Last week, five members of the Oath Keepers were arrested in Mexico Beach, Florida for openly carrying firearms and violating Bay County’s curfew. As we have reported and informed for both Hurricane Michael and Hurricane Irma, general open carrying of firearms is verboten in the “gunshine state†(as it was once more aptly known) of Florida.
In bold letters, we advised our readers:
Best advice: keep your firearms concealed and don’t dress in a manner to attract attention.
Apparently, the Oath Keepers didn’t take that warning. According to the WJHG News, Anthony Cusumano, 34, and Tammy Joan Crandield, 48, were charged with misdemeanor curfew violation, while Thomas Hubert Terry, 34; Brian Charles Calkins, 31; and Charles Randall Moye, 44, were charged with violating the curfew as well as open carry of a firearm.
According to a report released by the Bay County Sheriff, the group was patrolling the area in Mexico Beach in a maroon Nissan Frontier and a white Ford Crown Victoria, after the sundown curfew. The Ford was decked out to look like a patrol cruiser, and every member was wearing tactical clothing, including one vest that stated “tactical officer.â€
BCSO Maj. Jimmy Stanford said the group wasn’t local to the Mexico Beach area.
“They’re out there patrolling the streets,†he said. “They don’t know the area, they don’t know the community, they don’t know our laws, and that just lends itself to dangers.â€
After it was confirmed the five were in Mexico Beach doing humanitarian work, they were released from the Bay County Jail.
Stewart Rhodes, Founder of the Oath Keepers, released the following statement regarding the arrest:
Personally, I can say that Mexico Beach and the Port St. Joe area are flooded with law enforcement. I know because I’m one of them. While the area has been devastated, both the National Guard and numerous law enforcement agencies are operating in the area, and looting has not been an issue, contrary to what Panama City has seen.Under the chaotic circumstances in Panama City after the hurricane, one of our volunteer security teams, out escorting medics and search and rescue, were temporarily detained by the Bay County Sheriff Department (along with the first responders, they were escorting, who were also detained), but when their combined mission was clarified, they were all released on their own recognizance, without having to post bond, and all of their gear and vehicles returned to them.
We are now back on mission, providing security escorts for first responders as they do wellness checks, as well as doing our own wellness checks at the request of families worried about missing relatives, and delivering food and water.
To clarify: our team was not doing anti-looter patrolling of the community. They were only escorting medics and search and rescue to a particular address of a missing person that the medics and rescue had been dispatched to locate. The medics/rescue team requested our security escort. We have been doing such missions for over a week, and will continue to do so.
Our own medics and search and rescue are also doing wellness checks on particular people and addresses at the request of their families.
We were NOT doing anti-looter security patrols, nor are we “vigilantes†as a local paper labeled us.
Our security team was lead by an Army Ranger veteran who also served as a Florida Sheriff’s deputy, and also included a South Florida EMT/Fire/Search and Rescue professional, and a USMC combat veteran who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan as a machine-gunner.
The first response team we were escorting was made up of a Navy Corpsman veteran, and an Army MP veteran and retired police officer and his wife who were volunteers assisting the corpsman in his search and rescue. They were also temporarily detained.
We will now continue to do this important work of wellness checks to help make sure all missing persons are accounted for. We are working out of a business in Panama City owned by one of our members, Charlie Huffman, who is one of our local leaders as well as our national communications lead.
In addition, we have already delivered 10,000 meals to the community and have another 10,000 meals coming for survivors and first responders. These 20,000 meals were donated to this disaster relief effort by Oath Keepers member Chance Gibson of American Survival Wholesale.
We appreciate Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford, and his outstanding staff, taking the time under these busy, hectic emergency circumstances, to rapidly resolve this matter so we can get back to work helping people. We consider Sheriff Ford a good, constitutional sheriff any of us would be proud to serve under.
Stewart Rhodes
Founder of Oath Keepers
Army Airborne veteran
and fire-fighter veteran
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I don't have an issue with armed citizens doing the right thing. As I sated over in the CoWorker has gone Roof Korean... thread
&
Let me explain the legality of this situation.
1. Open Carry is illegal in Florida unless it is done on Private Property with the legal consent of the owner. Other than that and the rare exception where one can do it while actively Hunting Fishing, or Camping and directly traveling to and from said activities from one's residence. Open Carry is Verboten. Doesn't matter if it is a long gun or handgun. OC is not allowed in public or on public property or common areas of private property (ie, parking lots and green spaces of apartments or multi-tenet parking structures for strip malls).
2. It is legal to have a long gun in one's vehicle without a CCW permit. But once again, no Open Carry is allowed.
3. Our Self Defense laws are pretty good. But don't bet on it beating the ride in the back of the marked unit.
4. Private Property can ban the carrying of arms. If the owner or a representative of the owner (with owner's approval) tells someone to leave. The order must be listened to. If not, it is felony trespassing.
5. We have specific requirements for armed security. First there is the "D" License and then the "G" License one must get to be armed. That is for a armed security company. Civil liability still is on the individual.
As such, if said individual was to pull security, while unlicensed at a private business or residence with express permission to do so. Then they are limited to a very specific ROE. They're no different than the property owner defending one's property.
Since this is a Church Group requesting assistance. It is best to keep long guns secured in vehicles and out of sight within reach and stick with concealed handguns on one's person. Unless this trailer is going to be parked on private land, with express permission of the owner that one can be armed. There will be no open carrying.
I'm all for an armed citizenry. I'm all for folks protecting one's self and supplies. Just do it smartly.
It sounds like some in the Oath Keepers didn't heed that warning.I'm all for an armed citizenry. Just point out the issues the government has put in place. There are ways to do it smartly and not get fucked. Concealed CCW piece and long guns within easy reach of vehicles is a good way to provide security and not foul up with the law either.
