Hello,
I'm Gary Keating and I'm the President of the Ct. Military Vehicle
Collectors (COMVEC).
We had our monthly meetng tonight and obviously this incident was discussed.
The man in question is not a member of the club nor is he personally known
by anyone at the meeting. What is known was what was written in the
newspapers. The concensus was that the charges speak for themselves. No
registration, insurance, or license, seems to be no problem there. Breech
of peace, due to some words thet were said to the police. Again, no one was
there so we have to go by what was reported. Weapons charge, though
probably punitive, can be seen as an extension of the law that governs such
incidents as using a fake gun in a crime, etc.
This is not the way Ct. handles these situations across the board. The club
attended Hartfords Veterans Day parade last year and a member had a MG
mounted in the bed of his M37. When we stopped for directions as to were to
form up, the cop looked at the gun and stated "anywhere you want" , and
smiled. No problem.
I got stopped several years ago while driveing my M-38. This happened right
after the Oklahoma bombing. A citizen saw a friend of mine in his jeep with
a MG mounted on his way to a car show. He called the police. I was following
behind by about 20 minutes,and was stopped by the local police. When asked
why, the cop stated "Non of your Fuc#en business". He then proceeded to
walk around the jeep. Taken back by this attiude, I let the cop do his
thing until he was ready to be more cooperative. He finally admited that he
was looking for a jeep with a big gun on it. He thought my snorkel was a
gun!!!! After questioning me on my one brake light and no seat belt, he let
me go. I went back home, called the local police and ask for the commander.
After some double talk, several meetings, and a call to the regional office,
I finally got the result I wanted, and that was a formal reprimand on the
cop that stopped me for his unprofessional behavior. He could have made a
bad scene worse by his actions, if this had been for real!
I guess my point is, that if confronted by something of this nature YOUR
BEHAVIOR can be the deciding factor as to how it will play out. Fear of the
unknown can be a very powerful emotion and not one that leads to clear
thinking and level-headed decision making. We need to educate and not blow
off the handle. Use your head when driving your HMV.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 05 2001 - 00:40:36 PDT