Let me throw a few more details your way:
If you dig into Clayton's "Racist Roots" document, you'll come across this 1941 quote from Florida Supreme Court Justice Buford, in Watson vs. Stone where the FL Supremes decided to release a white guy caught packing without the same type of discretionary CCW permit CA, NY, MI, NJ, MA and others still use:
"I know something of the history of this legislation. The original Act of 1893 was passed when there was a great influx of negro laborers in this State drawn here for the purpose of working in turpentine and lumber camps. The same condition existed when the Act was amended in 1901 and the Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers and to thereby reduce the unlawful homicides that were prevalent in turpentine and saw-mill camps and to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security. The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied." - Watson v. Stone, 4So.2d 700, 703 (Fla. 1941)"
Oooops. And guess what happened in 1893? A black township near Gainesville shot the bejeezus out of a KKK night raider party using revolvers and old Henry leverguns (Civil War leftovers in .44RF, mostly - old, but still potent with 15shot firepower). The original FL permit law required a discretionary permit for the carry of "revolvers and leverguns". Ooops again...the Judge actually understated the situation.
Now, the natural inclination is to assume all this is past history, right?
Buuuuuullsheet. I can personally tell you, and show you, otherwise.
I'm a white dude living in Contra Costa County, California. County population is about 1million people; the east side containing the incorporated towns of Walnut Creek, Concord, Danville, San Ramon, Orinda, Lafayette, Alamo, Blackhawk and such is where the big money is. The West and North sides contains Richmond, pop. 100,000ish - 50% black, 30% Hispanic, the rest lower and middle income white and Asian. That's where I live. Just yesterday we found fresh gang tags on the side of our apartment building. Morons keep opening meth labs in my goddamn basement, requiring attention
...and we've had murder rates some years that put us in the top 10 in the nation. Other West County towns are close to Richmond's insanity levels, including San Pablo, El Cerrito, Pinole, etc. Pittsburg and Antioch are in the North. The West/North county is studded with huge oil refineries that blow up and/or belch toxic **** once in a while, which keeps housing costs lower than the rest of the highly expensive SF Bay Area. Richmond for example is studded with "air raid" sirens to warn people that the Chevron plant went tits-up *again* and is puking green slime into the air - so stay indoors. No, I'm not kidding . The refineries are all along the bay, so that's the lower income zone. Keep in mind Bay Area housing costs - a typical modest family home can't be had for less than $300,000 in most areas.
This is complex, so pay attention - in the east, the Sheriff is the sole police authority in most towns. Alamo and Blackhawk are unincorporated, and the rest except for Walnut Creek and Concord buy PD services from the Sheriff. WC and Con. are still only middle income, not ultra-rich. All west and north county towns run their own PDs with their own Chiefs except for one very wealthy enclave in the hills above Richmond...that's Kensington, which uses the Sheriff for patrol.
You know I'm building up to something, right?
In California, those seeking CCW can apply with their PD Chief if they have one, or their Sheriff regardless of what part of the county you're in. It was structured to give town residents a choice.
None of the PD Chiefs issue to "regular citizens" very often. Most don't at all, some specifically restrict CCW to government employees, something flat-out banned by the courts in Salute vs. Pitchess: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/salute.html - Salute sets a standard of "the agency must make an individual investigation and determination in the case of every applicant". In addition, Sheriff Pitchess (the defendant) had a published policy of "gov't employees only - police reserves, judges, DAs, politicians". The court banned that practice...and this was a binding appellate case.
Richmond hasn't issued a permit in over a decade, to anybody.
When I went to the Sheriff to apply for a permit, I was told that as a Richmond resident, I wasn't "in his area of jurisdiction" because I'm in a town with my own PD Chief...regardless of my "good cause for issuance". Until I filed a lawsuit on the issue, they wouldn't even give me the application forms.
Get it yet?
They've used the demographics of the county to eliminate citizen CCW in the lower income, higher minority population towns. Bingo - 21st century Jim Crow, alive and well.
It gets better. The Sheriff then turned around and used the rarity of CCW permits to milk the system for campaign contributions. He's collected over $21,000 that I can track from his small pool of about 100 "non-government employee" permitholders. He runs a small political/social club known as the "Sheriff's Posse", with no official gov't connection...it's his 2nd largest campaign expense. And when the Posse meets (about 350 guys), best estimate is that half the CCWs in the whole county, regardless of issuing agency, is present and seated in that room.
Need proof? 'Course ya do.
"The Contra Costa Cronies Roster": http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/cccr.pdf - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, download that if necessary at http://www.adobe.com
It contains scans of actual permitholder "good cause" statements from my county. Two guys in particular put down "I need to drive through Richmond sometimes" yet Richmond was one town where CCW was specifically eliminated for residents. It then shows chunks of Sheriff Rupf's CCW policy manual and how it gets used to support abuse of the process.
Cool, no?
Other items of interest on my site:
* THE COLAFRANCESCO PAPERS are urgent and hilarious; note that the Sacramento Bee newspaper sat on this story deliberately during the last Sheriff's race when UnderSheriff Lou Blanas was running after sheriff Glen Craig's retirement in 1998. You'll see why that's important when you read it.
* "CCW In California: A Disaster Analyzed".
* The Battle of Athens, TN - including Gore's "militia link".
All at: http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/
Jim
If you dig into Clayton's "Racist Roots" document, you'll come across this 1941 quote from Florida Supreme Court Justice Buford, in Watson vs. Stone where the FL Supremes decided to release a white guy caught packing without the same type of discretionary CCW permit CA, NY, MI, NJ, MA and others still use:
"I know something of the history of this legislation. The original Act of 1893 was passed when there was a great influx of negro laborers in this State drawn here for the purpose of working in turpentine and lumber camps. The same condition existed when the Act was amended in 1901 and the Act was passed for the purpose of disarming the negro laborers and to thereby reduce the unlawful homicides that were prevalent in turpentine and saw-mill camps and to give the white citizens in sparsely settled areas a better feeling of security. The statute was never intended to be applied to the white population and in practice has never been so applied." - Watson v. Stone, 4So.2d 700, 703 (Fla. 1941)"
Oooops. And guess what happened in 1893? A black township near Gainesville shot the bejeezus out of a KKK night raider party using revolvers and old Henry leverguns (Civil War leftovers in .44RF, mostly - old, but still potent with 15shot firepower). The original FL permit law required a discretionary permit for the carry of "revolvers and leverguns". Ooops again...the Judge actually understated the situation.
Now, the natural inclination is to assume all this is past history, right?
Buuuuuullsheet. I can personally tell you, and show you, otherwise.
I'm a white dude living in Contra Costa County, California. County population is about 1million people; the east side containing the incorporated towns of Walnut Creek, Concord, Danville, San Ramon, Orinda, Lafayette, Alamo, Blackhawk and such is where the big money is. The West and North sides contains Richmond, pop. 100,000ish - 50% black, 30% Hispanic, the rest lower and middle income white and Asian. That's where I live. Just yesterday we found fresh gang tags on the side of our apartment building. Morons keep opening meth labs in my goddamn basement, requiring attention
...and we've had murder rates some years that put us in the top 10 in the nation. Other West County towns are close to Richmond's insanity levels, including San Pablo, El Cerrito, Pinole, etc. Pittsburg and Antioch are in the North. The West/North county is studded with huge oil refineries that blow up and/or belch toxic **** once in a while, which keeps housing costs lower than the rest of the highly expensive SF Bay Area. Richmond for example is studded with "air raid" sirens to warn people that the Chevron plant went tits-up *again* and is puking green slime into the air - so stay indoors. No, I'm not kidding . The refineries are all along the bay, so that's the lower income zone. Keep in mind Bay Area housing costs - a typical modest family home can't be had for less than $300,000 in most areas.This is complex, so pay attention
- in the east, the Sheriff is the sole police authority in most towns. Alamo and Blackhawk are unincorporated, and the rest except for Walnut Creek and Concord buy PD services from the Sheriff. WC and Con. are still only middle income, not ultra-rich. All west and north county towns run their own PDs with their own Chiefs except for one very wealthy enclave in the hills above Richmond...that's Kensington, which uses the Sheriff for patrol.You know I'm building up to something, right?
In California, those seeking CCW can apply with their PD Chief if they have one, or their Sheriff regardless of what part of the county you're in. It was structured to give town residents a choice.
None of the PD Chiefs issue to "regular citizens" very often. Most don't at all, some specifically restrict CCW to government employees, something flat-out banned by the courts in Salute vs. Pitchess: http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/salute.html - Salute sets a standard of "the agency must make an individual investigation and determination in the case of every applicant". In addition, Sheriff Pitchess (the defendant) had a published policy of "gov't employees only - police reserves, judges, DAs, politicians". The court banned that practice...and this was a binding appellate case.
Richmond hasn't issued a permit in over a decade, to anybody.
When I went to the Sheriff to apply for a permit, I was told that as a Richmond resident, I wasn't "in his area of jurisdiction" because I'm in a town with my own PD Chief...regardless of my "good cause for issuance". Until I filed a lawsuit on the issue, they wouldn't even give me the application forms.
Get it yet?
They've used the demographics of the county to eliminate citizen CCW in the lower income, higher minority population towns. Bingo - 21st century Jim Crow, alive and well.
It gets better. The Sheriff then turned around and used the rarity of CCW permits to milk the system for campaign contributions. He's collected over $21,000 that I can track from his small pool of about 100 "non-government employee" permitholders. He runs a small political/social club known as the "Sheriff's Posse", with no official gov't connection...it's his 2nd largest campaign expense. And when the Posse meets (about 350 guys), best estimate is that half the CCWs in the whole county, regardless of issuing agency, is present and seated in that room.
Need proof? 'Course ya do
."The Contra Costa Cronies Roster": http://www.ninehundred.com/~equalccw/cccr.pdf - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, download that if necessary at http://www.adobe.com
It contains scans of actual permitholder "good cause" statements from my county. Two guys in particular put down "I need to drive through Richmond sometimes" yet Richmond was one town where CCW was specifically eliminated for residents. It then shows chunks of Sheriff Rupf's CCW policy manual and how it gets used to support abuse of the process.
Cool, no?
Other items of interest on my site:
* THE COLAFRANCESCO PAPERS are urgent and hilarious; note that the Sacramento Bee newspaper sat on this story deliberately during the last Sheriff's race when UnderSheriff Lou Blanas was running after sheriff Glen Craig's retirement in 1998. You'll see why that's important when you read it
. * "CCW In California: A Disaster Analyzed".
* The Battle of Athens, TN - including Gore's "militia link"
.All at: http://www.ninehundred.net/~equalccw/
Jim