Michigan residents James Baker, 24, and Brandon Vreeland, 40, were arrested after entering the Dearborn Police Headquarters armed in protest over being pulled over. Baker was armed with two firearms and wore a mask while Vreeland carried a spare camera to record the event.
The two claim they were also performing an “audit” on the police to test if the department would recognize their constitutional right to bear arms. After a short and relatively non-violent verbal exchange, the police arrested and jailed both men.
“We audit police to see how well they honor the Constitution and people’s rights,” said Vreeland according to the Detroit Free Press. “We showcase police abuse and abuse of police power in the totalitarian police state that we live in.”
After arresting the pair at gunpoint the police searched their car and found more guns. In total, the police found four firearms, an AR, an AK and two handguns along with ammunition and extra magazines.
The two were stopped by police earlier that day. Police were investigating a report about two suspicious armed men in vests at a shopping center. They were gone by the time police arrived.
Shortly after a patrol officer spotted Baker and Vreeland at a nearby park. The officer conducted a traffic stop but saw no guns and let the men go.
“No laws were broken,” said Vreeland, speaking about the traffic stop, explaining why they were dressed and armed. “If we had to defend ourselves in a gun battle, I’d rather be armed.” Both men have been released on $1,500 bonds and face future court appearances.
See Also: Weapons Seized at North Carolina Black Panther Press Conference
Police were quick to condemn their armed protest. “I find this behavior totally unacceptable and irresponsible,” said Police Chief Ronald Haddad in a statement. “This is not a Second Amendment issue for me. We had members of the public in our lobby that fled in fear for their safety as these men entered our building.”
Michigan Open Carry Inc., a local gun rights group, also denounced the pair’s actions. “Let us be clear, Michigan Open Carry, Inc. in no way supports the actions of these individuals,” the group said in a statement. “It is our belief that their actions were reckless, and primarily designed to draw attention and a response.”
“Michigan Open Carry advocates for and educates people about the lawful open carry of a holstered handgun for the purposes of everyday self-protection,” he said. “Thousands of people open carry every day all over this state, including in police stations, without incident. They conduct themselves lawfully and professionally, and receive the same in return from members of law-enforcement.”
“Like it or not, exercising your rights is not black and white,” said Tom Lambert, the group’s president. “How you act and portray yourself is a big part of advocacy. I believe these gentlemen failed in this regard.”
Here in Mississippi, those two would have been properly and legally arrested; while we’re an open carry state, that right is sharply denied to anyone entering a police station who is not a member of law enforcement. That’s common sense and probably prevents needless misunderstandings and perhaps deaths on the part of citizens and law enforcement officers.
wish and officer had shot the idiot. needs to be removed from the gene pool. would almost certainly have been ruled a justifiable shooting.
Dearborn MI has one of the largest Arab/Muslim populations in the USA. If I was a cop and two guys strolled inti the police station wearing vests and full face masks I would probably assume the worst. I am from Michigan and I can tell you that numerous individuals in this area have been tied to Hezbollah funding and other criminal acts.
My first thought on seeing the guy in the black mask with a rifle at the ready was “terrorist”. Not even necessarily Arab or Muslim, could be a home-grown wing nut like McVeigh or Nicholls or Rudolph.
ya cant fix stupid, but occassionally you can arrest a few. duh…..wearing a mask plus weapons could have easily got him shot!!! dont try to enter my house dressed like that.
two mental midgets looking to cause problems.
These boys are a special sort of stupid.
You know, there are a lot of things that you can legally do, that you just don’t, because you’re not stupid. Unfortunately, there’s always someone…
These guys have to be gun control advocates. No self respecting gun owner with half a brain would pull a stunt like this. Where I grew up, a baseball bat would give these guys an education, but now I’m old and wiser and only daydream about meeting them… Kudos to the cops for not being baited into a negative reaction (unless they were in on this asinine hoax).
Just 2 idiots looking to raise a stink and start trouble.
If I were in that police station for some reason, I would have charged and tackled them (assuming I did not have my CCW on me at the time because, well, your in a friggen police station!
I personally believe these bozos were plants from anti-gun idiots. After digging around, I got a lot flak from anti-gunners online. I support safe, responsible and common sense firearm use. These clowns are dangerous, irresponsible and lack serious commen sense. I also got a lot of anti-cop flak from libtards on this subject. Sounds like a libtards set this up to make the cops look like constitution breakers and gun owners look like bad people in one act of lunacy.
WTF You have a right to carry. You do not have the right to intimidate others. When in the presence of armed police you have two choices, obey orders now and argue the legalities later or , go down fighting and let your survivors argue about the legalities later. In some jurisdictions going about masked to intimidate others is a felony so these guys might have eliminated themselves from the debate.
Remember, just because you can does not mean you should.
Amen
Wearing a mask in public outside of a Mardi Gras celebration is STILL a felony in Louisiana – a law which (if I recall correctly) goes back to the days of Bonnie and Clyde, when masks were how bank robbers dressed for success. It still is, by the way.
Has anyone looked into the background of these two idiots? It wouldnt surprise me to hear that they are tied to the antigunner groups. I know alot of guys who carry. some even open carry. But short of being on a range none wear ballistic wear in public. Then none would ever walk into a police station open carring firearms. I dont know about Dearborn, but here there are signs and laws about having a firearm in a policestation. Compliments to the Officers on the traffic stop for their professionalism, and to those in the station when they had two idiots walk in armed. Had they been peppered it would have been their own fault.
Forrest had it right Stupid is as Stupid does.
Let me start off by saying that I am a strong believer in the second amendment. However, walking into a police station with a pistol, a semi-automatic weapon (loaded/chambered??), and covering your face — are you kidding me!!! Are these two individuals total, absolute, and complete idiots!!! This type of stupid inappropriate behavior is unbelievable and could have easily escalated into something much more serious if the police had not handled it as well as they did –kudos to the police officers. If these two knuckle heads believe that they were previously pulled over without cause, file a written complaint.
I am a huge supporter of gun rights. But these two idiots are a part of our problem as gun owners. If more people act like they did, we will lose our rights for sure. We can’t have morons be our voice of reason.
You are right. It’s like a guy waving a gun around at the range, there are lines you do not cross. Walking into a police station, school etc, while banishing a firearm is stupid , it’s like shouting fire in a movie theater.
These two knuckle heads deserve to be taken down and locked up.
Any chance they are paid anti-gun plants?
I’m sure that you are spot on. Don’t forget, George Soros (‘Soreholes’ after the election results) is behind all the efforts to destroy this country from within. He and his money, follows Alinsky’s 8 steps to destroy a democracy ( One of is to disarm its citizens) and has succeeded in Europe (The EU), Australia is well on it’s way (new Libtard PM Turnbull) and after gun confiscation, and that newly elected drama teacher and unicorn fart sniffer of a Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada is doing. Soreholes is wily in using subversion, deflecting by projecting, and espionage in an effort against the USA. I’d bet these two bozos are of the same ilk of the Dem party paid protesters, agitators, and rioters that the Veritas tapes have proven the likes of during the pre-election processes. These two act like gun rights activists when in reality they are flaunting the 2nd amendment against itself in a back door way to destroy it. Just my gut feeling here.
Don’t ever look for conspiracy where stupidity will explain.
I have to agree that this is more likely stupidity. Although one of the people in the background of that shot has a strong resemblance to Michael Moore (another Michigander), the current governor of Michigan’s unlikely to be on board with street theater for gun control.
Speaking of street theater, it’s a matter of time before someone from the alt-left shoots a cop again at one of the scheduled “Resistance” events aimed at getting the Democratic party by violence (blocking passage through public streets is a violent act if it resulting in the inability of other citizens to go about their business – it’s illegal arrest when you think about it). We’ve seen that FBI can predict by analysis of social media when police will be assassinated, but under the Obama administration were either prevented or were disinclined to intervene to prevent such incidents.
It’s time the alt-left were prosecuted under RICO statutes. Their agenda clearly embraces violence against the police and others.
+1 in agreement that these clowns did nothing but harm those of us who are responsible, family values gun owners and gun lovers. Making their point to the extreme about their right to bear arms was just that – too extreme. There was nothing at all smart about this. In fact, this is just more ammo (pardon the pun) for anti-gunners to smear responsible shooting fans.
And there you see the double-standard. When terrorists drive cars through crowds of people as happened in an Ohio college campus, on a Las Vegas sidewalk, or in public squares in Nice and Berlin, the reaction isn’t “Let’s confiscate cars and trucks!” but “what a tragedy!” without any attempt to curtail the rights of the vast majority of legal drivers.
When something like this, or (God forbid) shootings like those at Sandy Hook, Dallas or Orlando happen, the cry is – immediately and for years afterward – to take one of the ten enumerated civil rights enshrined in the Constitution away from the millions of Americans who go their entire lives using firearms responsibly, safely and to protect themselves and others.
This is a perfect example of how NOT to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights. These men were obviously intending to provoke an altercation with the police, perhaps even hoping to be able to bring suit against them. Instead they have tarnished the reputation of gun owners at large and got themselves arrested for their efforts. This stunt was stupid and utterly irresponsible. I feel for any law enforcement officials that have to deal with this sort of ignorant behavior. It doesn’t take much to imagine this situation going sideways very quickly and an officer being forced to kill one of these “activists.” That officer would then bear that burden on his or her conscious for the rest of their lives. Not to mention the poor family of the fools that could have died for their fifteen minutes of fame. The 2nd Amendment is too important to all of us for these sorts of individuals to be what the public hears about gun owners. You can bet good money that the local anti gun groups will use this as ammunition for their position. If these men are members of the NRA, as I am a lifetime member, I firmly believe that their membership should be revoked and that they be blacklisted by every pro gun media outlet. These men do not represent us.
Someone near there “please” explain to them the logic of how stupid this is and plays into the hands of the Gun Grabbers.
STOP THIS S*IT. Just stop it Dammit.
“Gun Grab” poster Idiots. Can we fix stupid? Someone needs to sit down with these 2 and try to explain how seriously they are damaging our efforts to explain how most gun owners are responsible owners and how much their stupidity actually hurts the 2A cause. The libs will promote them as average idiot gun owners and the very reason guns should be banned.
I full support all gun rights . But doing what they did was total stupidity .This kind of stupidity fuels the fire for the anti Gunners to say look here is what firearms owners do .
I ‘ve been a gun lover ever since I can remember and support all relevant, worthy, gun causes. These rebels without a clue…not so much. Lock ’em up for a short time and compel them to listen, while police volunteers lecture them on the merits of responsible, and dare I use the term, common sense, open carry ethics. I’m guessing there wouldn’t be any shortage of volunteers, as these two clowns might possibly have somebody out these who cares about them.
It’s sad that we have to fear this type of behavior. While the legality of these actions can be argued either way….wearing a mask is NOT a good idea given the current climate. If we want to raise flags about muslims wearing face coverings in public, then to do so ourselves is hypocritical. Carrying weapons???…. I have no issue with. When combined with vests and a mask….yes, it raises suspicions. NOT RECOMMENDED if you are trying to win hearts and minds. And let’s face it, the pro-gun side needs to win hearts and minds.
These two @ss-clowns should have been shot and cleared the gene pool. Cops have enough to be concerned about without stunts like this…
That police agency missed a golden opportunity to have live target practice on their very own Hogans Alley. A $3.00 can of spackle to repair walls for the few misses that occurred during practice would be relatively cheap compared to the fun had by all.
Ready on the Right…Ready on the Left?
Don’t understand me wrong, I do support the 2nd amendment totally and I do believe that there shouldn’t be any gun laws because as soon as a gun law exists, the 2nd amendment has been automatically infringed. Yet, I think the cops were righteous in this case because:
1st: What do you need a gun, especially a rifle, in a police station for? For self-defense? Yes, I am against any certain gun law but I have to admit that at the same time I do believe that carrying a gun right into a police station is like just asking for trouble. Any law-abiding citizen who carries would surely not do what these guys tried. That is like having an AR-15 as a civilian and trying to walk right into a military base. Especially after all these shootings were these rifles have unfortunately been used (Yes, I know that the gun is not the issue), of course the cops were not happy to see a civilian going in with that thing right into their station.
2nd: The guy with the camera was hiding his face completely by wearing a mask. Yes, it is freaking cold out there and I walk around like that these days as well but never I would cover my face while walking right into a police station. It just makes you even more suspicious. I also wouldn’t walk into my bank like that but I take my mask off shortly before I enter the main door, or any other building. I see this as a normal behavior of someone that is still in his right mind.
And to top it off, they were walking into a police station like that. Fully covered, at least one of them, and with a gun! Well, if one of us would be a police officer and a guy would walk in like that right into your station, would you suddenly think “Ah, that’s okay, he is just enjoying his constitutional right.”? I don’t think so, at least I wouldn’t. I believe if he would have had just a pistol in a closed holster and if he wouldn’t have worn the mask, it wouldn’t have turned out that bad for these two guys.
In my opinion, they were really asking for this. Sorry for everyone feeling offended by what I wrote just now.