Open carry advocates battle Upland

UPLAND - Although it is now illegal to openly carry unloaded handguns in California, two open-carry advocates are fighting the city over a confrontation with Upland police officers.

Christopher Hacopian of Ontario and Scott Gibb of Adelanto filed a complaint last year in federal court in Los Angeles, accusing two officers of violating their First, Second and Fourth Amendment rights. They are also accusing the officers of battery.

Lawyers from the city and for the advocates have been in discussions about the complaint.

Video and audio recordings of the incident show Hacopian and Gibb being detained, ordered to put their hands up and get on their knees. The men were then handcuffed and searched without consent. Both men were eventually let go.

"My guys immediately complied," said Jonathan Birdt, an attorney representing Hacopian and Gibb.

"If they had checked the weapons and uncuffed them, the situation would have been over. You never would have heard another thing, but they didn't. They kept them in handcuffs for 15 minutes and berated them."

Hacopian and Gibb were both openly carrying unloaded handguns - which was legal at the time - in July at the Colonies Crossroads shopping center. They were passing out pamphlets on the Second Amendment when Officer Maurice Duran and Sgt. Barry Belt approached them to check if their weapons were unloaded.

"These guys are zealous advocates that were passing out

fliers on the Second Amendment. It's a controversial issue, and these officers were idiots," Birdt said.

Carrying an unloaded handgun in plain sight was legal until January, when a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown made open carry of handguns illegal.

It is still legal to openly carry unloaded rifles and shotguns.

The City Council discussed the lawsuit in closed session during a meeting earlier this month. There was no reportable action.

Birdt said he had offered to settle for $100,000, which the city turned down. If the case goes to trial, he said he will ask for up to $250,000 in damages.

"The complaint in this case taken directly from what happened on the video. Whether the plaintiffs acted improperly or not or one of them ran his mouth, he complied with every order he was given," Birdt said.

"The police did not have the power and do not have the power to just have a temper tantrum and cuff somebody for 10 minutes because they feel like it. It's an abuse of power."

City Manager Stephen Dunn said he believes the advocates could have been looking for a loophole in the system.

"Unfortunately, our officers fell into that loophole and now it's looking like it could potentially cost the city some money," he said.

Duran and Belt were responding to a call made by a jewelry store employee stating there were two men with guns near the store.

The jewelry store had been robbed in the past, Dunn said.

"Of course, they were very nervous so they called for service and police responded and I think they reacted like I think you would expect them to react if they saw people with sidearms, only to find out in a sense it was a set-up."

When officers go out on calls reporting men with guns, their approach is different than if they know the men are just openly carrying, Capt. Ken Bonson said.

"I think the best we can do is we train our officers on how to handle the open-carry people when they know that's what they're dealing with and train our officers how to handle these more high-risk situations of possible robbery suspects, man-with-a-gun type of things," Bonson said. "What we hope for (from) this is that at the point where they become aware of this appearing to be an open carry situation that the officer de-escalates."

Bonson said officers were re-trained on the open-carry law immediately after the incident in July.

"The training was a big part of it just reminding everybody that some of these `man-with- a-gun' calls we go on might be open-carry people," Bonson said. "We need to be prepared to address that appropriately."

Often, open-carry advocates inform the Police Department before they pass out fliers or hold a demonstration, but they are not required to do so.

"People involved in open carry know that there's always the potential for members of the public to get scared," Bonson said. "If members of the public call the police, if we're notified ahead of time when we get that call, the officer knows and they're going there with that mindset."

Reach Sandra via email, call her at 909-483-8555, or find her on Twitter @UplandNow .

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Open carry advocates battle Upland