The effort to separate shame and stigmatize gun owners is persistent and ongoing. The National Rifle Association and its millions of members are portrayed as evil, gun-loving ghouls with blood on their hands. Various cities and states are enacting more limits on gun ownership and the right to keep and bear arms, such as “assault weapons” bans, waiting periods, and age restrictions on purchasing guns.
Corporate America has eagerly gotten on board, too, attempting to cut off financing to gun makers, cutting ties with the NRA and proposing to treat credit card transactions involving guns and ammunition the same way they would marijuana purchases or porn. Now, one Ohio college student has learned — the hard way — that, if you’re not careful, it can be problematic to even mention that you’re a gun owner.
Leandra Westbrook’s a student at Kent State University, an institute of higher learning, intellectual inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. A couple of weeks ago, she was reportedly talking to a friend on the phone about “how it is a shame that I cannot carry a gun on campus, considering I have my carry license.”
Her side of the conversation, however, was overheard by police cadet student officers. They immediately marched off and reported the shocking news to campus police.
According to campusreform.com, Westbrook was then pulled out of class and questioned by two campus officers who searched her backpack for a firearm.
Though Westbrook understands that the officers were “just doing their jobs,” she maintains that that the student cadets reported her in bad faith.
“I do not believe they genuinely thought I was a threat, because I specifically said I had a license to carry,” Westbrook told Campus Reform. “In the conversation I had, there was no way to misinterpret what I said, or to even suggest that I had a gun with me.”
She noted that she “would not be surprised if the student cadet who reported me was targeting me for being pro-Second Amendment,” adding that she’s historically faced harassment and vague threats from her peers due to her conservative beliefs.
She apparently isn’t going to take the situation lying down.
Now, Westbrook says she has decided to “take matters into my own hands,” declaring that “I’ll be reporting the people who harassed me to the police, as well as the student cadets who reported me for having a gun for falsifying a report, as they said that they heard me say I had a gun and was afraid to get caught with it, which is not true.”
She did, however, say that she plans to wait until final exams are over to file the report, so as not to interfere with anyone’s study schedule.
“My main concern is that people are not being held accountable for their actions,” she explained. “Their words don’t bother me, but if I was to say something like that to them, my guess is it wouldn’t be tolerated by the university.”
She tells Campus Reform that she intends to start a campus concealed carry club at Kent State. If she does, we hope she remembers to issue trigger warnings to the student cadet population and provide plenty of teddy bears to hug in their safe spaces as they recover from trauma the group’s meetings will surely inflict.
Last time I checked, student “cadet” officers have no official arrest powers. I would have told them to go take a hike.
All they did was report her. Actual campus police officers questioned her.
yeah his reading comprehension is questionable.
One wonders as to EXACTLY what these student cops reported, and also exactly who they are, ghat is names and locations, all of which should be a matter of record with the “real” police. That aside, as to this student being “questioned”‘ my legal counsel has yet to arrive, and a “body search” or search of possessions might well lead to action at law. It might well be that the police department involved has a number of lessons to learn here.
Anybody can arrest anybody else for any crime based on “probable cause”. If its an unreasonable arrest, then that anybody can turn around and sue or charge that somebody with false imprisonment or kidnapping. Police only have the extra-authority to detain and release based on “reasonable suspicion” and turn people over to the magistrate (court system) for prosecution. Otherwise cops have no special powers or authority (in a normal system; most states restrict citizens so much that it appears cops have special powers)…. what cops do have that other people don’t is the backing of the state which has the federal mandated responsibility to back its officers, if they acted within the scope of the law (and a lot of cities wil back their cops regardless, even if they are enforcing illegal laws or enforcing laws in an “questionable” manor).
You’d be well advised to check your local laws before you try to “arrest anybody else for any crime based on “probable cause”.” Defending yourself for false arrest and kidnapping gets really expensive, really fast.
In most places, such “citizen arrest” actions are pretty severely restricted, and unless you have very good probable cause concerning a violent felony in progress, you could be in huge trouble.
In this case, anyone effecting a citizen arrest would undoubtedly be in big trouble. Basing such action on what you heard in half of a conversation, and lacking anything else to make a reasonable person think a violent crime was being committed, is folly.
Report it? Sure, go ahead. But even that, if it results in legal action against the person you reported, could land you in serious civil peril.
So I’d not try to act on what you seem to think is your rights unless you are pretty sure it’s important enough to risk all you have on it.
Then the cities or municipalities need to suffer legal action, spelled law suits.
This is called herd shaming. Common commie tool. Should make you happy serge, this is right up your alley.
Don’t worry, it’s Kent State. The authorities there have a flawless record of protecting students.
@ JR.
Would that include the Kent State Massacre of 4 May 1970…
…..uh, I think that was their point.
@ Rougesam.
My point was those that live in the City of Kent, Ohio probably have Long Memories and don’t want history repeating itself. Whether by Design or by Accident…
You ever hear of jokes?
@ Swarf.
I was vacationing near Kent State in Late April through Mid May 1970. I saw what the Massacre at Kent State “Did” to the Sleepy City of Kent, Ohio after the Incident. People were Afraid to go anywhere near Kent State weeks after the incident. I suspect it was the same University of Texas “Sniper” incident in 1966. Nobody was Laughing there either…
“Massacre”?
They were “violent revolutionaries” and as Col. Jeff Cooper observed they got just what they deserved, it’s a shame more didn’t fall because like true Alinskyites each year on the anniversary they appear on Liberal Media outlets and continue to spread the lie they were “innocent” of all wrongdoing. Two of the so-called “victims” at Kent State were in fact leaders, agitators, “shot-callers”, they might as well had North Vietnamese whistles to direct their troops. In MY home we celebrate that day as a Day of Victory over Communist forces here in the USA.
@ Mark Kelly’s Diapered Drooling Ventriloquist’s Dummy.
NONE of the “Violent Revolutionaries” were Armed, out of the 78 National Guards Men 76 were armed with M1 Garands, 1 with a 12-gauge Shotgun and 1 with an M1911 Pistol…
Secundius:
Listen carefully you sanctimonious simp, the so-called “victims” in this case were “armed” with bricks, baseball-sized rocks, steel pipes, Molotov cocktails etc. all DEADLY weapons thus the treatment they received was appropriate. Oh and I was only seven years old when it happened, I remember watching it on the TV news in “black & white” and asking my father why the national guard stopped firing (failed to destroy the enemy).
Now take your bleeding-heart and revisionist history BS somewhere else, the Huffington Post to be exact
What’s the Range of a Brick when being Hand Thrown to that of a .30-06 being Fired from an M1 Garand or a .45ACP…
Secundius:
Tell me when you’re struck in the temple and succumb to your injuries or are hit with a flaming bottle of gasoline and suffer 3rd Degree burns to your face and neck disfiguring you for life that’s if you survive going into shock.
Admit it, you’re a Marxist/Leninist/Trotskyite, a devout Leftist who sympathizes with the enemies of freedom.
Now be off, back to Media Matters with you.
Throwing distance of a Brick is ~3.65-yards, the Closest Ohio National Guardsman was ~53.59-yards and the Furthest Ohio Guardsman was ~86.4-yards. Who do you suspect had the Upper Hand in this Battle…
Sixth Generation Republican, Missy!
“What’s the Range of a Brick when being Hand Thrown …”
I don’t know exactly. We could ask Reginal Denny.
“Though Westbrook understands that the officers were “just doing their jobs…” No, the officers were helping a snowflake SWAT you.
If you read it again it was campus police who conducted the search, not cadets. They just reported it. Still in Florida not enough probable cause for a search. Unless she concented. Barely enough for an interview. She should have told them to go fuck themselves.
They probably would have searched her anyway.
The safest person to hassel and search would be a law abiding citizen wouldn’t it.
…Not until US Citizens Start Shooting back against Unlawful and Unconstitutional Conduct by paid government agents…This is the definition of Authoritarianism and a Police State…Like the STASI……
The cadet provided enough specific (if wrong) information for the cops to justify a limited search for weapons (Terry vs Ohio)…. sounds like the little snowflake cadet sh!+ his/her/xer panties. In 10 years we’ll have an other little “Johannes Mehserle” running around in uniform.
….2nd Amendment..The to keep and Bear arms ..SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED….UNLAWFUL SEARCHES AND SEIZURES…The very definition of an Authoritarian Police-state….Hello, People….Keep surrendering Liberty 🗽……Keep Reasoning it away…Soon it will be just a memory…..
@ Aaron M. Walker.
One “Slight Problem”! It’s NOT Unconstitutional! “The Suspension Clause” in the US Constitution (i.e. Article One, Section 9, Clause 2) of 17 September 1787. Burrowed from the Massachusetts “Disqualification Act” of 16 February 1787, by President George Washington by Executive Order. The only Executive Order George Washington EVER issued. Predates the Bill of Rights by ~4-years. First used against the Shays’ Rebellion of 1788…
I thought police were pro 2nd Amendment. Libtards posing as police cadets sounds like infiltration similar to the way Socialists have taken over education.
” Now, Westbrook says she has decided to ‘take matters into my own hands,’ ”
Sure hope another “cadet officer” doesn’t read that. No telling how they’ll report that one…
Refuse to sit at the back of the bus. Call out the civil rights violators for what they are. Bigots.
Po-leece cadet student officers you say?!? Gestapo mebbe? Yeah I would think Kent State wouldn’t be so effed up. I vividly remember the 1970 murders…
Jack booted thugs in training.
Report the cadets to the police? Hell, report them to the FBI! This is a blatant civil rights violation under 18 USC 241. She should press for prosecution, and sue the crap out of them. Regulation text below:
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
Filing a false police report is also a felony in every State. What those little Hitler You did was to file a false Police Report especially if what they said they heard her say was a fabrication. Classic He said She said so the Hitler Youth will get the benefit of the doubt. Still she should file the criminal complain because if they did it once the will do it again!!
“But muh LEOs are pro 2A! They only arrest people for victimless crimes (like carrying without govt permission slips) because it is their job!” Says all the retarded bootlickers out there. While ironically they often say “come and take them, cold dead hands” among other comments unfriendly to the govt whist not realizing that when the day comes, it will be the enforcers (LE) of their state overlords that they endlessly intellectually felate who will kill their asses and take their guns for a goddamned paycheck! This is a type of ignorance and logical failure typically reserved for the readership of The Huffington Post
Muhmawsur, I stood behind a badge for a very long time. Always on the side of the honest firearms owner. So were the other guys I worked with. I’m learning things might not be the same in the urban NE and the urban West Coast. Beginning to believe in the Balkanization of the United States. All like minded move to the deep south, Texas and the real old west.
Where in the deep south? Not much pro-2A in LA during Katrina.
Ulf, can’t answer for LA. Governor didn’t sign a mutual aid agreement with Florida. I did work Mississippi from Bay St. Louis, Waveland and points west to the LA line. New Orleans would have been okay if the dikes hadn’t broke. Gulf coast Mississippi. Not a single man made structure standing for miles. Not one. For miles. Never forget the conference call briefing with FEMA. Guy is telling what to pack, yada, yada. Been there, done that, got several T-shirts. Then he said, “Oh, if any of you guys have rifles bring them with at least one hundred rounds of ammunition.” That got my attention. I mean, I went to work every day with more than that, but first time I ever heard it at a hurricane briefing. And I had already sat through a few. Anyway, said that to say this. The only time I disarmed a citizen on that deployment was when they entered a mobile field hospital that I was helping to secure. When they left after treatment We returned their weapon to them. Fully loaded.
You mean the Democrat run city of New Orleans? Half surprised me that one of the thugs of the NOPD didn’t get popped. It does point out the foolishness of defending your home from your mail box inward.
Still doesn’t cut it. I live in rural East Tennessee, and even here I would say about half of LE is anti 2nd amendment, with an even larger percentage that would constitute a majority, enforcing anti 2a laws. The troubling part is how many fancy themselves as something above us. The irritating part is when they try to over zealously enforce laws that they haven’t even bothered to actually learn.
Tattling is bad enough but tattling where nobody actually did anything wrong? That’s insane. If snitches get stitches then lying bitches get caned in the public square.
That isn’t tattling. It’s filing a false and malicious police report with the potential to get an innocent person killed.
The next generation of barney fifes in the making.
Sounds like this group who call themselves cadets need some coddling…hugs and safe, cry zones since they were so traumatized by this! OMG, what kind of losers are these people? I would hate to think I had to rely on this bunch for back-up on a REAL job…seasoned police officers will have to watch their backs if they have the utter misfortune to get stuck with these idiots!!! I applaud this young woman’s guts….this was nothing but harassment (not to mention the bold-faced lies) on the part of these cadets who fancy themselves future law enforcement members. I wouldn’t hire any of them to walk my dog!!!
Wow, excess on the part of those who wield authoritay at Kent State. Who woulda’ thunk?
A majority of Americans believe only the police and criminals have a use for a gun, so only the police are special enough to carry guns and everyone else falls into the other category. Sadly, some police, and police cadets, fall into that majority of Americans. I know some LEOs that have a superiority complex and would gladly vote to make all guns in private hands illegal, with a lifetime LEO carve-out of course, because they’re special. Most LEOs I know would rather people take care of themselves, but some are definitely looking for glory and status.
Fred, I don’t know where you live, but when I was a working L.E.O. I would have been hard pressed to find a household in my jurisdiction without a firearm, or two. Citizens backed us up, too. I remember one night I was out of the car at a convenience store. A citizen approached and said, “Hey man. You see that guy over there? He put a gun in his pocket when he got out of his car.” Okay, if he’s got a CCW, no big deal, but a citizen has reported it so I have to look into it. I aproach the gentleman and make an inquiry. Guy bolts for the door. Only problem is another citizen is about to enter the store and sees what is happening. He holds the exit door against the escape. Suspect bounces off and lands on his back. Looks up into the muzzle of my 1911. Convicted felon in possession of a concealed firearm. I’ll say it again with emphasis, ARMED AND LAW ABIDING CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND LAW ENFORCEMENT COMPLEMENT EACH OTHER! We are not enemies.
Agreed, but too many of your LEO brothers have joined with the liberal disarm everybody crowd, or they know whats best for us. The crowd thats even worse than LEO’s are the pseudo LEO’s, the State Park Rangers, Fish and Game, School Resource officers, etc. I have rarely run into one of them that does not dislike that someone is carrying legally.
Campus Pigs are really bad. Barney Fife rejects.
JS, bad apples in every barrel. Most guys I worked with, Federal, state, local support 2A. Maybe, you live in the wrong part of our country. I’ve begun to learn there are parts I probably wouldn’t recognize. At least not what I believe this country is about. Oh, down here an S.R.O. is the same as any other deputy sheriff. Game and Fish? Been boarded lots of times coming in from off shore fishing. Told them up front, “Signal 0 on board.” Usually 2+. They never batted an eye. Conducted their safety inspection, checked our catch, and license and wished us a good day. Tell you something else. I had a game and Fish guy back me up on an armed robbery arrest one night. Damn glad he was there too. To call Ross a pseudo L.E.O. is an insult. Say it to my face and I’ll do my best to make you eat your teeth.
Oh, the liberals will love this. I’m a whiskey/mike. All the other members of this little play were bravo/mikes. In fact two of them were just plain men.
Good thing she said nothing about voting; neither voting while female nor voting while under 21 years of age.
Kent State University, an institute of Marxist learning, pseudo-intellectual inquiry and the ridgid dogma of Soviet of ideas.
Ms. Westbrook should threaten to call in the Ohio National Guard.
That should be really funny.
Stasi… comes to mind.
kent is a divided town, where the people who live there find themselves constantly bullied by the university.
Police cadets? Bad cops start young. At least the cadet didn’t shoot her; a real cop would have.
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