AllaSnackbah
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- Sep 11, 2009
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3 friends and i did some shooting yesterday, like we do almost every saturday, on my property in lebanon. CSP has showed up at my neighbors house a few miles up the road several times for noise complaints when he shoots, but I have never had any problems from the CSP at my place, but yesterday that changed.
Let me explain my set up. I live in a very rural area and my range is located on my parent's farm that is 150 acres which surrounded by more farmland. There are CL&P powerlines that run through my land and CL&P built a very nice gravel road that runs through, we drive out on the road, which is gated at all ends with no tresspassing signs, and shoot in about a 1/2 mile square area along the road. Just to be clear, I own this road and the property it is on, CL&P leased it a long time ago and cannot even access it to work on the 345 lines without notifying my father or myself. We do a lot of run and gun shooting so we are usually in various forms of "tactical" attire.
So yesterday my friend billy and I were out shooting for about 2 hours before my friend jason showed up. when jason was at the entrance, which is about 3/4 mile from the range, he called me so we would cease fire, because we shoot back towards the road sometimes. as jason was driving his truck in, after shutting and dummy locking the gate behind him, he saw 2 state cops on the town road that borders my property, they noticed him driving up onto the power lines and stopped. jason had no reason to talk to them or to think he was being pursued, so he continued up the lines out of their sight. When he got to the range he mentioned seeing them to me, and since i knew of them previously harassing the neighbor i figured we would cease fire for a few minutes and wait for them to either leave or attempt to contact us. So we waited about 10 minutes shooting the shit and i look up on the road 300 yards away and sure as shit here comes a CSP Explorer driving past all my long range targets. So we put our rifles and handguns down in our vehicles, stepped away from them, and waited for them to get down to us.
The two officers in the car, one we will call Roidrage Jack Booted Thug, the other we will call Short Fat And Bald, step out about 50 yards from us, hands on their guns.
RJBT: red in the face, veins popping, and with his hand on his handgun "ARE ANY OF YOU ARMED?!?!?"
All of us: "No we disarmed when we saw you coming down the road."
SFAB: "Are the magazines in your vest loaded?"
Me: "Yes"
SFAB: "whos the guy in the blue truck?"
Jason: "it was me"
RJBT: "why did you run from us? i was shouting at you to stop"
Jason: "I was inside my truck 100 yards away from you, i could not hear or see you yelling at me, and you did not have you lights or siren on."
RJBT: says something along the lines of "that doesnt matter you should have stopped"
They ask us all for identification, we comply. SFAB is talking with me, RJBT moves over towards our vehicles and is calling in our drivers licenses and snooping on our weapons.
SFAB: "Who's property is this"
Me: "mine"
SFAB: starts the good cop bad cop thing, "this is a nice setup"
Me: "did we do something wrong, do you have a warrant to be on my private property and to search my vehicles? What authority did you have to open my gate and enter my property?"
SFAB: "Dont be tough, we can be tough too, we have probable cause because RJBT told your friend to stop and he did not"
Jason: "Was there any reason for you to stop me? does my vehicle match the description of a vehicle used in a crime?"
SFAB: "No but when an officer tells you to stop and you dont stop it looks suspicious and we are going to follow up on that"
RJBT: picks up billy's 1911 off the tailgate of billy's truck and is trying to rack the slide, but the safety is on, then comes back over to us and gives us our licenses. "What are you guys shooting out here?"
Me: "AR15's, M1A's, and handguns mostly."
RJBT: "You guys are lucky we are level headed, when we saw you in tactical vests and everything we were getting ready to LIGHT YOU GUYS UP"
We all kind of laugh, because when they came down the path we were all holding fully loaded .308 battle rifles. Did this clown really think he could "light us up" from 100 yards away with an M&P40?
Me: "Is there a problem with me shooting here? Clearly everything is done safely. Did someone make a complaint? is that why you were in the area?"
SFAB: "No we were responding to an alarm call and saw (jason) driving off into the woods and thought it looked suspicious"
Me: sarcastically, "someone driving in a field in lebanon is definitely suspicious"
RJBT: Points at my AR15 "what is that?"
Me: "A preban AR"
SFAB: "Oh preban eh? nice"
RJBT: "Can you make that weapon safe so i can check it out?" not for safety or legal reasons he just wanted to look at it.
Me: "sure"
So they kind of chilled out and bullshit with us about shooting for a bit, asked us some questions about the CMMG .22 conversions and other crap we were using. SFAB is our resident trooper and told me he has problems when he shoots on his land with his neighbor. They both make approving comments of one of billy's anti obama stickers, blah blah blah.
Then, RJBT asks me: "so you guys aren't shooting in the direction of these houses right?" Points to a house about a mile away on a hill behind my range.
Me: "No as you can see we start on the bottom end of the road and run up the road shooting the plates as we go"
RJBT: "So your shooting up towards the road we drove in on? Is that safe?"
Me: "Well normally people dont open my gates and drive down un-invited past all the posted signs, you guys are lucky we werent shooting those far plates when you came around the corner, you could have gotten lit up accidentally."
We bullshit back and forth for a few minutes and they left. They seemed like pretty decent guys once the bullshit adrenaline tough guy attitudes wore off. Im friends with a couple of the other officers they work with, one has even shot out there with me, and i have met SFAB a few times prior.
But anyways the whole situation left me with a feeling of: wow i need to read up on my rights, and learn about what the police can and cant do, and what i can and cant allow them to do, so i dont feel as vulnerable in future confrontations with them. The whole "about to light you guys up" thing was ridiculous i was pretty mad at that after the fact. That and the fact that they opened my gate and drove out there to pursue jason for no reason, and ended up questioning and searching me. I almost wonder if the alarm excuse was bullshit and they were out to snoop on me the whole time.
Let me explain my set up. I live in a very rural area and my range is located on my parent's farm that is 150 acres which surrounded by more farmland. There are CL&P powerlines that run through my land and CL&P built a very nice gravel road that runs through, we drive out on the road, which is gated at all ends with no tresspassing signs, and shoot in about a 1/2 mile square area along the road. Just to be clear, I own this road and the property it is on, CL&P leased it a long time ago and cannot even access it to work on the 345 lines without notifying my father or myself. We do a lot of run and gun shooting so we are usually in various forms of "tactical" attire.
So yesterday my friend billy and I were out shooting for about 2 hours before my friend jason showed up. when jason was at the entrance, which is about 3/4 mile from the range, he called me so we would cease fire, because we shoot back towards the road sometimes. as jason was driving his truck in, after shutting and dummy locking the gate behind him, he saw 2 state cops on the town road that borders my property, they noticed him driving up onto the power lines and stopped. jason had no reason to talk to them or to think he was being pursued, so he continued up the lines out of their sight. When he got to the range he mentioned seeing them to me, and since i knew of them previously harassing the neighbor i figured we would cease fire for a few minutes and wait for them to either leave or attempt to contact us. So we waited about 10 minutes shooting the shit and i look up on the road 300 yards away and sure as shit here comes a CSP Explorer driving past all my long range targets. So we put our rifles and handguns down in our vehicles, stepped away from them, and waited for them to get down to us.
The two officers in the car, one we will call Roidrage Jack Booted Thug, the other we will call Short Fat And Bald, step out about 50 yards from us, hands on their guns.
RJBT: red in the face, veins popping, and with his hand on his handgun "ARE ANY OF YOU ARMED?!?!?"
All of us: "No we disarmed when we saw you coming down the road."
SFAB: "Are the magazines in your vest loaded?"
Me: "Yes"
SFAB: "whos the guy in the blue truck?"
Jason: "it was me"
RJBT: "why did you run from us? i was shouting at you to stop"
Jason: "I was inside my truck 100 yards away from you, i could not hear or see you yelling at me, and you did not have you lights or siren on."
RJBT: says something along the lines of "that doesnt matter you should have stopped"
They ask us all for identification, we comply. SFAB is talking with me, RJBT moves over towards our vehicles and is calling in our drivers licenses and snooping on our weapons.
SFAB: "Who's property is this"
Me: "mine"
SFAB: starts the good cop bad cop thing, "this is a nice setup"
Me: "did we do something wrong, do you have a warrant to be on my private property and to search my vehicles? What authority did you have to open my gate and enter my property?"
SFAB: "Dont be tough, we can be tough too, we have probable cause because RJBT told your friend to stop and he did not"
Jason: "Was there any reason for you to stop me? does my vehicle match the description of a vehicle used in a crime?"
SFAB: "No but when an officer tells you to stop and you dont stop it looks suspicious and we are going to follow up on that"
RJBT: picks up billy's 1911 off the tailgate of billy's truck and is trying to rack the slide, but the safety is on, then comes back over to us and gives us our licenses. "What are you guys shooting out here?"
Me: "AR15's, M1A's, and handguns mostly."
RJBT: "You guys are lucky we are level headed, when we saw you in tactical vests and everything we were getting ready to LIGHT YOU GUYS UP"
We all kind of laugh, because when they came down the path we were all holding fully loaded .308 battle rifles. Did this clown really think he could "light us up" from 100 yards away with an M&P40?
Me: "Is there a problem with me shooting here? Clearly everything is done safely. Did someone make a complaint? is that why you were in the area?"
SFAB: "No we were responding to an alarm call and saw (jason) driving off into the woods and thought it looked suspicious"
Me: sarcastically, "someone driving in a field in lebanon is definitely suspicious"
RJBT: Points at my AR15 "what is that?"
Me: "A preban AR"
SFAB: "Oh preban eh? nice"
RJBT: "Can you make that weapon safe so i can check it out?" not for safety or legal reasons he just wanted to look at it.
Me: "sure"
So they kind of chilled out and bullshit with us about shooting for a bit, asked us some questions about the CMMG .22 conversions and other crap we were using. SFAB is our resident trooper and told me he has problems when he shoots on his land with his neighbor. They both make approving comments of one of billy's anti obama stickers, blah blah blah.
Then, RJBT asks me: "so you guys aren't shooting in the direction of these houses right?" Points to a house about a mile away on a hill behind my range.
Me: "No as you can see we start on the bottom end of the road and run up the road shooting the plates as we go"
RJBT: "So your shooting up towards the road we drove in on? Is that safe?"
Me: "Well normally people dont open my gates and drive down un-invited past all the posted signs, you guys are lucky we werent shooting those far plates when you came around the corner, you could have gotten lit up accidentally."
We bullshit back and forth for a few minutes and they left. They seemed like pretty decent guys once the bullshit adrenaline tough guy attitudes wore off. Im friends with a couple of the other officers they work with, one has even shot out there with me, and i have met SFAB a few times prior.
But anyways the whole situation left me with a feeling of: wow i need to read up on my rights, and learn about what the police can and cant do, and what i can and cant allow them to do, so i dont feel as vulnerable in future confrontations with them. The whole "about to light you guys up" thing was ridiculous i was pretty mad at that after the fact. That and the fact that they opened my gate and drove out there to pursue jason for no reason, and ended up questioning and searching me. I almost wonder if the alarm excuse was bullshit and they were out to snoop on me the whole time.
![[smile]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/001.gif "Smile [smile]")
![[rofl]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/013.gif "ROFL [rofl]")
That is priceless
![[rolleyes]](/xen/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.vb/042.gif "Roll Eyes [rolleyes]")
