Teri (Libertine) and I are both fine, folks. Thanks for the support and concern.
I definitely did not handle this as well as I did in my imagination.
I did a lot of things well, but a lot poorly.
The short story: I have a ticket for "Resident - Failure to Obtain NH License" and speeding (71mph in a 55mph, RSA 265:60), as well as a summons for "Transporting Alcoholic Beverages" (RSA 265-A:44). Teri has a summons for "Transporting Alcoholic Beverages." Notice that their first ticket does not mention a law or statute and is vague; is the "NH License" that I failed to obtain a NH driver's license? A concealed carry license/permit? I think they had nothing on me for the gun so they threw in a NH driver's license ticket, but who knows.
The medium story: Cop Ian Day-Lewis pulled me over for speeding; when he approached my door I had the internal car light on and my hands at 10:00 and 2:00 on the wheel and my window rolled down about 2 inches; cop asked me to roll my window down, I said "it is down", he asked a couple more times, I responded by saying that if he couldn't hear me I would speak louder (he responded to everything I said, so he heard me); cop then told me to get out of the car; behind the car he asked me if I had any weapons on me and I told him no; he patted me down (very poorly, by the way - a *lot* could have escaped that pat-down!) and saw the empty conceal-carry holster in my pants; cop asked me if I had a gun in the car and I told him yes; cop asked why I didn't tell him when he asked me if I had a weapon and I told him "because you asked if I had a weapon
on me;" cop called for backup (officer Maloney and then sergeant Lance Hult) and then put me in handcuffs while telling me I was not being arrested; cops questioned Teri about having open-containers in the car; Teri and I both were polite and asked questions and didn't cooperate entirely, but we both also (in my opinion) revealed way too much information and cooperated too much nonetheless.
The long story: I will write this up in detail tonight or tomorrow and post it.
This is important: I've been thinking for a long time that I knew how I
should handle situations like this, but I wasn't sure I'd
be able to when it happened. As it turns out, I wasn't. This was my first experience being confrontational to the cops. I have talked and posted about what "should" be done and what I
thought I'd do, but I made a lot of mistakes tonight.
My idea is to have a role playing seminar (I was going to call it FARPS: Freedom Activists' Role Playing Seminar
) where a bunch of people gather and take turns role playing cops/judges and activists, so we can more closely experience the real thing. Obviously in role playing, no one is going to experience fear or adrenaline or face any actual consequences, but I think that actually running through the process a few times can help dramatically - we could literally practice what we preach. Especially when there is an audience like those of us on these forums, where so many people know what "should" have happened and will be offering critiques and suggestions all along the way.
We could, for example, role-play my situation from tonight: someone could role-playing a cop pulling over someone for speeding, asking about ID and alcohol and demanding the window be lowered, etc., and someone else can role-play the driver who has a weapon in the car, etc. The "cop" might have the be pretty exaggerated in order to simulate stress and timing as issues for the "driver." A side benefit might even be that those role-playing the cops/judges might get a better understanding of what
they are going through. We could also role play judge Burke-the-jerk and Ian, or make up scenarios.
Possibly, some of you posting advice or criticism (which I
do appreciate!) might not act as perfectly as you describe when faced with the actual thugs. If you do, then please help others reach that point, too! If not, then practice makes perfect.
Would anyone be interested in something like this? I'm thinking maybe 10:00a until 4:00p on a weekend, with lunch included. We might have different role-playing sessions - perhaps on where we focus on activism, another on courtroom behavior, maybe one practicing non-cooperation and another practicing minimal compliance.
