I was not there so I will not judge the LEO's on this one.
My question is and has been for the past several years; Why are we sending in SWAT or some other "door knock down troopers" when a simple 1:1 discussion is needed. I miss the days of Sheriff Taylor and Deputy Sheriff Fife.
I know I told this story before however it is worth retelling.
August 1974: I drove out from LA to pick up my buddy from the Boy Scout camp in Cimarron NM. He had been playing a scout councilor there for the summer.
On the way home to LA we wanted to see the Grand Canyon so we took a northerly route out of NM into AZ. By the time we got to the Canyon gates it was way late so we pulled over to a rest area and proceeded to roll-out our sleeping mat and bags to catch a few ZZZZZ's before the canyon opened up the next morning.
About 6 O' clock in the morning I awoke to someone kicking the soles of my feet in the sleeping bag. I slowly rolled over, with a .22 Stoeger Luger in my hand which I always slept with and looked up. There standing over me looking down was a AZ. State Trooper.
He asked, "What are you boys doing here?" I told him we were planning on checking out the Grand Canyon on our way back to California. We had gotten here late and thought we would catch some shut-eye before the Canyon opened.
He nodded his head and then informed us that the rest area was not a public camp grounds and it was time to pack up and move on. He then told us as he walked away that the Canyon opens up at 7:00AM and no open fires were allowed at the rest stop area.
Well we quickly packed up and vamoosed.
The point of the story is:
1)
One State Trooper questioned us,
2) He didn't know it but I had a handgun trained on him the whole time, and
3) He was polite, told us that we couldn't camp at the rest stop and asked us to move on.
Never once did he ask us for ID, search us or bring in the flippen SWATT team.
Now a days I suspect we would have been searched, a background check done and ran in for having a handgun at 18 years of age.
