Hey guys. Is everything okay? Is everything okay? You can put down your guns and you can go back. We just can't have you have a gun inside this area. Uh I don't feel ne- it's necessary to give any information. What what was the charge having your rifle in a place to call cause civil unrest. I wasn't doing that. Standing out open carrying isn't isn't constitutional for uh disorderly conduct. Okay. You know? I I firmly believe and I agree with you on that. Welcome back to the Lackluster channel. Today's story was submitted by the channel Open Carry New Mexico, who I will refer to as Deonte. On April 11th, 2021, he went to a protest at the Albuquerque Civic Center in New Mexico with his child. New Mexico is an open carry state, which means that it's legal for most adults to openly carry guns and other deadly weapons in public without a license. Deonte was visibly carrying his rifle and two pistols, and stayed across the street from the protest to avoid any issues. Some members of the protest approached him to ask him about his weapons. Uh I just want to show people that you can be around people with firearms and body armor. There's a negative stigma going on about firearms. And I I'm very passionate about wanting to help people and spread the message that guns can be used to save people. Whether we agree or disagree, I'm not going to hurt you. We can have a conversation. We can agree to disagree. And if a robber came to rob them at the ATM, I would save them. I just want to help people. I want I want people to see that you can have an interaction with somebody that's bearing arms and everything's going to be okay. His engagements were peaceful aside from a few objections to his weapons for well over 20 minutes until the Albuquerque Police Department arrived on scene. They surrounded the family to escort them out of the area, during which Deonte pleaded with the officers to be kind to the protesters as he had observed a few officers pushing some of the crowd back. Hey guys. Is everything okay? Is everything okay? Okay. Is everything good though? Hey. Hey bro, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, dude. Be cool these guys, man. It's going to make me look bad, bro. It's going to make me look bad. I know. But it's going to look bad. Hey brother, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry, dude. I'm with you guys, man. I'm with you guys. I'm with you. I love you. I love you guys, man. Hey bro. Every Hey, I'm Thank you, guys. So, where are we going, y'all? I didn't want no problems. I'm sorry that this happened, guys. I'm I'm with these guys. I'm not a Proud Boy or none of that [ __ ] man. At this point, the officer has told Deonte that his Second Amendment rights were null in this location, which is false. And I'm sure the comment section will argue against and for the merits of bringing a weapon to a protest. But as far as the lawfulness of the act, Deonte is well within his right to open carry. In fact, the city settled two lawsuits for arresting people that were open carrying in that exact same plaza just a year prior. Nonetheless, Deonte is told that he can return to the area once he has stowed his weapons. You can put down your guns and you can go back. We just can't have you have a gun inside this area. And is escorted to a side exit. And in just a moment, the sergeant on scene will contradict himself. Well, that was exciting. They Well, the officers had a good point. I was going to stand and talk with everybody, but Well, no, cuz I if I go back out there, I don't want to go out there unarmed, bro. Are you guys safe to get to where you need to go? Yeah, well, we can get to the parking garage and we'll just head out. Before allowing them to leave, the sergeant stops Deonte and his family. Okay. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Wait. Hey, come back in for a second. Hey, come in, buddy. Hey, let me uh talk to you. Or the lieutenant wants to talk to you. Okay. You know what? You need guns because of people like those. Yeah, but honestly, if the police wouldn't come up right then, it probably wouldn't have escalated like that. But still, they have to worry, you know, you know, just in case. All right. You know, there's kids here and someone was trying to get to the kids. Which is fine. Okay. Oh, yeah. Public area. You're going to be You're going to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Do you guys have your information so we can just document? Uh I don't feel this it's necessary to give any information. Okay. So, we'll let you know that you're at the at the point that we contacted you, you were being detained, okay? Okay, for So, 12-2-5 for disorderly conduct. So, you're being detained. What what was disorderly conduct? Having your rifle in a place to call cause civil unrest. I wasn't doing that. Okay, but I'm I'm letting you know, that's why you're being detained. Okay. So, we just want to get your identification to ID you. We'll let you leave. If you refuse, then we have to give you a citation and or place you under arrest. And we're trying to mitigate this and just let you go on your way. what you told me told you was to ID me? Yes. But I thought, you know, I spoke to officers on my walk over here. They I'm I'm being respectful, so Yes, and I I want to work with you or talk with you or answer any questions, but Um so, I was walking over and I saw some bicycle officers cruising by and they told me that I was allowed to be over there as long as I didn't step onto the civic property. Okay. They said I could be there. I confirmed with the officers before I went over there. Okay. And so, they said that I'm I'm allowed to be out here. Thank you for exercise Standing out open carrying isn't isn't constitutional for uh disorderly conduct. Okay. You know. I I firmly believe and I agree with you on that. Once it becomes a civil unrest and you're being targeted or you're causing that civil unrest, it goes under the city ordinance of causing civil unrest of disorderly conduct. The sergeant claims to agree with Deonte that he has a right to open carry even though he is telling him to leave and stow his weapons and is now trying to cite him with disorderly conduct based on the reactions others had to Deonte's constitutional rights. The logic here is flawed if not nonexistent. But that out there could be classified as civil unrest if proud boys were to show up, you know, like So, that's that's why we're trying to mitigate it. And so am I. We just want to I just ID you, get your information and document it, and that's it. I don't feel like I committed a crime, though. I didn't I I don't feel like I was in the wrong. I was told by one of your officers that it was okay to go over there. Okay. But now we're saying that you can't. Another massive lack in critical thinking went into that statement. The officers allowed him to do something. Then, once he did it, they want to charge him for it because they changed their minds. That would be similar to eating a free sample at Costco and then being stopped at the exit for shoplifting. This is where just following orders and just doing my job becomes dangerous and unjust. Once we walked up to you and said that you were being detained, that's what we're there for. You guys didn't tell me I was being detained. When you came up to me, you did not tell me I was being detained. No one advised you that Nobody told me I was being detained. You guys came up and protected me and stood in front of me. Nobody said even a word to me. I kept asking officers, "Hey, is everything okay? Is everything okay?" They turned around and got in the riot formation. Nobody told me at one point at all that I was being detained. Okay. Well, you are being detained. 36-7. Is Is like right now? I mean I I I apologize. I mean I I I don't know what to tell you, but you are being detained for the 12-25. But open carrying isn't disorderly conduct. It's not, but when it does cause civil unrest. It But okay, so I could be a black guy walking down the street at a white a white lives matter rally and then I could cause civil unrest. No, but hear me out. If I'm a black guy Uh over here at the garage. In the parking garage to the east. Right here? So, my point is, sir No, the the one just right over here, the little hole in. Yeah. By By the Right there beside the library. Right in front of the library, that parking woman out there and she comes up and she says So, have you ever had a knee on your And it's very frustrating for us. I mean Yeah, and I said, "You know what? I'm I'm not I said, "Well, you look like it." And she was like, "Lady, you're just trying to start trouble." And I said, "You know what? I'm not I I didn't do jail. I haven't been given privilege." And she said that I do. Leave my kids with hate my mom. Now my kids are you know. They And they asked her if she's being beaten and they could help her, you know. And I'm like, I Yeah. And we we like I said, we're just trying to keep the peace and like Yeah. We're just out of our hands and we're just trying to help everyone Yeah. And you And we get we just get put in that I know. in the middle spot, you know? And now they can do like anything they want. Yeah, that's been around forever, so. Are you guys hungry? You hungry, bud? Mhm. Yeah, so I'm just going to go ahead and head out if that's okay. Okay. Yeah. Um Just get your kiddos up. Appreciate it. We had some blakes before, can you want to I'm just saying, you know, if you do come back come back. Okay. I don't I didn't want I did not want this reaction. I wanted to be able to talk to people. Okay. Here. If you do come back, you will be arrested. By some grace of God, the sergeant gets distracted enough to stop his demand for identification and the sighting of Deonna Tay. He then tells Deonna Tay that he can't come back or he would be arrested. If you do come back, you will be arrested. Contrary to what he was told earlier. You can put down your guns and you can go back. We just can't have you have a gun inside this area. He's able to leave without identifying himself or being charged, but this is where the story gets even crazier. Deonna Tay found out through the local news that he was later charged with child abandonment, even though no child was abandoned. The chief claimed the charge had nothing to do with the open carry, but was {quote} based off the actions of these individuals and the position they put these kids in. Legal expert John Day responded with {quote} "You're charging someone with something that may happen." adding that that wouldn't hold up constitutionally. The sergeant was put on leave for a short period after the incident, but that disciplinary move caused 19 members of the emergency response team to resign. Not long after their resignation, leaked audio of the police chief berating the 19 officers emerged, where he made it clear that he wanted Deantay cited on scene so that it didn't appear to the protesters that the police were on Deantay's side. Any armed person who's outside displaying their firearms to me are also part of the problem. I'm not saying that they're doing anything illegal. I'm saying it's just adding more and more fuel and gas to the problem. Everybody started to say that person is being coddled and escorted out and protected by the police department. What did we start to do also? I straight up let every protest person that we work with know we're taking them out of the picture, we're detaining them, we're citing them. Uh some of the groups that were out there, some of the organizers, they were indicating, "Hey, this is what's making the crowd uh get upset. You have a group you have a some marked officers." I think it was uh to Harrison third. We pulled them back and within about 5 minutes of the crowd calmed down. We have live feed and people on the ground at every single protest and we know exactly what people are saying, what people are doing. Everybody quit, that's fine. We will be dispatching field officers. We have no other choice. I talked to Sean last night. If there's an emergency, we'll dispatch field. We already did it once. We're not starting anything new. Is anybody in here aware that you know what? DC Medina wasn't even in the CP. DC Medina was at home making hamburgers cuz it was his night off. Other ERT members will go on call more frequently. Some might quit. Field officers will be dispatched to assist without the right gear. New Mexico State Police, their lower levels will say, "We're not going to help." I'll call the governor's office. State Police will be put on standby with us. We're sending a whole group out there. Anniston? Yes, sir. To get trained for ERT. Every cadet will now be trained for ERT coming out of the academy, and I'll have them for 1 year as P2C status. And we will go forward. I said I wasn't here to ask anybody not to quit. But, I hope everybody in here realizes the consequences and that we're a team. And we take just as many hits on the fifth floor as officers do on the ground level. You tell me that's not a serious issue that we're dealing with that somebody that everybody in the command post the same is going to be cited completely walks without being identified. ERT is there to keep the peace of the assembly. Not to detain and cite. We don't have our pens on us. We don't have our papers on us. I'm terrified of retaliation or discipline for just saying what I see. What And I don't know all the details, so I'm glad you called this meeting. But, I feel like there's not really any transparency and There's nobody's been retaliated against in this department. There's been a lot of allegations, and the vast majority of allegations of retaliation, you know what level it's at? The sergeant and lieutenant. For a lack of communication, lack of resources that you can show up to my house and say you're relieved of duty right now. That terrifies me. I left 3 weeks ago based on the discipline policy and the exposure the additional exposure that ERT gets for ER for for being out there and doing what we've been told to do. And that's that's the reason I left is because I don't feel like exposing myself to that kind of discipline at this point in my career. Everybody knows that Does everybody understand the position we're in? The fact that if we don't navigate this path forward right with discipline and DOJ, we will be in receivership. I don't know if everybody understands how close we are to that. Y'all understand what receivership is? Yes. Does everybody understand receivership? It means an outside entity is the chief of police, and that is not an overstatement. It means that that outside person would tell Chief Medina what to do. He would have no independent thought, no independent decision-making. So, the decision now related to your discipline, policies, all those things. And that is not an overstatement of what it was. And DOJ actively considered pursuing that option. That's what they want. That's what all the community groups want. Later, Deonte's charges were changed to domestic violence, but Deonte had never laid hands on his family. He believes they changed the charges because with the domestic violence charge, the state could then take his weapons from him. Finally, on June 7th, the DA dismissed the case. I want to applaud DA Torres's office for coming in and recognizing that um not only was this a waste of um taxpayers' time and my client's um personal liberties and rights and expenses, um but you know, bringing clarity to what happened. Deonte is now pursuing civil action and has filed a lawsuit. Uh the next step is to discuss with the city some sort of reasonable settlement. I have edited over an hour worth of footage in the interest of time to make this video, but in the description, I will post a link that will bring you to the unedited versions of everything I've posted. I will also keep a close eye on this case and let you know how the lawsuit turns out. Thanks for watching. If you have a video you'd like me to review, email it or send it in via Facebook Messenger. You can also view this and other content on my website. If you're new here, subscribe for future content. 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