Open Carrier SWATted in VA, Caller ID & Voice Caught on Tape

By Dean Weingarten

Dean Weingarten
Author Dean Weingarten ; “But For The Grace of God Goes Me”
Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Moms Demand Action (MDA) disarmenters have threatened to make false 911 calls to police,and encouraged others to do so.

In at least one case, perhaps more, an innocent man was killed by police as a direct response to false allegations in 911 calls.  Last week, in Virginia, an open carrier was falsely accused of robbing a 7-11, in a 911 call.   Fortunately, he was not harmed.

Here is his account, from Robert Dickens, as related to the Virginia Citizens Defense League, recounted at opencarry.org:  (PVC stands for  Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League)

On 10/15/14 at about 5:30 pm, I stopped at a 7-11 for some coffee in the skyline area of Fairfax.

Like every other day when I’m off work, I had hopped on my motorcycle for a short ride . Being an open carry proponent, I didn’t think twice about putting on my every-day-carry pistol.

After leaving the 7-11, I went to the Verizon store for some quick shopping. Both stores are within five miles of my home. Chores done, I decided to go for a nice ride around the block.

What’s that Fairfax County officer looking at me like that for? Damn he’s going to pull me over! Yep… Lights, boop boop. Sigh.

Now I’m thinking that I’ve got my pistol on me and I’m asking myself how I would feel if I were an officer pulling over someone who was armed? [PVC: That is called “empathy,” something that normal, law-abiding people have, but violent criminals lack.]

Ok, turn the bike off, straddle the bike, interlock your hands on your head, and be calm. [PVC: Doing these steps calmly and slowly probably helped send a clear signal to the SIX responding officers in FOUR patrol cars that Robert was not a threat.]

As the officer gets out of his car, three other cars show up.

Wow, what did I do?

I let the first officer know that I have a firearm on my side. He says, “I know.” I did not move an inch!

To my surprise not one of the at least six police officers have a weapon pointed at me. [PVC: Hats off to FCPD for their professional handling of this situation! Robert’s life was not unnecessarily endangered during the stop by the police pointing their guns at him.]

The officer walks up behind me and asks if he can take the weapon from my holster. “Yes, sir,” I replied.

“Do you have any other weapons on you, sir?”

“Yes, sir, a knife in my pocket.”

“Yes, sir. Why did you stop me?”

“I will get to that in a minute.” [PVC: Robert wisely decides to temporarily let the issue drop at this point.]

As I’m being frisked, I’m still not moving and am keeping my hands on my head.

“Sir, can I put my hands down now?,” I asked when the frisking was concluded.

“Yes, you can stand at ease.”

At this point I ask the officer what is going on.

“Well, we had a person call from 7-11 and they stated that a white guy on a motorcycle robbed the place.”

I laughed nervously and told the officer that I left a 7-11 30 minutes ago, but that I didn’t rob the place! [PVC: This is where an attorney might advise the client to stop talking to the police for fear of saying something innocent that ends up getting misinterpreted. To do so properly, you must verbally indicate you are invoking the Fifth Amendment and stop talking. In this case it’s hard to argue with success, but one should be very, very cautious.]

I’m getting kind of angry now. I’ve heard of anti-gun people saying that they will call the police if they see an open carrier and make up some story to get the police to respond in a forceful manner.

Wow, I could have been killed!

Ten minutes later I’m on my way. With the police “checking the sanity of the caller.”

I put a call into the police station the following Monday and sent a email thanking FCPD for being very professional.

VCDL became involved and quickly put in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into Fairfax County.   They expeditiously received a recording of the 911 call, with the callers name and phone number blanked out.  Here is a link to the audio.

Link to audio of 911 call.   The audio file is 5:36 long and is well worth listening to.   It appears that the caller is of diminished mental capacity.  The 911 dispatcher tries to get details to substantiate what the caller is saying.   The dangerous part is that the caller does get most things correct.   He has a good description of Robert Dickens and his motorcycle.   He has the correct location of the 7-11.   It is just that the robbery that he describes never happened.

Just as clearly, the police seem to know this caller, and know that his calls are suspect.   The problem is, of course, that he gets most things right, so there might be something substantive to the call.   The fact that the officers did not draw their weapons on Robert shows that they were treading a middle road.

It also shows that MDA supporters that threaten and encourage false 911 calls are treading a very dangerous line.    John Crawford III is dead, arguably because of false statements made on a 911 call.    Another woman died in the panic induced by the call.   Eric Scott, a West Point Grad, was killed by police in an incident in Las Vegas that may have resulted from bad information on a 911 call.  Video tapes of the events of that shooting were never recovered.    Other incidents of SWATting have occurred involving open carriers.

This is a bit personal, as supporters of MDA wrote that they would call 911 on me when no crime was committed; urged others to make false 911 calls, and even threatened me with death if they saw me openly carrying.

I will not allow this type of intimidation prevent me from exercising my rights.   make no mistake, that is the purpose of the MDA supporters.   They do not like people exercising their constitutional rights, so they resort to threats and bullying to stop them.   They are generally too cowardly to make the threats in person, so they use their favorite means of oppression, the police power of the state.

The way to make this ineffective is to make it known.   As more and more police become aware of these SWATting efforts, more and more false 911 calls will be prosecuted.

Definition of a disarmenter

c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

About Dean Weingarten;

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

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freewill

false 911 calls are illegal!! are we to assume that the cops stopped this guy without first verifying a robbery?

james

Agree, caller should be investigated and prosecuted to fullest extent.

Mr. Dickens should consider civil suit against this character.

Michael

James , never have truer words been written. Hit these jack asses where it hurts, in their back pockets. Sue enough of them for defamation and maybe they will wise up and then shut up and leave the rest of us alone. SI VIS PACUM ,PARA BELLUM

DirtyHarry44

SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM, If you seek peace, prepare for war. Damn, I haven’t seen that in a long time. Good one Michael.

oldshooter

I’d suspect that the police, even if they wee unaware of the caller’s background, would have to wonder about a “witness” calling in a report of an armed robbery while the store allegedly robbed has NOT called it in. Seems reasonable for the police to follow up with a call to the store to verify. It may be that that was part of the reason they didn’t seem too worried about the bike rider when they stopped him. In any case, I agree that this kind of call should be prosecuted, even if the person has a mental disorder, he… Read more »

Vanns40

It is absolutely irrelevant that the person who called in is of “diminished capacity”. Charges need to be filed against him and he needs to go through the judicial system just like anyone else. We have our legal system to deal with the sane, insane and those who range inbetween. To not do so simply encourages more of these incidents and the possibility of an innocent person dying.

TSgt B

It’s one thing to have these radical groups, or even the Executive Director of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence promote these insane tactics, it is even worse when an ENTIRE CITY GOVERNMENT adopts the same “strategy”. “Google” “Bruce Beatty Concealed Carry Ohio” and see the battle I fought with Toledo, Ohio in 2005. To make matters worse, a so-called “Republican” municipal court judge totally ignored his Oath, the state and federal constitutions, and the stated intent of the Ohio legislature, as noted in law. Just to piss them off, I still haven’t, and WILL NOT, pay the fine. The… Read more »

mase

As a police officer I agree with Eric except for the Hero Complex part just cause I feel he me think of all LEO’s that way. (not sure I don’t know him I just hear it a lot) but Swatting is very dangerous to citizens and to the police, I we kick in the wrong door and the home owner thinks he’s being robbed what’s he going to do…. he’s going to protect his family and home that’s what I would do anyways that could end badly for police or the people. I get it I have been pulled out… Read more »

Eric

Looks like attempted murder to me by filing false police report , to kill an open carrier. The caller should get attempted murder charge and filing false police report.
All Swatting calls should contain a charge equivalent to the false accusation and no reduction of charges or sentence. Furthermore if a policeman draws his weapon , Attempted murder charge should be added as death could be easy as an accident or trigger happy policeman with a hero complex.

Michael

Not only attempted murder, but the MDA and their like-minded affiliates seem to be levying war via terrorism (third case: a war on society) and police-as-weapons against US citizens. That’s a treason charge against everyone in the organisation regardless of whether or not they have any direct involvement in SWATting or urging people to engage in SWATting, they all become principals.

Unfortunately for the peace officers, if any of them become involved in SWATting, through no fault of their own, they can be charged with color of law violations, hence the mysterious disappearances of some videos, I’d suspect.

Troy Smith

Strictly speaking, SWATting is illegal. Then again, there is *ONE* other group that is allowed to behave in a similar manner with not only complete immunity, but is encouraged to do so. There are also other similarities… guess what I’m doing this weekend 🙁

For those that have read this far, please check the embedded links, and then some. SERIOUSLY good information!

TEX

Police are going to have to make sure 911 operators get identification from callers and police speak to them face to face. If these callers who Shannon Watts and the Bloomberg trash are encouraging them to do this are found guilty of calling in a false police/incident report,….get a rope !