Thursday, October 17, 2013

Some important advice for those coming to the San Antonio event.

I'm about to get on the road to the Alamo and although the event organizers will be coming out with some more specifics for participants, here's a short list from one of the Oathkeepers on the ground in Texas:
1. Rally points: As many people as possible need to carpool to avoid single individuals moving towards the rally site (Alamo). . . (There is concern) that if the SAPD decides to arrest people they would do it while we don't have the advantage of numbers. Furthermore, downtown SA can pose challenges for parking to begin with. There isn't a parking lot in front of the site, but there are several parking garages within 5 blocks of The Alamo that can be used for parking, several of them are free.
2. Movement: We should avoid individual movement at all costs. Travel in groups to The Alamo. We don't want to open ourselves to be picked off one or two at a time.
3. Warnings: (We) just learned that it is illegal to carry a lock blade knife in SA. This is amazing news . . . and can not stand, but that might be a fight for another day. For our purposes, almost every one attending has a Spyderco, Buck, Gerber, or whatever knife on them that the SAPD can use as a pretext to search us and arrest us. We need to emphasize that people leave the knives at home or in the car, that is unless we want to fight that front as well. . .
4. Contact with SAPD: Contact OF COURSE needs to be professional and polite. We are trying to educate them on who we are as well as ordinary Texans. If we are stopped by police officers, they are required by Texas law to positively identify themselves as police officers with their commission and certification documents that they are all required to carry with them. As was mentioned in previous emails, the city is self insured, and individual officers can be held accountable financially as well as the city.
To this I would add that each small group have one person dedicated to video-document any contact with the SAPD.
I'll have more as the event nears.

5 comments:

Moosejaw said...

Hey it's the Alamo. Leave the locking folders home and strap on the biggest Bowie or Arkansas toothpick you have.

Anonymous said...

It's against the law to carry a Bowie knife or any knife with a blade length over 5 and one-half inches in Texas.

Anonymous said...

@Moosejaw,
do what you suggested and forfeit your right to carry (or purchase/sell using a FFL holder) FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!!! State law prohibits carrying a big pig-sticker such as you describe. A good rule of thumb is whether or not the blade is longer than the width of an average man's hand. One thing for sure is that the cop is going to apply that standard - even if the cop is a female standing 4' 10" tall. Just wearing a belt knife provides ample reasonable suspicion for a stop-and-frisk.

The people running the place around here in San Antonio are progressives but no way are they stupid. Plus they have judges whose belief system closely parallels their own. Collusion does not require conspiracy, merely congruent belief systems.

Stay safe down there, folks. m

Anonymous said...

Outstanding. I'll see you there Mike.

Angela L. Pena said...

Ok I'll leave my Machete at home ;)