Does Open Carry, in an Open Carry state, give police a reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime is occurring?

Cops can’t just stop you, frisk you, or demand identification from you. Terry v. Ohio decided that a police officer must have “reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime and has a reasonable belief that the person “may be armed and presently dangerous” before he can detain you. But does that change if you’re hanging out with a person who openly carries a firearm?

Read the whole thing.

The long and short of it is that doing something legal, like openly carrying a firearm, can’t be used to justify a detention and a search. We can agree that Black was breaking the law. But we can’t allow the police to decide that my carrying a gun permits him to search all my friends.

Great decision by the Fourth Circuit.

Takeaway from this? Insist on your rights. When the cops try to detain you, say that you want to leave. Try to leave. Force them to prevent your departure. I wouldn’t go so far as to run and make them tackle me, but by trying to leave he was able to prove in court that his stop wasn’t a consensual encounter.