm in an exposed holster without any kind of permit unless there is something that makes it specifically illegal. For example, carrying a weapon onto primary or secondary school grounds for any other reason besides dropping off or picking up that person’s child, or other prohibited places that do not violate the State’s laws per the State Preemption (RCW 9.41.290) which says that local laws may not exceed the requirements of State law and if they do, they shall not be enacted and are preempted.
For your reference, unlawful carrying is explained in (RCW 9.41.270). The RCW is specifically meant to address situations that are more than just walking around with an exposed firearm. Time after time in many municipalities surrounding Mercer Island, this protected right has been enforced and officer training has been held to inform and educate local police officers about the legality of open carry.
The unfortunate incident occurred as I was enjoying the evening with some new friends watching our children play together in the park with some dogs and a Frisbee. It was towards the end of my outing that the officers approached me. I was very polite and agreeable with them in terms of my demeanor, while they were immediately hostile and rude. I did not allow their rude behavior to provoke any similar reaction from myself and I remained polite and composed throughout the entire unfortunate incident. Your officers then proceeded to unlawfully detain me and handcuff me in and make me sit on the ground while my 3 year old daughter watched from 15 feet away. They also relieved me of my firearm without my permission and removed the magazine and the bullets from it and then dry fired it into the ground with the muzzle placed on the ground. I found this to be an egregious violation of my Fourth Amendment Constitutionally protected right to be to be secure in my person, house, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, which shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. I was 100% within the law and therefore there was no probable cause to warrant the detention and unlawful seizure of my property that I was subjected to on the grass at Mercerdale Park. Ignorance of the law is no rationale or excuse for such an obvious breach of the law by an officer sworn to uphold the law. What was more troubling was that Sergeant Noel stated that he did not care what Washington State law was, and that he would come out and detain me in the same way every time he either got a call from a concerned citizen or saw me open carrying. These threats are also a violation of my rights and can be considered harassment in the eyes of the law.
While I am upset and angered by the treatment I received and for the obvious violation of my rights, I only wish for all harassment to stop and for your officers to be made to take training pertaining to the lawful carrying of firearms as well as some sensitivity training as their rude and aggressive behavior was particularly disturbing.
I have written down the entire incident and submitted by Internet based complaint form and have informed an attorney of my wish to pursue further options if this type of treatment continues. It is my hope that we can work together to avoid any further incidents of this nature take place in Mercer Island.
It is my belief that all person’s rights must be respected, no matter if they are agreed with or not. I am looking forward to your response.
Sincerely,
John McClure
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Ok guys, I appreciate the concern and your desire to see a lawsuit to teach the bad LEOs a lesson, but I have to live here and this community is my home. I will pursue a lawsuit if it happens again and I have a lawyer who said that we will very likely win as I have documented the incident that has happened quite well. I am also going to be carrying an MP3 voice recorder with me at all times now, so any further harassment will be caught on the recorder. It hangs around my neck and is attached to earphones so it is not in a pocket and will pick up every word spoken... this recorder is really good.
The letter above is what I will bring with me to the police station when I pick up the other information and hopefully have a sit down with the chief of police. You can help me to reword some sections you think might be better. I want to indicate the RCWs, but use my own words to complain. I figure he'll get plenty of legal documents and training bulletins from you guys.
