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Police, Public Need Education On Gun Rights
Karen Lee Torre
The Connecticut Law Tribune 08-10-2012
Last week, Sung H. Hwang, a member of our bar and president-elect of the New Haven County Bar Association, became the latest victim of public ignorance about the state's gun laws and police ignorance about how those laws intersect with the state's penal code. These twin deficits, especially when conjoined, are a persistent threat to our state and federal constitutional rights. Mr. Hwang was arrested on charges of breach of peace and interfering with a police officer after New Haven police responded to a downtown theatre on a report that a movie-goer possessed a handgun. Speaking on his cell phone while police were yelling, Hwang evidently didn't get the chaos, drop his phone, and raise his hands in the air fast enough for them. That supposedly justified the interfering charge, weak as that rap seems. But I am at a total loss in figuring how Hwang committed the crime of breach of peace.
Connecticut law requires one to have a permit to carry a gun outside one's home or place of business. Mr. Hwang had that permit. There was nothing reported thus far to indicate that Hwang had brandished or pointed his weapon at anyone, or had otherwise behaved in a threatening or alarming manner. In fact, it is unclear whether the person who called the police was calling about Hwang. For all we know, it was a crank call or one instigated by the conduct of some other movie patron (there is more than one theatre at that cinema). And there was Hwang, sitting there minding his own business. Indeed, police discovered Hwang's gun only after they accosted and searched him. There is also no indication that the theatre's owner both prohibited the carrying of guns on the property and gave conspicuous notice of such policy. What this means is that Hwang had broken no law at the point of police arrival.
With the ensuing media attention to Hwang's arrest, the extent to which those who

weighed in on it were muddled — and in some cases flat wrong — about, the state's gun laws became readily apparent. While there is no confirmation that Hwang was openly carrying his weapon (and media reports suggest otherwise) it remains that it does not matter. For those who will not bother to read statutes before contributing still more to the public's ignorance, I'll say it in caps: CONNECTICUT IS NOT A CONCEALED CARRY STATE. Even if Mr. Hwang had the gun openly displayed in an uncovered hip holster, he broke no law.
I grant that special circumstances surrounded this event. It did occur on the heels of the incident in Aurora, Colorado where a nutcase entered a theatre and killed or maimed many innocents. New Haven police cannot be criticized for an adrenalin-infused rush to the theatre or even for getting a bit hysterical once there. Details were unclear; all they knew was that there was a man with a gun in a theatre at a late-night showing of the very film that prompted the Aurora nutcase to act out his "Joker" delusions.
But that does not excuse how police ultimately treated Mr. Hwang, and that no doubt led to the liability-conscious statements subsequently issued by New Haven's mayor, John DeStefano, Jr., and the city's police chief, Dean Esserman. Esserman expectedly defended and praised his and subordinate officers' handling of the matter. The city's hard-left mayor, who can always be counted upon to utter outrageously stupid things, went further. After being advised that Hwang was in fact exercising his state statutory and constitutional rights, Mayor DeStefano opined that "just because something is legal, it doesn't make it right." Brilliant.
This is the same mayor who sparked controversy by declaring New Haven a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, handing out government ID cards to them, and preventing police from safely detaining those aliens who commit crimes against our citizens. To outdo himself, DeStefano most recently proposed extending the right to vote to foreigners who entered and remain in the United States illegally. Someone had to point out to DeStefano that we have a state constitution that would prevent his dream of life tenure by the vote of illegal aliens. He's a piece of work to be sure. And he presides over a city loaded with violent criminals, many of them illegally there with DeStefano's blessing. New Haven has become an urban cesspool where murders, shootings, stabbings, street robberies and muggings are commonplace. Hwang understandably did not wish to walk DeStefano's streets at 1:00 a.m. unarmed. Only a fool would do that.
This is not the first time a Connecticut citizen lawfully carrying a firearm has been arrested for breach of the peace on the complaint of someone who thinks it is illegal to do so. It is clear that education of officers on this issue is sorely needed.
The Torrington police department for one recognized this problem and recently issued an instructive memorandum to officers. Authored by Captain Francis T. Balzano, it correctly notes that many state and local police officers are not well-versed on these laws, and consequently believe one who carries a gun, even openly, can be charged with breach of peace or disorderly conduct. The memo correctly advised that Connecticut is not a concealed carry state. More importantly, it cautioned that one who is acting perfectly
lawfully cannot be guilty of a crime because his exercise of a legal right "alarms" another.
Of course, Captain Balzano is quite right. Otherwise, a woman could be arrested for entering a clinic to have an abortion because doing so alarms the heck out of the pro- lifers outside who consider her a murderer. And two gay men who decide to lock lips and paw each other on the street in a little town where open displays of homosexual affection get the locals all riled up and "alarmed" can be busted. You get my drift. Captain Balzano's memo should be distributed state-wide.•
Karen Lee Torre, a New Haven trial lawyer, litigates civil rights issues in the federal courts. Her email address is [email protected]
Copyright 2012. ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
Police, Public Need Education On Gun Rights
Karen Lee Torre
The Connecticut Law Tribune 08-10-2012
Last week, Sung H. Hwang, a member of our bar and president-elect of the New Haven County Bar Association, became the latest victim of public ignorance about the state's gun laws and police ignorance about how those laws intersect with the state's penal code. These twin deficits, especially when conjoined, are a persistent threat to our state and federal constitutional rights. Mr. Hwang was arrested on charges of breach of peace and interfering with a police officer after New Haven police responded to a downtown theatre on a report that a movie-goer possessed a handgun. Speaking on his cell phone while police were yelling, Hwang evidently didn't get the chaos, drop his phone, and raise his hands in the air fast enough for them. That supposedly justified the interfering charge, weak as that rap seems. But I am at a total loss in figuring how Hwang committed the crime of breach of peace.
Connecticut law requires one to have a permit to carry a gun outside one's home or place of business. Mr. Hwang had that permit. There was nothing reported thus far to indicate that Hwang had brandished or pointed his weapon at anyone, or had otherwise behaved in a threatening or alarming manner. In fact, it is unclear whether the person who called the police was calling about Hwang. For all we know, it was a crank call or one instigated by the conduct of some other movie patron (there is more than one theatre at that cinema). And there was Hwang, sitting there minding his own business. Indeed, police discovered Hwang's gun only after they accosted and searched him. There is also no indication that the theatre's owner both prohibited the carrying of guns on the property and gave conspicuous notice of such policy. What this means is that Hwang had broken no law at the point of police arrival.
With the ensuing media attention to Hwang's arrest, the extent to which those who

weighed in on it were muddled — and in some cases flat wrong — about, the state's gun laws became readily apparent. While there is no confirmation that Hwang was openly carrying his weapon (and media reports suggest otherwise) it remains that it does not matter. For those who will not bother to read statutes before contributing still more to the public's ignorance, I'll say it in caps: CONNECTICUT IS NOT A CONCEALED CARRY STATE. Even if Mr. Hwang had the gun openly displayed in an uncovered hip holster, he broke no law.
I grant that special circumstances surrounded this event. It did occur on the heels of the incident in Aurora, Colorado where a nutcase entered a theatre and killed or maimed many innocents. New Haven police cannot be criticized for an adrenalin-infused rush to the theatre or even for getting a bit hysterical once there. Details were unclear; all they knew was that there was a man with a gun in a theatre at a late-night showing of the very film that prompted the Aurora nutcase to act out his "Joker" delusions.
But that does not excuse how police ultimately treated Mr. Hwang, and that no doubt led to the liability-conscious statements subsequently issued by New Haven's mayor, John DeStefano, Jr., and the city's police chief, Dean Esserman. Esserman expectedly defended and praised his and subordinate officers' handling of the matter. The city's hard-left mayor, who can always be counted upon to utter outrageously stupid things, went further. After being advised that Hwang was in fact exercising his state statutory and constitutional rights, Mayor DeStefano opined that "just because something is legal, it doesn't make it right." Brilliant.
This is the same mayor who sparked controversy by declaring New Haven a sanctuary city for illegal aliens, handing out government ID cards to them, and preventing police from safely detaining those aliens who commit crimes against our citizens. To outdo himself, DeStefano most recently proposed extending the right to vote to foreigners who entered and remain in the United States illegally. Someone had to point out to DeStefano that we have a state constitution that would prevent his dream of life tenure by the vote of illegal aliens. He's a piece of work to be sure. And he presides over a city loaded with violent criminals, many of them illegally there with DeStefano's blessing. New Haven has become an urban cesspool where murders, shootings, stabbings, street robberies and muggings are commonplace. Hwang understandably did not wish to walk DeStefano's streets at 1:00 a.m. unarmed. Only a fool would do that.
This is not the first time a Connecticut citizen lawfully carrying a firearm has been arrested for breach of the peace on the complaint of someone who thinks it is illegal to do so. It is clear that education of officers on this issue is sorely needed.
The Torrington police department for one recognized this problem and recently issued an instructive memorandum to officers. Authored by Captain Francis T. Balzano, it correctly notes that many state and local police officers are not well-versed on these laws, and consequently believe one who carries a gun, even openly, can be charged with breach of peace or disorderly conduct. The memo correctly advised that Connecticut is not a concealed carry state. More importantly, it cautioned that one who is acting perfectly
lawfully cannot be guilty of a crime because his exercise of a legal right "alarms" another.
Of course, Captain Balzano is quite right. Otherwise, a woman could be arrested for entering a clinic to have an abortion because doing so alarms the heck out of the pro- lifers outside who consider her a murderer. And two gay men who decide to lock lips and paw each other on the street in a little town where open displays of homosexual affection get the locals all riled up and "alarmed" can be busted. You get my drift. Captain Balzano's memo should be distributed state-wide.•
Karen Lee Torre, a New Haven trial lawyer, litigates civil rights issues in the federal courts. Her email address is [email protected]
Copyright 2012. ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
