Rosie's mad at Conn. police for telling about gun permit

O

Oatka

New member
The liberals are getting a taste of the anti-gun venom, ". . . the paper stands behind its decision to run the story, but that it has received some 'vicious' letters based on apparent "misinformation" disseminated through O'Donnell's Web site."

You can reach the newspaper at: deirdre.channing@scni.com

http://www.greenwichtime.com/Greenwich/release/06-02-2000/article3.html

O'Donnell targets town police, press

By Jonathan Lucas
Staff Writer

Responding to charges of hypocrisy, national daytime talk-show host and staunch gun control advocate Rosie O'Donnell this week criticized local police and press for releasing information that her bodyguard applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

O'Donnell has been stung by recent criticism labeling her a hypocrite following a May 25 report published by Greenwich Time that her bodyguard applied for a permit to carry a gun while escorting her 5-year-old son to and from public school this fall.

Since the story was published, O'Donnell has alleged on her Web site and in television interviews that the bodyguard, whom she referred to as Marcos, was illegally searched last Thursday by Greenwich police while he waited for her son to be dismissed from a private nursery school.

In the past week, O'Donnell posted a message on the Web site for her nationally syndicated "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" encouraging fans to show their support by sending e-mail to Greenwich Time about the article that she claims was based on a rumor that the bodyguard was armed. O'Donnell also aired her displeasure with local police in an interview yesterday on NBC's "Today" show, saying the alleged search of her bodyguard and his car was conducted without a warrant.

Greenwich Police Chief Peter Robbins yesterday denied that his officers conducted an illegal search of the comedian's bodyguard, but would not say whether a search had been conducted.

"No illegal searches took place," Robbins said. "We don't make illegal searches."

Robbins, who watched yesterday's O'Donnell interview, said afterward that he just wants the issue to go away.

"I'm not going to make any comments with anything to do with Rosie O'Donnell because we don't want the story to continue," Robbins said.

O'Donnell said during the "Today" show interview that the search was politically motivated by the gun lobby.

"I hate to disappoint the gun lobby," O'Donnell told "Today" co-host Katie Couric, "but it would have been a big feather in their cap had (Greenwich police) found an unlicensed, unregistered gun on the bodyguard of one of America's most vocal gun control advocates."

Robbins said he has no ties to the National Rifle Association or any other gun lobby, adding that his only motivation is the safety of the community.

"I don't have any affiliations along those lines," Robbins said. "It's in the interest of our job to do what we have to do. We're not motivated by anything other than public safety and the welfare of all."

O'Donnell also said during the interview that Greenwich police released the bodyguard's permit application to Greenwich Time to make her appear a hypocrite.

"Permits to carry a gun are sealed," O'Donnell said. "He has the right, as a person who's residing in Connecticut a lot of the time, due to his work with me, to request to carry a gun."

However, police said that while state law prohibits police from releasing the name and address of a gun permit applicant, police are allowed to supply information regarding where armed security agents are employed.

O'Donnell, 38, served as emcee for last month's Million Mom March against gun violence and has often used her show to advocate stronger gun control laws. She took celebrity NRA supporter Tom Selleck to task in one confrontational interview.

O'Donnell moved to Greenwich with her three adopted children last year from Nyack, N.Y., citing the town's reputation as a safe community. O'Donnell is planning to send her oldest child, Parker, to kindergarten at a public school this fall.

Greenwich Time is not naming the school or O'Donnell's neighborhood because of the potential security issues. O'Donnell also criticized that editorial decision, saying on her Web site that it is "more than simple to deduce." Greenwich is served by 10 elementary schools.

O'Donnell said yesterday that in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre last year when she became more outspoken about gun control, she and her family have become the target of threats forcing her to take extra security precautions.

Among the apparent precautions was her bodyguard's application to carry a concealed weapon. O'Donnell has emphasized, however, that she had no input in the decision to apply for the permit, noting that the bodyguard does not work directly for her and is hired by her show's producer, Warner Brothers, on her behalf.

Speculation about the bodyguard possibly carrying a gun to school prompted area parents to question the local Board of Education, and the principal of the school issued a letter dispelling the rumor that the bodyguard would be carrying a gun.

Greenwich Time Managing Editor Bruce Hunter said yesterday the paper has received numerous e-mails from O'Donnell supporters criticizing it for printing the story. Hunter said the paper stands behind its decision to run the story, but that it has received some "vicious" letters based on apparent "misinformation" disseminated through O'Donnell's Web site.

Hunter said Greenwich Time took great care to protect O'Donnell's privacy and that O'Donnell has made more of an issue out of the story than Greenwich Time has.

"This was a very legitimate news story, especially for that school's community, and it didn't matter whether she was Rosie O'Donnell or Rosie Smith," Hunter said yesterday. "She brought a lot more attention to it than we ever did."

O'Donnell refused a request from Greenwich Time yesterday for an interview, but her spokeswoman, Jennifer Glaisek, said her comments on the "Today" show interview would stand for themselves.

Despite O'Donnell's comments, Greenwich First Selectman Lolly Prince, who also serves as the town's police commissioner, said she maintains confidence in the police chief and added that Greenwich is still a place where celebrities and business titans can blend into relative anonymity.

"The town really ignores who people are and what they have attained," Prince said yesterday. "It's accepting and welcoming to everyone."

© 1999-2000, Southern Connecticut Newspaper, Inc.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
"Permits to carry a gun are sealed," O'Donnell said.
[/quote]

Oh REALLY? Gee, weren't the liberals yelping about "The public has a right to know!" in Longmont a couple of months ago, when the local fishwrap published the names of all the CHL holders in the county... despite the outraged protests of gun owners?

Rosie might want to clue in my governor, who just signed into law a bill that makes CHL records public across the state.

Can Rosie possibly get any more hypocritical?
 
Oh, I get it - it's supposed to be a big secret that she can be protected by a licensed gun-toter. When she shows how hypocritical she is, it's a secret - shhh, don't tell anyone. You guys who own guns should be in prison anyway...

Could she be any more of an elitist?
Her bodyguard's no better - "I don't have any affiliations along those lines," Robbins said. "It's in the interest of our job to do what we have to do. We're not motivated by anything other than public safety and the welfare of all."

Since when is a private bodyguard in the business of looking out for the public's welfare? Crap-ola.
 
Quote: "Greenwich Time Managing Editor Bruce Hunter said yesterday the paper has received numerous e-mails from O'Donnell supporters criticizing it for printing the story. Hunter said the paper stands behind its decision to run the story, but that it has received some "vicious" letters based on apparent misinformation" disseminated through O'Donnell's Web site."

Rosie's next victim: the FIRST Amendment?
 
This is really humorous. Really, really humorous. ;)

The more she sputters, the dumber she looks. Her followers were never the sharpest tools in the shed, but soon she'll left with only the most ignorant.

I really hope she stays involved on behalf of the anti-self defense movement. She is the perfect adversary. ;)

I'm dyin' here ... honest ... ;) ;) ;)

Regares from AZ
 
Does Connecticut have licences/registration for guns?

Rosie said he'd have a licenced/registered gun. With whom would he register his gun if there is no registration?


Battler.
 
Antis use the word "registered" as an equivalent of "good" or "better". Doesn't have to be real for the to use it.

Just today, some NYC transplant to Minnesota was complaining about not having to register his guns every year here...some people aren't happy unless someone keeps them on a short leash.
 
Danger Dave, the statement you are talking about was made by the Police Chief, Robbins, in regards to the search of the bodygaurd's car
 
Oleg-

You nailed it! I am so tired of references to "registered" versus "unregistered" guns in movies and on TV. It shows their total ignorance.

I love the sound of a constitutional rapist screaming about being denied constitutional rights- in this case the 4th.

She is pathetic.
 
I'm sick and tired of the phrase "gun control," whether used by O'Hypocrit or the media or King Klinton and his communistnazi toadies, etc.

If there were a scrap of honesty about them, which is impossible, they say what they really mean, "GUN CONFISCATION."

That's exactly what they mean and intend. J.B.
 
Hmmm...so, the police spot a man sitting in a car at a school parking lot....and its an illegal search (according to Rosie).
Wonder if she'd say the same if any of us were searched by the police under the same circumstances?
Illegal search....if it's Rosie's man. Necessary and legal search if it's one of us.


I must admit, I'm becoming fond of Rosie...she has me laughing more and more. Stay tuned...next week Rosie will try to insert both feet, along with the requisite super sub sandwich ;)

------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
Yeah, yeah, elitist cow and all that, but what I really want to know is how does she get her foot in her mouth while her head is up her @$$? Best wishes for a happy Friday & a great weeekend to all!
M2
 
Poor Rosie. Thinking is not her strength. The same could be said for most anti-gunners. But Rosie is clumsier than many of them at masking her foolishness.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>O'Donnell moved to Greenwich with her three adopted children last year from Nyack, N.Y....[/quote]

One would think O'Donnell would move to a place where she could be safe from those evil NRA gun-totin' crazies of her nightmares. Like the projects in D.C. or Chicago.

"It is time to put trigger locks on all guns, to license and register all guns. I understand that criminals won't obey such laws, but we must start now." Palm Beach County Public School Teacher David Markgraf
 
The beauty of Rosie's dilemma is that she just isn't sophisticated enough to know how to spin her way out of this mess. In the process, she's illustrating just how bogus the concept of gun control is.
It's too bad no one is conducting an opinion poll of MMM's to see how they feel about their tarnished goddess.
Hopefully, she's also serving as warning to other brainless celebrities who might want to flap their gums about issues they don't really understand.
 
A post I came up with in response to people who defend Rosie from accusations that she is a hypocrit:

Rosie is a hypocrit. She is a vocal advocate of gun control, and has made it clear that she believes that only the police and the military should have access to guns. Then along comes her body gaurd. Her spokesman, Mr. Glaisek acknowledged that the NRA would enjoy this controversy. "She's not saying by any means that people can't have guns. What she is saying is that if you're going to have a gun, it needs to be licensed and registered, and there should be child safety locks, waiting periods, criminal background checks, in order to make them safer," Glaisek said.

Really? No. The body gaurd will obviously not be utilizing a trigger lock.

During an interview with gun-control advocate U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), McCarthy was saying she was pushing for gun safety, but did not want to dispute the constitutionally protected right of Americans to bear arms.

Then Rosie--already upset like the rest of us over the Columbine massacre--piped up.

"I would like to dispute that," she said. "I know it's in the Constitution. But you know what? Enough! I would like to say, I think there should be a law--and I know this is extreme--that no one can have a gun in the U.S. If you have a gun, you go to jail. Only the police should have guns. It's ridiculous."

Rosie's latest huff is about the police decision to make the records available to the press, thus embarrassing her:

"Permits to carry a gun are sealed," O'Donnell said. "He has the right, as a person who's residing in Connecticut a lot of the time, due to his work with me, to request to carry a gun."

Really? No. Rosie blasted the notion that people with CCWs be allowed to remain ananynous on her show, during the MMM, and on her website. Besides, under Conneticut law, the records of armed body gaurds are public domain.
 
Glenn - As I understand it (being a CO resident and all), there was a bill in the works that would have made the records private, but it did not pass. So we are where we were a year ago, with "open records."

-z
 
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