Post office and knives

[Chris Meyer]

Then who does? The rabid "the police can do no wrong crowd"?

I haven't met that particular crowd; I don't believe they exist here in New England. Around here we are up to our eyeballs in liberals, and most of them don’t care for the Police at all.

So who decides what is and what is not an "official duty"? Generally, it's up to the Chief of Police or his designee. Some of the duties would be spelled out in the Department's S.O.P.’s and rules and regulations, but any duty that could reasonably be considered to be in the Department's best interest should be okay. I think it would be an official duty if a patrolman was assigned to go to the post office to pick up the Department's mail. If he's going in just to buy some stamps for himself then it would not be an official duty. However, what would you have him do, leave his duty belt in the trunk of his cruiser? If he did that and some crime were to occur in or around the post office he would not have the tools he needed to deal with the situation. Common sense has to prevail.

Common sense however, seems to be in short supply these days, and it’s not just at the post office. In my town we have a judge at the juvenile court who won’t allow uniformed Police Officers to carry a firearm in the court house, even when they are there under subpoena to testify in a criminal case. The Police are clearly carrying out an “official duty”, but this judge doesn’t like guns. The solution from the State and Local Police has been to just leave if they are denied entry with their duty weapon.

I would agree with you that a citizen who is otherwise lawfully carrying a firearm or other "weapon" (such as a knife) should be free to go wherever an unarmed citizen can go. But don't begrudge the Police for being exempt from some of the restrictive laws that impinge on the Constitution. It’s the idiot politicians who enact those laws, not the Police. I'm sure lots of those politicians would also love to ban the Police from carrying anything that might help them apprehend the criminals (guns, batons, tasers, knives, etc.) They just don't think they can get away with it at the moment.

It would certainly be nice if we could all get the Government (Fed, State, and Local) off our backs and out of our pockets. The Government was supposed to be serving the People, not the other way around.

 

[tom19176]

Chris I agree with you on all points. Funny I looked in the NYC Patrolman's guide on the Postal question, but I did not find any direction for as local Post Office, but the large Postal facilities ( there are several in NYC) states to check in with the PO Police in non life threaten calls. I did not see any direction if you were buying stamps....lol....

Just a quick comment on the weapons carring side of things. If you have not done it then you don't know is the best way to decribe the "right" a LEO has in carry a gun. The public feels you have a special right since you are armed, but anyone with a few years on the street understands the issues with being armed , and the bad out way the good.