This post originally appeared at miopencarry.org and is reprinted here with permission

Michigan is routinely classified as an open carry state; however, if you are not white and a police officer (Detroit Police Officer James Taylor in this case) decides that non whites shouldn’t have guns, then you get arrested for concealed carry and the prosecutor and judge can play along and even bar the attorney’s from mentioning that open carry is legal during the trial. No, this case was not argued in the Central Court of North Korea in Pyongyang, this case was argued in Detroit, Michigan. Although it is hard to tell the difference after hearing about this case . . .

Fortunately,  two attorney’s came to the victim’s defense. Here is the synopsis from one of the attorneys.

Synopsis by Jim Makowski, Esq.

PEOPLE v. WOODY AAR

On September 13, 2014, Elijah Woody, Jr., a 24 y.o., African-American male, was hanging out chatting with 4-5 friends on the sidewalk of an inner city neighborhood in Detroit. WOODY was open carrying a Glock 23 in a Blackhawk SERPA OWB holster and wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a light jacket buttoned all the way up.

At approximately 7:50p, a car containing three officers from the Detroit Police Department’s Tactical Response Unit, rounded the corner and approached the group. The TRU officers dress in BDUs and typically act in a paramilitary fashion.

As everyone in Detroit knows but most of us from the suburbs do not, it is common for DPD officers to stop, frisk, demand identification and conduct illegal, unconstitutional searches of any group of black males on public property. If they find anything illegal or questionable they will then lie as to how they learned of the offense.

True to form, the officers stopped the car, jumped out and demanded everyone produce ID. Officer James Taylor went straight to WOODY and asked him “you got some bullshit on you there,” referring to the Glock. WOODY is immediately disarmed, cuffed and placed in the back of the squad car. The officers did not inquire whether he had a CPL until after transporting him to the Detroit Detention Facility, and charging him with the five-year felony of Carrying a Concealed Weapon.

When the police wrote their report they had to come up with a story to justify their encounter with WOODY. The officers claimed they observed the group drinking from red Solo cups and, as they drove up they “smelled the strong odor of burning marijuana” from a moving car about 15’ away (must be some bloodhound genes there). Officer Taylor claimed that when WOODY noticed their approach he “bladed” his body to limit their ability to see his right hip and started “backpedaling.” Taylor claimed that WOODY then turned full face on, lifted the right side of his jacket and exposed the Glock hidden under his jacket, stating he was “open carrying.”

Shortly after the arrest I was contacted and advised about this gross abuse of WOODY’s rights. I reached out to my good friend Terry Johnson, a fellow 2A defense lawyer, to see if he was interested in jointly defending WOODY. He agreed so we took the case.

At the preliminary exam two of the three officers testified and many inconsistencies became evident in their testimony. Despite these obvious falsehoods the judge decided that there was Probable Cause that a crime had been committed and bound the matter over to Wayne County Circuit Court on the felony CCW charge. We flat out refused to engage in plea negotiations and demanded the matter be set for jury trial.

At 4:49p the afternoon before trial the Wayne County Prosecutor filed two Motions in Limine. A Motion in Limine is a pretrial motion generally filed several weeks before trial, used to exclude certain evidence or limit what the jury is allowed to know. The prosecutor sought to exclude part of the dashcam recordings that, to put it mildly, were uncomplimentary about the general public.

[Editor’s Note: We understand that while in the cruiser the Detroit Police Officers were heard calling people that were out and about “niggers”, “pussies”, and “motherfuckers”.  Please understand, we don’t like printing these words, but we want you to understand the exact nature of the conduct of these officers.]

He also sought an order from the judge PROHIBITING US FROM CLAIMING OPEN CARRY AS A DEFENSE. The judge granted both motions and we were forbidden to explain to the jury that Open Carry differed from Concealed Carry and what the differences were.

At trial the next day Officer Taylor claimed that he decided WOODY had a gun on him based upon his “extensive experience” and the fact he was “blading” his body away. When asked whether he yelled “GUN” or in any way alerted his partners of the presence of a firearm he said no and claimed that he was trying to “deescalate” the situation.

Yet when the second officer took the stand, on cross examination he claimed that they had a “code word” to alert the other officers of a gun and that Taylor had given it. Further, the dashcam video showed WOODY being placed in the rear of the squad car with the empty holster clearly visible. The jacket the police claimed was hanging down covering the gun was clearly shown in the video to be buttoned all the way up. It became obvious that the officers had fabricated their story, with jurors shaking their heads in disgust at times. The day ended after the first two officers testified.

The next morning the last officer testified. He was the most truthful, stating that he hadn’t really interacted with WOODY as he was on security overwatch, making sure the other civilians present were not a threat. The prosecution rested and we made a Motion for a Directed Verdict, asking that the judge rule that, as a matter of law, the Defendant could not be found guilty. Since the judge is required to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party the motion was denied.

Our first witness testified how the group had been standing around, talking about the upcoming Floyd Meriwether fight that was going to take place that night when the cops drove up, ordered everyone to put their hands up, and directly approached WOODY. The witness firmly stated that WOODY’s gun was not concealed or in any way hidden by a coat.

The WOODY then elected to take the witness stand to testify in his own defense. The arresting officers had not realized that WOODY had pulled out his cell phone and started recording video. While the video only lasted 13 seconds it completely contradicted the police version of the facts, showing that WOODY had his hands up and was 2-3’ away from the nearest person and not moving away. The video cut off as Taylor slapped the phone out of his hand. It was perfectly clear that the cops saw the gun from the moving car and headed directly to WOODY hassle him.

After we rested we again asked the judge allow us to explain in the Jury Instructions that Open Carry is legally recognized and that the jury should be advised of same but we were again denied. The case was sent to the jury at noon. Shortly thereafter the jury asked to see the videos. It took a while to get the videos set up for the jury to review but, five minutes or so after the jury reviewed the videos they came back with a NOT GUILTY verdict.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

1. Always get a CPL.
2. Always record when Open Carrying, especially without a CPL.
3. Detroit Police cannot be trusted to recognize your right to Open Carry.
4. Expect dirty tricks from the prosecutor’s office.
5. Make sure you have competent legal counsel.

So there you have it, if you are not white, Michigan is only open carry friendly if the cop decides that he’s not going to arrest you anyway and make up charges.

Keep this in mind next time someone tries to tell you that Michigan is “gun friendly”. It’s not. In fact, if you are not white, you are at risk — especially in Wayne County and Gennessee County.

I would add that if a non-white person carries a gun lawfully without a concealed pistol license, they should also carry a recording device that backs up to a cloud server in real time as well as carrying contact information for an attorney or two.

Thankfully in this case, the victim had a video that proved that the officers lied under oath, specifically Detroit Cop James Taylor. He was so caught up in his lies and fabrications that he was too dumb to delete the recording that proved his felony conspiracy.

This is nothing new in Michigan. The gun laws  that we are stuck with were mostly passed to disarm minorities (specifically people who are black and Jewish). Apparently some in Michigan haven’t gotten the memo that it’s 2015.

So has this corrupt cop been arrested by the State Police or by the FBI civil rights division? No. Is this cop under investigation by the Detroit Police? No. Is this dirty cop still driving around Detroit after lying under oath and after committing multiple federal felonies while your tax dollars are paying for his salary and medical benefits? Yes.

Sadly, this is by no means an isolated incident.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

83 COMMENTS

  1. And yet people will proclaim from the roof tops that Michael Brown was a gift from god instead of an actual case of police abuse like this.

    • That would mean the media would have to say carrying a Handgun for self defense is a right that should not be infringed upon which will happen when hell freezes over.

    • The Racial Grievance Industry (Sharpton, Jackson, Parks, Crump, et al) wants nothing to do with a case such as this one.

      Why? Because the overwhelming majority of people, of all skin color, recognize that the man was wronged, and the Racial Grievance Industry needs controversial cases in order to gin up racial dischord. Without racial dischord, the Racial Grievance Industry has no need to exist, and therefore doesn’t get paid to exist.

      The Michael Brown movement got taken over very early by the anarchists and the communists, because the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated what happened – and the truth didn’t support the narrative attempted to be pushed by the Racial Grievance Industry. They backed out, and the real troublemakers filled in the void.

      Back to the topic at hand: I’d open carry with this man, in support of his rights. But if it’s in Detroit, I’m getting a GoPro first.

    • Just a few? What about all of the cops standing around watching Kelly Thomas get beaten do death? How many times have we seen a cop stop another cop from committing a crime or using excessive force?

      Hardly ever.

      A good cop would have at least tried to stop the Thomas beating.

  3. Sounds a lot like Chicago. No open carry here. Please don’t bother to flame me but what did this guy expect hanging out on the corner carrying a gun in Detroit? Drinking and smoking pot. I guess me and my pretty black wife won’t be open carrying in Motown…

    • I didn’t here anything about open containers or possession charges, so those sound about as made up as the rest of the cops’ story.

    • The (proven corrupt) cop SAID he saw red solo cups and SAID he smelled marijuana.

      Bill Clinton SAID he did not have sexual relations with that woman…
      Bush JR. SAID mission accomplished.
      B. Obama SAID if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
      I SAID i’m a magical pony who rules the universe.

      Are you seeing a pattern here?

  6. Lawyer here. While it may do no good ultimately –(the likelihood of prosecutors being sanctioned is vanishingly small) a complaint should be made to the U.S. Attorney and the Civil Rights division that a nakedly racially motivated arrest and baseless prosecution, lacking any colorable evidentiary or legal support were conducted by the police, and prosecutor — and they should all be charged with criminal conspiracy to violate the Civil Rights act, as well as Bar complaints against the prosecutor for a completely frivolous legal proceeding. Plus civil actions against the officers involved under Section 1983.

    They all need to enjoy the benefits of the processes they have so terribly disserved — et pour encourager les autres …

    • I suppose it’s too much to hope that the judge would be disciplined in some way for barring any mention of the relevant law from being brought to the jury’s attention…

      • Ummm, yeah. Since there was ultimately a correct decision by the jury, the system is unlikely to do anything about it unless there are a series of similar claims of misconduct.

      • I was thinking about that–seemed to me that the judge was pretty much guaranteeing a successful appeal if there had in fact been a conviction by the jury. But it occurred to me that if he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon one of the elements the prosecution had to prove would be that the weapon was concealed. If they couldn’t prove the “concealed” element, there could be no conviction of the charged offense. So an instruction as to legality of open carry would arguably be superfluous. That’s the only possible justification I can think of.

    • That’s recklessness masquerading as cleverness. What? You’re the only one who’s read “Candide” in here?

    • Yeh right. With Eric Holder and his minions, that would go no where. Remember, we are now a country of men, not laws. There would have to be a complete gutting of the Justice Department to assure justice here.

    • An armpit that built the lion’s share of prosperity in the state. Go back to making rocking chairs in Grand Rapids.

      • That could have been true in 1955. Detroit has been basically Haiti with snow, and a net liability to Wayne and Macomb Counties, the state of Michigan, the United States of America, and civilization as a whole, since around 1970.

      • Western Michigan > eastern Michigan and its not close. Detoilet sginaw and flint are all awful places to visit and worse to live in. Anyways the state has more natural beauty than anywhere else east of the Mississippi, but the sociopolitical climate sucks and they tax the living sh*t out of you here. I’m in Kalamazoo and I can’t wait to get out for points south….

    • Considering it’s in Michigan… can armpits have armpits? And this is coming from a guy who went to college in the state…

  9. Glad that guy had a good lawyer and got an intelligent jury. I can’t fathom how a judge could prohibit a defendant from claiming lawful activity as a defense against charges of unlawful acts or refuse to allow a jury to be given relevant information in a trial.

    • Speaking as someone who recently had a relative go through a high-profile criminal trial, you would be F#$%ING AMAZED at what information a Judge will rule to withhold… up to and including ALL RELEVANT INFORMATION.

      No joke, I just watched it happen. Literally all of the most relevant information was no allowed to enter the courtroom. Total joke.

  11. Reminds me of the multi racial group of open carriers walking around Detroit with long guns, I suppose strength in numbers really is important in that case. I am not that legal savvy, but it seems CRAZY you can be forced to not be allowed to mention something that is state law. Guess thats just the current state of our “justice” system.

    100% agree with Zora above, this is something for those “civil rights advocates” to be screaming bloody murder about, but we pretty much know the probability of that…

      • Damn Danny, I had not made that connection for whatever reasons(tbh I was being lazy earlier and didnt decide to search back articles), great work! I seriously wouldnt have ever imagined he was a member of the same group that was flexing their rights with minimal issues, only to be fully persecuted while on his own. Guess those cops in motown really arent playing even remotely fair with Mr Woody. Ill definitely look up the Hells Saints media for some more info. Great connection! Iwould love to see another TTAG followup article.

        • Yes, black men do seem to get special treatment in Michigan, especially certain areas. There is one black OCer who is pretty well known to the community. The Detroit cops stopped him one day.for OCing and gave him the runaround. Wanted his ID, wanted to check the serial numbers of his guns. Plural. He refused. They finally arrested him and ended up giving him a ticket for not having a license for his bicycle! (He was riding a bike). That is not even a law on the books. He took it to court and the judge yelled at the cops.

          I could post more stories, as could some others here from Michigan.

  12. I don’t understand how the judge could have barred the open carry defense without committing reversible judicial error; the way this is written, it sounds as if he had it in for the defendant as well. The exclusion of part of the officer’s video was arguably correct on relevance grounds, but it is certainly of great relevance in any 1983 action as demonstrating racial animus.

    • See my post above. “Open carry is legal” might would be an appropriate defense if they tried to arrest and or charge him for an offense committed by openly carrying a weapon. The officers were alleging that he was carrying concealed. That is what they had to prove. If they couldn’t prove concealment, they couldn’t make their case, regardless of whether “open carry” is technically legal or not. In fact, even if “open carry” was not legal, it would not be relevant to this trial, because that is not what was charged. Although I think the judge was wrong not to give the instruction, I don’t think it amounted to “reversible error”–technically.

  13. And yet all the right-wing statists proclaim up and down that the system has no racism at all…

    • C’mon Grind, cut the trolling posts. You actually do have something to contribute here, but then you go and blow any credibility with stupid comments like this. Look up “straw man fallacy” and why it makes it look like you are at the im-maturity level of a 15 year old.

  14. That is @$&#ing infuriating! Thank God for the jury coming to the rescue in this case. I can’t believe what that judge did is legal! Someone get Al Sharpton on the phone, he’ll want to hear abou…oh, wait. Nevermind.

  16. Open watch is an app that saves low quality video to the cloud immediately and higher resolution later.

  17. The cops should be charged for thier crimes and the judge should be taken off the bench and also charged with obstruction of justice.
    The victim should be compensated by the county for time held lawyers fees and none of the above will never happen. In a perfect world they would all be in jail them selfs.

  18. This is a textbook example ( provided that all events listed in the story are true and that nothing is misrepresented or omitted) of what is wrong with practicing any right in this nation, not just our right to bare arms. As it stands, we have a legal system that allow judges to dictate what the jury hears to such an extent that even in a jury trial they still determent if your guilty or not.

    You can see in this case a clear failure of our system of government as a whole. The police (executive) are corrupt. The Judge (judicial) is corrupt. The law (legislative) is simply ignored.

    And finally, I just have to say never, ever, EVER elect a judge for there rate of convictions. You could very we be putting yourself in prison.

  19. What a pice of trash title, and story. Did you get some of Big Al’s paycheck this week for race baiting?

    We all have seen and heard of tons of stories where cops have stomped on the rights of OCers, what ever race they are.

    To say that its only ok to OC if your white and that the cops will only mess with people of color is right out of the race baiters playbook.

    Congratulations for entering into that game.

    • Yeah, the guy should have just undergone plastic surgery to look white and move to a gated community….. Fool

      Show us one story where a non-minority was arrested for CCW when carrying openly AND where the judge prohibited the defense from saying OC was Legal AND where the exonertating dash cam was not allowed in the court room?

      Perhaps you should educated yourself… Unless you support this kind of behavior…

    • So, you’re more upset about the (proven) claim of racism than all the other mountains of bullshit the fellow had to endure?

      Kind of telling of your intentions.

  20. In order to be a cop in Detroit the standards are possibly the lowest nationally. Must be at least 18, no felony convictions, and have a high school diploma or GED. The starting pay rate is 14-17 thousand PER YEAR! And as of recently, these cops have learned that there retirement is in limbo. So to put it as plainly as possible, they are under paid, under trained, and get no respect from the people they police. With all this being said, just because a black man in the hood got jammed up for standing on the corner with the homies does not in itself make it a racial issue, id be willing to bet that 2 of these 3 cops are not white. Same goes for the judge, and prosecutors. Not everything is a race issue! I had a black platoon leader (LT.), a black commander and chief, a chinese platoon sgt, a jewish squad leader, and at my first civilian job after that I had a black boss! In both places I had to hear other blacks bitch and cry about everything that didnt go there way being racist. Blacks are the true racist today, why not call it what it is.

    • FTA: [Editor’s Note: We understand that while in the cruiser the Detroit Police Officers were heard calling people that were out and about “niggers”, “pussies”, and “motherfuckers”. Please understand, we don’t like printing these words, but we want you to understand the exact nature of the conduct of these officers.]

      But, yeah, sure, they weren’t racist at all nor are any actions taken against black males by police every racially motivated…

    • They do not make 14k. They start at more like 25-29k. But then thats not that crazy i was offered federal law enforcement job in 2003 for just a bit more starting wage. Cops get 20-25k healthcare package and retire after 20 years making 80-110k then then get that for the rest of their life.

      They then go get a second job, also with a pension. Work ten more years and retire with pensions greater than allot of people with advanced degrees make while working.

    • Bob atlanta is ok with hiring black felons to be cops. No joke. Not me being political. They have their quotas, and cannot fill them if they exclude felons. About 5-6-7 years ago they started accepting felons, as long as they are black. This does not apply to whites, jews, asians, or even latin guys. Granted they may not exclude you if you are a white fellon its just that there is a long line of white dudes with no record, who score top 3 percent on the test. They get the call backs.

  21. My God. And people wonder why there is declining trust in the court system or the rule of law in this country. Blatantly corrupt judges, working with blatantly corrupt cops and a blatantly corrupt prosecutor to completely ignore the law. Nice. Keep your powder dry and do everything you can to avoid getting caught up (on either side) of the legal system.

  22. As I understand the law, a Motion in Limine, when granted does not prohibit evidence from being presented, but it does require the judge’s permission to present or refer to the evidence without permission. So, you can’t just present that evidence, you have to ask to mention it before it is mentioned so that the judge can then ensure that it is not being presented in a inappropriately prejudicial way.

    But it does seem to be the case usually that it is used to keep anyone from knowing about bad police behavior, and also that if the motion in limine is granted it’s pretty likely that the judge has already decided that it will be prejudicial.

  23. I noticed that you grabbed this story from moc, which is an organization that had nothing to do with the case. The hells saints organization is the only pro gun organization that supported Elijah, so those who may want the full an unabridged story should find it by looking it up on the hells saints website, facebook page and youtube channel. As someone who has been involved with this case since Elijah was locked up I can guarantee you won’t find the full story elsewhere.

    • You sure about that, it was MOC and MGO members who spread the word which lead to those two attorneys keepin your buddy’s but out of Division 1.

      Many people came together to offer Elijah a free CPL class and to cover the cost of his CPL… If you don’t believe it, then ask him because it’s MGO and MOC members that are making this happen, not Hells Saints.

      • Thats interesting jared, because I gave him and his girlfriend the names and phone numbers of both attorneys while he was still locked up and we were working hard to get him out on bail before the judge let him out on a tether. Meanwhile all we heard from moc leadership was ridicule and indifference as we raised funds and led protest marches. moc members can and should do as many good things as they want including paying for E to get a cpl if desired, but please don’t distort what happened.

        • Hey Mitch

          First I’ll reply to both you and James. TTAG posted this story because I alerted them about it after Jared did a write up using Elijah Woody’s attorney’s AAR. I thought this deserved coverage on its own, but especially after the recent “Brooklyn Cops Planting Guns” TTAG article. So blame me for it.

          Despite your assertions, my understanding is that Michigan Open Carry didn’t take an active position because they were not given information about the case. However, I believe it was discussed on an MOC fb page, and one board member (who happens to be a cop) did actively disparage Mr. Woody. But that was his own opinion and not one shared by the board.

          Now to James. Much of his post is also incorrect. MOC is not and has never taken credit for Elijah Woody’s legal victory. All they’ve done is donate money and time to provide Elijah with a free CPL class and the funds to purchase a CPL.

          Also, Elijah is NOT banned from MOC events. However, as I understand it, you are for saying racist comments at an MOC event.

          Odd that your lengthy comment here has been deleted by TTAG management. I still have a copy, though.

          It’s too bad that there has been and in some cases continues to be discord between some Michigan 2A groups. Some have come to terms. OC is not the red-headed step-child any more. I don’t know the history of Hells Saints and their interactions with other groups. I will say, though, that at the urging of Mitch here I went to your fb page and watched quite a few lengthy videos of your Detroit walks. I didn’t know they were regular things, although I did read about them another time when people who don’t favor LGOC commented on them.

          But I must tell you that I was quite fascinated by them and the interactions you had with the residents of Detroit. I enjoyed watching them. You wear long guns like others do signage. It accomplishes a similar purpose. After watching those videos I understand your group much better, and I like it that you distinguish between LGOC in public spaces for education and interaction and carrying long guns in stores (against it, I think).

          So, +1 on the positive things but -1 on the false assertions in this thread. Although as an observer I could still have some things wrong. Two sides and all.

          I understand ideological differences, but sowing discord should not be encouraged, and certainly racism must be rejected out of hand.

        • Also, James, I’d like to say that I am probably the only one here who knows what an August Forster is. I have a 6’3″ Estonia, myself.

        • Danny,

          MOC had blocked me from the facebook group after I had been critical of “open carry picnics” in their effectiveness at anything. I could not provide them any information regarding Mr. Woody because of that, plus the fact that we wanted to keep as many details out of the media to ensure that the police could not bias their testimony too much. MOC had opportunities to reach out to Elijah directly, after MLive began following the story. MOC had an opportunity in Canton to meet Mr. Woody and get all of the information. MOC has disregarded and squandered any attempts to contact Mr. Woody, help Mr. Woody, or even listen to Mr. Woody until AFTER he was already found not guilty. THEN people come out of the woodwork to show their support.

          This patten is typical. MOC has squandered every attempt from myself and Mitch to work with them. This disappoints me because I believe that infighting is useless, and is more hurtful than statist politicians in reducing liberty.

          Let it be known that none of the foregoing is meant to disparage Michigan Open Carry, Inc. in any way. MOC is an excellent organization in their own way for promoting gun rights, and they have respect for that. They can do things regarding legislature and developing case law that Hell’s Saints cannot, since we have no immediate plans to do so anyways. But I believe they have set their sights too short, and that they can be capable of more. I personally worked directly with a certain special someone in MOC to provide the organization with the dashcam footage from that unlawful arrest in Romulus, but we only got along because I had something MOC wanted. Since then, it has been little more than slander and disparagement from certain people in MOC.

          Speaking of slander, I will tell you the story of how I came to be baselessly accused of racism privately, if you’d like. I can tell you’re a reasonable person, and I think you’ll agree that the accusation is completely bogus, just to disparage me. We both know of a certain special someone in MOC who is an expert at disparaging people.

    • Why didn’t you post some links to the stories you just talked about? Also the story was an AAR from Woody’s attorney, so it should be accurate.

  24. Michigan is borderline gun friendly. We have no long gun registry, but we do have a handgun registry. We have concealed carry with reciprocity, but we have county gun boards that can arbitrarily deny any cpl for any reason deemed suitable by such board, legislation meant to change that was just recently vetoed by our governer. We are allowed FFA items including full autos and supressors, but only recently we have been granted the priveledge of owning an SBR. Pnuematic handguns and long guns with rifled barrels over .177 cal. are considered firearms, and legislation slated to change that was just vetoed as well. We are truly a state in limbo, all it will take is one bad polititician or one bad event and Michigan will swing in the same direction as Illinois, NY, Cali, Colorado and the rest of the reactionary states.I pray that it never happens, but part of me is very afraid that it will.

  25. The cops should go to jail, the judge and prosecutor disbarred and Mr Woody given enough money to love comfortably in the burbs.

    BTW Michganistan has a ton of muslim only area’s, why don’t the cops do this to the muslims? Why only black men and jews?

    • “Michiganistan has a ton of Muslim only areas”

      This is bullshit. Spoken like someone who only reads breitbart articles and has never set foot in the state.

  26. If the derogatory words that were used in the dashcam video are accurate that should be grounds enough for the officers termination. How can the people of the community be expected to trust law enforcement if the officers that are supposed to protect them sound and act like a bunch of Ku Klux Klan racist thugs.

    And once again, where is the mainstream media on this one?

  27. Thanks Robert, great article.

    This is another example of how a couple bad cops can undo the great work done by the majority.
    Add in what looks like collusion by the prosecutor and the judge, and you can understand why both blacks and gun owners become convinced the law is out to get them. RESPECT to Elijah and the Saints for putting it out there, to protect themselves and their community.

    Its important to keep holding individuals responsible for their actions, getting a lawyer, refusing to cut a plea deal, and as others have suggested, file a bar complaint.

    And last but not least-
    1. Always get a CPL (working on it), open or concealed. This shows you are one of the good guys.
    2. Get competent counsel in advance. (have a card, in wallet- found someone thru my state CCW group)
    3. Get a video stream to cloud app for cell phone. (anyone have suggestion for best one on Windows phone?)

  28. I always forget if saying this is a good way to get flamed on TTAG or if people on here generally agree, but this is a sterling case example of why OC causes more negative attention than positive attention.

    I *know* “IT’s MUH RIGHTS ND I’LL DO IT TO MAKE MAH POINT MERICA”. I know I’m a bad gun owner, I only carry my pistol to protect the life and limb of myself and the people around me. I don’t carry it to spread the good word or anything. But had this guy been legally carrying concealed, he would have had a lot less crap on his plate than he ended up with. I mean, yeah, he ended up on top. But Michigan at large is pretty gun friendly. It very easily could have gone the other way.

    • Woody did not have a CPL so he couldn’t conceal even if he wanted to. As you probably know, Michigan has something like 83 temporary or permanent disqualifiers. Have a few beers and get caught riding a snowmobile, ATV, or boat? Disqualified. We’ve had twenty year olds get jammed up because they are old enough to OC but too young to get a CPL.

    • You are 100% free to make your own choices, even if that choice is to capitulate to tyranny because fighting to keep your freedom is too much of a hassle for you.
      You are also 100% free to try and convince others of your value system, and they are 100% free to ignore you.

      Why? Because America.

    • And people like you are going to drive me to open carry, because I’m sick of hearing the nonsense people like you spew, and the rights you continually want to capitulate.

  29. I would like to say a few things about this as a Michigander.

    Michigan is rather Gun Friendly in quite a few respects.
    Detroit itself is hard to differentiate from North Korea with how it currently is. Also it is in some of the bluest counties of Michigan.

    There are blue counties in Michigan who hassle everyone, despite of color, who carry a gun openly. The harassment is still illegal but it happens, and that pesky blue line protects these undesirable “officers”. There are plenty of Red counties that do not hardly hassle people of any color. There is also many groups that are active in progressing gun rights who do not care what color you are.

    Basically it is not a matter of Black or White, it is just a matter of gun or no-gun politics.

  32. Danny, the history with other gun rights orgs is that I am a founding member of moc, mike is a very early member. After Jeff Sayers left I quit participating in an official manner. From there things went downhill because of my eagerness to say what I mean combined with changing attitudes of some involved. Fast forward to last year and I was officially kicked out by the board based on a proven lie. Mike being someone who thinks like me and wants to aggressively promote freedom while calling out nonsense has been as relentless as anyone, and therefore as I understand it has also been booted from moc by the board.

    The bridge was burned not by us but by moc leadership. I am open to that partnership being rekindled and both orgs working together, but the bridge cannot possibly be rebuilt by us, and due to moc leaders actions I am very far from being actively concerned with it, as is everyone else associated with these marches.

    Among all my fellow very early founders of moc, none that I have spoken to since taking this on have anything against what we do, and many have even shown up to our events. Nor for that matter have I met many other people in moc who have much an issue with us either.

    If you wanna see a really detailed explanation of why things got so sideways I’d suggest reading the epilogue in my book. If you want to know even more than that (danny) hit me up on facebook and I’ll send you my phone number.

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