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Tough words better than bullets
(by Dave Lange - August 11, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Tough words better than bullets
This is America, and William Bartlett, 52, of Brewster, a semirural town in southwest Stark County, had every right to be cruising the inner-city streets of Canton at 1:38 a.m. on June 8. He had every right to discuss something with a woman standing outside his vehicle in the neighborhood that is well known for prostitution and drug trafficking -- although he probably shouldn't have been parked in the middle of the road. Being the holder of a concealed handgun license, he had every legal right to be armed -- although it's questionable whether he fully complied with the law.
The group Ohioans for Concealed Carry has every right to make Mr. Bartlett its latest poster boy for gun liberties. The organization has the right to post video showing his arrest by a police officer who since has been labeled the "Psycho-Cop in Canton." It also is within its rights to raise funds for Mr. Bartlett's defense, to call for the officer's resignation and to use the episode as a diversion to pursue even looser firearms restrictions.
But the public, which has been treated to a steady barrage of the police dashboard video via the viral Internet from that night showing unacceptable behavior by arresting patrolman Daniel Harless, should not lose sight of where and when it all went down. Mr. Bartlett was visiting a distant inner-city neighborhood at a time of night when just about the only things expected to occur on the streets would be illicit transactions in sex and drugs.
This being America, citizens have every right to disagree with the laws, but drugs and prostitution are illegal in Ohio, while carrying concealed guns just about anywhere one pleases is not. Also, stopping a vehicle in the roadway is against the law, which is why Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Harless met in the first place.
Patrolman Harless is familiar with patrolling the mean streets of Canton and has previous personal experience with people carrying guns illegally. Most likely, he is aware of the July 2008 incident in which Twinsburg officer Joshua Miktarian was shot and killed during a traffic stop by a concealed-carry permit holder. Obviously, he would go into such a situation with a different perspective than your average video purveyor.
The viral video doesn't show whether Mr. Bartlett complied with the Ohio law that requires concealed-carry permit holders to "promptly inform" law officers who approach them if they're carrying handguns. But it clearly shows patrolman Harless assailing him as though he did not. "As soon as I saw your gun, I should have taken two steps back, pulled my Glock 40 and just put 10 bullets in your ass and let you drop," he said, among other obscene-laced verbal assaults, none of which actually threatened execution on the spot.
It was frightening enough to make the concealed-carry advocates shake in their boots, to get the "Psycho-Cop" suspended and possibly dismissed from his job and to raise questions about the meaning of "promptly inform," as if English is a second language.
Any man who hangs around drug dealers and hookers in the middle of the night may be wise to carry a gun. But he should consider himself lucky if the kind of people he encounters in such places just hurt his feelings with tough words, as opposed to those who really do let bullets do their talking.
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