Last night after work I decided to brave the Friday traffic and go directly to the Glendale library on 59th Avenue and Union Hills just south of the Honeywell plant. My mission was to head on in and find aparticular article in Popular Science... something to do with a new eco-friendly diesel engine, or maybe it was another story in those compacted-earth homes...I can't remember. But, dang it. I would have to
check my Glock 21 to do it.
I arrived on the scene at 5:28pm. I strolled into the library, glancing at the strangely worded sign which appeared to be requesting to check any firearms under ARS 13-3102(a)(10). I walked in through the double sliding doors and found the front desk dead ahead, which was crowded with about a dozen library patrons. The two lines moved quickly and I approached a rather pretty brunette who asked if she could help me. I
told her I needed to check my gun. She responded with a mildly fretful look and said, "I don't know how to handle that."
She walked away to confer with an unseen manager while I stepped out of the line to check out the paper backs on the wall. She came back and helped another customer who had gotten in line. All the while people of
all ages streamed by me, none of them flying off into a panic at the sight of me. I can't really credit my usual "Docker Detective" look as I was dressed in jeans, basketball shoes and a golf shirt.
Soon I was up at the desk again. As she was about to speak, she was interrupted by her manager who told me that I needed to take the firearm and put it in my car... I interjected and told her I would not do that(didn't want it stolen). She then said she would have to call the police to have them take care of the gun. Fine with me. She told me to wait
outside. Nuh-uh. I'll stay here.
All this took under two minutes. I noted the time at 5:30pm and waited. At that time a young security guard was summoned, I guess to guard me. He was unarmed and looking a little puzzled as to why he had to be there. I took the time to tell him what it was all about and the history was this whole deal. Twice the manager buzzed by to, well, I don't know
what. I guess she wanted to snipe at me by saying nothing in particular.
When I would respond she would walk away and say "I have no opinion," or "I don't know the law." This was followed up with a "I'm better than you" glint in her eye. Okay, if ya want.
Then I found out that the library closes at 6pm on Friday nights. Crapola. This would be a short night. I told the security guard that
this would change my plans and that when the officer arrived I would leave the building and go home after talking to him. At 5:45pm, 15 minutes after the call was made, a Glendale PD guy walked through the door. Since they were well aware of the plan, you would think they would have been more timely. Would it be 30 minutes on a usual day?
As he walked in, wearing a dark golf shirt with the name "T. Hammer" embroidered on the right side. I didn't look at his stripes, but I would guess he was a sergeant. He had a radio plug in his ear and the
now-all-to-typical para-military haircut. I said something like, "I'm the guy you wanna see." We walked outside. I can't recall if it was his request or mine (he later said it was mine) but it suited my plans. As I walked out he said that I would have to disarm myself if we were to talk ("for [his] safety"). You can imagine the banter that caused. But since
it was clear he wanted a quid pro quo and I needed information, I took my Galco FED paddle and slid it out of my pants taking the gun and tossing it onto my front seat.
He was standing at my back bumper with my at my right-rear fender. He whipped out his little note pad and asked for my name and date of birth.
I told him he didn't need that information and I was not required under the law to provide it. He insisted that he needed this for his report. I told him I was not required to help him write his contact report and he
needed to show me where in statute I was required to ID myself. This was shaping up to be a lot like the Mill Avenue unilateral spittle contest from a year and a half ago for those of you who have been following along all this time.
He then threw me a bit of a curve (I am happy to say) when he told me that he was only doing what he was required to do and that since I was a taxpayer he was only doing what I required him to do as his employer....
Ya gotta admit, that took some balls to offer up that inverted platitude. Sgt. Hammer is a very skilled field interviewer. He even asked me if I thought he was being polite. I will have to say he was being aggressively officious, but that's pretty common.
What it came down to was that unless I gave him my name he would not tell me what the checking process was to be. He would not say what he would have done with the gun, where it was going, and when I could get it back. He then told me that he was a member of the NRA, and that he supports RKBA and that his family owns and carries guns even though they
are not police officers.
So, either I would stick to my guns and not give him my name (with my license plate their for all to see) or I would conduct my interview. I gave him my name. He then asked for my date of birth again. I told him
no, he didn't need it and that Chief Dobrotka would know who I am... I began asking him questions, which he grudgingly answered.
It turns out that since the property room was closed at this time of day (but not to him, he said). He would drop the gun off at the property room after some unknown interval of time and he would not bring the weapon back to me. I would have to drive to the property room to claim my gun. I asked him when I would be able to pick it up on Saturday
morning. He told me I would "have to call the property room" people, he stalled. I asked when they would be there. He told me sometime on Monday morning.
MONDAY MORNING?!? Two and one-half days later?
The City of Glendale thinks this is a good weapons checking plan that would not conflict with Arizona's Constitution which guarantees that "The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in his defense or of the State shall not be impaired"?
I was feeling a tad impaired and I told him so.
At this point I looked up and saw two other Glendale officers standing in position. Standing behind and to the left of Sgt. Hammer was Officer A. Haney. Across from him was a rather largish and equally young cop,
whose name I could not read. We'll call him Big Guy. I looked at both of them and said, "Hey, looks like ya got me surrounded. Come on in guys and join the conversation," as I motioned with my arms. They didn't budge. No sense of humor. No camaraderie with the serfs. So, now I was thinkin', it takes three cops to do a weapons check? This was more of a waste of time and manpower than I thought. Sgt. Hammer was getting very frustrated (or pretending to be) and kept telling me he would break off the conversation...
Then I get another curve. Sgt. T. Hammer then begins a scolding monologue (as if I were in an episode of C.O.P.S.) about the fact that
my battle was not with him or the police but that I should fix this through the courts or the legislature. He told me that what I was doing was not going to solve anything and that this is not the proper way to do activism.
I was rather amazed that this guy would engage me in that type of discussion in the first place. But I jumped and told him that it would work just fine and told him all the other things we had accomplished with this method (Sacaton Rest Stop Protest. Take Your Gun For A Walk In The Park, etc). Then I got to his scolding. It sounded more like a
political clap-trap as if part of his "duty" was to give me the party line. I told him that every City Council member had been giving me the same canned speech as if they had been coached by the City Attorney. I
asked if he had been talking to Asst City Attorney Rick Flaaen. The Hammer told me he had never met the man (evasive, I thought), but after I told him that his Sgt Toomey, and Chief Dobrotka had conferred with Mr. Flaaen and that they likely relayed the information back to him, all I got was silence.
Then T. Hammer began to scold me how my actions were tying up the time of three officers when in his very ear there were radio calls that he could be going on right now if I wasn't here for checking my firearm.
EXACTLY!! You have not one but three of Glendale's finest hanging around a good-guy with a gun, and their leader on scene complaining about having to enforce a policy handed down by City Manager Marty Vanacour on
the advice of Chief Dobrotka. City officials say they are doing the policy on advice of the Chief, and the Chief claims he can't change the policy that he advised the City Manager to implement. As an end result,
the officer now complains about having to carry out the policy, and in a fit of projection, blames the lawful citizen for complying with ARS 13-3102(a)(10) which doesn't have to be implemented in the first place.
At that point I finally had connected the dots. I pointed at each officer and told them that if they didn't like the policy they should go to their union and complain to every city official who was behind it.
"We don't have a union."
GET ONE. Or complain to the Chief directly.
"He won't listen to us," T. Hammer said, as if it were my fault that Glendale policy forced him to be here. The conversation began to deteriorate with more talk of the cops leaving. Screw it, fine, and told him, "This contact is over. You are free to go." I turned and opened the door to my Toyota Corolla. The three cops walked a few
feet towards each other to commiserate. I reached in and grabbed my still-holstered Glock 21 and stuffed the paddle holster over my left hip. I climbed in and made a radio call on the amateur repeater. I am sure they wondered to whom I was speaking as I drove off into the setting sun.
Just doing their jobs, are they?
I am sure the cops in Selma, Alabama were following policy when they beat the **** out of Martin Luther King's men. "Coloreds jes gotta know their place." Just as then, Glendale is operating under COLOR OF LAW and is trying to raise the bar for lawful gun owners to exercise their rights and to fight this putrid, politically correct policy.
Here is the re-cap.
1) Glendale wants gun owners to disarm themselves when police have no responsibility to protect themselves.
2) They want the gun left in the car where it can be stolen.
3) If a person wants to check a firearm per ARS 13-3102, the must go through the onerous task designed to discourage that very aim.
4) Although I refused, the library staff said that I must wait outside for the police to arrive even if it is 115 degrees outside, or raining.
5) The police require ID information when checking which could very well be used to illegally tie the owner of the gun to the serial number of the gun. See the 1986 Gun Owners Protection Act for reference.
6) Since the property room is closed in the late afternoon, anyone checking a firearm at a library or the Civic Center or the Municipal building after that period will find their right to bear a defensive tool impaired for at approximately sixteen hours (or 2.5 days on a Friday night) and the person would then have to drive to the property room to pick it up.
7) This small sample of line cops shows they are not happy wasting time facilitating this onerous infringement on our rights and would rather be taking care of the bad guys (which we are not).
8) The City of Glendale has convinced this small sample of line cops that it is not the fault of sycophantic city officials who concocted this abortion of a policy, but the fault of the law-abiding and peaceful gun owner who attempt to comply (ie, they make an honest man walk a crooked mile).
9) Since, unlike Glendale, most Arizona cities are in compliance with ARS 13-3108 and ARS 13-3102(a)(10), will the City of Glendale be surprised if its citizens soon have as little respect for the law as does the City?
Rick
