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Pastor Who Calls Police Because He Was Assaulted Gets Arrested

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jim360 | 11:14 Sun 14th Jun 2020 | News
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https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/pastor-criminal-charge-dropped-struggle-not-finished/article_94cc6488-bf90-5133-b413-6f77ae7133f2.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-pastor-who-called-911-after-alleged-attack-was-arrested-n1231005

Let's be clear here: the pastor did nothing wrong at all. He defended his property, exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, called the police when he needed back-up -- and *he* was the one who ended up arrested, and then charged?

This is the sort of problem that can get lost when focusing on police brutality. There's something broken about a system where this can possibly be the result. Luckily the charges were dropped, and luckily no lives have been ruined, but it seems reasonable that it was a matter of luck rather than judgement. Imagine being told that *you* were the one to be arrested, imagine how easy it would be to lose your temper at the raging injustice, and imagine how easy it would be for a police officer to use your anger as justification for an aggressive response.
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"Imagine being told that *you* were the one to be arrested" I dont have to, it has happened to me. Arrested and slung into a cell. full red faces and apologies in the morning when the 'boss' got in but still a night in the cell for me.
12:16 Sun 14th Jun 2020
That first link can't be accessed in the EU.
Question Author
You can use a VPN to get around it, although if that's not easy then I can copy/paste some of the text here. The key point is that, thankfully, the wrong of charging the pastor and letting his assailants off scot-free has been corrected.
imagine how easy it would be to lose your temper , and imagine how easy it would be for a police officer to use your anger as justification for an aggressive response.//

happens here now and then

does anyone remember the Good Neighbour Sam articles in Private Eye twenty years ago
it was recognised early on that he had done nothing wrong ( an assister ) but stopped answering court documents as it dragge on. He was later imprisoned for contempt when he failed to attend ct.

"Imagine being told that *you* were the one to be arrested"

I dont have to, it has happened to me. Arrested and slung into a cell. full red faces and apologies in the morning when the 'boss' got in but still a night in the cell for me.
Question Author
I'm really sorry to hear that. Was that a while ago? How did you keep your cool?!
It was about 10 years ago. I think I have just got one of those faces, get stopped regularly in my car (never in the van though!) and get followed round 'Tesco' all the time by security.

I have learnt not to react to it now and through other experiences in my youth I know not to antagonise the Police during arrest.
Not like you to defend the 2nd Amendment. It's in the book now.
To be fair to jim I dont think he is defending it just pointing out that is the current law and it was applicable in this case.
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Quite so, ymb. To arrest somebody for carrying a gun he was using in self-defence, and not five people for assaulting him and dumping stuff on his property, is shameful.
Question Author
All I can say is that that's disgusting treatment, ymb.
//..have just got one of those faces, get stopped regularly in my car (never in the van though!) and get followed round 'Tesco' all the time by security.//

I'm intrigued YMB
What earth is ' wrong ' with your face , that causes that sort of reaction
Have you got a scull and crossbones tattooed across your face , or something ?

Must be darn right annoying to say the least
He may have a strong resemblance to Anthony Worrall Thompson, Bazile.
I'm not sure how a Man Of God reconciles his belief in the sanctity of life with carrying a concealed weapon.

The problem with guns is, they tend to get used for their primary purpose, which is killing someone.

If you live in a society over-run with firearms, and you take out a gun, there is an excellent chance the person you are pointing it at will have one as well, and it's a nano-second before one of you decide that your life is in danger, and you shoot first.

If the gang had been carrying guns, the chances are that the pastor would have been murdered, and the truth of the incident would never have been known, so the pastor can think himself seriously lucky that they were not.

But I come back to my original point - how does a pastor come to be carrying a gun in the first place?
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I can't help but feel that it's of secondary importance.
jim - // I can't help but feel that it's of secondary importance. //

If you think priests carrying guns is of 'secondary importance', I have to disagree with you.
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Secondary importance to the question of why did police turn up to a scene where they decided that the first thing to do was to arrest the person who called them? I don't think there's much room for argument. Maybe the pastor shouldn't be carrying a gun, and indeed I hate the whole question of gun rights. But it is the responsibility of police officers to protect the community and it is clear that in they instance they failed abysmally to do so.
I can't read either link. Was the weapon the pastor possessed legally owned and registered? If so was it concealed and he did not have a licence to carry a concealed weapon? This is a little one-sided if the links are as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Our famous Norwich farmer had a shotgun licence to pepper his nightime intruders for their umpteenth clandestine visit.Trouble was it was the wrong type of shotgun which had not been adapted and therefore he was unwittingly illegally in possession of a Sec 1 Firearm for which he was arrested and charged. The facts of the case are relevant.
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From the first link:

// McCray, 61, a pastor at Lighthouse Church & Marketplace Ministries International in Woodstock, was arrested last week after he called 911 to report several people attacking him on property he owns in Edinburg.

After deputies from the Sheriff’s Office arrived, he was arrested and charged with brandishing a firearm — his gun, which he said he was using to protect himself.

McCray said he wasn’t permitted to explain his side of the story until released later that night, and only after insisting. He provided a written statement and the following day requested and received a meeting with the sheriff.

He described two individuals trying to dump a refrigerator onto his property. After he asked them not to, he said they returned with more people and proceeded to insult him and threaten his life.

After law enforcement arrived, the Sheriff’s Office arrested McCray and handcuffed him. As they drove him away, he recalled the people he accused of assaulting him cheering and waving at him. //

Question Author
From the second link:

// A sheriff in Virginia has apologized to a Black pastor who was mistakenly arrested after he called authorities for help during an alleged attack by a white family earlier this month.

Pastor Leon McCray was at his home on June 1 when he saw two people trying to dump a refrigerator on his property, he recounted during a church service Sunday. When McCray told them to stop, one person proceeded to verbally attack him and the other one went to get three other people.

McCray said that all five people started attacking him verbally and physically. They were "threatening to kill me... telling me that my Black life didn't matter," he said. That's when he felt the need to pull his concealed firearm to save his life, he said. The group of people then left and McCray proceeded to call 9-1-1 for help.

But when authorities arrived, they didn't ask McCray what happened, he said. They spoke to the white family of five who had just attacked him, he said.

I was not given an opportunity to speak," said McCray, adding that officers told him they had to arrest him for brandishing a gun. "And I said, what about the trespassing and the assault?"

Instead, McCray "was handcuffed in front of my assaulters" by an officer who has known him from the community for over 20 years, he said, adding "they waved at me as I go down the road... . Do you know how disturbing that is?"//
It must be assumed that the gun was legally held , otherwise the sherif would have said so

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